Mac Town Striders was a running group that met downtown in McMinnville, OR on 3rd Street Saturday mornings.  Mac Town Striders had been around for a while and did road races and relays. Jason Mosiman started running with the group in 2013 or 2014 and met Chuck Fisher, Stacey Weldon, and Randy Grant there.

 

In 2014 Mosiman was mountain biking and learned a lot of the “unofficial” trails outside McMinnville from the mountain bikers.  “My sister invited me to come to Arizona for her birthday and run a trail race, which was my first and I really loved it,” exclaims Mosiman.   After talking up the local trails to the Saturday morning road group, Mosiman decided to do a New Year’s day trail run in 2015.  “I created a Facebook chat group that I named ‘MTS trail outing’ thinking it would be a one-time thing,” says Mosiman. ” I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but we kept running trails and at some point, the town group stopped meeting.  After about a year our trail group got bigger and our unofficial name had become MTS-Trail.”  The group made T-shirts and hats and the name MTS-Trail became official.

 

There is no official meeting spot, but MTS-Trail meets every Saturday morning.  Someone posts an idea on the Facebook page and then the location, time and distance are fine-tuned.  Meeting at Rainbow at 8 am is a popular time and place for a Saturday run.  MTS-Trail also has a group that usually meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:30 am for a town run before work.  Anyone can join on the weekday and weekend runs.

 

 

The group does a lot of races together.  For the past four years, MTS-Trail has had a participant at Mountain Lakes 100, including 2016 winner Ann Ciaverella.  So, each year the group gets to pace and crew at least one runner at the race.  MTS-Trail has gone together for other trail races in Oregon, like Peterson Ridge Rumble and most Go Beyond races.  MTS-Trail has also dabbled in timed events such as the Elija Bristow 24 hour and the Angry Owl 24 and 12 hour.  Outside Oregon, MTS-Trail had participants at the Grand Circle Trailfest in Utah and the Coastal Redwoods Trailfest, both are multi-day stage races.   Mike Huber, Weldon, and Ciaverella did the Trans-Rockies stage race in Colorado in 2016.  Todd Evans has multiple 200-mile finishes and a lot of 100-mile race buckles.  Over the past several years, a large contingent will camp at Clackamas Lake together to run the Mt. Hood 50.

 

MTS-Trail does more than trail runs.  “We have done multi-day hikes and fast pack trips.  The past two years we’ve done the mount hood circumnavigation.  We have some regulars that mountain bike.  Fisher is organizing a snowshoe trip this month that I’m looking forward to for the first time,” explains Mosiman.   “We have a Christmas party each year.  We eat a lot.  Usually, I pitch ideas when there is a buffet or unlimited pancake offer going.  I’ve met a lot of great local people I otherwise would not have come into contact with.”

 

“We have also had group outings: performing trail maintenance, attending trail film festivals, running relay races, volunteering at aid stations for trail races, and climbing stairs for charity!” states Fisher.  “Jason has, on a number of his birthdays, run his age in miles.  Once (for his birthday) he ran from McMinnville to the Oregon Coast along the Nestucca River and a second time 46 miles entirely within the City of McMinnville. Also, this year will be the third or fourth March Miller Woods (6-hour) Marathon. It started when one of Jason’s coworkers stated, out of the blue I think, that he wanted to run a marathon, He hasn’t run since.”

 

 

To join MTS-Trail, ask to join the private facebook page.  The group has over 100 members and people are accepted as long as they are local and have some interest in the outdoors.