Bike clinic and rodeo rolls into Blue Lake this Sunday

Families headed to Blue Lake on Sunday will find a bike day built around practical help, not just spectacle. The Mountain Bike Tribal Trail Alliance and Paskenta Mad River Brewery are putting on a family-friendly Bike Clinic and Rodeo from noon to 4 p.m. at 101 Taylor Way, with local partners including the Annie & Mary Rail Trail and Adventures Edge.

The event is aimed at riders who want more confidence on two wheels, especially youth and families coming into Humboldt County’s bike culture through a low-pressure entry point. MBTTA describes itself as veteran-led and culturally rooted, and says it takes youth out to teach them the benefits of mountain biking and maintaining equipment. The group also says its work includes veteran rides, youth rides and trail building throughout Humboldt County, a mix that makes the Blue Lake gathering as much about building habits as building skills.

The timing lands squarely in Bike Month in Humboldt County, when rides, bike safety events and a Bike Month Challenge are pulling in riders of all ages and abilities across the region. The Bike Month Humboldt calendar also listed a Bike Celebration at Jefferson Community Center in Eureka on Saturday, May 16, the day before the Blue Lake clinic and rodeo. Together, the events show how bike education and bike access have become a countywide effort rather than a single-day promotion.

Blue Lake sits inside that larger trail picture, too. Caltrans says the Annie & Mary Trail Phase 2 project is meant to create a paved shared-use path between Blue Lake and Glendale, separated from SR 299, to improve safety, accessibility and comfort for people walking and biking. The broader trail is planned to connect Blue Lake to Arcata, and Humboldt County has been working with Friends of the Annie and Mary Trail for close to 10 years alongside the City of Blue Lake, the City of Arcata, Humboldt County Association of Governments, Blue Lake Rancheria and Redwood Community Action Agency.

That long-running trail work has drawn sustained local participation. A Mad River Union report in 2020 said Humboldt trail supporters included more than a thousand trail-maintenance volunteers and hundreds of donors, and Volunteer Trail Stewards said about 45 people turned out for a 2025 workday. Sunday’s clinic and rodeo fits that same local pattern, bringing kids, parents and trail advocates together at the brewery in the middle of town as Humboldt keeps pushing for safer, more usable bike connections.