Second Avenue was taken over by the Second Annual Roll and Sole Trails Festival, organized by the Fernie Trails Alliance (FTA).
Considered the kick off to Fernie’s summer trail activities, the festival’s opening day on June 27 welcomed families and bikers of all ages to participate in the festival.
“It started with a bunch of us wanting to create trails awareness and have some fun with trails,” said FTA President Terry Nelson. He added, “There’s lots of adults that participate in the Fernie 3 (a three-day long bike race), and this gives families and kids a fun thing to do as well.”
Among the list of biking events was a Kids Skills Challenge, Log Drag Races, a Skid Mark Contest and Bike Polo.
Many of these events, such as the drag race, were organized by local Fernie businesses.
“We wanted to get [businesses] to come out of the woodwork and participate,” explained Nelson. “We wanted to give businesses an opportunity to actually run their own event and the reaction from businesses has been amazing. Last year, I went around to ask businesses if they wanted to participate and this year I had businesses approach me.”
Among the list of businesses was the Straightline Downtown Drag Race, the Loaf Slow Riser Bike Race Challenge and the Ski/Bike Base Progressive Skinny Contest which was the newest addition to the Trails Festival activities’ lineup.
Earlier in the day, 55 participants from out of town elected to go on a guided hike and bike ride.
According to Nelson, some participants hailed from as far away as Denmark and closer by like North Vancouver and Golden.
A lunch social, ice cream vendor and a beverage garden kept Fernie’s downtown street filled with family festival-goers enjoying everything the festival’s activities had to offer.
