Elk County Riders host successful recreational ride
KERSEY - On Saturday the Elk County Riders hosted a ride that celebrated the connection that was added to their Trail of Dreams project.
The ride, called “Three Years of Fun in Spring Run," started at the Spring Run lookout and continued through the newest connection to the trail then looped back to the starting point.
The ride was created to generate enough money to add the last connection to the Trail of Dreams. This trail is a way of creating a multiple-mile safe place to ride an ATV, UTV, side-by-side, four wheelers, and more.
The work that volunteers put in and the money raised has been enough to create the last connection between the trails. The connections that are created are areas that may go over roads or bridges. The group needs the necessary permits and money to be able to make these bridges and roads a part of the trail.
“The best part of the ride is getting to educate people and also that everyone has fun,” said Cheryl Ruffner, co-founder of the Elk County Riders.
Ruffner was in charge of running the ride this past weekend.
When the trail is finally finished it will be 23.6 miles long from end-to-end, but have over 115.8 miles of interconnected trails. The last connection is due to be put in next year, but in order to do that they first have to raise enough money.
“It is really wonderful and a great opportunity that there are places to ride your ATV,” said Kim Kunes a first-time rider.
There were multiple events for riders to enjoy and items to buy so the organization could generate the funds needed. There were also some games for the riders to play. The theme for this ride was backyard games. There were seven stations on the ride with backyard games to play. There was washer toss, roll the dice, ring toss, horseshoes, a ladder toss game and corn hole.
They also had a raffle and 50/50 drawing.