Not too late to register for the American Lung Association Greenbrier Trail Bike Trek this weekend

The American Lung Association is hosting the Greenbrier Trail Bike Trek from Thursday until Sunday. The event is a 3-day, 100 mile trip down the entire river trail and all the proceeds go toward the American Lung Association.

Chaste Barclay is a program specialist with the American Lung Association in West Virginia and she helps organize the event.

“This is our 27th ride on the Greenbrier River Trail,” she says. “It’s 100 miles over three days, but it’s broken up and it is rail-trail, so it’s flat, easy ride. It’s beautiful. Then our staff, the American Lung Association and then some volunteers from the area meet the riders about every 8 to 10 miles on the trail to just give them support, drinks and snacks, bug spray, sun screen. If they’re tired or can’t ride we have cars and bike racks to pull them off the trail and maybe take them to the next stop or whatever they need. We’re there to help them. We appreciate them coming and fundraising for us.”

Barclay said the Bike Trek attracts a diverse group of participants.

“It’s really all different levels of bike experience,” Barclay says. “We have families riding with kids, we have a lot of retired groups that come and ride, a lot of professionals that come and ride. It’s just a little bit of everything and it’s a really fun group of people. A lot of them have been coming back for twenty+ years. They kind of joke around that it’s like camp for adults. They’re happy to come and ride the trail and hang out with their friends for the weekend.”

She said riders come to Pocahontas County from all over West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and they’ve already got about 80 folks registered for this year’s event.

“Probably a third of them are returning riders,” says Barclay. “We have a lot of riders that have been coming for 25 years and they keep coming back and bringing family and more friends. So, it’s a lot of fun. They enjoy it and keep coming back.”

According to Barclay, the Greenbrier Trail Bike Trek is the largest fundraiser for the American Lung Association in West Virginia.

“The fundraising goes towards fighting childhood asthma in West Virginia, second hand smoke awareness, smoking cessation education and classes and a lot of tobacco education targeted towards youth,” Barclay says.

Everyone meets Thursday night at Camp Anthony.

“That’s where everyone leaves their cars,” she says. “Because that is the end point on Sunday and we bus everybody and U-Haul the bikes to Snowshoe and we stay at the Inn at Snowshoe on Thursday night. So we’ll pull out of the parking at Snowshoe around 10 o’clock on Friday morning.”

And the trip is broken up in to fairly reasonable segments.

“We start at Cass,” explains Barclay. “The first day we ride through to Marlinton, which is I believe about 34 miles. The second day we ride from Marlinton to Camp Anthony, which is also I think called the Greenbrier County Youth Camp, which I think is around 44 miles. Then the last day we ride from Camp Anthony to Caldwell and double back, and that gets us 22 miles on that last day for 100 miles.”

It’s not too late to register, but you won’t be able to do it online at this point.

“There’s a $50 registration fee,” she says. “And then each rider is asked to fundraise $500. People can still register, they’re not able to register online, that’s closed at this point but they can call our office 304 342 6600 and I can take of any registration over the phone.”

Barclay invites all AMR listeners to this year’s American Lung Association Greenbrier Trail Bike Trek, from Thursday to Sunday.

“It is a really easy fun ride,” she says. “People, I guarantee, will have a lot of fun if they come, and it’s for a great cause.”

Story By

Angelo Jiordano

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