Almost 30 years ago, the organization Disciples of Dirt was formed in Eugene, changing the trajectory of mountain biking in the Eugene community for decades to come. This organization has played a hand in the construction and maintenance of every trail in the greater Eugene community and laid the foundations for the explosive growth of mountain biking in the last five years.

In the early days, the group was known by hikers as “rogues” or “devils on wheels,” but they shifted community perception through thousands of hours of volunteer work and over $100,000 dollars in private funds spent on trail renovation.

Disciples of Dirt built over 20 miles of illegal trails by hand at Carpenter Bypass in the late 90s and early 2000s, and hosted key events that have introduced new bikers to the budding sport. Over the last thirty years, the Disciples have been silent stewards of greater Eugene, working tirelessly to build, protect and maintain trails for people of all walks of life to enjoy the outdoors.

Their end goal? To have trails accessible to all mountain bikers in Eugene, their city of origin.

The Disciples of Dirt began after Dave Hallock, 71, bought his first mountain bike in the mid-80s. Mountain bikes, called ballooners or clunkers in the early days, were a novel invention. Hallock confessed that at first, he hated the idea of leaving the thin tires of his road bike for the wider rougher ones of the novel dirt jumper mountain bikes. But when he finally took the chance, he was hooked.

“From the first day I got on a mountain bike, I was almost laughing out loud,” Hallock said. “I don’t think I rode my road bike 100 miles that year. I lit up; I had found my place.”

As an early adopter of the sport, Hallock had no one to ride with for the first few years. When he finally found a small group to ride with, he was inspired to create a social club dedicated to mountain biking, and in 1985 the Disciples of Dirt was born.

At first, the only paper trail and way into the club was via a newsletter called “Lets Talk Dirty.” Written by Hallock, it contained local biking news and a calendar for rides. At first they rode in the Coburg hills area, on old logging roads.

Lee Wilkinson, 62, described his fight club-esque initiation to the club in 2002. New to Eugene, he went into Bicycle Way of Life, a local bike shop, and they pointed him to “Lets Talk Dirty.”

“It was cryptic, and it was hilarious,” he said. “I introduced myself, and told them what I was into. I mentioned I used to poach a lot of trails down in California and they immediately got back to me. I got a message saying, ‘Meet us off I-5 at 6 p.m., bring beer and peanuts.’”

While people continued to show up for the rides, the Disciples faced the problem of finding a consistent place to ride. So, in 1993, when a friend of Hallock’s happened upon a prime piece of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, untouched and unwatched by the city, the Disciples began building their first cathedral. The land later became known as Carpenter Bypass, and while it is now an established trail network, in the mid-90s the area consisted only of locally built motorcycle trails.

“We just lit up, and started building like mad out there,” Hallock said. The current trail system reflects over 20 miles that the Disciples built by hand. The extensive building was highly illegal and sometimes on private land.

“Because we were illegal, we were flying under the radar out there,” Wilkinson said. “The Disciples told me, ‘You hear a truck coming by, (and) you hit the ground. Don’t let anyone see you.’”

When they were happened upon by the sheriff in 2010, the Disciples knew something had to change. Facing the destruction of 10 years of work, the majority of club members decided it was time to go legit. So the Disciples, after creating official bylaws and gaining 501c3 non-profit status, met the BLM on their own terms.

The BLM not only agreed to adopt and sanction the trails, but they applauded their work. The city, however, was far from granting them free reign to build responsibly. On multiple occasions, the city approached the Disciples, offering incentives of bike access on local trails in exchange for the Disciples volunteer efforts, only to withdraw their promises at the last minute.

Hallock described the disappointment after a mass effort to improve the Ridgeline Trail; “I felt like we had been hoodwinked,” he said after the city turned around and enforced usage that only allowed hikers.

The prior lack of mountain biking trail access in Eugene, though largely blocked by bureaucratic entities, is also a result of animosity toward mountain biking in the Eugene community itself. During the first two decades after the sport was popularized, mountain biking was extremely dangerous.

“Traps were set on the trails we were riding, literally people setting branches across blind corners,” Jack Hill, a 31-year-old semi-pro downhill racer, said. “They set booby traps, it’s really insidious, they do things like point sharp branches up the trails.”

Faced with the consistent vandalism of their trails and danger to their personal health, the Disciples relied on their passion for the sport to remain optimistic. They continue to push the pedals in hopes of establishing separate areas for mountain bikers and hikers so everyone can enjoy the outdoors in their preferred mode.

Luckily, it seems that 2025 could finally be the time the Disciples envisioned, with the finalization of Susan Arlie Park. The land was donated to the city by John Musumeci, an entrepreneur responsible for land sales and development including PeaceHealth’s Riverbend campus and Springfield’s Regional Sports Center. Musumeci donated over 300 acres of land, with only one caveat: that the park be named after his deceased wife.

The park lies between southeast Eugene and Gosha and is funded by a $1.2 million dollar grant from Rebuild America. During the development of the park, the city has taken no small expense at perfecting the design. Not only have they outsourced top trail designers, consultants and builders, but they have hired a committee of city residents, including some Disciples, to advise the building process.

Hill, who is on the oversight committee, thinks the plan in place is the best option. “Of all the trail building companies, maybe only 15-20% of those people I would trust to build advanced trails,” he said.

Once the park is built, the Disciples are a top candidate for adoption and maintenance of the trails. With the home stretch looming, the Disciples are “100% behind it.” “We’re all chopping at the bit, let’s go break ground at Arlie,” Wilkinson said.

As Susan Arlie Park is finalized, the Eugene community looks forward to a brighter future, courtesy of the Disciples, who believed in the vision before everyone else knew it existed.