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Spence Mountain Spring Build
Trail building crews for Dirt Mechanics and Terra Velo Consulting are mobilizing this month to build more single track at Spence Mountain. Construction is planned through the end of May. Two trails will be built in addition to a small re-route of Hooligan and fire rehab work around the main trailhead. 
The largest project involves construction of Speed King, a downhill only flow trail, targeted at the mountain biking crowd. It will offer larger berms, rollers, jumps and constant undulations to create a roller coaster like experience on a bike. There will be several access points off of South Ridge trail but the trail officially starts about 3 miles up South Ridge trail off the ridge line. The first half mile will be rated black diamond or most difficult with larger features which will change to blue (intermediate) for the remaining two miles. Hopefully we’ll get the lower half of Speed King opened up first so folks can enjoy.
Terra Velo Consulting is building Red Rover, a one mile green or easy loop trail out of the main trailhead. Red Rover is targeted at casual trail users or families wanting to take a nice stroll or teach their kids how to ride. Red Rover even offers some lakeside views and will help pull traffic off of South Ridge thereby reducing user conflict.
Funding for this years build came from generous community support. Our yearend fundraiser netted $33,412 and was 138% of goal. A big thank-you to Mark Goodman and Zach’s Bikes for providing the matchings funds as well as the many donors that supported the cause. A $25,000 Klamath County Tourism grant was also awarded to KTA last fall for this years build.
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Spence Mountain Visitor Data
 New data supplied by Discover Klamath (derived from cell phone records) shows total visitors to Spence Mountain, to include locals and out-of-towners, have doubled to 112,000 from 2018 to 2019! Visitation held flat in 2020 likely due to reduced travel from COVID-19.
Impressively locals made up 92% of visitors to Spence in 2019. Out-of-area visitation, defined by over 50 miles away, grew 64% in 2019 to 9,300 visits bringing much needed tourism dollars into our community.
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Vote Yes on Ballot Measure 18-120!
So what the heck is Measure 18-120 and why should you vote yes? Measure 18-120 proposes to increase lodging tax from 8% to 11%. This will largely be to out-of-area visitors that stay in our hotels, motels, campsites and so forth. KTA supports Measure 18-120 because tourism dollars are helping fund infrastructure projects like our Spence Mountain trail development.
Also, Klamath County’s current lodging tax appears to be lower at 8% compared to other regional destinations where fees ranged from 11.0% to 15.5%. If you want to support tourism please VOTE YES on Measure 18-120 on your upcoming May 18th ballot!
More Information
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Trail Maintenance
Trail maintenance is picking up with the nice weather. March totals include 54 hours of volunteer labor.
Highlights of March:
Moore Park - 45 hrs, brushing, tread repair, drainage.
Spence Mountain - 9 hrs, cleared downfall.
Please post your maintenance hours on our trail work log. You can include drive time to and from the trail location. This helps us track volunteer hours and is especially important when applying for grants as it shows community support!
If you want to get involved in trail maintenance we post group events on our Meet-up site.
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Fred Meyer's Community Rewards & AmazonSmile Helps KTA!
If you shop at Fred Meyer or Amazon you could be helping KTA with  your purchases. There are “no strings attached” other than having to set-up an online account if you don’t have one.
A frequently asked question about the Fred Meyer charity program is whether you lose your reward points by naming a charity. The simple answer is NO. Here is a link to the frequently asked questions and information on how to link your rewards card.
 AmazonSmile is also simple to set-up. Follow this link to support of Klamath Trails Alliance or this link for more information. With Amazon you will need to place your order on the AmazonSmile site in order in to generate contributions back to KTA.
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How to Become Involved with the KTA
Visit KTA's website or our Facebook page for more information on projects and events. Consider joining or renewing your membershship today! Individual memberships start at only $20 per year. These funds support trail maintenance, promotion, new trail development and the resources needed to keep us up and running as a non-profit organization! Email Info@klamathtrails.org to join the mailing list for updates.
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