The showing will be at 7 p.m. in the Goldenstate Theater, 417 Alvarado St. in downtown Monterey.

Pedal-Driven, Join the Ride! from Howell at the Moon Productions on Vimeo.

Washington and B.C. riders will feel right at home with the film’s depictions of high-country riding in the Leavenworth area and Seattle-area haunts like Duthie Hill and Colonnade mountain bike parks.

The story line has to do with clashes between trail builders and regulatory authorities, mostly the U.S. Forest Service. If you want a clear understanding of the passion and principle driving both sides of the equation, you need to see “Pedal-Driven.” A full page of trailers for the film at here.

Movie premieres at Sea Otter always bring out the best crowds in biking culture, and “Pedal-Driven” promises to stoke the folk as much as past hits like “Freedom Riders” and “Follow Me.”

“Pedal-Driven” was put together by Howell At The Moon productions in Wenatchee and boosted by donations from Kickstarter. Sponsors also include IMBA, Specialized and Shimano.

Come on out at Sea Otter, or otherwise watch for a screening near you!

“We’re breathing a big sigh of relief,” said Jamie Howell, founder of the five-employee outfit putting together the groundbreaking movie focusing on resolving trail conflicts. Not that donors should quit giving, as the project still will have final-production costs to meet.

“People should feel free to keep on giving,” Howell noted.

There’s been enough buzz already about “Pedal Driven” to guarantee the movie will be a hit. Howell At The Moon stumbled across the idea while doing a commercial project in Leavenworth, where unauthorized trail building had left local mtbers and land managers at odds with one another.

“Pedal Driven’s focus is on the solutions aspect,” Howell said. “People are finding a lot of creative ways to approach new trail building, while building sustainability into the equation.”

Among locations already filmed, including Leavenworth, are the Seattle area’s Colonnade park under I-5 and the Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park near Issaquah. Both were put together by the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance working with Seattle and King County authorities.

Howell in particular had praise for Jon Kennedy, former Evergreen executive director, under whose tenure the Colonnade and Duthie projects came to fruition. Kennedy, now marketing manager for Diamondback Bicycles in Kent, “deserves a lot of credit” for raising mountain-bike awareness in the region, Howell said, adding that Evergreen is “a great example” of a mountain-bike group working creatively with management agencies to open new facilities.

While the film’s core audience is the mountain biking community, Howell believes it will find appeal with land-management agencies, trusts, other user groups and even the mainstream public interested in mountain biking as a family activity.

“It’s a mountain-biking movie, but our goal is to be fair and unbiased,” Howell said. Or to put it another way, “our bias is the goal of sustainability.”

Howell At The Moon comes at the project from a different perspective than most mtb films. Although small, they’ve done a variety of commercial projects. They do ride mountain bikes, but consider themselves professional filmmakers first.

“As professional filmmakers, we really want this piece to work from the land-management-agency standpoint,” Howell said.

The film’s budget is $170,000 — “about typical” for a documentary of this scope, Howell said. The bulk of the money is coming from sponsors, including Shimano and Specialized. The $15,000 comes at a strategic time — to finish filming and do final production work.

The film is “95 percent shot,” Howell said, with some Moab footage and an interview with an Arizona sustainable-trail scientist still to be added.

The goal is to premiere “Pedal Driven” at the Sea Otter Classic in April. From there the film will do the local-premiere circuit. Howell hopes it will eventually find mainstream distribution or commercial broadcast.

Profits will go to sustainable trail-building projects under the auspices of IMBA, the International Mountain Bike Association.

“Our No. 1 goal is to survive the making of the film,” Howell joked. After that it’s “to get it out there for people to see.”

Mongo is the Guru of Galbraith — the inspiration behind GalbraithMt.com — and had wanted to see Duthie’s progress. We at BikeIntelligencer tend to think of Duthie as a miniature Galbraith, offering both cross-country fare and tasty freeride bits. So we were charged to hear Mongo’s enthusiasm for what’s coming together at Duthie.

Plenty of wood for the bog ...

It’s quite a testament to the public-private partnership of King County and the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance. And there’s more to come. We saw a lot of activity and dirt in motion.

After touring Duthie we headed over to Grand Ridge to stretch our legs a bit. Talk about potential — Mongo was jabbering on and on about how much territory the ridge has to offer. With terrain like that, you could spray the hillside with trails and have some great loops to boot. We can’t wait.

... and plenty of rubble.

We cruised down to the legendary Bog, only to find piles of rubble and skinned timber stacked right at the base of the slope. Obviously the trail custodians are poised to finally do something about the ugliest section of trail this side of Wales. The Bog itself is actually drier than I’ve ever seen it. It’s still not really rideable — too much gooey stuff, and you can’t keep enough momentum to stay on the pedals — but you can at least hoof it through the entire way.

We scampered across, then began the long climb to the ridge line. Eventually we came to the Canyon Creek Bridge — which by coincidence will be dedicated today in an official King County Parks-Washington Trails Association event. We put together a crude iPhone video and commentary in observance of the dedication, scheduled to begin at noon.

From there it was up, up, up, the trail in tacky, prime condition. As many times as we’ve done Grand Ridge, it never seems ordinary. The fall colors, more open skies (due to dropped leaves from deciduous trees) and trail care have put Grand Ridge in a rare zone. The weekend rains may jeopardize it all, but one of Grand Ridge’s distinct virtues is its fast recovery time from moisture.

All in all, a great interlude for us and wondrous intro for Mongo to the special joys of Issaquah-area mountain biking. The season may be drawing to a close, but this stuff should remain open and rideable through much of the winter. Enjoy!

High in the Methow...

Cascade and Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance are teaming up on the event, the local version of the International Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day. There will be plenty of stuff to do, from riding and jumping to drawings for great gear. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. things will be popping!

As for high-country mountain biking, Winthrop will be the scene this weekend with its annual Methow Valley Bike (and now Film) Festival, highlighted by the premiere of “Pedal-Driven,” a film looking at Pacific Northwest trail use and conflicts and how they get resolved. The Winthrop Barn will be the focal point but lots of stuff going on, including rides, a bike giveaway, presentations and film showings. Be sure to stop and say hi to Joe Brown at Methow Cycle and Sport right on Highway 20 down from the Barn.

Spokespeople destination South Lake Union Park.

No matter where or what you ride, the weekend promises to offer lots of wheel time!

Women of Dirt rider Leana Gerrard smiles through the mud at Duthie Hill Park Grand Opening.

The 120-acre Duthie Hill Park has more than five miles of trails comprising everything from beginners’ “boot camp” routes and features to full-on jumps, catwalks, drops and stunts of mini–Whistler proportions. About 300 riders, officials and mtbers were on hand to hear speakers praise the partnership between the county and Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance that got the park to happen starting in 2004.

Engraved tiles helped raise funds for Duthie.

Despite its mud-splattered inauguration, Duthie Hill stayed in better than might be expected shape as riders of every size and skill toured the trails — a testament to trail construction, routing and drainage. A few days of warmer and drier weather will restore them back to primo tackiness.

King County Executive Dow Constantine cuts the ribbon.

There’s more to come, with a Phase 2 about to kick in, but for now Duthie Hill stands as a model of public-private cooperation in the ongoing efforts to increase mountain bike access to public lands.

*[We're hedging a bit here because Colonnade also is referred to as a mountain bike park, but is actually more of a stunt park.]

Good weather has left the trails dry and tacky. The tiles were mostly in place by Friday, kiosks were up albeit empty, and the beeping of backhoes and Bobcats was echoing throughout the park with last-minute end-tasks.

Signage still isn’t quite finished, but everything looks in great shape for a dynamite event. The weather isn’t supposed to be great but that could change, and trails have been routed with drainage in mind.

The full agenda, including a raffle, beer garden, demo bikes and all sorts of wildness.

Bike Blogger Meetup reviewed.

KING 5′s “Evening Magazine” had a segment on the new Duthie Hill mountain bike park, whose grand opening is May 22.

But Duthie can’t yet touch Galbraith Mountain for KING5′s “best Northwest mountain biking Escape”.

It’s a lot of work and you takes your chances… but hey, that old car you used to drive that’s just sitting in the driveway like rust bait? Fill out the forms and you could get a new Titus Rockstar 29er for a trade.

I’m going to want to stop in at this place some day on my Ibis Mojo.

Spokane has been added to the League of American Bicyclists list of bicycle-friendly cities.

Peaty has an app! Steve Peat will endorse a downhill racing game to coincide with the 2010 World Cup launch the beginning of June.

In Chicago, if you’re a 67-year-old woman and you try to run down a teenager on a bicycle in a fit of road rage, here’s what you can expect.

Follow Me – the Teaser from Anthill Films on Vimeo.

Maybe it’s in this pile of bikes — a bicycle chop shop in north Seattle.

Lance gives Sarkozy a bike. Why? Anybody know if there’s quid pro quo?

RIP James Williamson. Not just a cyclist but a bike blogger as well. A shame.

Partnership leads to mtb trail access success near Black Diamond WA. We’re seeing more and more of these as it becomes patently obvious that, in many cases, it’s easier and faster and more productive to work with private landowners than with public officials. Of course, there are exceptions, starting with King County, which supported Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park from the beginning.

Over at Popwuping they’re demo’ing a turn signal cycling jacket. The video gives an idea of how it works but the arrows are not articulated enough in my opinion to get the point across. The still photos show sharper arrows and communicate the action much better.

DrunkCyclist: Another rider mowed down on the highway, another slap on the wrist. But there is progress! It now appears that if a driver attempts to pass a car and strikes a cyclist riding lawfully and legally in the opposite direction, killing the cyclist in the process … it now appears that the driver is guilty of a traffic infraction.