Great to meet Jeff Rozycki, with the Birmingham Urban Mountain Peddlers, at Oak Mountain State Park in the Birmingham AL area this week.
For many years, BUMP and Oak Mountain have played host to one of the best-known mountain bike events in the southeast—the Bump-N-Grind. I remember attending this race in the mid 90’s as a participant and it still is held all these years. The trails are well-maintained using a combination of State Park employees and volunteer help and they still do weekly rides there for all levels of rider. Seeing as they get a good bit of traffic from the greater Birmingham area, maintenance and new trail building are key and Jeff’s team help oversee that. Finding ways to use these trail systems that are close to urban areas for both visitors and local residents alike is an important way to take care of a sports tourism asset that can enhance the value of a community.