2005 Take a Kid Mountain Biking day winners - Congratulations to all the clubs who organized events for Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day! Nationwide, over 70 clubs organized events for thousands of young riders. Look for a special photo gallery to appear in the next issue of IMBA Trail News. Three of the events earn special prizes:
California's Redding Mountain Biking Club will receive three junior-sized mountain bikes from Schwinn. The Redding event drew 62 kids and 55 adults for a 5-mile ride on the Sacramento Trail. Local bike shops donated prizes and the club handed out temporary tattoos with RMBC logo. Trips for Kids Detroit organized a fun ride for kids at the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependency's IMPACT Center. They will receive a $100 certificate for the IMBA online store. The event organized by Mexico's Xinte Mountain Bike Club also earns a $100 certificate. The Xinte ride was featured in Reforma, one of the nation's leading newspapers.
Trail Solution crew heads to Australia - Neither turkey comas nor winter weather will slow the remarkable progress that IMBA's fee-based Trail Solutions program is enjoying this fall. Construction on a mountain bike-specific trail system in NorCal's King Range is in full swing. Other projects this season include work in the Sumter National Forest in South Carolina, at Wakefield County Park and Rosaryville State Park in Washington, DC Metro area, and an upcoming IMBA-built freeride park in Florida.
Trail Solutions' Joey Klein has clicked his red boots and returned to Australia (for the third time) to help Mountain Bike Australia, Tony Scott and the lads push for more and better riding in Oz. The Klein Down Under Tour will be a seven-week, six-state affair:
October 21 - 23, Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, NSW October 25 - 30, Perth, WA November 1 - 6, Adelaide, South Australia November 8 - 13, Melbourne and Beechworth, Victoria November 15 - 20, Launceston and Hobart, Tasmania November 22 - 27, Thredbo, NSW November 29 - December 4, Brisbane, Queensland
States leaders needed to harvest RTP dollars - In case you missed the big news, the 109th U.S. Congress dedicated $370 million to the Recreational Trails Program (RTP). The RTP legislation mandates that each state "shall establish a state recreational trail advisory committee that represents both motorized and non-motorized recreational trail users, which shall meet not less often than once per fiscal year." Find out if you live in one of the 29 states that need an RTP leader at www.imba.com.
Bike patrol conference a hit - National Mountain Bike Patrollers from across the southeast gathered for the NMBP Regional Instructor Training Conference on Oct. 8-9 at Gainesville College, in Georgia. SORBA (Southern Off-Road Bicycling Association) hosted the event, which brought patrol leaders together for a weekend of seminars, speakers, networking and riding. Twenty people were certified as National Mountain Bike Patrol Instructors and Daniel Elzey of SORBA was appointed as the Southeast Regional NMBP Representative.
San Diego regains lost trail - San Diego has regained Kelly's Ditch Trail, a connector between William Heise County Park (near the community of Julian) and Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. For bikes, the alternative has been a long and dangerous ride on a shoulder-less two-lane road. "Letters from trail users, combined with a receptive park staff, helped resolve the issue," says Daniel Greenstadt, IMBA's southern California rep.
Seattle's new skills park opens in 2006 - Colonnade Bike Park, located under the deck of Interstate 5 in Seattle, will open for riding early in 2006, thanks to the Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club. The park will include two acres of trails ladden with technical features such as switchbacks, log rides, rock gardens, skinnies, wall-rides and small jumps.
I-5 Colonnade is a 7.5 acre facility, located under the deck of the I-5 freeway, which will include open space, a mountain bike skills park, an off-leash dog area, public art, and an ADA accessible walkway that reconnects the Capitol Hill and Eastlake neighborhoods. Construction of the non-mountain bike portions of the park concludes in 2005. Construction of the mountain bike skills area began in October and will be complete by October 2006.
Mountain bikers, led by BBTC, are designing, funding, constructing and maintaining the mountain bike skills park. All aspects of this project rely heavily on volunteers and donations. To date, $115,000 has been raised from sources including private donors, Vulcan, REI, King County Youth Sports Facilities Grant, City of Seattle Neighborhood Matching Fund, Seattle Parks and Recreation, the Pro Parks Levy, and Bikes Belong. The I-5 Colonnade mountain bike park will be the first of its kind in the country and the only mountain bike park in the City of Seattle. For information about how to donate to the project or how to become a volunteer, visit www.bbtc.org
