Cannonsburg Game Area Trail Day Update

If you have it in your calendar already- please note that the trail day was moved from June 20th to June 27th (Saturday). Help out on the 27th at one of the areas most ridden trail!

Dirt Rag Summit review

Midwest MTB Summit Recap

Posted: June 9th, 2009 by Andy Bruno

We promote and cover mountain bike advocacy a lot here at Dirt Rag, arguably more than any other magazine. We do it because we believe it is critical for continued access to trails, and to help promote and grow the sport we love. We also do it to give some much-deserved recognition to the good work of all the local clubs and volunteers out there building and maintaining trails for all of us. These local clubs do some amazing work with minimal resources, all in the name of building better trails.

Recently the Dirt Rag World Tour had a chance to get together with several Midwest local trails advocacy groups for the 9th Annual Midwest Mountain Bike Summit in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This was a meeting of people on the front line of trail access, from groups like the Michigan Mountain Bike Association (MMBA), Wisconsin Off Road Bicycle Association (WORBA), Friends of Off-Road Cycling (FORC) Quad Cities, Gateway Off-Road Cyclists (GORC) St. Louis, Chicago Area Mountain Bikers (CAMBr), and Wisconsin Off-Road Bicycling Association (WORBA) to name a few.

These are the kind of people who make it happen in your neck of the woods. They’re out there swinging Pulaskis and McLeods building and maintaining trails. They’re also the ones working with local land managers to gain access to areas so that new trails can be built.

The three day summit/festival was a great way to share information, meet new friends, and learn new trail-building techniques. IMBA was there in force with a 2-day trail school with hands-on technical trail building demonstrations, along with Club-Care and Gateway Trails presentations. Plus there were other workshops and seminars focusing on all aspects of mountain bike advocacy with nationally and regionally known presenters. Stihl and Ditch Witch brought some toys for hands-on trail building at the Cannonsburg Ski Area. There were also races and organized rides from the ski area. Last, but certainly not least, the summit concluded with a 40-mile epic ride. And Founders Brewing provided some much needed refreshments after three days of learning, digging and riding. Advocacy never tasted so good.

A special thanks goes out to Nate Phelps and his crew from the Michigan Mountain Bike Association for hosting this event. Word is, the Midwest Mountain Bike Summit will once again be held in Grand Rapids in 2010. Keep an eye open for details at: www.midwestmtbsummit.com.

National Trail Day- Recap

June 6th was National Trail Day and the Western Chapter along with Merrell celebrated by cutting in 1.25 miles of new trail at Luton Park. A record 43 people attended! Merrell supplied water bottles for particpants and held a raffle for a couple of gift certificates, congrats Jeff Corey and Russ Greenwood! Look for another trail day later this summer so we can finish the loop and open it for riding. Currently it is a dead end so we left it closed for now.

Owasippe CLOSED June 8, 2009

Owasippe CLOSED June 8, 2009

Bryan Myers has had communications from the rangers at Owassippe- Al and Larry
.
From Bryan: The trails are closed as of sundown tonight for the scout camp.
There has also been illegal trail pirating during the recent closure. This type of defiant behavior will definitely close the door to Owasippe for all! Under the new conditions, we are on a one year probation out there. This is private property. Trail use is a privilege.

After the scout camps are done for the season, there will be a new sign posted at the trail head with a new sign-in procedure so that all riders are accounted for. Please remember that Al and Larry want us out there. They are on our side because bikers are excellent security camera's. Do not confront them in the same manner that someone did whoe drove a large red Dodge truck (license plate "BYU...") in March. The trails will be closed for good and Matt's hard work to re-open will be poisoned forever.

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO ANYBODY THAT NEEDS TO KNOW! THANK YOU!!!

There will be a happy trail work day in Aug as soon as we get the green light. Crews will be setting up the new trail signs, courtesy of the West Michigan Coast Riders Bike Club. Please sign up in advance. Many of you are already on the list.