Bicyclists received more good news as they will soon have more terrain on
which to pedal their steeds.

Skibowl’s lift-served mountain bike trail was awarded a $20,000 grant from
the Clackamas County Tourism Development Council (TDC) to improve
tourism assets in the county.

Hurricane Racing – the company in charge of the mountain biking trails at
Skibowl since 1990 – is the primary beneficiary of the grant. Hurricane Racing
owner Petr Kakas has been at the helm since the beginning.

“Skibowl is so far the only lift-assisted option on Mount Hood,” Kakas told The
Mountain Times. “But the trails we have available at the upper mountain have
been used by experienced bikers only.”

That upper bowl terrain limited Skibowl’s offerings to the general, non-racing
public, and Kakas and company decided to change that.

“With so many years of experience, Hurricane Racing decided to apply for the
grant to help offset a portion (of the costs) of trail construction and allow
everyone to have the opportunity to enjoy the view of six volcanoes and take
a nice ride down the hill after that,” Kakas said. “The plan is to have studies
completed during the summer of 2014 and begin construction in spring of
2015.”

The cost of the project is estimated at $80,000.

Kakas put together a team of grant writers to assist through a process in
which he had no previous experience.

“I was surprised, but also hopeful,” he said of the winning effort. “The county
knew how involved we were, and that’s why I was successful, I guess.”

Biking in the Mountain area has taken a hit recently as trails have been closed
due to the wilderness exemption – more than 170 miles on Mount Hood alone
– plus the decommissioning of roads in the area. This grant will help offset
these losses, according to Kakas.

“Biking tourism is a large portion of tourism dollars in Oregon, and Hurricane
Racing is proud to be a part of this impact,” Kakas said. “All businesses in our
area can only benefit from folks wanting to come to Mount Hood and ride and
spend money with the local economy.”

The TDC also granted monies to two other bicycling related projects, including
$6,000 to the Sandy-Boring Corn Cross bike race, and $8,350 to the Mt. Hood
Area Mountain Bike Clinic Series.

“Each of the projects selected this year adds to our vision of growing and
improving tourism assets and leveraging partnerships and investments,” said
Danielle Cowan, executive director of Clackamas County Tourism & Cultural
Affairs. “It’s extremely exciting and rewarding to see the kinds of new visitor
experiences that are being offered in Clackamas County.”

The panel measured each project by how closely they met the TDC’s priorities
for investments, including the quality of partnerships, readiness, “and the
ability of the project to increase overnight stays or linger longer,” Cowan said.