North Bend Trail Fest celebrates city’s outdoor community

The Trail Festival was held on Oct. 14 alongside a 30k race over Mount Si

By Conor Wilson • October 18, 2023 4:30 pm

Over the weekend, North Bend played host to the North Bend Skyline 30K, a brutal, leg killing vertical foot race that served as the championship of the Vert Running Series.

Beginning in Torguson Park, runners ascended three peaks, Little Si, Mount Si and Mount Teneriffe, climbing over 6,600 feet over the nearly 19 mile course.

The race was just one part of the inaugural North Bend Trail Fest, a celebration of North Bend’s premier outdoor community.

Event founders Scott Sowle and Brian Kearney, a pair of trail runners themselves who met over the running-based social media app Strava during the pandemic, say the fest was about uniting and expanding their “trail family.”

Most outdoor events stick to a single sport, they say, but they wanted the North Bend Trail Fest to be all inclusive, featuring something for every sport and experience level. Alongside the 30k race, the festival also feature demos from local business, an 8k race and children’s race, live music, guided service climbing wall and mountain bike clinic.

“The North Bend Trail fest is not just trail running,” Sowle said. “We’re a climbing community, there’s skiing, river riding, kayaking, mountain biking, all of these things. That’s what we want the North Bend Trail Fest to showcase.”

The trail fest was born out of the Vert Running Series, a company founded by Sowle that puts on a collection of four races with an emphasis on vertical climbing over distance. The idea, he said, was each race would be a family oriented and community building event. The trail fest takes that one step further, he said. Seeking to include everyone in North Bend, not just runners.

“Maybe they’ll do trail running too – that’s a bonus – but this is about the North Bend community,” he said.