It is with a heavy heart that we cancel this year’s Original Growler Race due to the Coronavirus. Know that all of us here at Gunnison Trails are devastated, and that we have been holding out hope that things would turn around quickly and we could open our valley up just in time for race day. As Colorado begins to slowly loosen restrictions for businesses and citizens, and there’s talk of possible in-state travel before long, there are still too many unknowns and risks to host a gathering the size of the Growler. The Gunnison Valley was hit extremely hard early on in this pandemic, and our community has rallied together (separately) and made tremendous sacrifices to keep the spread in check and our friends and neighbors healthy. While we are eager to see life return to normal, the risks are still too great.
Since race #1 in 2008, the Growler has been the fundraising force behind Gunnison Trails, allowing us to advocate full-time for the trails and public lands so important to us all.
Growler funds have contributed to our 4-person Professional Trail Crew and the 1,500 hours of trail maintenance and building they do every summer. Growler proceeds have built NEW trail in Signal Peak, and each year we extend the network by another 3 miles. Your race dollars help make the Gunnison Valley a more vibrant and healthy community, and we cannot say THANK YOU enough to all the support over the years!
With that, we are offering full refunds to all registered racers. However, thanks to some of our amazing partners, we thought we’d offer an incentive to donate all or a portion of your entry fee for a chance to win some sweet prizes, all while helping us to continue to maintain and build upon our amazing trail networks.
Donate and Win!
Thanks to our partners at Double Shot Cyclery, High Alpine Brewing Co., The Dive Pub and Brick Oven Pizzeria and Pub, we’ve got some killer prizes to win when you donate all or half of your Growler entry fee. Go to the link below by May 21, 2020, and follow these steps to choose a donation amount or full refund (racers that purchased a Growler jersey will be refunded their merchandise purchase).
- Login to your BikeReg.com account
- Go to My BikeReg in the upper right-hand corner
- Click Edit/Transfer for the Growler
- Go to the bottom of the edit page and select a donation amount or refund under Additional Information. Remember to click SAVE!
FULL DONATION – $114:
Thanks to our generous partners at Double Shot Cyclery, when you donate your full entry fee of $114, you’ll be entered to win a NEW Rockshox SID Ultimate fork and a $100 gift certificate to Double Shot Cyclery!
HALF DONATION – $57:
Looking to donate a portion? When you donate half your registration fee of $57, you’ll be entered to win 1 of 3 $100 gift certificates to High Alpine Brewing Co., The Dive Pub or Brick Oven Pizzeria and Pub…consider these a few good reasons to come and visit the Gunnison Valley this summer when we’re finally open again.
VIRTUAL 2020 GROWLER COMING SOON
We’re partnering with TerraQuest to create a virtual Growler for 2020. We’re still working out the details, but in short, riders can download the CBGTrails App (our official trail map app), select the 2020 Growler Route, ride the course and record their time in the app. A virtual leaderboard will show your results and how they stack up to the rest of the field. Participants will be entered to win a free spot in the 2021 Growler. More details to come.
We hope you and your families are healthy and safe, and we wish you all a summer full of singletrack. More than ever, we look forward to next year’s Growler, and we hope to see all of you there! All the best from the Original Growler Team.
Tim Kugler
Executive Director, Gunnison Trails