The OEF is a statewide membership organization dedicated to the enhancement of the sport of off-road bicycling through trail advocacy, maintenance and cooperation with land managers and users. The OEF is a 15-year-old club that grew out of the need for cool places to ride in Oklahoma. We have worked hard to secure riding areas in our state; through our lobbing efforts some state and city regulations concerning off-road bicycle use have changed. We are in part responsible for the rule changes that opened state lands and parks to off-road bicycle riding. We have received national recognition for the all work that we have done, it appears that people like what we do...

OEF, in the early 90's, was responsible for changing the Clearbay trail at Thunderbird Lake from Hiking Only to Multi Use status. This was one of the first times that OEF worked with park managers, park rangers and the park commission to make it legal to mtb in a state park.

Next club members and other concerned citizens were able to realign and reopen mtb trails at the Pat Murphy Park (below Hefner Dam) after the Bluff Creek trail was closed by the city. We spent over 1000 man-hours, and over $ 3,000 on the project ($600 for signage alone) and we continue to do lots of work out there since it's the busiest of all trails in the OKC area. The reason we can keep a high traffic mtb area like Bluff Creek open is our relationship with the city. We keep this multi-use trail up to date, the city inspects the area and provides us with feedback to improve and repair certain sections. Most of the funding for trail improvement projects comes from money raised by promoting mountain bike events, like Slime Fest and the Red Dirt Rendezvous, and club membership fees.
All the work we put into Pat Murphy Park paid off on September 25th, 1997, when Oklahoma City Beautiful named the OEF one of twelve recipients of it's top honor awards in their Adopt-A-Park program. Over one hundred sites were considered for these awards. Renewal of this status was achieved in 2004.

In 1995 OEF established more mtb trails in another State Park; Roman Nose State Park near Watonga. With great support from the park director equestrian trails were changed to multi-use and more trail was added and improved by OEF people. Through major events like SlimeFest (Race and Club weekend) even more trail was cut to facilitate a long and interesting mtb race. Unfortunately 4 miles of new single track disappeared under the expanding golf course in early 1998... Due to the focus on the NuDraper trail OEF couldn't put too much work into adding more trail at Roman Nose but Team Body Bag & friends picked up the slack in 2000 and cut another 3 miles which completed a 7.5 mile loop... Currently the MTB trails at Roman Nose are once again maintained by the OEF and in 2002 & 2003 we added a switchback and several benchcut trails to make the trail more sustainable. We continued to make improvements in 2004 with more benchcut sections, to replace some badly worn fall line sections.

But our most important project over last 6 years has been the Lake Stanley Draper Mountain Bike Park (aka New Draper or NuDraper), at Draper Lake, South-East of OKC.
We applied for - and were awarded - a $16,000 grant from the Oklahoma Recreational Trails Fund (ORTF) for equipment and materials (OEF purchased a trailer with a wide selection of tools) to be used in building and maintaining the Lake Stanley Draper Mountain Bike Park. The OEF also assisted in the successful application by the Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust for grant monies to build a parking lot and trailhead facilities for the mountain bike park. This $17,000 grant was also awarded by ORTF. These grant monies were made available through the National Recreational Trail Fund Act, a program that is overseen by the Federal Highway Administration. The program operates on a 50% match basis that allowed the OEF to match the grant amount with in kind volunteer labor. 2000+ man-hours have been put in planning and building Phase I, II and III of the 180-acre park, which we have a 20 year lease on, and it has resulted in almost 13 miles of fast & flowing single track. And we keep improving the trail, fixing erosion problems, adding bridges (one of them the Under-Over Bridge) and add a few new sections here and there...

In early 2001 OEF worked with the Bicycle League of Norman to revive the Clearbay trails and create a new loop for the DARE duathlon. The result was a mixture of old trails and new single track combined into a very nice 8-mile loop. The BLN has since made several improvements and added another 5 miles of trail. This trail system is an absolute workout with lots of long climbs and fast downhill sections - one of the best trails in the State...

But OEF has more to offer than only organizing Trail Work... OEF has been heavily involved in creating & supporting the Oklahoma State MTB Race Series, the Tour de Dirt. Over the years OEF has successfully run a number of large mtb events like Slime Fest at Roman Nose, the Red Dirt Rendezvous @ NuDraper (with Kids Race), several Womble weekends, IMBA Trail Building Schools and in 2003 we organized the first 24 hour mountain bike race in Oklahoma - which we then held again in 2004! Our New Member and Tuesday In The Trees rides have also been popular. We are in the process of bringing back our newsletter and of course we continue to have our monthly Membership Meeting, which is an excellent opportunity to meet other mountain bikers. And we are also active on the local on-line mountain bike forum the Earthbike list where rides, trail conditions, club news and other useful cycling information is posted.

Last but not least, OEF brings people together that share the same hobby. Our club currently has approximately 150 members, but we can always use more... With additional members we can maintain our trails better, show our faces at State and City meetings when new recreation areas are discussed and last but not least, have a good time during rides and other activities. So why not join us and give something back to the sport we all love?

Hey, if MTB magazines like Bike and Dirt Rag contact us for information about mountain biking in Oklahoma we must be doing something right...