Email
PrintGetting Down in the Dirt
Local movie sparks national awareness.
Ed Daft, left, rocks the trails at Grand Targhee Resort in a promotional still for the KGB Productions/Gravnetic movie Freedom Riders.
You might not necessarily think a group of dirt-loving, thrill-seeking, twenty-something gearheads would be all that interested in open communications and a committed relationship with an authority. But that’s the tale the boys at KGB Productions/Gravnetic in Jackson Hole tell in their film, Freedom Riders.
A year after debuting the movie at the Sea Otter Classic bike races in Monterey, California (April 2009), and completing a fifty-stop tour in partnership with the International Mountain Bicycling Association, producers Jake Hawkes, Sam Pope, and Chris Kitchen say they have one major goal: to continue raising awareness of the bike community’s efforts to build sustainable trails and forge positive relationships.
“The movie created a lot of attention for trail building,” Hawkes says. “When we set out to make it, this was an issue on all of our minds. We just decided we were going to make a movie, shoot it beautifully, and tell our story. I think we struck a chord and were able to break out of the typical ‘action sports’ movie mold.”
Absent any big-name pro riders or A-Star helicopter footage, Hawkes, Pope, and Kitchen were able to relate the story of the Teton Freedom Riders (TFR) from a grassroots point of view. The nonprofit TFR organized in October 2004 and began working in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service to build sustainable, legal trails. You may have seen group members around the valley wearing hoodies that proclaim, “Trail building is not a crime.” Or, more likely, you’ve seen them on the trails of the Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF), shovels and Pulaskis in hand, diligently working to maintain trails for the ever-growing mountain-biking community.
The story goes like this: Eight years ago, the tool-wielding riders were not so public, and the trail building they did was illegal—a crime of passion, true, but a crime all the same, one punishable by a hefty fine and up to a year in jail. A group of several riders worked to establish a pair of trails, Ritalin and Lithium, both originating near the summit of Teton Pass.
Unable to trace the trails back to their builders, the Forest Service felled trees blocking their entrances, making it clear that pirate-built trails were taboo on the federal lands. Then, in 2004, rider Harlan Hottenstein approached the Forest Service, seeking support in the building and maintaining of sustainable downhill trails. Hottenstein simply pointed out that non-cross-country bikers, many of whom are deeply committed to the community and environment, had been left out of the “all-inclusive,” multi-use Forest Service trail mix on Teton Pass.
The BTNF, prompted by growing use conflicts, safety concerns, and resource damage, decided to hear Hottenstein and his friends out. Their willingness to fully participate in the public planning process to create a sustainable trail system that worked for all users resulted in the adoption of Lithium, Jimmy’s Mom, Powerline Jumps, and the Parallel Trail into the trail system. However, in order to include the downhill bike trails in the system, an organization had to step forward and agree to maintain them; thus TFR was born.
“The movie isn’t really about us, although we all ride and love those trails,” Pope says. “It’s about Harlan and the Teton Freedom Riders. They made it all happen.”
Freedom Riders has been recognized at the Fernie Mountain Film Festival in British Columbia, the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, and others.
Meanwhile, it’s not all a downhill cruise for TFR: though the film may give the impression that they’re all set, the organization continues struggling to garner community support and donations to build and maintain the trails. If you’d like to offer a hand and help ensure the continuation of the trails, contact them via www.tetonfreedomriders.org.
