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January 2010 #107www.nemba.org

January 2010 #107www.nemba.org

SingleTracksSingleTracks

Ride the Trails

Save the Trails SingleTrackS No. 107 | 3

SingleTrackSNEMBA, the New England Mountain BikeAssociation, is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organi-zation dedicated to promoting trail access,maintaining trails open for mountain bicyclists,and educating mountain bicyclists to use thesetrails sensitively and responsibly.

SingleTracks is published six times a year by theNew England Mountain Bike Association forthe trail community.

©SingleTracks Editor & Publisher: Philip Keyes

Contributing Writers: Bill Boles, Jeff CutlerCopy Editor: Nanyee Keyes

Executive Director: Philip [email protected]

NEMBAPO Box 2221

Acton MA 01720

Voice 800.57.NEMBAFax: 717-326-8243

[email protected]

Board of DirectorsHarold Green, President

Peter DeSantis, Vice-PresidentAnne Shepard, TreasurerTom Grimble, Secretary

Rob Adair, White Mountains NEMBABrian Alexander, CeMeNEMBAJohn Anders, Midcoast Maine NEMBABrian Beneski, CeMeNEMBANorman Blanchette, MV NEMBAMatt Bowser, Central NH NEMBAMatt Caron, Southern NH NEMBASteve Cobble, SE MA NEMBAJon Conti, White Mountains NEMBAEammon Carleton, BV NEMBALeo Corrigan, RI NEMBAKevin Davis, Midcoast Maine NEMBAPeter DeSantis, Southern NH NEMBABob Giunta, MV NEMBABrad Herder, Berkshire NEMBARich Higgins, SE MA NEMBASteve LaFlame, Central NH NEMBAFrank Lane, NS NEMBACasey Leonard, Midcoast Maine NEMBAEric Mayhew, CT NEMBALiam O’Brien, PV NEMBATim Post, GB NEMBAMatt Schulde, RI NEMBATren Spence, CT NEMBADan Streeter, North Shore NEMBAMike Tabaczynski, Greater Boston NEMBAJohn Vosburg, Blackstone Valley NEMBAMitch Wacksman, Greater Portland NEMBA

W W W . N E M B A . O R G

SingleTrackSJanuary 2010, Number 107

Paper TrailTreadlines — 4SideTracks — 16Basic Biking — 17Chapter News —18NEMBA Rides —32Support our Sponsors —34

SingleTracks Hey, get creative! We wel-come submissions, photos and artwork. This isyour forum and your magazine. Be nice, andshare!

On the Cover: Steffi Krug, PV NEMBA, com-petes in the MTB Olympics at NEMBAfest 2009.

Have a pic that would make a good cover shot?Email it to [email protected]

Want to Underwrite in ST?SingleTracks offers inexpensive and targetedunderwriting which helps us defray the cost ofproducing this cool ‘zine. Call 800-57-NEMBAor email [email protected] for our media kit.

Moving?Don’t miss an issue! Change your address onlineat nemba.org or mail it into SingleTracks, PO Box2221, Acton MA 01720

Winter Riding on theCapeDon’t put away the bike for the winter -- escape to snow-freeCape Cod for loads of great singletrack riding. By Bill Boles

Member Profile:Niall Gengler

Jungle HabitatOut of the ashes of a dilapidated and abandonedNew Jersey Theme Park grows a mountain bikedestination with a few more years in the making.By Jaime Schier

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4 | January 2010 Ride the Trails

S U P P O R T

Rob AdairSteven AikenAngela Barry & John AllenRobert Anderson Joshua AngristSusan & Alexis ArapoffTeresa McGowan & Rob AuffreyTrevers AstheimerMichael BaberadtPaul BardaroSteve BarnesEric BascombeCheryl Bowen & Jack Becker Youl Bellil Else BettencourtMark BialasEd BlackKimberly Bogush Bill BolesStig BolgenSteve & Tyler BoninScott BosleyKrisztina Holly & PeterBrandenburgTyler Brannen Bill BrineTroy BroulillardMary BrzezenskiJason Buck

Kelton & Betsy Burbank Paula BurtonJonathan CalvertNick CaramellowEammon & Rebecca CarletonMatt Caron Paul CaziaSteve CharretteDon ChiulliIan ChristiansonEd ClausenShawn ClearyMike ColemanNormand CollardLewis & Cary CollinsRyan ConnerJohn ConnollyJerry CorsoTim CosgraveGreg CotePaul Cotran Michael CoyneEric CreganWayne & Jean CunninghamJoanne Wittren & Ross Currier Edward DavisMarc DeBell Brendan DeeMark Denning

Jake DeSantis Justin DibbleMark DoughertyBrad DoyleMartha DragonMike DubeBrett DufaultDavid DunnEdward EamesColin Eggleton David EikenberryScott EllisonG. Dallas Fagan Stu FeldmanLarry & Chris FeltonMatt FlanneryRobert ForsterJohn GazleyPeter & Niall Gengler Peter Gill Michael GnazzoTom & Carol Gumbart Alex Heckert Jascha Franklin-HodgeMark HorvathMark HouleSonja Gonzales & Jay Hoyt Ray Hubbe Scott Hubbell

David Hunter Eric FurfineJohn GildayAdam GlickKirk GoldsworthyTom Grassia Gary & Anita Graham Matthew & Harold GreenTom & Claire GrimbleNick HageDon HecklerRob HildebrandtKen HolbergerGregory HoltMark HorvathNancy HughesJim HumphreyDoug JansenColin Johannen Charles & Jody JohnsonDavid Jorgensen Adrian Berridge & MJ KeelerKen KeisterPat KellySusan Whitty & Terry Kennedy Kerry KisloskiAlexa Pinard & Scott KirschnerKathy Olney & DavidKleinschmidt

Dear Friend and NEMBA Supporter,

Despite a turbulent economy NEMBA had a fantastic year buildingtrails, educating people about our sport, and promoting lots of eventsto get more people and families hooked on mountain biking.

Whether you're riding trails on the Maine coast, the mountains ofNew Hampshire or the Massachusetts Berkshires, the ridgelines ofConnecticut, or the boulder-strewn forests of Rhode Island, you'll seethe craftsmanship of NEMBA's trail volunteers in action almosteverywhere you ride. There is really nothing like the flow of aNEMBA-designed trail to put a smile on your face. And yoursupport makes this possible!

It's time again to ask you for your Annual Fund donation to keep ourdoors open and continue the fight to build more opportunities andmore trails for mountain bikers. We truly believe that mountain bik-ing is inherently good. It's good for the body and the mind. It'sgood for the trails and for our forests. It's good for our chil-dren, and it's good for our communities.

Your donation to the Annual Fund is critical. We count on riders likeyou to keep our organization financially healthy.

Ask yourselfWhat is mountain biking worth to me?

Your donation is an investment in your local riding. NEMBAstewards more than a thousand miles of trails in scores of parks allacross New England. And this number is growing. We now have 19chapters focusing on local issues and local rides. We have over 100trail care events each year, and we are making a significant differenceto improve the quality of our rides and the stature of mountain bik-ers in the eyes of land managers and other outdoor organizations.

Help NEMBA protect your experiencePlease give to our Annual Fund

NEMBA is the only regional mountain bike organization in NewEngland that works hard to create more riding opportunities for you,and it's your annual gift that makes this possible. Our KidsExplorers program provides a fun atmosphere for children and theirparents to ride together. Our Trail Ambassador and Bicycle Patrols areout on the trails promoting good will and helping our fellow trailusers. NEMBA's Mountain Bike Adventure Series raises money forlocal trails and provides a great way to explore some of the bestmountain biking in New England. And with over 1000 rides tochoose from, there's always something going on in your back yard.

It's unfortunate that our sport still has outspoken enemies, and it'sour job to stick up for you and your ability to enjoy the trails.NEMBA spends a lot of time working with policy makers, land man-

Please Donate to NEMBA’s Annual Fund

NEMBA’s 2008-2009 Headcap Leadership Society


S U P P O R T

Jon KranesJim LaffanLew LahrJoyce Lockert & Sharon LambMike LariviereMike LefevreAndrew Lewman Casey & Casey LeonardSteve LeVert Jonathan Levy Kathleen McCritcherd & ThomLockerby John & Mark Lockwood Eric LorenzoA.J. LorussoPeter Losurdo John MachataJuliane Soprano & Jesse MahanJason MarraRaymond Maxim Jack MaxwellDaniel McBrideSue McMahonKevin McNamara Tim McSweeneyRichard MehlhornHugh MerryweatherHarry MeyerNoah Meyerhans

Theodore MichalakesJennifer Miller Steve & Kathy MillerJoseph Miner David MitchellBill MorenoDenis MorganDan MurphyDaniel Mushrush Don Myers Peter NimmerIan OgiliveDaniel OkeefeMatt O'KeefeJoe PadudaPatrick PedontiMichael PenzaJohn PetersDarlene PhillipsCliff & Susan PierceMike PollardJoachim & Susan PreissChris PontesBruce RaboinPeter RagoneDavid ReichmanPeter & Peter RiceDave Riding Christopher Rogers

Vincentzio Roman Robert RonanArt & Melissa Roti Michael & Cathy RowellAnthony SalidoWilliam SanbornMary & Jaime Schier Jim & Danielle SchleyErik & Liz Schoepke Lennon Schroeder Matt SchuldeDon & Kristin Seib John SheehanRobert Shelton Anne ShepardSteven & Julie ShopeEarl & Theresa Sires Rick SmithMagnus SnorrasonAlex SokolowJoe Sorrentino Michael StammWilliam StantonMatthew StollerEric StraussDan StreeterDavid StrongTony & Jaime Sudol Ian Swope

Mike & Becky TabaczynskiJennifer TammamChris & Marie Thurott David & Graham TobiasMike TonrySteven ToplitzScott TownsendRyan Tucker Mike TrykowskiBlair Vannostrand Conrado VellveJohn & Dianna VosburgDan & Jennifer VossMichael Walsh Matthias WalzBen WardCaitlin Sheehan & DavidWatsonCalvin Weeks Steven WhiteMark WickershamPeter Williams Matthew WolfgangLaura Zimmer

agers and other organizations to improve our sportand preserve open space for recreation.

NEMBA runs lean - some would say on a shoestring- and we get a lot done. Yet we rely on your annu-al donation to help us stay in the black. Costs haverisen across the board, making your donation all themore important as we look to increase our capacityin the coming year.

The future is in your hands - Please make a donation todayWe know that you are passionate about the sport.Please express this passion with your donation.Together we will create a stronger organizationand will make mountain biking in New Englandeven better.

Please make your tax-deductible donation online at www.nemba.org.Your gift today will ensure that next year's riding is even better.

On behalf of NEMBA, I thank you.

PS. Donate $100 and you'll become part of our Headcap LeadershipSociety and receive a custom black NEMBA headset cap for your bike.Donate $500 and you'll get our elite gold headcap!

PPS. Does your company match donations? Remember, you candonate online at www.nemba.org. Don't delay, donate today!

Your Support Keeps our Doors Open and Builds Better Riding!

Thank You!

NEMBA’s Board of Directors thanks all of our members and donors for their support. Pleasemake your charitable contribution to better riding today.


While the Kona Bicycles-FoxShox Mountain BikeAdventure Series started outwith one soggy ride atHuntington State Park inConnecticut, the rest of theevents enjoyed exceptionalweather and record atten-dance. Our thanks to every-one who came to ride.

The NEMBAfest at Bear BrookState Park was tons of fun,and nearly 500 riders cameout to demo bikes, check outthe industry expo area, and ride the amazing trails that are steward-ed by Southern NH NEMBA. This was the first time the festival tookplace at Bear Brook and we look forward to going back there in 2010.

Our final event, the Wicked Ride of the East, wildly surpassed every-one's expectation, with attendance nearly doubling from the previ-ous year. This was the 10th anniversary of this event, and the ridehas developed quite a following. It doesn't hurt to have the chal-lenging ride end with some great chili and BBQ. North ShoreNEMBA volunteers really put out to make this a must-do event.

Over the course of the five events, we were able to raise nearly

$12,000 for the local parksand for the trails. We alsobrought in 215 member-ships — the life blood ofour organization.

Next year we're pleased toannounce that we will beholding twice as manyevents. Look for MBASrides coming to the follow-ing locations: PittsfieldState Forest (BerkshireNEMBA), Huntington StatePark (CT NEMBA), Wendell

State Forest (Pioneer Valley NEMBA), Cockaponset State Park (CTNEMBA), Bradbury Mountain (Greater Portland & Central MaineNEMBA), Foxboro State Forest (SE MA NEMBA), Great Brook Farm SP(Merrimack Valley NEMBA), Lynn Woods Reservation (GreaterBoston NEMBA), North Conway NH (White Mountains NEMBA),Bear Brook State Park (Southern NH NEMBA), and Harold ParkerState Forest (North Shore NEMBA).

Now you'll have no excuse not to explore the best riding that NewEngland has to offer!

BBQing for a CureIf you attended a Kona Bicycles -Fox MTB Adventure ride this seasonand enjoyed a BBQing for A Cure pulled pork sandwich, you helpedraise $4000 for the Pan Massachusetts Challenge and the DanaFarber Cancer Institute! The PMC benefits Dana Farber and is thelargest athletic fundraiser in the country. In 2009, the 192-mile bikeride raised nearly30 million dollars.100% of this goesto lifesaving can-cer research andtreatment.

BBQing for a Curewas started byJaime Schier, a 7thyear PMC rider.Philip Keyes invit-ed Jaime to attend the MBAS to offer BBQ for PMC donations. Jaimeand his wife Mary are members of Uncle Jed's BBQ team who com-pete all around New England. I got involved with BBQing for a Cureas a fellow PMC teammate of Jaime's. For all of us, it was a perfectmatch of BBQ, mountain biking and supporting a great cause.Because we buy all the food ourselves, 100% of every donation wereceived at the MBAS rides goes directly to PMC.

We want to thank all of the people that supported us this season.First, thanks to Philip and all of the NEMBA Chapters for inviting usto be a part of series. Second, thanks to our families and friends thathelped us prepare the food, food shop and help serve at the events,especially Mary Schier, Alison Schier and Alexis Arapoff. We look for-ward to seeing you all again next season!

For more information about PMC visit www.pmc.org or our PMCteam visit www.forza-g.com. — Susan Arapoff

T R E A D L I N E S

Kona Bicycles-Fox Series Ends with Record Attendance


As the opening credits roll, moviegoers are shown aweird post-apocalyptic version of Manhattan:young trees grow up from gaps in the crumblingstreets, deer and other critters wander a desertedMadison Avenue, and a pride of lions pounces on itsprey amongst the ruins of the world's greatest city.Suddenly, engine roaring, a black Mustang comesflying around a corner, skidding to a stop in the rub-ble. Out pops Will Smith, hunting rifle in hand, onthe lookout for flesh eating zombies. If you have anactive imagination like I do, it's not hard to get your-self a little freaked out riding around in WestMilford New Jersey's Jungle Habitat Park.

The similarities to the Manhattan of Smith's "I Am Legend" movie setare easy to see; 26 miles of paved lanes snake throughout the 800acre property, leading from areas designated "Warthog Pen," to "BigCats" and "Otter Slide," with any number of abandoned, crumblingstructures moldering away among the new-growth trees. Happilyenough, the day I visited this unheralded gem there was nary a flesh-eating zombie to be found, although we did see a number of deer.

Warner Brothers Studios opened the Jungle Habitat theme park 75miles west of New York City in 1972, hoping to lure city-boundManhattanites to the wilds of NJ to see lions, tigers and (presumably)

bears. It had a short and stormy existence, characterized by lowerthan anticipated attendance (maybe NJ was a little too wild for theNew York crowd?), poor relations with the local community, and hilar-ious mishaps including vandalism of cars by the animals, animalescapes, and personal injury lawsuits.

By November of 1976 Warner Brothers had thrown in the towel, leav-ing the property abandoned until 1988 when it was purchased by thestate. It sat, used only occasionally for 4th of July celebrations andby ATV poachers, until the Ramapo Valley Cycling Club, Jersey OffRoad Bicycle Association (JORBA), and the land manager of the near-by Ringwood State Park teamed up to begin cleaning up and rehabil-itating the park in 2006. Since then an amazing transformation hasbeen underway, led by an active volunteer community and highlight-ing the potential benefits of cooperation between land managers andorganized, dedicated trail users.

I rode this property on an overcast Saturday morning in October withmy friend Joe Schaar and nephew Conor. They recently transplantedfrom Boston to NJ and prior to this visit we'd had a hard time findingthe "good" spots to ride, so on this particular day our expectationsweren't high. In reality, we were in for a treat.

Jungle Habitat now features 10-12 miles of primo purpose-builtmountain bike singletrack. Designed and installed following IMBAguidelines by the local chapter of JORBA, the trail locations haveclearly been carefully considered and rock armoring is prevalentthroughout the lower lying areas, as are bench cuts on the (numer-ous) hillside switchbacks. The terrain ranges up and over a series ofhills and ridges, and the trail difficulty can be considerable; if you

From Theme Park to MTB Park:New Jersey’s Jungle Habitatby Jaime Schier

From Theme Park to MTB Park:New Jersey’s Jungle Habitatby Jaime Schier

T R A V E L


come here be ready to climb and encounter some rock features.

On the day of my visit we parked at the Airport Road entrance areaand started up Animal Chute, which allows access to the central geo-

graphical feature of the park, a 10 acrepaved parking lot that is eerie in its aban-donment. Animal Chute provides a chal-lenging technical climb in this direction,winding ribbon candy fashion through thetrees just to the left of the old main entryroad. As we rode it I was looking forwardwith anticipation to the return trip down-wards, however our ride took us out byanother route, so I will have to wait untilnext time to enjoy its downhill charms.Suffice to say that it is a climb that, whiledoable, will certainly warm up cold legs,and heralds the obstacles to come. FromAnimal Chute we headed towards the trailcalled Warthog. A (more or less) flat trailapproximately 4 miles long, Warthog begins(or ends, depending on the direction youride it) at a primitive-looking gate amongthe trees just off the parking lot, leftoverfrom the old safari-park theme. Warthogfeatures more rock armoring punctuated byshort, sharp climbs and descents. Terrainfeatures are cleverly incorporated into thetrail throughout, and it eventually returnsyou to the central lo, from where we madeour way to the base of the trail called OtterSlide.

This is a newish trail that climbs in switchbacks up a steep hill. Thedesign again makes use of rock armoring in multiple locations, and

Volunteers from the Ramapo Valley Cycling Club have put in 1000s of hours to retool Jungle Habitat from adilapidated amusement park into a mountain bike park. The project has many more years before it’s complete.


you'll need to be on top of your game to clean this super fun ascend-ing trail. Near the top we spotted orange flags marking the locationof future trail work. As I said, JH is a work in progress and the crewdoing the trail building appears to be both motivated and inspired.From Otter Slide we worked our way over towards Big Cats. After aquick peek around inside this area at the leftover park artifacts, wewent back outside the fence enclosure and headed down a steep,long, and technical descent, then turned left through a gap in thefence and made our way towards "So Long & Thanks for the Fish,"another tight, twisty singletrack that makes certain to incorporateevery rock possible. One outstanding stretch winds through densenew growth trees that are tightly spaced enough to make getting thehandlebars through as challenging as keeping the pedals turning,although it is overall among the smoother trails we encountered. Fishtook us to Goat: my 14 year old nephew expected this to be an easyride, since no one is afraid of goats, but his father and I suspected dif-ferently and it was we who turned out to be right: Goat is as stub-born, mean, and gnarly as its namesake. After getting our buttskicked on this one for a while we were happy to find our way to LowerChute and head back to the car. In all we rode about 8-9 miles ofchallenging singletrack with a little bit of pavement to hook the areastogether.

Part of this park's charm is the sheer bizarro nature of pedalingthrough an abandoned safari theme park among the forests of semi-rural NJ. That doesn't begin to cover the whole attraction though:these trails have been lovingly created and the volume of work thathas gone in here is obvious to see. After we rode I contacted ArtWhite, director of the Ramapo Valley Cycling Club chapter of JORBA,and Jeff Merglar, the volunteer coordinator who has put togethermany of the trail care days here, for some background info. I learnedthat in the last 3 years a core group of about 15 volunteers and asmany as 85 others have dedicated thousands of hours of work to thepark; first doing massive cleanup to remove decades worth of trashand abandoned park equipment from the deserted area and morerecently building the 10-12 miles of trail that the park currently fea-tures. Jeff tells me that there are plans ultimately to build another 5-7 miles to complete the area. The whole project was made possibledue to the good working relationship between White and the super-intendent of the nearby Ringwood State Park, where RVCC andJORBA have been building trails for years. I haven't ridden Ringwoodyet, but this 2000 acre property is now high on my list with moremature development and more miles of trails.

More information about Jungle Habitat, including maps, up to datetrail conditions and a recommended loop can be found at JORBA'swebsite: http://www2.jorba.org/index.php?title=Jungle_HabitatAccording to Merglar there is a nascent weekly ride that departs fromthe West Milford bike shop Team Town Cycle on Wednesday nights:contact that group at http://www.teamtowncycle.com/

In conclusion, I would say that at 4 hours driving time from Boston,

to travel down simply to ride JH is a bit of a stretch at this point intime. However, if you have cause to visit northern or central NJ orthe western suburbs of the greater NYC area, this destination is wellworth a two hour drive to get to, and by all appearances it will con-tinue to improve over the next couple of years, so toss your moun-tain bike in the car if you're headed down that way. It's already a dia-mond in the rough; with care and attention it could easily become acrown jewel.

Joe & Conor Schaar, NEMBA transplants now living — and riding — in NewJersey


Winter Riding onCape CodEscape the snow and sneak insome fantastic riding!By Bill Boles

Photos by Tom Greene

Winter Riding onCape CodEscape the snow and sneak insome fantastic riding!By Bill Boles

Photos by Tom Greene

W I N T E R E S C A P E

Jutting like a beckoning arm into the ocean waters of southern NewEngland, Cape Cod is warmed by the gentle currents of the Gulf Stream.The Cape usually has less snow than the mainland, and what snow thatit does get, tends to melt faster. The Cape's sandy soil dries out quicklyand is normally stable enough to ride on, even when it's not frozensolid.

Last winter southeastern Massachusetts had snow on the ground fromDecember until April. Although I enjoy snow biking on packed snowwith studded tires, for most of last winter, the snow in my immediatearea was too soft and too deep to ride on. As a result I found myselfdriving south in search of snow-free trails more than any other year inrecent memory and judging by all the northern New England licenseplates that I saw in trailhead parking areas, so did a lot of other people.

If you find yourself craving a snow free ride this winter, what follows isa guide to some of the Cape's best riding to get you going.


Shawme Crowell State ForestShawme Crowell is locat-ed just over the Cape CodCanal in the town ofSandwich. The 700 acreforest is noted mostly forcamping in the milderseasons. Shawme hasabout 10 miles of well-maintained, well-markedtrails. The trails, save fora couple of exceptions,are non-technical. Mostare tight and twisty andthey flow aroundShawme's small hills likea dog chasing a rabbitthrough the trees.

Ten miles of trails maynot seem like a lot forsome of you, but you'llprobably enjoy riding many of them in both directions. Shawme is agreat place to bring newer riders, or families, and it's significantlycloser to the mainland than most of the other riding areas on theCape.

http://www.nemba.org/ridingzone/Shawme_Crowell.html


Trail of TearsThe Trail of Tears is located in the town of Barnstable. It is town-owned conservation land. The Trail of Tears sees a lot of trail activityon its 1200 acres. You'll likely see hikers and runners, equestrians,other cyclists and if it's a warm, sunny winter day, even picnickers outon its many trails. Cape Cod NEMBA does a lot of trail work here, theresults of which are evident when you ride. Being located in the 'cen-ter' of the Cape, the soil is a little less sandy than other riding areasso at times it's muddy. Avoid these trails when they're muddy. Jointhe Cape Cod NEMBA email list and ask a local about the conditions.That's a good wayto find out if rid-ing is OK. Andit's also a goodway to get someriding compan-ions.

I can't speakhighly enoughabout the ridingexperience here.While some ofthe trails arebuffed and flat,most are hilly and although lacking in many technical challenges quitea workout. Many different loops can be put together, or, if you hap-pen to ride with a local, you'll get to see the best of the trails with-out carrying a map.

To find out about local rides, join Cape Cod NEMBA’s email list atwww.nemba.org, or for more info about ToT, visit:

http://www.nemba.org/ridingzone/Trail_of_Tears.html

http://town.barnstable.ma.us/Conservation/TrailGuides/WBARN.PDF


OtisOne of the most popular areas to ride on the Cape, Otis is actuallythe eastern end of the Crane Wildlife Management Area. Otis is notedfor unending singletracks traversing a long series of drumlins.

Care must be taken not to stray into the Massachusetts MilitaryReservation the boundaries of which are clearly delineated on thismap. Trails there have been closed to non-base personnel since theevents of 9/11/2001.

http://www.300committee.org/documents/WesternCrane_000.pdfMAP

The singletrack trails at Otis are among the best that the Cape has tooffer. They are maintained by Cape Cod NEMBA though some actual-ly predate the sport of mountain biking having been used for runningand hiking by base personnel.

Parking is located on route 151 just to the east of its intersectionwith route 28. You'll see a small mound of dirt with enough space forabout 8 cars on the north side of 151, right by the entrance ramp forRoute 28. If that space is full, ample parking exists on your rightabout 200 yards away on route 151.

Crane Wildlife Management AreaThe eastern portion of the Crane Wildlife Management Area is locat-ed just to the north of Otis in the town of Falmouth. But unlike Otis'unending singletracks Crane's trails are mostly flat, and many consistof easy to navigate dirt roads. The singletracks, of which there aremany, were created by The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries andGame. They consist of mowed tracks that wind through the Pitch Pine

and Scrub Oak woods. Created to provide hunters easy access to thedeep woods between the fireroads, these singletracks are a perfectway to explore the woodlands and to get lost. Crane is big. At over1800 acres you'll ride here for many days before you can fully exploreit and begin to link everything together. Expect to rack up big mileagewhen you ride Crane. There's nothing to stop you and only an occa-sional sandy spot will slow you down. Crane is a perfect place tobring the family, or people with little riding experience as the mostlyflat non-technical trails offer a great introduction to riding. Bring yourcamera. I've seen more wildlife at Crane than anywhere else on theCape. And speaking of that wildlife, remember The Crane WildlifeManagement Area is very popular with hunters in season.

Hunting season in Massachusetts runs from fall to spring, and a com-plete list of dates is located here:www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/regula-tions/abstracts/hunting_dates.pdf. However, there's no hunting inMassachusetts on Sundays, so during hunting season I do my ridingat Crane on Sundays.

Small parking areas are scattered along the north side of Route 151,from the Route 28 junction east to the Nickelodeon Theater. Localspark in a big lot on the west side of Sandwich Road. The SandwichRoad & Route 151 intersection hosts a Dunkin Donuts and manypeople meet or end their rides there.

http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/habitat/maps/wma/southeastwma/francisacranewma.pdf MAP

Yarmouth / Exit 7A great place to explore on the Cape is Yarmouth conservation land.This large wooded area was intended to be developed for housing but,

Photo by Lionel Chapman


even though many dirt roads were cleared in the woods, the houseswere never built and the town acquired it as watershed land.

The best place to park is just south of Route 6 across the street froman exit ramp beside a railroad track. You'll see a trail leading into thewoods on the other side of the tracks. This is at exit 7 from Route 6,and this riding area is often referred to as "Exit 7".

The trails here wind through the woods crossing those sandy dirtroads occasionally, but never actually using any of them. Some arequite hilly and as they twist and turn through the trees you'll swearthat you can see yourself coming from the other direction. The trailsare rarely muddy consisting of firmly packed singletracks. You'll get agood workout here exploring about 15 miles of trails.

Punkhorn ParklandsPunkhorn Parklands is located in Brewster. It consists of 800 acres ofwoods and was purchased by the town in the 1980s as conservationland. Punkhorn abounds with trails. Many are noted at the signboardin Punkhorn's main parking area. But, quite a few trails aren't on themap. Expect to spend a lot of time exploring here. You'll enjoy well-marked trails that loop through the woods but surprisingly seem toget little use. You'll also find a much larger array of unmarked trailsleading off Punkhorn's many dirt roads.

Directions: From the intersection of Route 6A in Brewster head southon Stony Brook Road. Turn right on Run Hill Road and follow it to aparking lot that's on your left after the town's disposal area. Hereyou'll find a large map, and, if you're lucky printed trail guides.

http://www.capecodtravel.com/attractions/walkingbiking/punkpark0599.shtml

Nickerson State ParkNickerson State Park is located a little further down the Cape inBrewster. The park's 1900 acres host a few lakes, a large campground,an 8 mile paved bicycle path and miles of trails around the park's larg-er lakes. Nickerson abuts the Cape Cod Rail Trail, a 22-mile linearpark that runs from the town of Dennis to the town of Wellfleet.http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/southeast/ccrt.htm

Nickerson's trails are sandy and they trace the shoreline of the lakeson higher ground. Its bicycle path is quite enjoyable and gives onethe impression that someone took a bunch of woodland trails andpaved them.

Copies of the map can be found at park headquarters or printed fromhere: www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/trails/print/Nickerson.pdf

I would not recommend exploring Nickerson without a guide.Although the lakeside trails are scenic and camera worthy, therearen't enough of them to make for a full day's riding. But, locals knowall the best trails in the park as well as others on surrounding land.

There is a local ride at Nickerson almost every Sunday morning start-ing at 10:00. If you'd like to join in contact Paul Johnson 508-398-3713 [email protected] .


I joined NEMBA ten years ago, and a love for bikes has long been mylifeblood. When I was a kid my uncle used to ride his bike from Bostonto my family's house in Providence. I was so amazed that he could gothat far on his bike and sometimes stay for just a meal and ride all theway back in the same day. He told my sister and me stories of ridingeverywhere, even several epic cross-country trips. His stories would haveus laugh until we cried, suspended indisbelief, and completely terrified.Atop hand-me-down bikes from mysister I started to have my own epicadventures. Not only did I fall in lovewith riding, I started to greatly admirethe machine itself. I started to takethings apart and tinker not alwayssuccessfully. When I was twelve, I gotmy first new bike; I remember spend-ing an enormous amount of time juststaring at the shining beauty. I wasobsessed with its lines, gears, and bigknobby tires. When I was fourteen Irode from Seattle to San Francisco andstarted to get into racing.

After a tour of Hampshire College, Istumbled across the school's LemelsonCenter for Design by pure accident. Itwas the college's machine shop and Iwas stunned by how many cool proj-ects there were. A student had built afew bike frames in the shop and hadjust finished painting them. I lookedaround at the incredible tools and theframes that had been built there beforeand asked "so, if I go to school here I couldbuild bikes?" The response was "yes!" I was

immediately in love. I went to Hampshire and got to major in BicycleDesign and Fabrication. I was also given guidance taking several greatclasses at the United Bicycle Institute and working with the phenome-nal folks at Independent Fabrication. Over the years of building bikes I'veput together a pretty sweet personal stable. Since graduating from

Hampshire, I've been running a small cus-tom bike and repair shop in Easthampton,MA called NFG Cycles.

Today there are even more things aboutbikes that I'm in love with than when I wasa kid. On a bike, the rider is the engine andas the engine you feel the world passing byin perfect mechanical harmony. Feeling theterrain under your tires, the way the frameresponds and how its materials affect yourride, being able to shift through a boatloadof gears and blast through rocks, lettingthe suspension sop everything up: purebliss. There is such an incredible partner-ship of person and machine that makesyou personify your bike much more thanother machines. Even the most common,junk bike is such an ingenious creation inmobility. Today's high-end bikes are soimpressively engineered it's sure to makeyou giddy. Bikes are the real-deal solutionfor many of our serious problems regardingtransportation and sustainability, theymake people healthier and they consis-tently cure unhappiness. Not too bad, eh?

No matter what the type of riding, or evenwhat type of bike (including wobbly, creak-ing department store bikes) they are here

to make the world a better place in one wayor another. Long live the bicycle!

Niall Genglermember > student > framebuilder...in his own words

M E M B E R P R O F I L E

Long Life the BicycleNiall Gengler: (401) 633-2940

[email protected], nfgcycles.com


Smarmy little columns in magazines allover the planet are going to harpabout giving thanks for stuff like

sweet potato pie, Native American tech-niques of growing crops, daylight savingstime and all manner of technology fromthe gas stove to the flaky pie crust.Hogwash.

There's no need for me to duplicate effortshere. I don't have to plead with you to loveyour family and cherish every day. I don'thave to suggest that you give thanks thatyou live in a society that doesn't persecutecyclists (OK, I don't know of any societiesthat do...but I'm on a roll). And I don'thave to say "enjoy the ride" before the endof this article.

What I will do is give you gentle remindersto carry some thanks in your freakishlyefficient heart (you are cyclists, right?).Thanks for the little and big things thatyou might gloss over during your regularroutine. So grab a piece of pie. Toss on adollop of ice cream. And try to keep up.Here's what I think you should give thanksfor this year: Singletracks!

Singletracks - the ones that are still open and the ones we'recurrently negotiating with land managers to keep open. Our places toride that give us a thrill. Give thanks for that.

Insects - not specifically for the presence of insects, but for theabsence of them now that the weather has turned. Be happy they'reall dead or dying, or too slow to catch you - even at 4MPH going upa hill. Stupid, silly stinging and biting insects. Give thanks for that.

Nature - except for those insects, nature is where some of ourbest riding occurs. Except for some random urban rides, which aremore infrequent now that Homeland Security has banned mountainbiking in lots of places where we used to play on two wheels. Ournature of trees and trails and mud and rocks and roots. Yes, givethanks for that.

Greenery - just like nature but better. The green around us givesus oxygen and cover and brilliant scenery. It might fade away eachfall, but when the greenery comes back each spring it's time to rideagain - or time to find all our hibernating friends who only ride whenit's green out. Whatever the case, give thanks for that.

Land Management - really. Without people who care somuch about the earth that they're willing to spend their life battlingits enemies, we'd probably have fewer places to ride. You say,"WHAT?" I'm serious. Some of our best mountain biking allies are peo-ple who know how little damage is caused when trails are maintainedproperly. These people also educate on ways to keep our favorite rid-ing places intact. Symbiotic relationships rock. Give thanks for that.

Eating - say what you want about nutrition and how much fun itis to eat a goat-cheese salad, biking lets you devour burritos andburgers and pizza and beer with abandon and aplomb. If you're in rid-

ing shape, it doesn't much matter whatyou throw down your gullet. Eating isbliss during the season because it fuelsevery ride. Give thanks for that.

Tread - is good. Without tread therewould be thousands of people driving towork one-handed because of a preponder-ance of broken collarbones. Don't overridethe capacity/stickiness/pliability of yourtire treads. But give it some trust. You'd besurprised at how well it keeps you on thetrail. Give thanks for that.

Racing - without the advent of racing,we'd still be on wooden-hooped single-speeds. OK, a lot of people are actuallybuilding and riding bikes like that againbecause they have cache. If you're notabout destroying your body and mind try-ing to tackle trails on a throwback steed,think about the racing industry and howit's given us dozens of gears, lightweightcomponents, and amazing designs. A bigthanks for that.

Air - it fills our lungs, it blows throughour helmeted hair, it makes us feel alive. What's better than being inthe air - on-purpose - when you're out riding? Nothing gives you abigger permagrin or impresses your friends more than some air underyour tires. And while I'm at it, think about the air that stays in yourtires and allows you to ride about with minimal effort. Two big pur-poses, or more. One big thing to give thanks for.

Clubs - riding alone blows chunks. It's horrible. It's like work.Nobody likes it unless they're on the bike trying to clear their mind ortrain for a century. People are what make this sport great and clubsare an instant way to find people. Find a good club, go on a ride, sud-denly you have people you can call when you want to ride. Soundseasy. It is. Give thanks for that.

Kids - they remind us that riding is fun. If you watch a kid on a bikeyou'll see what I'm talking about. Smiles and sweat and strugglesovercome - all elements that you might have forgotten in your questto be a better rider. Why not just be a happier rider and let the 'bet-ter' part happen on its own? That's my philosophy, and I don't evenhave kids. I have cats. So if I can think like a kid, you can too. Put onyour helmet and a smile and go for a ride. Give thanks for that mind-set.

SingleTracks - sure, I covered this with the first one. But tomake this a properly balanced column I had to end with the same let-ter I began with. And maybe you noticed that I also spelled outSingletracks with the first letter of each paragraph. I'm thankful forthe opportunity to entertain you from time to time on these pages.Until my next column, I'll give thanks for having you readers in mylife.

Oh, enjoy the ride!

Thanks for the Revolutionsby Jeff Cutler

S I D E T R A C K S


With a long season of riding behind usthere are two things that youshould do to your bike to get it

ready for the spring.

First, bring it in for a major tune up. You'll besurprised at how much better your bike willfeel and ride after it's been reworked by a pro-fessional mechanic, especially if you get yoursuspension serviced.

Second, think about getting new tires. Thetires that came on your bike were chosen morefor their price than their suitability for NewEngland's trails. Check out what your friendsare using and check out what your dealer rec-ommends. Chances are that local knowledgecan pick a better set of tires than any bikemanufacturer. Even if you like your currenttires, after a few hundred miles they won't beas "sharp" as they were when they were newand, as a result, your bike won't handle orclimb as well.

Beyond these basic service considerationsthere are a number of things that you could doto make your bike better.

After racking up a lot of miles on your bike youmay find yourself wanting it to handle differ-ently. Most people who buy new bikes buy something that "feels" bet-ter. But what they're actually doing is buying a bike that better "fits"their evolving riding abilities and needs. But, before you considerthat, why not try modifying your current bike?

One way to do that is to change your handlebar position. If you'veridden a bike that seems to "feel" better than yours, take a tape meas-ure and see if the difference is just the handlebar position. First checkto see if the handlebars are lower, higher or wider than yours. Thenmeasure the distance from the center of your seatpost to the end ofyour stem and compare it with the same distance on the new bike.Would a change in your stem make things the same? If it will, try thatbefore you buy a new bike.

Are you looking for a bike that turns a little faster than what you havenow? Do you want a bike that's more stable in a straight line, or onethat feels safer in a long series of roots or stones? Well, you canaddress all of these goals by running different sized tires.

A friend of mine complained that her new bike didn't turn as fast asher old one. She was running 2.1" tires. But, changing to a 2.35" tireon the back raised the back end of her bike about 10 millimeters andimproved the bike's cornering markedly. On the other hand, I onceowned a bike that handled too quickly for me. I could never get com-fortable on it because it never seemed to want to go in a straight line.I was all set to buy a new bike, but putting a larger tire on the frontfixed everything. I got to keep and enjoy that bike until improvementsin suspension and brake technology became too hard to ignore.

Most of us ride around on a bike that fits us pretty well, except forour saddle height. Probably 97% of all riders ride with their seats toolow. And this is especially true for people who lower their seats intechnical terrain or for riding down hills. To check to see if your seatis too low, keep raising it until you can't pedal backwards withoutfeeling your hips rock. Most of you will be surprised at how much

higher you can raise your seat and with each incremental changeyou'll notice that you're getting more power - for free.

Of course if you end up running your saddle much higher you'll prob-ably have to raise your handlebars to compensate for that. Years agoeveryone ran their handlebars 4-6 inches lower than their seats. Nowmost people prefer an inch or two lower and for technical riding, evenwith one's seat. Are yours?

If you're not running tubeless tires, consider it. Yes, a tubelesswheelset can cost a lot of money, but using a tubeless conversion kitcosts about the same as buying a new tire. Tubeless tires can be runwith less air, which improves traction, cornering and small bumpcompliance. They are less subject to punctures and can't pinch flat.They are also faster and lighter. I don't know anyone who has con-verted to tubeless tires that's gone back to tubes. My guess is thatyou wouldn't either.

The winter is also a great time to really clean your bike. Get a spongeor soft bristle brush and a bucket of water and go to town. Don't usehigh pressure spray washers. Finish with a coat of Pledge to make itlook like new. A clean new looking bike will be a joy to ride in thespring.

It's also a good time to check your tools to make sure that you stillhave everything. You need Allen wrenches to fit everything on yourbike, possibly a Torx wrench for your brake rotors, flat and Phillipsscrewdrivers and a chain tool. One good bicycle multi-tool will haveall of these. Be sure you carry at least one spare master link. Youshould also have tire irons, a working pump or CO2 inflator and aninner tube that still holds air. Check the cleats on your shoes for wearand make sure that the screws are tight. Lastly, check your helmet forcracks and dings. Replace it if you find any.

Next time: Getting your body ready for a new season of riding.

Making Your Bike Betterby Bill Boles

B A S I C B I K I N G


The cold temperatures are here, and the leaves arepouring down, altering the riding conditions on adaily basis. Early evening darkness seduces us onweeknights with the temptation of inside warmthand comfort, but the calendar's threat of December'rapid approach forces us to feverishly pursue everyriding moment on the weekends. And then fore-casts of rain on Saturday deliver us into a fit ofdepression as our hopes are thwarted and the joysof the trail are delayed yet further. Yes, fall is here.Paradoxical balance is between the enjoyment ofbeing in the woods during the best time of the yearwhile knowing that winter's snow and ice are sim-ply weeks away and will force us off the trails onceagain. The Zen of mountain biking: ride here, ridenow.

Towards that goal, our chapter has continued toadvance the local riding options on both sides ofthe Connecticut River. We've teamed up with theBrattleboro Parks and Recreation Department and alocal group of trail builders to develop new trailson town property at the top of the hill of ourMemorial Park. This park abuts two large privateland holdings which are home to some of thefavorite trails in town. The goal of the Parks andRec department is to advance opportunities fornon-motorized users of trails and enhance thetown's natural resources. They have welcomed our

leadership and already are talking about developingmore trails next year.

We're working with the city of Keene to clean upalready existing trails on town property and estab-lish a more formal ongoing arrangement where wecould be recognized as the stewards of the trails.This property has recently been placed in a conser-vation easement and we are still determining therules that apply under this category. Our firstcleanup day was held Sunday, November 1st.Thirteen members showed up to make light workof a lot of trash, filling 3 pickup trucks. More suchevents are being planned to remove the trash fromother locations on this property.

Our primary goal of developing new trails in PisgahState Forest continues to experience many bumps

in the road towards realization. Two membersrecently attended a formal steering committeemeeting in Concord NH to promote our interests,after repeated rejecting statements by email fromthe head of the Bureau of Trails. The response tothe presentation in Concord was very positive andwe await word of new decisions to allow theredesignation of existing trails to allow forincreased mountain bike use.

Our weekly ride in Brattleboro has been discontin-ued for the season. As the cold continues tothreaten, we'll be organizing group rides for pointssouth. Watch for our vehicles with NH and VTplates at the trailheads of all those warm andsnow-free locations in CT, MA, and RI. —PaulRodrigue

Brattleboro-KeeneNEMBAPresident: Paul Rodrigue,

[email protected]: Peter PoanessaSecretary: Lauren LaunenTreasurer: Tim TrotterEmail List:[email protected]

Volunteers from Brattleboro-Keene NEMBA collect three pickup truck loads of trash from Drummer HillConservation Land, an open space in the City of Keene. BK NEMBA wishes to become the steward forthese trails.

Heyyou in back!Renew yourmembership

online!

www.nemba.org


It's been an interesting season for those of us herein the Blackstone Valley. With a wet spring thatseemed to go on forever and a summer thatseemed to materialize for only a couple of weeksbefore yielding to autumn, riding as much as we'reused to was a challenge for some of us. Fortunatelythe weather broke here and there, things dried outslightly and we were able to get our tires dirtyevery now and then. Our Wednesday night rideswere as well attended as they've ever been. Thisseason we saw a couple of new faces and a lot ofreturning old friends so we must be doing some-thing right. We'll be continuing the Wednesdayrides next season as well, look for them to startback up in the spring. We planned a NEMBA camp-ing trip to Back Country Excursions in Maine thatwas well attended by members from theBlackstone Valley as well as several members ofother chapters. With a largely positive responsefrom all sides I think we're going to work on mak-ing this an annual trip. We purchased and stockeda tool trailer and have used it at trail days inVietnam and at Hodges Village Dam. I think thatoverall we were pretty busy this past year.

Looking ahead now, we'll be holding our chaptermeeting and elections in January. If you have anyinterest in running for a position or volunteering totake on some responsibility for the chapter this isyour best chance to let us know. Watch for thedate and location to be posted on the BlackstoneValley website. There are only a few of us workingbehind the scenes to put together all of the rides,trail work and other events that we do. If you haveideas or suggestions and would like to help run thechapter or an event next season this is the time tobring it to the table. The positions up for re-elec-tion are President, Vice President, Treasurer,Secretary, Board of Directors representative and thealternate BOD rep. If you have any rides or trailcare events that you would like to include BVNEM-BA in please share them with us. I hope everyoneenjoys the winter, I know I'll still see a lot of youon the trails but for those I don't hopefully we seeyou again in the spring. —Eammon Carleton

BV NEMBA’s Trip to Back Country Excursions of Maine

BV NEMBA’s New Trail Care Tool Trailer

Plenty of trail building tools!

BlackstoneValleyPresident: Eammon Carleton,

[email protected], 508-987-7655Vice President: John GoellerTreasurer: Rich KordellSecretary: Anne ShepardRide Coordinator: Jeff GalloCallahan SF: Anne ShepardDouglas SF: VacantHale Reservation: Jack MaxwellHodges Village Dam: Eammon Carleton Vietnam: John GoellerWestboro/Hopkinton: VacantEmail List: [email protected]: www.bvnemba.org.Webmaster: Mitchell Steinberg


CeMeNEMBA Hosts Take A KidMountain Biking DayAlthough October 17 was cold and blustery,CeMeNEMBA played host to nearly a dozen newand experienced mountain bikers at The Reservoirin Hallowell. Rescheduled from the original,National Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day, the chillwas preferable to the torrent of rain that occurredon October 3. Participants took advantage of a fullday of helmet checks, bike safety checks and trailriding compliments of members of CeMeNEMBA.With new riders as young as five years old, the rid-ing comprised a wide range of trails and activitiessuch as stunt riding and tire changing. The eventwas supported by a number of local businesses,the tastiest in the form of pizza from the PizzaConnection. Unless personal taste leaned towardthe hot cocoa and donut holes brought by DaveAuclair of Auclair Cycle (and CeMeNEMBA mem-ber).

The Central Maine Chapter has been busy in a lotof other ways as well. Citing a reference to thefilm, Field of Dreams, President Brian Alexanderwas overheard stating the phrase, "we've built it-and they have come…" when speaking about theefforts at the Bond Brook project this past year.Seven miles of single and double track have beencompleted at Bond Brook, and another ten miles of

trails will be completed in the next year. Therehave been regularly scheduled rides and atten-dance has been steady but just as important,CeMeNEMBA has been able to steward the trails insuch a way as to preserve their integrity for sus-tained use. Some CeMeNEMBA board membersalso met with the mayor and Augusta city councilmembers for a short walking tour of the BondBrook trails. Compliments were forthcoming fromcouncil members and Mayor Katz, who personallythanked CeMeNEMBA for its trail building efforts.The CeMeNEMBA board wishes to express itsthanks to all riders who participated in organizedevents, utilized the trails and respected the signagewhen trails needed to be closed. Additionally, forthe many hours put in on construction and main-tenance on these trails, the board also wishes tothank the many volunteers who contributed theirtalent and labor to the Bond Brook project. Overthe winter, CeMeNEMBA will be making plans toadd more trail, ramp up events and spread theword to more people in the area.

Now that Bond Brook is well on its way, the chap-ter is looking at its next area of focus- theWaterville area trails. As the crow flies, Watervilleis about 20 miles north of Augusta with similarterrain and people. Board members met with offi-cials from Waterville's Parks & Rec Department andthe Kennebec Valley Council of Governments(KVCOG) to scope out areas to be potentiallydeveloped. Trails near Inland Hospital were scruti-nized for their proximity to the hospital, busyKennedy Memorial Drive, local businesses, andresidential neighborhoods and also because thereare existing trails on abutting city property thatwould require rehab more than new construction.Another area looked at was the Quarry Road proj-ect. Ski trails are currently being built by the Cityof Waterville and officials seemed enthusiasticallyopen to the idea of working with CeMeNEMBA toadapt these trails for double and single track ridingin the future. Upcoming projects will includeGPSing the existing trails at the Pine Ridge/ Airportarea and asking the City of Waterville for permis-sion to rehab the trails that are there and to add abunch of new single-track. The updated GPS tracksand map will be the first step in getting approvalfrom the city.

Other efforts getting attention in Central Mainethese days include the Mt. Pisgah acreage inWinthrop. There are currently lots of questionsabout how best this property can be used andCeMeNEMBA is part of the discussion.

Ice biking returns to the area this winter. SukeeArena in Winslow has agreed to again host an icebiking race at their facility. There is even talk of arace series so this has CeMeNEMBA fired up forsure. And lastly, the board is pleased to announcethat Mark "Mac" McAfee has been namedMembership Director for the chapter.Congratulations Mac. —Brian Alexander

Ice Biking is returning this winter, and the Sukee Arena in Winslow will host a race!

Central MEPresident: Brian Alexander,

[email protected], 207-397-4877

VP: Brian BeneskiSecretary: Jodi Harvey Treasurer: Ellen WellsPR: Pete PhairFacebook: CeMeNEMBA


Central NH NEMBA has experienced another yearof growth, both in member numbers and projectscompleted. Our membership is around 45-48 folksat this point. I heard at the Board of Directorsmeeting that we were one of the few chaptersgrowing in '09. Let's keep it rolling in 2010!

Franklin Falls Dam Trail Care Day,August '09: Early August brought our second Jamis Trail careevent at Franklin Falls Dam. We had high hopes ofworking on re-opening the Northbound Heritagetrail that day but high water got the best of us.Due to the constant rain it was unsafe to fordSalmon Brook, a necessary obstacle to overcome.We made the best of it that day however. MikeGeldermann always has a new trail on his mind.That day it went from design to completion in afew short hours. The new trail is at the bottom ofChicken Ravine and was named Old Bench. Onething I learned that day…never do an endo on yourbike with a chainsaw in your backpack!

Riding at Franklin Falls Dam has picked up so muchthat the Army Corps is expanding the parking lot!They will be doubling its capacity. Work will com-mence either this fall or next Spring.

Open invitation to anyone who has not ridden atFranklin falls. It is a very family-friendly place witha playground, bathrooms, and covered picnic pavil-ions with barbecues. The trails are generallysmooth (for New England) and are suitable for kidsand beginners. Faster dads and moms can haul thetrailers as fast as they dare and get a good work-out. FFD is a nice place for rigids and single speeds.There are more than ten miles of singletrack cur-rently available. It is only 3 miles from route 93 onroute 127 in Franklin, folks from South (or North)of the border may easily stop by for a "breather" onyour way North or South.

New Trail Added at Hopkinton EverettDam (Elm Brook) Oct 17, 2009We had a very successful Trail care Day at Hop-Eva.Fifteen registered workers came out even with theliability waiver snafu. Boy Scout troop 69 fromBradford NH was well represented. We owe thema great thanks. Thanks also go out to Sharon Nall,the VP over there at Elm Brook who organized theevent with Jenifer Samela, Army Corps Ranger.Eastern mountain Sports out of Concord deservesa big thanks, they advertised the event and werelikely responsible for a large portion of the volun-

teers (Thanks Garrett and Ben). The proposedname for the new trail at H-E Dam will be "Troop69".

Do yourself a favor and visit Hop-Ev. I think it willbe getting busier next year. There are two NEMBAtrails there now as well as a good network of exist-ing trails. There are some GPS maps on our mappage. Parking is best at the end of Cressey BrookRoad or at Elm brook Park itself. There is a wet trailthat is unavoidable from Elm Brook park proper tothe new trail. The first NEMBA trail constructedseveral years ago starts where the entrance to ElmBrook Park crosses the stone dike. Hopkinton-Everett is another nice family-friendly spot. Inaddition to all the same amenities as Franklin, pic-nic area, bathrooms, grills, Elm Brook also has abeach for swimming and paddle-launching.

Ahern State Park, Laconia:We will have a trail day at Ahern State Park inLaconia; by the time you read this it will be histo-ry. The State has granted permission to maintainexisting trails through their "Adopt a Trail" pro-gram. The plan is to rake out and sign the currenttrails. NH has had some alarming news this yearwith regard to parks like Ahern. The NH ParksCommission issued a statement that it would liketo divest itself of parks that do not charge an entryfee. This raised quite a stir, as you can imagine. Fornow that issue appears to be sleeping. Let us hope

the State realizes that parks don't have to raisecapital to be useful.

Hope Santa brings you all some studded tires forChristmas. Ride safe!

—Grant Drew

Grant Drew riding Bear Brook State Park

Central NHPresident: Grant Drew,

[email protected] VP: Matt BowserVP Franklin Falls: Mike GeldermannVP Elm Brook: Sharon Nall

Secretary: Rhonda BlackeyTreasurer: Barry GreenhalghPR Manager: Jesse McGowan

BOD Reps: Steve LaFlame, Matt Bowser


The Connecticut Chapter had it's first official meet-ing following our annual Fall Fiesta where we elect-ed new officers. Since we instituted term limits onthe executive committee to three years, our lead-ership has undergone some changes. I have takenover as President, Tren Spence is Vice President,and Glenn and Al have switched jobs. Glenn isSecretary and Al is now Treasurer. Art Roti is stay-ing on the board and getting more involved in thepolitical aspects of the chapter and the State. BothPaula Burton and Eric Mayhew will remain in theircurrent positions as Trails Advocate and NEMBARep, respectively.

We had some starts and stops this past year-someevent scheduling challenges left us scrambling tochange dates and venues at the last moment.However, due to the strength of the Board and helpfrom some of our more active members, we wereable to put some great events together includingthe MBAS Happening at Huntington ride and ourannual Fall Fiesta. On October 25-just on the heelsof the Fall Fiesta-we sponsored a Cyclocross race atHartford's Riverside Park with Central ConnecticutBicycling Alliance (CCBA) which was a huge suc-cess.

CTNEMBA and CCBA banded together to put onthe race to help expose the cyclocross racing com-munity to the two main advocacy groups inConnecticut. Almost 180 racers participated withmany more in attendance as spectators. Severaldifferent races were held during the day, consistingof a 1,2,3 race, a 35+ race, a 45+ race, a Women'sOpen race, a 3,4 race and a 4 race. Saturday nightbefore the race we had torrential rain. It made fora muddy race and a really challenging run up thatclimber a 40 foot high levee. You can see picturesat www.ctnemba.org, http://www.wecyclect.org/and at www.marquesphotogalleries.com. We arehoping to make this an annual event.

The past year has seen an exponential increase inTrail Ambassador activity throughout the state.195 Trail Ambassador reports have been submittedto the tune of 450 hours of checking and main-taining trails, helping people out and keeping ourpresence alive in the state. On top of that,CTNEMBA members reported over 300 hours oftrail maintenance! I have to thank Eric Mayhew forhis leadership last year and restarting the TrailAmbassador Program with a large group of enthu-siastic members.

Particularly impressive sections of the state were inlower Fairfield County at areas such as WiltonWoods, Bradley Park, and Mianus River Park. DaveFrancefort, Ryan Tucker, and Rich Coffey have alltaken leadership roles in the stewardship of trails,

and are expanding outwards to encompass TroutBrook and The Pequonnock River Valley (akaTrumbull). Since the Chapter has to cover a lot ofground (~5500 square miles), we are regionalizingour Trail Ambassador Program by creating Regional

NEMBA Trails Representatives. These individualswill be responsible for maintaining their own TrailAmbassador Programs, bringing on new TrailAmbassadors and coordinating maintenance activ-ities. If you are interested in managing a particular

ConnecticutPresident: Mark Lurie,


VP: Tren SpenceSecretary: Glenn VernesTreasurer: Al Tinti BOD Reps: Eric Mayhew & Tren SpenceAt Large: Paula Burton, Eric MayhewEmail List: [email protected] Web: www.ctnemba.net

CT NEMBA’s Epic Ride

CT NEMBA Trail Ambassador helping to fix a flat.


area, please contact me and we'll get you connected tothe right people.

I am really looking forward to the coming year. We havealready started planning the next Happening atHuntington, and are looking into hosting another MBASride, possibly at Cockaponset. We are also organizing aWinter Social event that will include a ride (weatherand depth of snow depending), movies, food, and a raf-fle. The Chapter has quite a few members seeking toopen additional singletrack in their areas, and is active-ly investigating additional opportunities for more newtrails and legitimizing existing ones.

If you want to be pro-active about mountain biking inCT/New England, get involved and help make somethinghappen! Become a Trail Ambassador, learn about build-ing sustainable trails, lead a ride or start a weekly rideseries. We can't do it alone and really need your sup-port. Don't forget to visit our blog, www.ctnemba.comto see what's happening.

Hope to see you on the trails! —Mark Lurie

Glenn Vernes riding the Epic on his singlespeed

GBNEMBA Activities: November 2009Though 2009 is winding down, GBNEMBA is asbusy as ever. We're planning to finish the yearwith a "Toys for Tots" Ride/Hike day on December6th at the Middlesex Fells. It should be a greattime and it would be fabulous if you could make itand drop off a toy for a less fortunate child. At thesame time, we'll be working through the wintercontinuing our trail advocacy programs as well asplanning the calendar for 2010.

Looking back over the year, there were a number ofhighlights. GBNEMBA made a very loud statementwith the Department of Conservation andRecreations through the very successful FellsOpening Day Celebration, Weekly Rides Series atthe Middlesex Fells, the Kid's Explorer Ride Seriesand the recently completed Take a Kid MountainBike Day event. And this cooperative effort result-ed in the DCR offering the use of the BotumeHouse for the Toys for Tots day in December.

Expanded Leadership for 2010:GBNEMBA elected a new slate of chapter officersto plan and execute activities in 2010. Adam Glickwas elected to guide GBNEMBA as President. Wehave high expectations for Adam; he's an avidmountain biker and his organizational skills and

trail knowledge are superb. Tom Grimble did anextremely good job leading the chapter last yearand his leadership will be missed. However, Tomwill remain on the board and will continue to pro-vide his valuable assistance on many of next year'sprojects. Terry Kennedy was elected Secretary forthe fourth year and Claire Grimble will continue asthe chapter's Treasurer. In addition to his chaptersecretarial responsibilities, Terry Kennedy will con-tinue for a third year as Director of the NEMBAMountain Bike Patrol. Congratulations to all!

Middlesex Fells Trail Advocacy:GBNEMBA is continuing to be direct and very vis-ible regarding trail advocacy towards and withimproving mountain bike opportunities at theMiddlesex Fells. Over the years, NEMBA con-tributed a lot of time, effort and monetary supportto the Fells and has continually put its best foot

forward advocating sustainable and respectful bik-ing in the park. As demonstrated with the DCRsanctioning and/or co-hosting numerous bikingevents, it's very clear the DCR enthusiasticallysupports our efforts and that GBNEMBA's trailmaintenance program delivers quality results. Weneed to keep the momentum going and to capital-ize on our success.

In January, the DCR plans to conduct a workshopopen to all Fells user groups to detail and discusstheir various ideas for the Fells. After, the DCR willdevelop and release their preliminary plan for thepark. It is expected the DCR will invite commentsand then follow with a final plan being releasedsometime in the spring timeframe.

If you're interested in voicing your support formountain biking at the Fells, the workshop shouldbe on your schedule. Keep in mind, the localmountain bike community must be involved togain a louder voice within the DCR as well as withthe communities adjoining the Fells. Make sure tocheck the GBNEMBA website where you'll findguidance on becoming involved and how toexpress your support to the DCR and local stateand municipal officials.

Trail Maintenance:Next year's planning has already begun. Thoughthe plans are not in cement as we say, keep an eyeon the GBNEMBA website for details. As always,we need all the help we can get! We're talkingabout a Saturday morning here or a Sunday morn-ing there. If you can squeeze in a little time to help,we will definitely appreciate it.

2010 Chapter Ride Plan:Next year's ride series will be familiar, but expand-ed. We're planning to continue the Weekly RideSeries with Wednesday and Thursday night rides atthe Fells, and we expect to do the monthlyExplorers Kid's Ride Series too. In addition, we'replanning to run a regionally-focused Skills Seriesand NEMBA has approved that a new MountainBike Adventure Series event be added to theGBNEMBA calendar. It's been a few years sinceGBNEMBA sponsored an MBAS and we're reallyexcited a date was allocated.

Greater BostonPresident: Adam Glick,


VP: Tim Post, [email protected], 617-515-4812

VP: Mike TabaczynskiVP: Greg KochSecretary: Terry KennedyTreasurer: Claire GrimblePatrol Director: Terry KennedyWebsite: www.gbnemba.org

GB NEMBA’s new president, Adam Glick

Continued on page 24


Mountain Bike Patrol (Sponsored by GT Bicycles):

With 2009 coming to a close and 2010 quicklyapproaching, the New England Mountain BikePatrol remains busy patrolling area parks and sup-porting local mountain bike events. You may haveseen the Patrol providing First Aid support at theTake a Kid Mountain Bike Day at the Fells onOctober 3rd or NEMBAFest on October 4th, orlater in October at the annual Northshore-spon-sored MBAS "Wicked Ride of the East" at HaroldParker.

With a number of new members, the Patrol isincreasing its visibility and providing expandedservices to NEMBA. Working towards a moreregional look, the Patrol continues to look for newvolunteers. The Patrol has its sights on expandingfurther into SEMass as well as into the Wachusettand Merrimack Valley chapters.

If you're interested in the Patrol, let us know. Tobecome a Patroller, you will need to attend theannual Patrol Clinic where each Patroller is certifiedin First Aid and CPR and receives training onPatrolling skills, basic bike maintenance, conflictmanagement, and park rules and regulations. Noexperience is necessary and the veterans will getyou certified in First Aid and basic bike repair skills.—Terry KennedyPatroller, Alisha Feustel, at NEMBAfest

Photo by PK

Art Paradice patching up a scrape at the WickedRide. Photo by PK

We’re Hitting the Ground Running!While as of this writing Greater Portland NEMBAchapter is less than a month old, that hasn'tstopped us from making progress on a number ofprojects, as well as identifying opportunities forthe future! The chapter has already had an informalmeeting and a couple of group rides, all of whichhave had excellent turnouts considering manypeople in the area are starting to flock to themountains to ski. The level of support from the rid-ing community has been fantastic as well. Our firstgroup trail project will be assisting the FalmouthLand Trust in the construction of singletrack trail ina large piece of forested land they own in town. Asfor the future, the chapter is hoping to bring one ofthe Kona - Fox Shox Adventure Rides to the area,engage area youth in riding, as well as assistingwith the maintenance and construction of a num-ber of trails in the area.

Perhaps one of the best incidental outcomes sinceour formation is the bringing together of the mul-tiple riding clubs in and around Portland into one

cohesive group. Our kickoff meeting earlier thismonth consisted of 5 different clubs as well as aconsiderable number of individual NEMBA sup-porters, all of us focused on maintaining and build-ing sustainable trails in the area.

We're off to a great start. Come join us for a pre-snow ride! Contact [email protected] more information on the chapter.

GP NEMBA’s First Jamis Bicycles /NEMBA Trail Care Event!Despite receiving over 5 inches of rainfall the daybefore our first official Greater Portland NEMBAtrail day, 16 volunteers showed up bright eyed andbushytailed November 15, 2009 to work on a newsection of singletrack in the Blackstrap Community

Forest in Falmouth, Maine. After fording a numberof VERY wet drainages (some 5 feet deep!) to reachthe trail, volunteers cleared a path that was previ-ously marked out by members of the FalmouthLand Trust and GP NEMBA. The new trail liesbetween a powerline corridor and a tall, rockyridge. Trail crews tackled projects including rakingtrail, cutting out deadfall, moving rocks to createarmored trail sections, and bench cutting trailwhere appropriate. After spending the morning inthe woods workers were treated to a tailgate lunchby the folks at Allspeed Bike and Ski in Portland.Overall it was a highly productive day that addedanother great piece of singletrack to the options forriding in the greater Portland area! —MitchWacksman

GreaterPortlandPresident: Mitch Wacksman, portland-

[email protected], 616-405-1448Vice-President: Fred MasciangeloOther officers: Coming Soon!

Email List: [email protected]

Website: coming soon!

Greater Portland NEMBA using rocks to fortify a trail at the Blackstrap Community Forest in Falmouth.Cell phone photo by Scott Townsend


It's almost mid November as I'm writing this andthe Midcoast has already seen a bit of snow andcold weather. On the other hand we have hadsome great weather during the last week. I'm hop-ing the sunny days and mild temps hold out for ourannual Turkey Burner ride on November 15th. TheTurkey Burner ride is becoming a popular ride thatspans approximately 60 miles beginning at theSnow Bowl, traversing other mountains and con-necting other great singletrack in our region. TheTurkey Burner is a great ride for all abilities thatoffers numerous bail out points along the route.

We had a total of 34 participants volunteer for 8trail care days this season. Local land managers arecontinuing to take notice of our hard work anddedication. Our efforts will certainly provide uswith increased opportunities for new and improvedsingletrack in the future. I'd like to express my sin-cere appreciation to everyone who came out to ourtrail care and club events this season. The greatriding in our area has vastly improved and will onlybecome better as McNEMBA moves forward into2010.

As most of you know the pump track receivedsome erosion damage as a result of the rain stormwe had back in April. The debris has been removedand a retaining wall has been constructed to pre-vent this from happening in the future. We also

came up with a solution to the drainage issue thatshould be implemented by the close of the season.We will be scheduling a work weekend to finetune/groom the pump track so it's ready for nextseason. I want to extend some special thanks toJeff Kuller, Camden Parks & Recreation for all of hisassistance with McNEMBA and our efforts at theSnow Bowl.

The Camden Hills High School Mountain Bike teamhas wrapped up their season, capturing their 11thstraight state championship title. The team wasled by three members of McNEMBA, SteveKoskinen, Casey Leonard, and Mike Hartley. Theyprovided the necessary mentoring and mechanical

expertise that significantly contributed to a suc-cessful mountain bike season for the team. Welldone guys!

We will be having a club meeting in the nextmonth or so and will begin shaping McNEMBA's2010 trail care and event goals. We will be seek-ing volunteers to lead our group rides and trail careevents. If you are interested in working with agreat group of folks, coordinating events/grouprides and helping McNEMBA build some sweet sin-gletrack contact me at [email protected]

See you on the trails. —John Anders

McNEMBA Hosts Regional NEMBA Board of Directors Meeting at the Camden Snow Bowl. Photo by PK

Steve Koskinen, Kevin Davis, Mike White, John Anders, Bruce Weik, and Ian Oglvie at McNEMBA’s TrailSchool. Photo by Mike Tabaczynski

Mid CoastMainePresident: John Anders, 207-542-0080,

[email protected] Committee:

Kevin Davis, Mike Hartley, SteveKoskinen, Mike White

Treasurer/Secretary: Casey Leonard


Well the season is winding down and the activi-ties in Merrimack Valley have been also. Our lasttrail day was spent at Russell Mill in Octoberworking on the Pump Track. A few strong backedvolunteers helped cart another 20 or so wheelbar-row loads of dirt to shore up some settling bermsand rollers. Since then we have tweaked it a bitand the track is becoming considerably more funto ride, most of us can pump through with hardlya pedal stroke now. Our Friday night rides willcontinue weather permitting but by the time youread this we will probably be in snowshoe mode.

We are admittedly at bit behind schedule at bothLowell/Dracut and Great Brook Farm as this seasoncomes to an end. We hope to address that duringwinter chapter meetings and come up with aschedule containing some solid projects for bothproperties. We are still working with the DCR ona grant to rebuild/repair boardwalks at GreatBrook, it's looking very positive and it's possible

MerrimackValleyPresident: Bob Giunta, facdesign@com-

cast.net VP Groton Town Fst VP: Mike AndersenLowell-Dracut SF VP: Bob GiuntaTreasurer: Hugh Folsom, (978) 244-0633Email List: mtb-

[email protected]: www.mv-nemba.org

Bob Giunta and his daughter, Caitlin, at the Wicked Rideof the East. Bob is the mastermind behind Russell Milland the RM “in-the-forest’ Pump Track. Both the trailsand the track are great fun, and we owe Bob some major

kudos. Photos by PK

the project may begin this year. Trail main-tenance along with several re-routes andpossible additional tech features will bethe mainstay at Lowell. As many of youknow we have put Lowell a bit on the backburner this year for several reasons, thelargest being the work we have been doingat Russell Mill. Russell being almost fin-ished will allow us to spend more timeelsewhere.

Two other properties we are activelyexploring are Billerica State Forest andmost recently a parcel of land trust prop-erty in Dunstable, MA We have met withthe land trust and they are very interestedin having us design and build trails formountain biking on their property. We arepretty excited about this as the area hasnear direct access from the Nashua RiverRail Trail and is within 1/2mi from theYudicky trails in Nashua, NH. At our nextmeeting we hope to form a small commit-tee to continue with proposing a trail lay-out and plan for the spring.

By the time you read this our chapter willhave had it's fall meeting/elections, we'llkeep you informed of course of the out-come. Please feel free to contact me oranyone you know within the chapter if anyof these projects or chapter activitiesarouses interest. We are always looking forpeople who can contribute at a chapterlevel and of course always greatly appreci-ate your support at our Trail Days.

Also, come hitch a ride with us if youhaven't already, always great to see newtalent at the rides. —Bob Giunta


The North Shore chapter has wrapped up very suc-cessful fall schedule that included three TrekBicycles -NEMBA Trail Care days, the 10th anniver-sary of the Wicked Ride of the East, plus our finalchapter ride/ meeting of the season at Willowdale/ Bradley Palmer.

On Sunday September 13th the trail crew was offto Beverly Commons to lay down two sections ofboard walk , and rebuild a washed out section ofdown hill, that now incorporates a couple of niceberms. Thanks to the guys from Western cycle thatcame out to help. Saturday October 3 was a rainyone, but that didn't stop a small crew of five to addsome board walk and relocate several section ofsingle track along the field pond trail in HaroldParker. The final workday was held at the WardHill Reservation. The day was just as wet as agroup added 95 feet of board walk to the trail sys-tem. The north shore trail team completed over250 feet wooden trail and rebuilt some nice trailsin three parks for three different land managers.Thanks to Dan and Joe for organizing the trailevents.

The Kona Bicycles/ Fox Shox ride series concludedwith the Wicked Ride of the East which was thelargest yet, as close to 500 riders came out toenjoy the fine riding at Harold Parker. After the ridemany enjoyed the food and venders that circled theBerry Pond pavilion. Thanks to all the chaptermembers that helped with the signing, parking, Tshirt sales, and food, Jamie's barbeque, and Lee'schili. Special thanks goes out to the vendersSinister bikes, Diesel Bikes, Cycle Loft, HighlandMountain Bike Park, and Exposure Lights. SteveCharette did a great job as chairmen of the WRE.

The weather was outstanding for the final chapterride of the season. Over thirty five riders came outto enjoy the trails at Willowdale, and BradleyPalmer. Thanks to the crew at Riverside cycle thathelped lead the rides, and all the members thatmade the ride fun. The meeting that followedincluded wicked ride results and trail plans for thespring of 2010. The following were voted in aschapter officers.

Frank Lane PresidentFred White Vic PresidentHank Kells SecretaryKirk Goldsworthy TreasureSteve Charette WRE ChairGreg Nicoles Web siteDan Streeter, Frank Lane BOD members

—Frank Lane

North ShorePresident: Frank Lane

[email protected],978-465-2295 Vice-President: Fred White Treasurer: Kirk GoldsworthySecretary: Henry KellsBOD Reps: Dan Streeter & Frank LaneWicked Ride Chair: Steve CharretteEmail List: mtb-

[email protected]: www.nsnemba.org

Bob Ganley and Scott Merloni, hawking the official Wicked Ride T-shirt. Photo by PK

Tom Greene and Frank Lane at the NS NEMBA annual meeting ride at Willowdale/Bradley Palmer. Photo by PK


Parting Salvo from LiamHey Everyone, Harold Green has written the bodyof this report (below) but I figured I'd like to put myfarewell address here as well. I've stepped downfrom the PV-NEMBA Chapter Presidency, and,quite frankly, the future has never looked brighter.

A new slate of motivated, thoughtful, imaginative,good people have stepped up to fill the ranks of our

local NEMBA leadership and I believe they'll add arenewed vibrancy to the chapter! I'm proud tohave spear-headed a great deal of biker-built trail

expansion throughout the Pioneer Valley (and yes,most especially for bringing Wendell online). Wehaven't had to endure any access or advocacyissues in quite a while, and most folks are gettingto enjoy riding in more areas.

I think PV-NEMBA, over the last few years, hasmade that possible. I'm going to say a personalThanks to Mark Courtemanche and Jason Duncanfor all the trail building help and boosting theFranklin county focus. Thanks to the Erberlusheagang for putting together the second best trailexpansion in the last 4 years! Thanks to all of oursponsor shops (which now numbers 7 or 8, Ibelieve), that includes long time supporters likeBicycle World, Highland Hardware & Bike Shop,New England Bicycle, and Bicycles Unlimited aswell as a few that have graciously returned to thefold like Competitive Edge, Northampton Bicycle,and Trailside Bikes.

Oh, and one more thing, everyone who rides sin-gletrack in the Pioneer Valley owes Harold Green abeer (he's a BBC Lost Sailor man). No one doesmore trail work than Harold, and he finds time tomake a difference in every single riding area we'vegot from Agawam to Northfield, from Hawley toWendell. Next time you're out riding and wonder-ing why the trails are so damn nice, be sure toshout aloud "Thank You, Harold Green!" Hebelongs in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame…really.

OK, that's it for me-here are the new guys, getready for more social riding, more collegiality andmore fun. I'm still always happy to show visitorsto the region some of the local gems (Wendell,

PioneerValleyPresident: Steven Rossi,


VP Hamden County: Kris Wyman, ChrisGrello

VP Hampshire County: Megan Bilodeau,Chaz Nielson

VP Franklin County: Steffi Krug

Secretary: Juliana RossiTreasurer: Trevor Emond BOD Reps: Harold Green, Steven RossiEmail List:[email protected]

Thanks for your leadership and hard work, Liam!Photo by PK

50 or so riders attended the First Annual Pioneer Valley Chili MTB Ride, organized by PV NEMBA VP’s, Steffi Krug. Photo by PK


Deerfield-Greenfield Ridges, Batchelor St, DAR) sofeel free to contact me if you'd like a guide or justa local to ride with.

~Liam

Pioneer Valley Slides into theFall/Winter SeasonWhile the cross racers have been winding throughthe schoolyards and city parks, we mountain bik-ers have been enjoying one of the best late sum-mer and fall riding seasons in memory. Sure theweekends have been a bit wet, but that's whatmakes cyclocross fun, still it is the mid-week rid-ing that has made this fall. The PV Parks are rid-ing great, leaves have been swept aside periodical-ly in some of the major areas, or beaten down in

places like the Greenfieldridge by the plethora ofdog-walkers and hikersmaking the trails fast andfun.

Our fall has been warm andreasonably dry as I pen thisreport in mid-November.When the ground willfreeze or the snows begin toaccumulate, I haven't a clue,but until then, we're outriding several evenings aweek. Regular weekly ridesoccur throughout the valleyon Monday's - in the south-ern tier - at Robinson StatePark; on Tuesdays andThursdays in FranklinCounty at a variety of loca-

tions and are rumored to hap-pen on the occasional

Wednesday in Hampshire County.

On a superb fall afternoon in Early November, Steforganized our inaugural Chili & MTB event atWendell State Forest. Attracting over 50 ridersfrom as far as 3 hours away, we spent longer thanthat sampling some of Wendell's most challengingterrain. We broke the assemblage into two rough-ly pace based groups and followed most of theloop we used for the MBAS in July. I have toadmit, Wendell is much different on a hot relative-ly dry summer day, than it is with a coating of fall-en oak and beech leaves atop the rocks and roots.Although we had spent a couple dozen hourscleaning the trails in the prior couple of weeks,Mother Nature is pretty adept at covering theground with leaves in spite of our best efforts.

This coating made for a day highlighted by exhila-ration, exhaustion, missed turns, unintentionaltrail braids, pinch flats, burped Stan's, brokenderailleur hangers and a formidable assemblage oflacerations and contusions. Nevertheless, we cel-ebrated the completion with no serious casualtiesat Bill's place just down the road for part 2 of theevent - food and frivolity.

PV's Annual MeetingHeld in Hatfield, on Friday November 6th, 17members of PV NEMBA gathered to conduct ourbusiness meeting. Business discussed includedElection of Officers - Congratulations to SteveRossi - President; Kris Wyman and Chris Grello -Co-VPs for Hamden County; Megan Bilodeau andChaz Nielson Co-VPs for Hampshire County, SteffiKrug VP for Franklin County, Trevor Emond -Treasurer, Julianne Rossi - Secretary, Harold Greenand Steve Rossi Regional Board Rep and Alternate.Special thanks to outgoing officers Liam O'Brien -President and BOD Alternate, George Willard -Treasurer, and Mark Courtemanche - FranklinCounty VP. PV NEMBA is stronger because ofyour hard work and dedication. The new officershope to capitalize on those strengths and keep uson the path to growth in membership and miles ofstewarded trails.

Conversation then turned to events for the nextyear: we'll be doing a bunch of riding, a fairamount of socializing, and meeting occasionally tokeep the organization on course. We'll start witha weekend winter ride series, and then move toweek night rides in each county throughout thelate spring, summer and fall. In addition we'll dosome sponsored events at least once a month. —Harold Green

Steven Rossi, PV NEMBA’s new president. Photo by PK

The holiday season is upon us... So we thought itfitting to give a gift to a lucky RI NEMBA memberand another to the community at large. At the RINEMBA holiday party the first Tuesday inDecember we will draw the winner for the SE 29'erSingleSpeed donated by NBX. Each NEMBA mem-ber who attended one of our posted rides, or led aride for RI NEMBA received an entry for each timethey filled out the ride waiver. Good luck every-

one, I know I am keeping my fin-gers crossed! We are also gettingready for our Winter Warmer FunRide in Lincoln Woods onDecember 13th. The ride is free-we just ask that all participantsbring donations for the RI FoodBank. Last year we nearly brokethe suspension on Huffin andPuffin Pete's wah-goon, and weare looking forward to deliveringeven more victuals for the needythis year. It was a wonderfulthing for the mountain bike com-munity to pitch in last year andwe are looking forward to makingthis a tradition. As we all know-things are especially tough herein RI, so our hope is that peoplebring at least as much volumewise to equal the amount of Stacy'schili that they plan to consume postride…

The big news for the chapter recently concerns BigRiver. I have previously written how sweet it wasthat we were FINALLY allowed to organize a FunRide in Big River this past September. The ride waswell received by those in attendance and we arelooking forward to doing it again in the future. Itwas a real confirmation that all the work we havedone in the management area and time spent mak-ing inroads with the powers that be is gettingmountain bikers recognized as a responsible part-

ner for this management area. After all, when therules and regulations for Big River were written up,mountain biking wasn't even a sport, so it has beenan uphill struggle to gain an even footing eversince. Considering the wheels (political- not theones connected to Grimley's bikes) tend to move abit slow in RI, it was a long slog just to get to thepoint where we were allowed to hold the Fun Ridein September. We were further elated to find outthat Ray Sullivan, a West Greenwich House mem-ber, had submitted legislation to legalize mountainbike riding in Big River. In a time of partisan divi-

Rhode IslandPresident: Peter Gengler,


VP Arcadia: Jim Grimley

VP Big River: Peter Gengler

VP Burlingame: Lennon Schroeder

VP Lincoln Woods: Leo Corrigan

Treasurer: Sara Grimley

Secretary: Bart Angelo

NEMBA BOD Rep: Matt Schulde

NEMBA BOD Rep: Bart Angelo

Email List: [email protected]

Web: RINEMBA.org

Food Pantry Donation on RI NEMBA members’ minds...


Since I completely missed the last issue ofSingleTracks, we have some catching up to do.Some older news, but lots of good stuff has hap-

pened in and around the trails in SoutheastMA…which reminds me that our 'area' is LARGE,extending from Cutler Park in the North , all theway down to Myles Standish State Forest, andprobably beyond that. We currently have 10park/area VP's who work tirelessly(well, they douse tires) as liaisons to the park supervisors.Mostly state or DCR managed, but I'm sure thereare plenty of other town conservation areas, oreven privately-owned parcels that could benefitfrom having a NEMBA representative…..what I'mtrying to say, is, these places need all the help theycan get, and the more that comes from us moun-tain bikers, the better it is for us and Riders of theFuture*. Some places are jewels that just need tobe Ridden More!!

SE Mass NEMBA always welcomes legit places toride, so if you have a trail or park that's not listedon the NEMBA site, send it in with a descriptionand other info.

Also, if you're not yet a member, or have let yourmembership expire, Do It Now!

Now I'll start with the oldest news. Last fall, weapplied for and received a RTP grant to help Friendsof Wompatuck with bridge rebuildings and torestore old railbeds, improving accessibility to ALLtrail users. We'll also be able to fortify our toolcache and have a Muck Truck at Wompy, AND ashed to store it all in.

The Foxboro MBAS in August was a huge success,with the trails in great shape and nicely arrowed,Jaime there with his 'Q, the swimming pool for cooldown….With the total raised for the park about$1300, we plan on another MBAS in 2010. Staytuned for that date, which will most likely be in thefall.

The IMBA Trail Care Crew came to the Blue Hillsthe following week, with a great classroom sessionin the morning, and lending their experiencedhands to help with a drainage project on AccordPath.

The next and last event of the 2009 season is theBlue Hills Toys Ride on Sunday, Dec 6th. Comeride and bring a gift for a child in need. All gifts aredistributed by Interfaith Social Services in Quincy.The event is always a good time, fully supported byDCR rangers, and TrailWatch and SEMass NEMBAride leaders. Santa and/or Ted Wojcik sometimesstops by to spread the cheer by the bonfire…

*There have been regular 'kids' rides held in Cutler,with International Bicycle's leadership. Same inDuxbury, with the Pembroke Ski Market providingweekly ride leaders. There are a couple of areamiddle/high school mountain bike clubs that haveformed the last few years, providing a great outletfor all that energy…

Happy Holidays and Warm Toes! —Steve Cobble

sion, this bill was passed with true bipartisan sup-port as the West Greenwich legislator from theother side of the aisle, Bob Watson, joined him ingetting this shepherded through the House by aunanimous vote. It took a bit of wrangling in themost recent special session, but it passed in theSenate soon after. In the usual fashion of twosteps forward, one step back, Governor Carcieridecided to veto this legislation. (http://www.gov-

e r n o r . r i . g o v / d o c u m e n t s / v e t o e s / 0 9 -H%206304_A_Big_River_Reservoir.pdf )Considering the Water Resource Board's positiveattitude towards RI NEMBA and our willingness tobe a partner in cleaning, maintaining and preserv-ing this piece of land, I believe that the rationalefor the veto was inaccurate and unwarranted. Weare hoping that all that the Governor needs is aneducation on the minimal impact of mountain bik-

ing and the additional benefits of having a respon-sible user group in the woods as a deterrence tounwanted behaviors. Many of us are optimisticthat this is merely a minor setback and one that wewill have gotten past before this issue ofSingleTracks is delivered. But it serves as areminder that when it comes to having a seat atthe table we need to be vocal and call our electedpoliticians to let them know how we feel abouttheir actions. We plan to mount as large a scalephone, email, letter and in-person campaign as wecan, so please keep an eye on the email lists andthe website and spend a few minutes to make acall to your legislators. The RI chapter has seen a25% increase in membership and this increasecouldn't have come at a better time. Your supportin becoming a member helps us to tout our num-bers as a way to initiate change and hopefullybefore too long we WILL have mountain bikinglegalized in Big River!

Finally, as we wrap up an epic year of rides andchapter activities, we wanted to thank you forcoming out, for leading rides and for volunteeringtime to maintain the trails. The fun of this sport isnot only in cleaning a section of trail that hasalways stymied you, or getting out in the woods(though both ARE fantastic) and getting someexercise. It is the people you meet on the trailswho share the same passion and outlook. Thecamaraderie, the thrill and the post ride food andbeverage. On that note- best of holidays to youand yours and please also remember that whenyou are holiday shopping for your two wheeledfriend, the best place to get them a gift is at yourLBS. We have some great shops, owners, wrench-es and salespeople in this state. They support RINEMBA and that helps us to do what we do. Showthem some love, too!

Keep the rubber side down. —Matt Schulde

RI NEMBA volunteers, Ben Jordan and Alex Jacques, staffing the booth at the Interbike Outdoor Demoin Providence. Photo by PK

SE MassPresident: Steve Cobble,

[email protected], 781-254-8796Treasurer: Bill Boles VPs:Ames Nowell: Malcolm Neilson,Blue Hills: Joe SloaneBorderland: Christopher PatrickCutler Park: Bob Khedarian Duxbury: Dave WaleckaFoxboro/Wrentham: Kevin DelaneyFranklin: Jan Hubbell

Massasoit: John BaileyMyles Standish: Tim SholzWompatuck: Tyler EusdenSecretary: Rich HigginsEmail List: [email protected]


The Fall season is upon us. It is a great time to rideand also catch up on much needed trail mainte-nance. In these last few months we have beenbusy at Bear Brook State Park. A RTP grant enabledus to build some new boardwalks to be installedthis spring, around Beaver Pond in the area of thecampground. Even though this area doesn't get alot of use by mountain bikes we feel it will helpwith our relationship with the park manager andstate officials. We have also been laying out newtrail on some conservation land in Mont Vernon.The land managers are very eager to develop a trailsystem on the property.

As you read this, new officers will have been elect-ed. I am stepping down as president after 3 years.New leadership will bring fresh ideas and a new

vitality to our chapter. There are a lot of dedicatedpeople in the chapter who continually work toimprove mountain biking opportunities in south-ern NH. — Peter DeSantis

SouthernNew HampshirePresident: Matt Caron,

[email protected], 603-321-8736VP: Kevin Cox & Jean RubinSecretary: Needed!Treasurer: Eleanor KnottWebsite: www.snemba.orgEmail list: [email protected]

Holly Carson, practicing the age oldlogic that nothing attracts volunteers

like a Ride and BBQ! Photo by PK

Ride the Trails ~ Save the TrailsJoin NEMBA to Support Mountain Biking inNew England !

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Individual $35 ______ Family (2 Cards) $45 ______ Supporting $60 _____ Sponsoring $100_____

NEMBA, PO Box 2221, Acton MA 01720 Join online at WWW.NEMBA.ORG


NEMBA RidesNEMBA rides are led by individual NEMBA members for other mem-bers and prospective members. So if you haven't yet joined NEMBA,please do. Rides are usually for small numbers of people and vary withthe location and the personal style of the host. Rides have beenknown to change location or time at the last moment. So be sure tocall the ride's leader, both to sign up, and to find out more about theride. **Be sure to contact the ride leader a couple of days before theride takes place. That way you will be sure that the ride is on.

If you commit to a ride, go, since space is limited. That way the rideswill stay manageable and will be enjoyable for everyone. Helmets arerequired on all NEMBA rides. Contact your ride's leader if the weath-er looks questionable.

HEY! - Why not lead a NEMBA ride yourself? Contact Bill Boles at508-583-0067 or [email protected] for more information.

(T/FR) Indicates a technical or freeride(MBA) Indicates a NEMBA Mountain Bike Adventure Series Ride(EN) Indicates an EFTA/NEMBA Fun Ride.(AM) Indicates a weekday daytime morning ride.(DB) Indicates a daybreak or early morning ride.(BHTW) Indicates a Blue Hills Trail Watch ride.(Dog) Indicates you can bring your dog.(W) Indicates a Women's ride.(CALL) Indicates contact the leader to see if the ride is on.(TBA) Indicates location to be determined.(U) Indicates an urban ride.(GAR) Gravity Assisted Ride(SS) Indicates Single Speed bicycles are OK.(SKI) Indicates a 'ride' that may change to skis(SShoe) Indicates Snowshoeing(SKILLS) Indicates a skills training session(KIDS) A ride for Kids, parents are often welcome too.(SS) Indicates a Singlespeed Bike ride

The following ride categories are only general guidelines. You shouldask the ride's leader exactly what type of ride he or she is planning interms of distance, pace and technicality. Also, be realistic about yourlevel of riding skills and don't join a ride that is beyond your present

ability or fitness level.

MBA Kona Bicycles-Fox Shox MTB Adventure Seriesride. 10-20 miles. A ride on a marked course for allability levels. Normally includes short and longloops. Call for more information.

EFTA/NEMBA 10-25 miles. Marked loops for all ability levels.Normally includes multiple loops. Call for moreinformation.

Kids/Family 2-10 miles, usually easy pace & terrain. Theserides are aimed at parents with young children.

Beginner 2-7 miles, easy terrain, easy pace. These rides areaimed at riders with little or no riding experience.

Novice 4-9 miles, mellow pace, easy terrain, frequentstops.

Advanced Novice6-10 miles, mellow pace, either mostly easy ter-rain, or could be technical terrain done slowly, fre-quent stops.

Intermediate 10-20 miles, moderately technical, somewhatfaster pace, occasional stops and bail out points.Intermediate rides are designed for people whoride frequently, and have some skills, but whoprobably don't enter races.

Advanced Intermediate The same as intermediate, except fasterand harder terrain.

Advanced 20-30 miles, high technical difficulty, fast pace,few stops or chances to bail out. These rides areintended for advanced riders or, racers who wouldlike to go for a challenging ride at less than all outrace pace.

Women's Ride Can be any level of difficulty. Call for more infor-mation.

Winter riding conditions are upon us, with coldtemperatures and short days. We are very lucky tohave four very distinct seasons and each is uniquewith the beauty and challenges it provides.

We had over 50 volunteers contributing close to250 hours of maintenance work on our local trailsduring the Jamis Bicycles Trail Care Series. Other

highlights of 2009 include:

Pump track - we built a fun pump track inConway's Pudding Pond Conservation Area nearthe popular Sticks & Stones trail. Further expan-sion has already been discussed with the ConwayConservation Commission for 2010.

We worked closely with the U.S. Forest Service onthe Moat Mountain trail system project, includingcontacting landowners with trail segments on theirproperties. In connection with the project, wesigned a landmark access agreement with thedeveloper of Hales Location to allow continued useof the popular Stony Ridge Trail.

Our 9th annual White Mountains trail buildingweekend was held in early August. We did moredrainage structure work on the Red Tail Trail. Thankyou to everybody who showed up and dug in.

The White Mountain Chapter coordinated themountain bike segment at the Maine Bike Rallyagain this year. The weather was perfect and rideswent off without a hitch. Peter Minnich, Jean Lee,John Barley, Dave Kinsman and a number of otherpeople deserve a lot of credit for a great job pre-

planning the mountain bike aspect of this event.Thank you to all the volunteers and participants fordoing a fantastic job representing the Saco RiverValley.

The 2nd annual Valley Bike and Gear Swap at theMoat Mountain Smoke House in mid-June wasanother successful event. There was a nice varietyof interesting merchandise to be found at verygood prices. Cathy Steers, Andrea Masters andGlenn Ashworth deserve the credit for the greatresponse.

We continued to contribute to community eventsmore this year than ever before. Besides helpingout at the Red Jersey Cyclery Summer Race Series,we participated in a mountain bike segment at theJen's Friends Climb Against Cancer fundraiser atMt. Cranmore and helped put on the NorthConway Library's annual Bike for Books fundraisingmountain bike tour.

Finally, many thanks go out to Sally Brassill, PeterMinnich, and Leo Rossignol for leading weeklyrides. —Rob Adair

WhiteMountainsPresident: Rob Adair,


VPs: John Barley, Mark Jenks, Tony TulipTreasurer: Phil Ostroski Secretary: Jean Lee


Cape Cod & IslandsWednesdays Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-8690

Central, Wachusett & Western MassMondays Robinson SP, Agawam All Steve Rossi [email protected] Greenfield area Novice- Adv. Beginner Stefanie Krug [email protected] Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-2700Sundays Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-4800

ConnecticutTuesdays TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-6010Tuesdays Middlesex Trails Beg. - IntermediatePedal Power http://pedalpowerct.com 860-347-3776Saturdays Middletown Int. -Advanced Pedal Power http://pedalpowerct.com 860-347-3776Sundays TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-7740Sundays Danielson Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-6010Sundays TBA Advanced Pedal Power http://pedalpowerct.com 860-347-3776Sundays W. Hartford Res. Intermediate-Adv Charlie Beristain [email protected] 860-521-7188

Maine, New Hampshire & VermontTuesdays TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-4779Tuesdays TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-5448Tuesdays TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-1817Wednesdays TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-4779

Metro Boston, Merrimack & North ShoreTuesdays Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Lionel [email protected] Until 11/13 Russell Mill, Chelmsford Intermediate Bob [email protected] TBD All David Zizza [email protected] http://www.gratefultread.comSaturdays Until 12/26 Cutler Park, Needham Kids Thom Parsons-Intl. Bikes [email protected] 617-527-0967(KIDS)

Southeastern Mass, Blackstone Valley & Rhode IslandTuesdays Foxboro SF Adv. Beginner Kevin Delaney [email protected] TBD, RI Advanced Jim Grimley [email protected] 401-732-6390Wednesdays Burlingame RI Adv Beg - Intermediate Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-6694Wednesdays TBD Adv-Beg-Intermediate Bill Boles [email protected] 508-583-0067(AM)Ist Thursdays TBD Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-0665Other Thursdays Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-0665Saturdays Until 12/26 Cutler Park, Needham Kids Thom Parsons-Intl. Bikes [email protected] 617-527-0967(KIDS)Sundays Ames Nowell SP, Abington Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-1235

NEMBA Gear @ www.nemba.org

Socks Trail Jersey JerseyBallcaps


S.O.S.: Support Our Sponsors!$1000+Ace Wheelworks, Somerville MABelmont Wheel Works, Belmont MABikebarn, Whitman MACannondale, Bethel CTFox Racing Shox, Watsonville CAIndependent Fabrication, SomervilleInternational Bicycle Center, NewtonLandry’s Bicycles, Natick MARedbones BBQ, Somerville MASeven Cycles, Watertown MATed Wojcik Bicycles, Hampstead NHThe Bikeway Source, Bedford MA

$200+Bicycles Unlimited, Greenfield MABreakstone, White-Lief & Gluck, PCCompetitive Edge, Northampton MAEast Providence Bicycles, E. Prov. RIMilford Bicycles, Milford MANortheast Bicycle Club, BurlingtonThe Bike Shop, Manchester CTWashington Square Tavern

$100All Things 2 Wheels, Conway NHAnderson Bicycle, Quincy MAArcadian Shop, Lenox MABenidorm Bikes & Snowboards,

Canton CT

Berger’s Bike Shop, York MEBest Western Inn, Rutland VTBicycle World, Greenfield MABoutique Bikes, Withrop MECentral Wheel, Farmington CTChainline Cycles, Laconia NHCronin Active Sports, Laconia NHCycle Lodge, Pembroke MAExeter Cycles, Exeter NHFireball heat Treating Co., AttleboroFrank's Spoke 'N Wheel, Sudbury MAGoodale’s Bike Shop, Concord NHGoodale’s Bike Shop, Hooksett NHGoodale’s Bike Shop, Nashua NHGranby Bicycle, Granby CTHighland Hardware & Bike, Holyoke

MAIbex Sports, Portsmouth NHMoots Cycles, Steamboat Spr. CONaults Cyclery, Manchester NHNew England Bicycle, Southwick MANorth Haven Bicycle, North Haven

CTNorthampton Bicycles, NorthamptonPedal Power, Middleton CTRiverside Cycles, Newburyport MATrailside Bicycles, Hadley MAWheel Power, Exeter NH

$75Minuteman Road Club, Ivoryton CT

NEMBA’s JerseyON SALE!

$55

Imagine vivid blues, luscious greens and bril-liant oranges and red — this is classic New

England. Ride with Pride, Ride Hard!

Available Online @ www.NEMBA.org

Non-Profit OrganizationU.S. Postage

PaidPermit #148

Plattsburgh, NY

New England Mountain Bike AssociationPO Box 2221Acton MA 01720

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~Please Donate Generously to NEMBA’s Annual Fund~We Rely on Riders Like You!

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