Mid-Coast Maine Chapter News

Chapter News, 4/10/2008

In spite of the fact that we received yet another foot of snow last weekend, and much rain and freezing rain this week, if the flurry of mountain bike-related activity is any indication, the riding season is actually rapidly approaching. Mid Coast NEMBA (McNEMBA -"you want singletrack with that?") has lots of great activities planned and/or in the planning stages. In addition to some of the special initiatives below, McNEMBA has put together a schedule of rides and trail work sessions that will include at least one novice ride, one intermediate ride and one work session each month from May through September.
Our Spring meeting is scheduled for March. It will be held at McMahon's Tavern on Mechanic Street in Camden on March 18th at 6 pm. We'll be going over the specifics of several of our initiatives and the opportunities for members and others to participate. Beverages will be served. Read on for a description of some of the exciting projects we have underway.

Map and Signs: The mapping and trail sign project at the Ragged Mountain Recreation Area continues to move ahead and we plan to have a number of signs at major trail intersections installed early this Spring. We have a couple of design prototypes for signs and we're assembling the volunteers who know the trails and their names and who want to get involved in working with Casey Leonard, McNEMBA secretary and NEMBA Board alternate, on getting the names on the maps, getting the signs built and then getting the signs in the ground. It looks like we've settled on signs made out of a PVC trim product called KOMA that will be painted green or blue and then run through a CNC router. The resulting effect is a dark color sign with bright white letters. Very clean and cool looking! Thanks Casey for heading up this project.

Pump Track: John Anders and Kevin Davis put together a proposal that Kevin presented to the Camden Parks and Recreation Committee on February 28. The Committee was very excited about the idea and voted unanimously in favor of having McNEMBA build a pump track and skills development area at the Ragged Mountain Recreation Area (Camden Snow Bowl). We all owe a huge THANK YOU to Jeff Kuller for helping shepherd this project forward. Now all we have to do is get this thing built. Our first trail work day is Saturday April 19th. This first work day is dedicated to the pump track. We'll talk more about the logistics at the March 18th meeting, but the general idea is to get out there with as many people as possible with shovels, energy and enthusiasm (and maybe a couple of pieces of power equipment...) and spend the entire day moving dirt around. We should be able to get most of the track done in one day and then piece-by-piece over the course of the summer build a few ramps, bridges, small jumps, etc. This one is going to take LOTS of volunteer effort. We'll be coming up with some specific plans - both the design type of plan and the plan of action type of plan - and we'll be soliciting a lot of volunteer sweat equity to make this dream a reality. Thanks go to John Anders and Steve Koskinen for continuing to make this one happen.

Ryan Leech: Ryan Leech and his "Trials of Life" tour are coming to the Mid Coast in May. For those of you who attended the traveling Banff Mountain Film Festival, you may already know about this amazing mountain bike magician from his film, "Trial and Error," which was shown at the festival. Ryan is probably the most talented trials rider who ever threw a leg over a bike. Hans "No Way" Rey is pretty amazing, but Ryan is truly in a league of his own. Ryan also does a motivational presentation for middle school and high school-age kids that touches on such subjects as decision making, facing obstacles, defining success and what it means to be successful, facing criticism, and striving to reach your potential. He is currently scheduled to appear at a couple of schools in Rockland, at a STAR program event as part of Five Towns Communities That Care, and we are trying to get him scheduled at Camden-Rockport Middle School. Chris Christie, of Bikesenjava in Rockland is the prime mover and shaker behind getting Ryan here. Check out Ryan's web site: www.trialsoflife.com and www.ryanleech.com

Ragged Mountain Recreation Area Redevelopment Project: There was a followup meeting for the Ragged Mountain Recreation Area redevelopment project in early March at the Camden Opera House. McNEMBA is an active participant in this project and a major stake holder in the eventual outcome of this unbelievable opportunity to develop a mountain biking destination. This project represents a long-term construction and community development effort that is attempting to take the Camden Snow Bowl, which has historically been a winter sports skiing and snowboarding venue, and transform it into a true four-season attraction, with a new 12,000 square foot lodge that will include a bike shop, pump track, bike wash station, restaurant and snack bar. There is also the very real possibility that the Snow Bowl chair lift will be available for occasional lift-served mountain biking!! McNEMBA has been involved with the project from the first meetings and has consistently had the best turnout of any single user group of the recreation area. Our position is that the club needs to continue to represent ourselves as a group that is active and concerned about the way that trails and trails-related development takes place in our community. If we don't stay involved, we won't have any recourse if we don't like the way things turn out. Better yet, if we do stay involved, we can make sure that things turn out the way we want them to. At the meeting project The Steering Committee presented a proposed plan for what the new Recreation Area might look like and there was lots of opportunity for questions and answers and input to this continuing and important effort. Two items of particular interest were that the plan had the Pump Track Skills Development Park drawn in as a element of the design and the other user groups all seemed to accept and welcome the inclusion.

AND..... WHO WON THAT FORK FROM NEMBA???? What? It wasn't you? That's because it was our very own club member Jason Gallant! Jason sent me an email earlier this week and said that he came home from work to his otherwise lovely and supportive spouse glaring at him somewhat accusatively. She said that there was a FOX Racing Shocks box that had arrived for him and did he order something without telling her? Fortunately for Jason on a couple of levels he won that awesome 2008 Float 32 and it was as much of a surprise to him as to his wife. Congratulations Jason!!!

Random Thoughts: As I write this on a Sunday afternoon I am still basking in the glow of a ride I took this morning on my old rigid steel Voo Doo. Yes, it was cold - about 25 degrees. Yes, it was on the road (sometimes slicks on a mountain bike are so cool...,) but the sun was out, it's Daylight Savings Day today and I'm actually starting to believe that Spring will eventually arrive!! That's all for now. --- Kevin Davis