Not Going To A Wet Fort Worth Gateway Park Fat Tire Festival On The 2nd Sunday Of June

I did not get the memo telling me that rain was on the menu for this 2nd Sunday of the 6th month of 2014.

Not getting the weather memo had me being a bit surprised this morning when I looked outside to see an angry sky full of what looked like thunderclouds.

A half hour later, after consuming my regular morning coffee fueling, the clouds had begun crying, not hysterically so, but steadily.

So, I had myself a mighty fine time swimming in the rain this morning.

In the picture you are standing in the rain on my patio, with my camera under its protective Popabrella aimed at the aforementioned swimming location, with the also aforementioned clouds overhead.

I hope today's rain does not wreak havoc with the Fat Tire Festival taking place at this very moment in Fort Worth's Gateway Park.

My plan for today was to roll my wheels on the Gateway Park mountain bike trails, rolling past the festival.

Enough rain has hit the ground, I think, to render the mountain bike trails possibly a bit muddy. So, no Gateway Park for me today.

Unless I change my mind.....

June 8 Gateway Park Fort Worth Fat Tire Festival Celebrating All Things Mountain Bike For $15

A couple weeks ago I saw a flyer on the information sign at the Gateway Park Fort Worth Mountain Bike Association trail's trail head announcing the June 8th 4th Annual FAT Tire Festival.

This was the first I'd heard of this festival, even though there have been three previous.

I don't think I've ever been to a mountain bike festival of any sort, so I thought maybe I might go to this one.

Then in this week's Fort Worth Weekly I saw the advertisement for the FAT Tire Festival you see above, with that advertisement advertising there would be Live Music, Singletrack, Bicycle Vendors, Great Food Trucks, Mountain Bike Events and FWMBA T-Shirts & Memberships.

And then in the lower right part of the advertisement, in a low contrast, hard to read font, we learn....

Admission

$15 Donation

$40 for Families of Four or More

Wow! This must be one ultra-cool festival. Isn't $15 about half what it cost to get into Six Flags Over Texas? So many really cool festivals in the D/FW zone charge no admission charge, such as the Tandy Hills Prairie Fest and Fort Worth's Main Street Art Festival.

And what odd admission verbiage. If the "Donation" word is used, is it not usually used in a context such as "Suggested Donation $15"?

Maybe the food from the food trucks and those FWMBA T-Shirts are included in the price of admission, which would sort of help explain, maybe, the $15 Donation.

And what is meant by "Singletrack" on the list of what one will find at the FAT Tire Festival? Is this a reference to the mountain bike trail, which is mostly singletrack, except for one short section that is two-way?

On June 8, from 9 am - 3 pm, must one donate $15 to roll ones wheels on the Gateway Park singletrack mountain bike trail?

I suspect I will go to Gateway Park on Sunday, June 8, and find out....

Today I Had Some Near Gateway Park Misses Before Learning About The 4th Annual Fort Worth Fat Tire Festival Sunday June 8

Today, after I rolled my wheels for miles on Gateway Park's mountain bike trails, I stopped at the Information Sign at the trailhead because I had detected it had changed when I rolled past it on my way to the trailhead.

One of the new bits of information on the Information Sign informed me as to what happened between last Tuesday and last Sunday which had so greatly improved the mountain bike trails.

As in, Saturday there was a Gateway Park Trail Workday, with the trailblazers back in business, due, I assume, to once again getting insured.

I wonder if I aim my phone at that QR phone code on the photo I took of the announcement on the Information Sign, if it will work. I shall try that right now and let you know....

No, that did not work.

Despite the directional signage which, apparently, last Saturday was added to the Gateway Park mountain bike trails I still had myself two near head-on collisions today

Above my handlebars are pointing to one of the aforementioned direction sign posts. This location was no where near where I had two near misses today. The first near miss came soon after I entered the trail  at the trailhead. There really is no excuse for going the wrong direction at that location.

The second near miss came at a section of the trail that has several  points where you confront the possibility of going over a cliff into the Trinity River. This cliff related near miss was three guys coming at me. It really is not their fault they were going the wrong direction. Fresh piles of brush were blocking the trail at the point where they would have started going the wrong direction.

In addition to learning about the Trail Workday I missed last Saturday, on the Information Sign I learned about the upcoming Fort Worth Fat Tire Festival.

Sunday, June 8, 9AM til 3PM the 4th Annual Fort Worth Fat Tire Festival takes place in Gateway Park, with bikes, music, food and singletrack.

Might I add, the word "singletrack" usually means those aforementioned bikes go in one single direction on the singletrack....