Words by Jeff Kendall-Weed www.jeffkendallweed.com
I first heard of MTB Missoula thanks to my friend Sam Schultz, then at the Ibis Ripley V4 bike launch I heard a lot more about the club. Shortly before my planned trip to Missoula, I broke my pelvis June 30th, 2019, which delayed this trip substantially. Once I finally made it in September 2019, I was greeted by Brian Williams, the trails director for MTB Missoula, and Ben Horan. Ben has been the executive director for the last four years, and leaves on very good terms with the club.
My hope is that this video not only helps to promote MTB Missoula, but that it can help the club find a wonderful new executive director. MTB Missoula Executive Director position
Montana facts:
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The original inhabitants of Missoula were a Salish tribe called Nemissoolatakoo from which the word “Missoula” was derived. (Source: http://worldpopulationreview.
com/states/montana-population/ ) -
Montana is the third most sparsely populated state, behind Alaska and Wyoming.
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The state animal of MT is the grizzly bear. There are an estimated 1800 grizzly bears in MT today.
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There are more livestock than human beings in Montana.
Photos: Aaron Teasdale
Learn more about MTB Missoula here: https://www.mtbmissoula.org/
About Jeff: My name is Jeff Kendall-Weed, and I’m a former professional rider turned content creator. As my own online platforms began growing a few years ago, I really wanted to do something to help promote mountain bike advocacy. Once I moved to Bellingham, WA, in 2016, my eyes were opened as to what is possible with a successful, local mountain bike advocacy club representing the sport. I’ve channeled this intent to promote mountain bike advocacy into the Local Loam series.
Local Loam: a series produced by Jeff Kendall-Weed that tells teh stories of how successful mountain bike advocates build rad mountain bike communities through excellent trails.
Advocacy can mean lots of different things, but in general advocacy means promoting the development and sustainability of mountain biking within a region. This can mean working politically to change land access situations, working to establish a budget for paid trail builders and/or advocates, hiring professional trail builders, organizing volunteer work days, educating mountain bikers as to trail etiquette, and being a conduit of communication to represent mountain biking. Of course, advocacy can mean much more than that, too, as each group will have a slightly different approach.
