6/9/26 Community Chat
Recap of the 6/9/26 KT Community Chat at the Orange Rind.
We had about 15 people with several KT landowners, business owners, community members and out-of-state visitors. Representing KT staff were Georgia Gould, ED, Ilan Weitzen, and Roberta Gillott.
Trail Updates from Georgia:
New Trails:
•Still Worth It which will allow riders to completely avoid riding on E. Darling Hill Road on their way to Darling ridge trails.
•BoboLink- a short, new trail on Darling Hill connecting Sleigh Ride to East Branch North
Maintenance:
•General comments on the high quality of trail maintenance.
•Georgia spoke about the hard work the trails crew has done improving drainage and preventing erosion. The removal of organic matter has been especially helpful to have trails in good shape early in the season.
•Pond loop area trails are being re-named to make the area easier to navigate.
KT updates:
•Ilan spoke about the current work being done to update the KT website and increase its functionality. The importance of a quality website especially for rural businesses was agreed upon by all.
•The Welcome Center has been updated for the season with a seating area and flowers in front of the building. We hope to encourage visitors to use the Welcome Center more and hopefully increase sales along with increased foot traffic. The interior has also been refreshed with some new t-shirt designs available (more to come soon!).
KT spoke about current visitor rates which are up over 2025 numbers. Victoria Day had a high number of visitors and we are encouraged by the number of Canadian visitors we have seen this year.
An ongoing priority for KT is to increase the number of Canadian users, and KT staff is working to reinvigorate the reciprocal agreements and promotional contacts with other bike network. July will be a promotional Canadian Community Month with incentives and rewards.
Local events:
The Wildflower Inn spoke about the plans for the Kingdom Bike Fest August 8-9. This will be hosted by the Wildflower Inn and will be a family friendly weekend, affordable and wholesome. The activities will be contained on Wildflower property for the weekend.
