Since moving here after our marriage, I slowly started to familiarize myself with the local riding.

Travis often reminds me that he cut his mountain biking teeth on the old cross country running trails in and around Alameda Park and Sawmill Run Park. Seriously, folks, he broke a few teeth and his jaw in his first month of riding these trails.

Over the past few years, we’ve explored the trails in both locations, but things changed and Sawmill Run Park doesn’t get maintained enough to ride.

Alameda saw some land management projects, followed by the new pavilions, which both took over most of the small running/cycling trail system that existed.

Eventually, we heard of trail building being planned back in Alameda Park and soon thereafter a few miles of new trails opened. At the time, there weren’t enough trails to make a big day of riding, but a few new trails well worthy of taking the family on for a real dirt ride!

Fast forward a short time later to today, there are now trails on both sides of the road that go through the park and more are coming. We estimate at least 10 miles of trail currently exist in the park with more already in the making.

The single track at Alameda Park in Butler will soon make the park a destination for many riders in the surrounding tri-state area, if it isn’t already.

This year, Alameda Singletrack, the group responsible for the trail system, partnered with a long-standing race series called the Month of Mud. I’m told Travis was on the board of directors for the MOM several years ago, before we knew each other, and was instrumental in getting one of the series races back into Moraine State Park after a long hiatus.

It still continues to this day. Knowing first-hand from our experience the amount of work required to promote a race in a new place made us excited to check it out and eager to support it.

In earlier years, there was a short race called the Alameda Assault. promoted by a local bike dealer in Butler, but it hasn’t been around for many years now.

Race day was held recently and we were up bright and early, cleaning our bikes and lubing our chains. With water bottles and camelback (water bladder in a backpack) filled, we rolled out from home for the nearly 10 mile ride to the park.

You could hear the cheering and yelling as we rolled along the now-closed Alameda Park Road. What a sight to see as we came in past the Masonic Pavilion and saw the park filled with cars, bikes and a field full of flag football players.

It was wonderful to see people outside enjoying the beautiful park and we heard the race had well over 130 participants!

The race for experts started at 11:30 a.m. and had us riding an outer loop of almost 7 miles and we would have to ride this loop 3 times for the race. High temps and humidity with rainy days prior to the race made for a slick course.

Quick elevation changes, ups and downs with switchbacks and fast flowing jumps plus a small creek crossing made for an entertaining race. Western Pa cycling photographer Mike Briggs was on course, capturing everyones moment of glory!. I won the Women’s Open class and Travis finished third in the men’s open, both of us racing for nearly two hours to complete the three laps!

Many locals from Butler are fairly serious cyclists — Henry Dimmick, Dan Palermo, Rich Allen, Marty Luffy, Dave Krack, Brad Kriley and Don Snow — just to name a few, were all in attendance, many of them helping out with the event.

Henry, Dave, Marty and Brad were all instrumental in the event’s success, handling the starts and making the road crossing safe for the participants.

Seeing the success of the Alameda Singletack and the continued success of the Month of Mud was very satisfying and made us feel better about the future of the sport in our area.

And if you’re wondering about the trail system, looking for more information, or interested in helping, please contact Alameda Singletrack on Facebook. It’s made up of local residents volunteering their time; many of them mentioned above.

Henry Dimmick, Dave Krack and Jamie Coyne have each invested over 500 hours of volunteer trail building out of the recorded total of 3,152 hours to date.

Go to the park and experience the fruits of their labor or sign up for some volunteer hours! Butler has beautiful parks to enjoy, support them by using them!

We would like to dedicate this column to Gary “The Sheriff” Bywaters, the original timekeeper and lawman for the Month of Mud Series.

ravis and Julie Saeler are cycling columnists for the Butler Eagle