More than a decade in the making: Sugarcamp Enduro

Zachary Fernau of Lindsey Wilson College Cycling Team drops in to Stage #1 of the Sugarcamp Enduro

When they first put shovel to dirt on the old mountaintop removal mine next to Jenny Wiley State Park there was no talk of how to provide accommodations for people from around the region. There was nobody hunting down flatbed trucks or second hand school buses to get them from the campground back up to the top under the pale green water tower that looms over what is now the official trailhead. Back then the talk was hushed and pragmatic. The locals holding those shovels were just trying to make themselves a place to ride. Fast-forward more than a decade to last weekend and things have changed. Trucks filled front-to-back with mountain bikes rumbled up-and-down the mountain all day and now the talk (at least some of it) was coming from a PA. On Sunday, October 23 2022 the once-secret Sugarcamp Mountain Trails hosted their first official race: The Bluegrass Mountain Cup Sugarcamp Enduro.

Sugarcamp Mountain Trails are a collaborative project between the all-volunteer trailbuilders of which councilman Josh Turner (right) is one and a supportive city government led by Mayor Les Stapleton (left).

On my first trip to Sugarcamp I expected what people had told me to expect: steep, fast, rocky, and 100% handbuilt trails that let out directly into a pristine state park campground. Sounds like a nice enough experience, I said, let’s go! We’d loaded up a group of guys and headed east three hours to Prestonsburg, Kentucky before we had an experience we didn’t expect – and won’t forget. As we approached our final exit we were waved down by a gentleman in a gold van. We stopped in a bank parking lot and wondered, as this man walked decisively towards our vehicle, what he had on his mind. “Hey guys, I’m Les Stapleton. Mayor of Prestonsburg. Are y’all here to ride?”. (we were) “I’ve got a flatbed truck if you want me to shuttle you up the trails. I can meet you at the campground and do a couple runs in the morning.” We had come prepared to shuttle ourselves so we declined the offer – but the show of hospitality has stuck with me ever since. And, not to mention, I have had several more such opportunities to get the mayoral shuttle experience, once every few months or so, as the Sugarcamp Shuttle Saturday has become something of a holiday for us Kentucky mountain bikers. In fact, Les and his wife were there with a crew of city employees for the whole double-header weekend.

Husband-and-wife team Josh and LJ Patton spend days in the field putting on every BGMC race. In addition to their dedication, local support is crucial to success of every event. Pictured with them are rider Michael Wetzl, Mayor Les Stapleton, and local bike shop owners Don and Nikki Fields.

For months, maybe years at this point, the gravity-loving crowd has been asking for a Sugarcamp enduro. The city-run Sugarcamp Shuttle Saturdays are a can’t-miss event but there’s something special about lining up between strips of tape and racing on the clock. That’s a fact well-known by former pro racer and London, KY native Josh Patton. In fact, as race director, he pays special attention to the race experience. For him, the trail selection and course-prep are taken as seriously as the permitting and safety. When you sign up for a BGMC event, whether XC mtb, trail running, or this new foray into Enduro, you are putting your weekend plans into extremely capable hands. He and his wife LJ Patton are on-site days in advance of the race tending to the details of venue prep and race-day logistics. The big pieces get put in place months in advance. Who is sponsoring? (always a big list) Where will racers sleep? What needs to be done to prepare the venue?

After 10+ years working on the mountain Josh Turner drops into Sugarcamp for the first time as a racer, Beau Spurlock preparing to head into the woods for more course prep on race day, Ben Klimer of the West Virginia Enduro Series came to provide expert timing, Justin Helmer of The Rubberside Down podcast gets his timing chip.

This time around, the aforementioned locals would take some pressure off Josh in regards to the venue prep. “This is one of our favorites, if not favorite place, to host a race because of the local support that we have here” claimed Patton during the awards ceremony, “Eastern Kentucky just shows up whenever we want to bring people to ride mountain bikes in the hills.” By maintenance guru Beau Spurlock’s estimation the crew put in hundreds of hours of work in the weeks leading up to the race in preparation for the dozens of riders who would come from all over the region to get between the tape. Given that he was in the middle of 12 miles of last-minute leaf blowing when I had the pleasure of meeting him I’d say that’s a pretty accurate (though still astounding) guess. You would be hard-pressed to find a trail system in better condition during the height of fall (did I mention the stunning beauty and perfect Kentucky weather?) If you follow Sugarcamp Mountain Trails on Facebook or Instagram you already know that Sugarcamp is a “hard mode” maintenance game for the trailbuilders. If you don’t follow them, make sure you do so you don’t miss the next Shuttle Saturday. If you want to get a first-person view of the trails themselves check out Dexter Colvin’s youtube for his POV race runs. Dexter took the top step in the Men’s Open 30-39 Category. You can see how the rest of the racers did at bluegrassmountaincup.com.

Thanks to Prestonsburg Tourism’s collaboration with Rocketpower Brand Co and their long list of sponsors, by the end of the weekend over 100 folks from across Kentucky and neighboring states took part in celebrating the hard work of Sugarcamp’s all-volunteer crew of trail builders and Mayor Stapleton’s personal investment in their success. While a BGMC race always leaves their host venue better than they found it, this time, there was an additional two-thousand plus dollars raised to benefit Appalachian Regional Healthcare’s Flood Relief Fund through race fees and additional donations.

Mist blowing down from the top of Sugarcamp Mountain on the morning of the BGMC Sugarcamp Enduro