May is National Bike Month, and that means it’s a good time to hop on your bicycle for a ride around Sitka. The Sitka Cycling Club has a variety of local events to help people celebrate the month.
You’re invited. Join Sitka Trail Works and many community partners on Saturday, May 11, for the Second Annual Trail Master Summit.
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., we will be covering key trail work skills including what goes into sustainable design, tread repair, the ever-prevalent drainage, and more.
The morning session will be in the multi-purpose room at Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary School and includes a presentation where we cover key vocabulary and trail building styles. In the afternoon we will work on the Sitka Cross Trail to learn more about how to implement those strategies. Lunch will be provided.
Learn the basics of biking safely in Sitka while practicing riding skills. Students will learn and practice hand signals, rules of the road, and trail biking techniques. Skills learned in this camp will make students more confident and safe bikers. Please bring your own bike and helmet. A limited number of loaner bikes may be available, contact Parks and Recreation for more information. Bike pumps and tools will be provided by the Salty Spoke.
Grades 6 to 8 will meet from 9 a.m. to noon on Monday, March 11 and Tuesday, March 12, at Keet Gooshi Heen. Grades 3 to 5 will meet from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, March 13 and Thursday, March 14, at Keet Gooshi Heen, 307 Kashevaroff Street.
Each session is $25. Scholarships are available at https://www.recreationatcityofsitka.com. Contact Sitka Parks and Recreation at 907-747-4031 for more information.
The route will be determined by those who show up. This is a monthly event. For more information, email Laura Tirman at thesaltyspoke@gmail.com.
Also, the monthly meeting of the Sitka Cycling Club is at noon on Friday, Feb. 9, at the Salty Spoke (2 Lincoln Street, the little building between the KCAW/Beak Restaurant building and the O’Connell Bridge). Don’t forget the Beak Restaurant, next door to the Salty Spoke, is one of our Bicycle Benefits partners, so bring your bike helmets and ride your bikes for a discount. Bring your lunch to the meeting.
May is National Bike Month, and that means it’s a good time to hop on your bicycle for a ride around Sitka. The Sitka Cycling Club has a variety of local events to help people celebrate the month.
Some of the highlights this month include International Bike To School Day on May 3, a commuter bicycling class on May 6, several Saturdays of open hours at the Salty Spoke Bike Co-op, a bike movie night on May 10, a Sitka Cycling Club meeting on May 12, a community bike ride on May 13, National Bike To Work Week on May 15-19, National Bike To Work Day on May 19, Porch Fest bike tuneups on May 20, the Julie Hughes Triathlon on May 20, and a Trail Master Summit on June 3-4.
Join the Sitka Cycling Club for these events and more this month.
The Sitka Cycling Club will host a monthly steering committee at noon on Wednesday, Jan. 25, grabbing lunch at Beak Restaurant. This meeting is open to the general public. Don’t forget Beak is one of our Bicycle Benefits partners, so bring your bike helmets and ride your bikes for a discount.
Agenda topics include a discussion of 2023 Sitka Cycling Club goals; a status report on membership, finances, etc.; a discussion about our single-track bike trail construction and pump track projects; a discussion about winter plans; and more.
For more details, contact Doug Osborne at 738-8734 or douglaso@searhc.org.
The Salty Spoke is recruiting youth to join its monthly Sprockets bike club for youth aged 7-12.
Do you know any youth who might be interested in turning some wrenches, learning about bike maintenance, and practicing bicycling skills? The Sitka Sprockets Bike Club meets monthly at the Salty Spoke Bike Cooperative for a bike maintenance and use-related workshop hosted by the Sitka Spruce Tips/Alaska Way of Life 4-H Club. Contact Emily Pound at emily@sitkawild.org to learn more.
All skill and experience levels are welcome, with or without a bike. Please reach out to Emily Pound at emily@sitkawild.org for registration and more information. The Sitka Spruce Tips/Alaska Way of Life 4-H Club is a project of the Sitka Conservation Society and the UAF Cooperative Extension Service.
The expected record year of tourists is making Sitka look for ways to reduce traffic downtown by encouraging more people to commute by biking or walking.
But when you bicycle to work, you need a good, safe place to park your bike. You want a good, secure place to lock the bike; you want a covered shelter to protect against rain; and you want the bike parking to be close to your destination.
As part of the Walk, Bike, Win! downtown commuter challenge this summer, we are installing new bike racks to help you get physically active in Sitka. Click this link to help us decide where Sitkans most need bike racks in the downtown area.
Not sure where Sitka already has bike parking, check out this online map compiled by Joshua Houston. Note, some places on this map may have older, fender-bender style bike racks that need to be upgraded to newer racks that meet industry standards.
The 38th running, biking and swimming of the Julie Hughes Triathlon starts at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 21, at Blatchley Middle School. This is the first full triathlon after two years of people completing the course on their own because of Covid-19 restrictions.
The event is a fundraiser for the Sitka Cancer Survivors Society and honors the memory of a young Sitka woman who passed away from leukemia at the age of 15. (Click here for an April 2013 Capital City Weekly article about Julie Hughes.) Day-of-race registration ends at 8 a.m., followed by a pre-race briefing, and the race starts at 8:30 a.m. The bike staging area opens at 7:15 a.m.
For the 10th straight year, the Baranof Barracudas Swim Club is organizing the race, having taken over event hosting duties from the Hughes family. Registration takes place online at http://juliehughestri.com/. The entry fee is $40 per person ($20 per child age 17 or younger), and people can enter as individuals or teams. Day-of-race registrations are $50 for adults and $20 for children. Participants are encouraged to have bike safety checks done at Yellow Jersey Cycle Shop before the race.
The course is a five-mile run from Blatchley Middle School to the U.S. Coast Guard-Air Station Sitka gate and back, a 14-mile bike ride from Blatchley to the Starrigavan Recreation Area at the end of Halibut Point Road and back, and a 1,000-yard swim at the Blatchley Middle School swimming pool. There is a shorter course available for participants who are age 12 or younger (1.5-mile run, six-mile bike, 500-yard swim).
For more information, contact Kevin Knox at 907-738-4664, or send an e-mail to bbsc.sitka@gmail.com.
Join the Sitka Cycling Club by filling out this quick form (click image)
Proud to be a Silver level Bicycle Friendly Community (Silver level 2020 and 2016, Bronze level 2012 and 2008)
Click the logo to learn about Bicycle Benefits merchants in Sitka
Support the building of single-track mountain bike trails and other cycling programs in Sitka by donating to the Sitka Cycling Club’s account on PayPal (click the image)
Learn all about Sitka’s new Salty Spoke Bike Cooperative (click image for link)
This website has been updated and maintained on a volunteer basis for the past decade by Charles Bingham. Click the image below if you want to help keep this website operating.
The Sitka Cycling Club 