Month of Mud brings mountain bike racing to Alameda Park
BUTLER TWP — The natural sounds one can hear in Alameda Park were complemented Sunday morning, Oct. 4, by the sounds of whirring bicycles and the cheers of onlookers watching a mountain bike race.
About 120 cyclists tore through the park’s trails Sunday for the second of five mountain bike races in the Month of Mud series, which all take place on Sundays throughout October.
The park’s trails are a regular stop on the series alongside Moraine State Park, Bradys Run Park in Beaver County, North Park in Allegheny County and Ohiopyle State Park in Fayette County.
Sunday’s race offered an extensive list of categories for varying ages and skill levels. While the children’s 10 and younger race was only about 5 miles, the experts’ race course was about 23 miles.
Gunnar Shogren, one of the Month of Mud’s participants, originally hailed from Butler County before moving to Morgantown, W.Va. He made a career out of racing bikes that led him to winning over 10 national championships.
Nowadays, at 64, he said he prefers to take on smaller series and enjoy whatever time he can still spend doing his life’s passion.
“This is my life. When I’m not doing this, I feel kind of lost,” he said.
While he doesn’t participate every year, he said he has been an “on again off again” Month of Mud participant since it started in the 1980s.
“It’s a great community of people,” Shogren said. “Everybody’s a good sport, and just enjoy getting together for this.”
John McLaughlin, the assistant organizer of the series who is known by the wider cycling community as “JMac,” joked that the people who participate in Month of Mud are “like a cult.”
“There’s a following of the Month of Mud that is just unbelievable,” he said.
McLaughlin applauded head organizer Robyn Brewer, who took over responsibility for the series when his plate got too full with other races.
“If she didn’t take Month of Mud, it was going to die,” he said.
However, Brewer was quick to rebut that the series is a team effort to put on.
“I basically administrate the whole thing, but every part has a team of people who pitch in and help me out. (McLaughlin) and I, along with Henry (Dimmick), do this part just because it’s our home turf. I have a couple people that help me set up the courses,” she said.
McLaughlin said the community of people participating in Month of Mud stretches outside the immediate area and is more of a regional gathering of riders.
“They’re from everywhere,” he said. “They’re from West Virginia, Pennsylvania and some from Ohio here. It’s a following that’s just unheard of.”
The winner for the e-bike category, Broc Hepler, was a former motocross rider in the late-2000s. He said he began riding e-bikes in races back in 2023.
“I’ve been riding motorcycles and dirt bikes since I was 4,” he said.
He said he enjoys the Month of Mud and normally participates in the whole series. In 2024, he placed third overall.
For this year, he said he missed the first race at Moraine State Park but would likely participate in the rest of series following his victory.
“It feels good,” Hepler said about winning the category. “I did a race called GNCC the last few days, so I tried doing well at it. I got third there. So yeah, this was like another day of training.”
McLaughlin and Brewer said a portion of the series’ proceeds go back into the parks, with miles of Alameda Park’s trails created and maintained through the event’s proceeds and volunteer work from Alameda Singletrack.
Dimmick, Alameda Park’s chief trail steward, said Alameda Singletrack’s 40 or so volunteers have put in about 9,000 hours of volunteer work and about $150,000 into the trail system since 2015.
“But now we have 20 miles of trails,” he said.
He said he usually helps organize and officiate the Alameda race but will usually participate in the series’ other races.
“I have been racing and putting on races for 45 years,” he said. “So at this particular point, I’m trying to find a way out, but at the same time, I’m the chief steward of this trail system. So I’m still in pretty deep.”
The hundreds who participate in Month of Mud are expected to return to Alameda Park next October. The next race in the 2026 series is set for Oct. 11 in Bradys Run Park.
