Coler Mountain Bike Preserve is a 300-acre retreat in Bentonville, Arkansas, with over 20 miles of soft-surface multi-use trails, a greenway, and a unique coffee shop nestled in the woods. Guests Taylor, Nate, and Scott discuss what makes Coler special and 2024 programming for both kids and adults. Hear first-hand from those working behind the scenes to make Coler one of the most beloved places in town.
Coler Mountain Bike Preserve is a 300-acre retreat in Bentonville, Arkansas, with over 20 miles of soft-surface multi-use trails, a greenway, and a unique coffee shop nestled in the woods. Guests Taylor, Nate, and Scott discuss what makes Coler special and 2024 programming for both kids and adults. Hear first-hand from those working behind the scenes to make Coler one of the most beloved places in town.
Hello, hello everybody, and welcome to Visit Bentonville's A New American Town podcast. I'm your host, stevie, and today's episode is sponsored by AusTrails. Did you know that in Bentonville, arkansas, there's an outdoor exercise staircase that's equivalent to 11 flights of stairs one way. More on that in a few minutes. Our guests today are Taylor Scott and Nate from Kohler Mountain Bike Preserve here in Bentonville. Welcome.
Speaker 2:Hey, thanks for having us Welcome.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, can you all please introduce yourself? Let's get the show rolling.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. My name is Taylor Reed and I am the marketing manager at Peelcompton Foundation in Kohler Mountain Bike Preserve.
Speaker 4:Nate Renner. I work on the trail crew at Kohler Mountain Bike Preserve.
Speaker 2:And Scott Dirksen, senior program manager for Kohler Mountain Bike, preserve.
Speaker 1:Awesome, nice to see all of you here today. Taylor, who and what is Peelcompton Foundation?
Speaker 3:So Peelcompton Foundation is a local 501C3 here in Bentonville, arkansas. We connect the community through nature, education, recreation and preservation, and we happen to host some pretty great community events educational programming covering things like mountain biking, archery, ecology and leave-nope trace principles, on top of, honestly, tons of other things for families and individuals who are new and old in the community. So that's about what we do.
Speaker 1:And you kind of hinted to this when you said ecology and archery. What are the public spaces that Peelcompton Foundation facilitates?
Speaker 3:So we have under our belt Compton Gardens and Arboretum, we have Osage Park, and at Osage Park we have the Quiver Archery Range, peel Museum and Botanical Garden and, of course, kohler Mountain Bike Preserve.
Speaker 1:What we're here to talk about today. So great segue. Taylor Scott, can you give us an overview of Kohler Mountain Bike Preserve? Even though it's called the Mountain Bike Preserve, there's so much more you can do there than just riding a bike, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, kohler Mountain Bike Preserve, even though it says in the name it's a gym here in the heart of Bentonville, arkansas. It's a 300-acre property a little over a mile long. It has 20-plus miles of trails for hiking and for biking, a greenway, which is a paved bike path that goes to the middle for all types of users to get out and utilize Kohler. And it's a preserve, so it's natural there's some architecture and buildings, but you feel like you're in the woods, you feel like you're outside of the town, even though it's just like a mile from downtown Bentonville, and once you're there it's an amazing experience to enjoy nature.
Speaker 1:And for those who don't know, there's also a very unique coffee shop in the middle of the preserve.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the trails, obviously you can hike and bike on, but there is airship coffee shop in the heart of Kohler, so to get to it, the only way to get to it, is by biking or walking about a half mile from either parking lot to get there.
Speaker 1:Scott, it sounds like there are so many awesome amenities in Kohler. What about the programming you guys offer?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so besides just coming and utilizing the property on a day-to-day basis, we offer classes, clinics, specific things for people to do in the community, for children and adults alike. Mostly we focus on mountain bike classes and some clinics, but really we have a lot of nature programs, especially for children. We have week-long camps for children to get involved, to learn about nature, disconnect, get outside and learn about the natural environment around them.
Speaker 1:That has been your most popular program offering so far.
Speaker 2:Thanks for that question, stevie. My favorite part for leading programs at Kohler is definitely when I get people who have come to Kohler and they maybe haven't done that skill or activity outside that often and they get engaged and they do it and Just to see their face light up, to see them engage with nature in a different way that maybe they haven't before, it's really rewarding to see, especially when you have the kids for a week at a time. By the end of the week they just they love being outside. They're eating the berries on the property Don't worry, just the edible ones and it's. It's really great to see that connection to nature after the end of a program.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Nate, can you tell me about the trail crew?
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's three of us myself, maddie and Logan Pretty much every day of the week where they're scoping out what needs to be worked on the most and upgrades and trail repairs, you name it and we're always trying to enhance the park and just maintain it and keep it up to good shape.
Speaker 1:What's your favorite part about being on the trail crew?
Speaker 4:Oh, I mean, it's my passion personally. It's why I moved to Bentonville even earlier this year. They say you Do what you love. You never work a day in your life right and it checks a lot of boxes. I'm always in, surrounded by nature. I'm getting a lot of exercise for sure on the trail crew and it's really fulfilling. I feel like I'm giving back to the community that way. Pretty much every day, at least one person will stop, stop stop the trail crew and tell us thank you so much for what you guys do. You guys are awesome. It's. How could you not love it?
Speaker 1:That's amazing and it's so true. I think people can sometimes tend to forget about what goes on behind the scenes, and trail crews work very, very hard for Everyone to be able to enjoy the trails. Taylor will send it back to you here. What do you hope for the future of Kohler? What do you hope that looks like?
Speaker 3:for the future of Kohler. Um, you know, as a non-mountain biker, I think that that's kind of the place for mountain biking, but what a waste it would be if people who didn't mountain bike didn't know that Kohler exists. So really it's brand awareness, you know, for Kohler, knowing that it is more than that. It's a place to escape your everyday life and Be kind of in the midst of nature nature, I guess, as it stands in the, in the Ozarks. So that's kind of my wish for Kohler in the future.
Speaker 1:It really is a nice escape, isn't it? Yeah, like Scott mentioned earlier, it feels like you're out in this amazing place, super far away from town, but it's just really close, about a mile away. Nate, what do you hope the future of Kohler looks like?
Speaker 4:I Hope we can just keep making it better, kind of appeal to all levels of riders keep enhancing that feeling of progression green trails, blue trails, black trails, just so anybody who comes to Kohler can have a great time and Scott, I have a kind of a two-part closing question for you.
Speaker 1:What is new at Kohler Mountain Bike Preserve right now and Also, what do you hope the future of Kohler looks like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a new would be our Thanksgiving kids camp next week, something we haven't done before. We're also trying to break into different types of programs and challenges to engage people Beyond just coming to a program. So next year we're gonna have some well, right now I'm calling them Kohler days where people can come out and we can Guide them around, show them some things, do some interpretation, sue some nature hikes while people enjoy airship and and kind of highlight our partner partners, programmers at Kohler and really get people a deeper connection to to Kohler. And what I Envision for Kohler in the future is a place where all types of people feel Included and not just included, but they feel welcome. So that is gonna have to take some intentionality with working with different types of communities, different types of programming, so that people can come and and Discover Kohler, feel welcome there and then continue to use it to to reach our mission to connect people to nature and get outside.
Speaker 1:Amazing sounds like there are a lot of good things in store for next year and for beyond.
Speaker 2:We're excited for it, for sure, and so if you haven't haven't experienced it, just come out and just do a walkthrough, kohler, and if you want to engage on a deeper level, get in touch with us. We'd love to have people at a program or or an activity, or just experience Kohler.
Speaker 3:And if for anything, it's the nachos.
Speaker 2:At airship. They're so good gotta get the nachos, and for the kids you can get them a steamer, a little hot cocoa. It's great.
Speaker 1:Now, taylor, where can people find you online if they want to connect and learn more about programming and what's to come in the future?
Speaker 3:Check us out at a at Kohler mountain bike preserve, on instagram and on facebook.
Speaker 1:What is your website as well?
Speaker 3:our website is peelcomptonorg.
Speaker 1:Perfect, and there you can also learn all about the public spaces, not just.
Speaker 3:Kohler, yep, and we also have a rentable spaces at all of our sites. So if you're interested in booking specific venue for your birthday party or a wedding or whatever it is you're interested in doing, then oh yeah, we also have camping.
Speaker 2:I gave a little tent symbol over here so she saw that Little reminder.
Speaker 1:Well, it sounds like the possibilities are endless. They really are Well. Thank you so much to scott, nate and taylor for your time and joining us on today's episode of visi-benvils, a new american town podcast, and thanks to you, our listeners, for tuning in. Be sure to follow Kohler mountain bike preserve, oz trails and visi-benville on social media. We'll see you out on the trails.