The folks at Clymb head­quar­ters rel­ish the out­door oppor­tu­ni­ties that abound in and around our quirky lit­tle city. Even though we like to com­plain about the rain, we know that the cli­mate is a key con­trib­u­tor to the nat­ur­al land­scapes, flo­ra, and fau­na that we love. We take pride in our city.

One of our favorite haunts is Sandy Ridge, a stun­ning sys­tem of moun­tain bike trails tucked into the canopy of trees that lies just beneath the majesty of Mt. Hood, Ore­gon’s tallest moun­tain. A 45-minute dri­ve from town will have you at the trail­head. From there, you’ll be huff­ing and puff­ing up For­est Ser­vice roads then hoot­ing and hol­ler­ing as you careen down miles of ultra-flowy sin­gle­track trail.

Stand­ing around the water cool­er after a well-spent week­end on Sandy Ridge, employ­ees exhib­it a gleam in our eyes and a twinge in our low­er backs. Many of us help devel­op local trails as well as ride them. We’ve chocked up as many hours han­dling a Pulas­ki as we have sit­ting in the sad­dle. So nat­u­ral­ly, we were stoked when the phil­an­throp­i­cal bicy­cling brand Bell Hel­mets announced an excit­ing new initiative.

Part­ner­ing with IMBA (Inter­na­tion­al Moun­tain Bicy­cling Asso­ci­a­tion), Bell Hel­mets has estab­lished a new social-media-based fund­ing pro­gram called BELL BUILT that aims to give back to the next gen­er­a­tion of rid­ers through $100K in grants.  This mon­ey will help to main­tain three exist­ing trail sys­tems through­out the coun­try. Twelve areas have been cho­sen for con­sid­er­a­tion, and you can click on each one indi­vid­u­al­ly through Bel­l’s Face­book page to learn more. You can then vote on your favorite option, and you’ll be entered into a sweep­stakes where you can win hel­mets, appar­el, and even an all-expens­es paid cycling adven­ture. Vot­ing ends April 12, 2013.

Here’s the kick­er. Our beloved Sandy Ridge just so hap­pens to be on that list. So click through to vote on your favorite area for a good cause, and if you hap­pen to be a PNW local or just don’t quite know which trail to vote for, maybe you could show Sandy a lit­tle love. Every option on this list is a great choice, and we’d like to encour­age you to vote so you can get out­side and enjoy the places you love.

If you like read­ing about trail devel­op­ment and the great things that are hap­pen­ing with­in moun­tain bik­ing com­mu­ni­ties, have a look at our local North­west Trail Alliance web­site here.