Anyone waiting for a good reason to get outside can feed their sense of adventure at the Gateway Outdoor Expo at Tower Grove Park in St. Louis this weekend.
Interactive exhibits will be available among the 200 booths and presentations planned for the free two-day event. Attendees will learn about camping, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, mountain biking, trail running, climbing, traveling and more.
Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, March 31, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 1, the booths will be set up on both sides of the road through the park, so visitors can easily peruse the displays. There will be many options for getting off the road, too, said Brad Kovach, show coordinator.
“It will be a family-friendly environment. We will have a 23-foot rock climbing wall for kids of all ages,” Kovach said. “A mountain biking demonstration course will be set up offering free rides.”
The bike course will be off-road, he said, but not too aggressive. For those up for more challenging rides, educational clinics will be offered for a fee. Riders will receive instruction for safely handling greater challenges, including landing their jumps into an air bag.
For those looking to get off the ground and stay there, a technical tree-climbing program will provide more than just a scramble in the branches, Kovach said. With tethers, harnesses and hoists, participants will get a true bird’s eye view of the park and expo.
The variety of vendors is the show’s star attraction, he said. Retailers will sell their products on site and demonstrate their wares, but the show also will include representatives from outdoor organizations, parks and recreation departments and events like marathons and trail rides.
This is the seventh year for Kovach and his organization, Terrain Media, as the show’s coordinator, and the fifth time they have hosted the expo. The pandemic put it on the shelf for a couple of years. Overall, the expo has helped people find outdoor adventure for 15 to 20 years, he said.
“It skews more to an introduction to the outdoors, but there are events and displays for all skill levels,” Kovach said. “There are activities built for folks who are just getting into the outdoors. For younger kids who can’t ride, there will be balance bikes that allow them to get the feel for it.”
After a media career that took him to New York, Kovach returned to the St. Louis area to establish Terrain Magazine, which covers activities throughout Missouri and beyond. He noted that among the vendors would be organizations that help get children involved in the outdoors, including those who provide scholarships for their recreation camps.
“I was fortunate to get to go to a summer camp through a scholarship when I was a kid. It was where I learned to love the outdoors,” he said.
Find out more information at gatewayoutdoorexpo.com.
Hillsboro, Guffey archers on the podium again
The archery teams from Hillsboro took top honors in the high school and middle school divisions for both the bullseye and 3-D target competitions at the state National Archery in Schools Program tournament March 15-17 in Branson.
George Guffey Elementary School in Fenton won the elementary division for the 13th time. Lonedell and Meramec Heights, also in the Fox C-6 District, earned fourth and fifth place in the elementary school division.
More than 200 schools participated in the annual event with 3,632 archers in the bullseye competition and 1,616 shooters in the 3-D event. Many students competed in both contests.
Top-five individual finishers in the bullseye competition from Jefferson County include: Scott Hartenberger, Gweneviere Carroll and Brooklyn Meyer of Hillsboro High, Ethan Miles of Lonedell Elementary and Semija Mehmedovic of Simpson Elementary (also in the Fox district). In the 3-D contest the top local scorers were Hartenberger, Peyton Willeford and Shelby Kohler of Hillsboro High and Marina Steel and Audrey Weber of Hillsboro Junior High.
Other Jefferson County school districts that sent archers to the state event were Festus, Jefferson and Windsor.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and is the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine. If you have story ideas for the Leader outdoor news page, e-mail ogmjohnw@aol.com, and you can find more outdoor news and updates at johnjwink.com.