Several years ago, Chris held his first Chris King's Trail Daze event in an effort to get the Santa Barbara, CA community more involved in the upkeep and conservation of their local recreational resources. As federal operating budgets were cut back, the U.S. Forest Service began looking for ways to get the community more involved. The combination of these forces has grown into a successful advocacy program that serves as the foundation of our commitment to mountain biking.

Before Chris King's Trail Daze, such volunteer projects lacked appeal and drew only small numbers of people. Trail Daze is a successful example of organization, leadership, and food that has taken volunteer programs to a new level. It is responsible for improving many miles of trails throughout California's central coast and is being used as a model for designing similar programs nationwide, including our new home in Portland, OR.

Each Trail Daze event starts off with a complete continental breakfast and a bagged lunch providing fuel for the hard day's work. Volunteers are grouped into work parties and instructed on proper trail maintenance standards and techniques before they set out with their tools and hard hats. On the trail, Forest Rangers and other trained trail boss leaders direct the work parties providing trained expertise on the day's project. As the sun sets, the volunteers are drawn back in by the lure of a hearty BBQ dinner and a generous prize raffle featuring prizes donated from around the cycling industry and by their local community.