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Fourth Annual Pints for Paths Brewfest

Money raised will help fund a new bike and pedestrian path

By Beacon Staff

For the fourth year, the Gateway to Glacier Trail project is presenting a brewfest fundraiser at Heaven’s Peak Lodge in West Glacier. The celebration will raise money to complete the bike and pedestrian path from Columbia Falls to Glacier National Park. The event is from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, July 12th.

The event will feature beers from more than a dozen local Montana and Regional Breweries including: Blackfoot Brewing, Big Sky Brewing, Glacier Brewing, Bitter Root Brewing, Tamarack Brewing, Philipsburg Brewing, Great Northern Brewing, Flathead Lake Brewing, Madison Brewing, Kootenai River Brewing, Bayern Brewing, and more.

The Gateway group has already secured the necessary funding (approximately $1,050,000) for a 7-mile stretch of paved bike path from Coram to West Glacier that will connect with the existing 3.5 miles of path that runs along Highway 2 from Hungry Horse to Coram.

The group also successfully lobbied the Montana Department of Transportation to include a bike path in the planned expansion of the highway in Bad Rock Canyon, between Hungry Horse and the House of Mystery east of Columbia Falls. Construction on the Bad Rock Canyon expansion is estimated to start as early as 2015.

Remaining to be completed is the 3- to 4-mile portion that will connect existing bike paths in Columbia Falls to the planned Bad Rock portion of the trail. When complete, the bike trail will provide an approximately 20-mile-long continuous and safe path from Columbia Falls to the entrance the Glacier National Park entrance.

The Pints for Paths event is “one of the best summer brewfests around. We have people come from all over the Northwest, from Missoula to Eureka and beyond,” according to Seth Schnebel, event organizer for the Gateway group. “It gets bigger every year, last year attracting some 400+ people, and we think we’ll exceed that this year.”

The evening will feature live music by local bluegrass and folk musicians, with headliner Shakewell from Missoula, plus food vendors. Shakewell promotes themselves as a young energetic funk and dance band who are “guaranteed to get the feet moving.”

Pints for Paths includes a brewed soda tent, with root beer and other brewed sodas. Ice cream is available for an old-fashioned root beer float. Also included are many silent auction items.

Details:

· July 12th, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

· Heaven’s Peak Lodge, 12130 Highway 2, West Glacier – www.heavenspeakresort.com

· $15 pre-sale tickets (Available online at: www.gatewaytoglaciertrail.com, and at West Glacier Bar, Stonefly Lounge in Coram, Hungry Horse Liquor Store, and Freedom Bank in Columbia Falls).

· $20 at the gate.

For information: [email protected]