The Faces of Singletrack
IMBA Trail News
Volume 16, Number 3
Summer 2003
Ned Overend
Durango, Colorado
world champion, specialized racer, avid advocate
What's your motivation for getting involved in advocacy?
I love to ride! I grew up in Marin County running on those great technical trails, so I'm familiar with the trails mountain bikers have lost there. Now I live in Durango where our local IMBA affiliate, Trails 2000, is a powerful political force in keeping our trails open, so I appreciate how important a strong advocacy group is.
Several years ago you teamed with Juli Furtado, John Tomac, Missy Giove and Travis Brown on an IMBA advertisement that showed racer support for mountain bike advocacy. Can that be replicated? It's more complicated today because of the variety of racers, riders and events: Cross country, mountain cross, downhill and 24-hour racing. I think there are a lot of famous racers who understand the importance of IMBA and would support a campaign using them to get the message out. The key would be to do it in a creative way that gets the attention of trail users and lets the racers maintain some identity with their type of racing.
What's it going to take to get more trails open for mountain bikers?
Mountain bikers need to stand up and be counted - as members of IMBA and their local trail groups. There is power in numbers and, of course, there is power in money. Opening trails will take membership, contributions and the talent of IMBA staff to utilize those resources.
Aileen and Ron Luethe
Bismarck, North Dakota
imba state representatives bringing riding to rural america
We've heard a lot about the Maah Daah Hey Trail. What are the other mountain biking opportunities in North Dakota?
North Dakota's major cities offer great mountain biking. In the Bismarck area we have four spectacular trails that challenge the best riders and offer some of the most beautiful scenery and sunsets along the Missouri River. Other cities that offer great mountain bike trails are Jamestown, Dickinson, Minot and our beautiful Medora in the heart of the Badlands. Many of our state parks also have outstanding riding.
What have you done to improve mountain biking in your state?
Most trails in the past were built on low-lying wet areas or flat terrain. After land managers attended an IMBA Trailbuilding School, they learned to route sustainable trails on side slopes. This simple concept opened a lot of potential land for trails in the state.
What's your favorite part about being an IMBA rep?
Watching the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew work their magic every time they are in the state. Then we provide follow-up to land managers to keep the trailbuilding momentum going. It's very rewarding!
Cimarron Chacon
St. George, Utah
blm land manager and mountain biker building sweet singletrack in the desert southwest
You've been proactive in creating multi-use trails open to mountain bikers. What's your motivation?
I'm very interested in the link between open space, trails and livable communities. My passion is to preserve urban land for open space. Trails are key. With regional master planning, trails - particularly bike trails - are something communities can use to protect land from development. By linking transportation pathways with outdoor recreation trails, cyclists don't need cars to get places. This reduces the need for paved roads to large trailheads miles from the city.
What are some cool new trails built in your region by the BLM that mountain bikers should check out?
During the last year we constructed two awesome trails in Washington County, Utah. Broken Mesa in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve is a fun, advanced trail with fast technical downhill sections. It can be done as a loop or shuttle.
Another good one is the Gould and Gould Rim segments in the Hurricane Cliffs Trail Network. Adding these seven-mile trails completed the 32-mile trail system. Intermediate riders now enjoy the Loop, which is 90 percent singletrack and 22 miles long.
Do mountain biker volunteers help with your trailwork efforts?
There are very few bikers involved in our trail construction, but some have invested many hours and become trained trail supervisors. Through partnerships, such as the two nearby National Mountain Bike Patrol chapters, volunteers provide needed help with monitoring and maintenance. This assistance is crucial to our trails program.
Bill Victor
Augusta, South Carolina
workhorse imba rep and advocate with a penchant for trailbuilding
Is there anywhere to ride a mountain bike in South Carolina?
Yes, and you can ride all year to boot. Clemson and McCormick are the closest to meccas we have. Both sport more than 50 miles of singletrack. Columbia, Charleston and Newberry also have great trails.
How did you go about improving trail access in South Carolina?
I surrounded myself with a lot of good people by starting a Southern Off Road Bicycle Association (SORBA) Chapter. Then we worked with the right land managers. We have a strong partnership with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and they are confident in our ability to build and maintain trails. We have managed $132,000 in trail grants, built 23 miles of trail, re-opened another 30 miles and repaired two dozen bridges. We have a cache of hand tools, mowers and a motorized wheelbarrow. Our SORBA chapter is 125 members strong, with 40 percent doing trail maintenance.
Tell us about your trailbuilding business.
I started Long Cane Trails out of necessity as our trail projects grew in scope and complexity. Proper trail construction in a population center of 300,000 is difficult to achieve using volunteers with hand tools. South Carolina State Parks wanted trails and so did we, and it became clear that the scope was beyond what we could achieve with volunteers. So I partnered with Michael Burton to form Long Cane Trails.
When the State Trails Program realized we could build trails for less than $2 per foot, they gave us more and more projects. We have proven we can build quality trails for a fraction of what it usually costs land management agencies. Now the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the USFS are our top clients.
What's the best part about being an IMBA rep?
Being an IMBA rep has gained me credibility with land managers. IMBA has a good grasp on the evolving relationship of riders, land managers and trailbuilders. I've met many quality people through IMBA and learned a great deal from them. The bi-annual state rep gatherings are a nice touch.
Laird Knight
Davis, West Virginia
granny gear 24-hour race promoter involved in more than just racing
Do mountain bike racing and advocacy complement each other?
Yes, indeed they do. Here in West Virginia, racing started in 1983. The historic precedents of race courses have been one of most effective tools for maintaining access to various properties. Racers themselves are influencers in their local communities and great emissaries for the sport. Racing gets kids and their families into the sport, and when you cast mountain biking in this family-oriented way, land managers see the sport in a much more human context. Events are one of the few opportunities to address and educate mountain bikers as a group about land access and trail design and maintenance issues.
What have you done to get Granny Gear 24-hour participants to become more active in advocacy?
We've set a good example. We've hosted numerous trail maintenance weekends, which have turned into mini-trailbuilding seminars for several hundred folks. We've put our money where our mouth is and done the right thing at our 24 Hours of Snowshoe event by re-engineering the course and building more than three football field lengths of backcountry bridging. We also pioneered a technique for armoring technical singletrack with mixed aggregate crushed limestone. This unprecedented effort consumed more than $60,000 and thousands of paid and volunteer hours.
Why the recent explosion in 24-hour racing versus traditional racing events?
It's really quite simple. I took my 11 years of experience as a mountain biker racer and race promoter and wrote the rules to define a format that incorporates all the best aspects of mountain biking: sportsmanship, adventure, comradery and fun. It turned out to be more fun than anyone expected and I have no doubt that 24-hour racing has a very bright future.
Dana and Tony Boone
Salida, Colorado
professional trailbuilders who create some of the world's best singletrack
Tony, how did you and Dana start Arrowhead Trails?
In 1994, I was working for Boulder County (Colorado) maintaining and constructing trails. There were a lot of trails that needed a lot of work. Recongnizing that we needed some sort of mechanized trail machine to keep up with it, I looked into purchasing a Sweco tractor for the county. But when all was said and done, Boulder County decided not to purchase one since they were still in the process of acquiring land and not ready to do work on it.
Realizing I was not getting anywhere with the county, my wife, Dana, and I bought a used Sweco and started a professional trailbuilding company, Arrowhead Trails, Inc., in October 1994. We invested $100,000 in the company, and the first year we lost $22,000. The next year was a little better...we only lost $10,000. It took a good four years to break even, and it was tough for us. We were just scraping by. Now here we are nine years later and we're working on a $170,000 project to build 14 miles of trail over the summer. Needless to say, we won't lose money this year.
Arrowhead Trails is a complete team effort between Dana and me. I do most of the trailwork and design, while Dana does the stuff that makes the business actually work and succeed. She runs the office, does the bookkeeping, coordinates events and is heavily involved in cartography and analyzing master plans. We feel very blessed to be able to work as a team on something we love.
What's the most memorable trail project you and Dana have ever worked on?
In June 2000, the town of Crested Butte, Colorado, wanted to rebuild an easy, multi-use trail called the Lower Loop. Through a partnership with various groups in Crested Butte, we put out a solicitation for trailwork volunteers. Well, within a day we had more than 180 locals sign up, and eventually had to cap it at 200 people. Keep in mind that Crested Butte has only 2,000 residents total! We even had Ned Overend sign up. With so many volunteers, we were able to build one-and-a-half miles of trail and two bridges in four hours. At the end of the day it started snowing, which was perfect because it set up the trail surface very nicely. It was an amazing day.
What do you and Dana strive for when constructing trails?
Two things: visual and kinesthetic diversity. Visual diversity means users see many different things on their trail experience, like valleys, forests, rivers and peaks as opposed to just going through dark forest all the time. Kinesthetic diversity is achieved by building a trail to give the user different physical sensations during their experience on the route. This is achieved by building things like jumps, berms, whoops, G-force drops, chicane turns and lots of direction changes. Visitors prefer trails with lots of visual and kinesthetic diversity, which means they'll come back and use that trail again.
The biggest thrill for Dana and me is when we're walking or riding behind someone who doesn't know we've built the trail, and we hear them say they love it. That's the ultimate, and makes us want to build more trails.
David DeLucia
White Plains, New York
westchester county land manager and mountain biker providing opportunities near the big apple
Is there anywhere for mountain bikers to ride near New York City?
There are three county parks designated for mountain biking in Westchester County: Blue Mountain Reservation in the Town of Cortlandt, Sprain Ridge Park in Yonkers/Greenburgh and Graham Hills Park in Mount Pleasant. There are other places to ride, but none so organized or fun - fun being the operative word.
What has been your motivation to improve mountain biking opportunities in your area?
The motivation to improve mountain biking came from a number of sources both within the County Parks Department and outside our agency. Initially we got calls from individual mountain bikers urging us to create places to ride. The most important factor was when I got a Specialized Hardrock as a birthday present and discovered the true joy of off-road travel. The Commissioner of Parks at the time, Sal DeSantis, also was very sympathetic. So we planned northern, central and southern parks to accommodate the mountain bike community in Westchester. Blue Mountain was the first. As we got started, a new IMBA-affiliated club formed. With the support of dedicated volunteers, we began a campaign of building singletrack that continues today!
What's the biggest challenge facing mountain biking in your area today?
The biggest problem is folks building new, unauthorized trails. These tend to be unsustainable due to steep slopes and wrong lines. They also tend to be rather death-defying. When we build new trails in parks, they are always multi-use. They can be very challenging, but can be used by hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders. The problem with some of the unauthorized trails is that they cannot be hiked. If you are not on a bike, they are impossible to traverse. This problem has increased as new bike technology has progressed.
Been on any great rides lately? I have been on some outstanding rides in the last two days at Blue Mountain Reservation. By linking miles of new singletrack with older trails, we ride for two to three hours in a big loop. There's lots of shady, cool, tight, twisty trail with roots, rocks and logs; smooth compact dirt with swooping lines; and rock gardens with miniscule lines. It's great New York riding!
Tim Wegner
Apple Valley, Minnesota
imba advocate helping improve access in a challenging urban area
Minneapolis is an outdoors-oriented city. As such, are there a ton of places to ride a mountain bike?
While there are a lot of paved trails around many of the popular lakes, Minneapolis lacks significant off-road mountain biking trails. I've lived in Minneapolis for a decade and it's only been the past three years that any new miles of trails have been added.
What are some achievements of the Minnesota Off-Road Cyclists?
MORC has begun seeing success from several years of hard work. Our members have been involved politically to secure more mountain biking trails in the metro area. We've completed re-routes of trails at Lebanon Hills Regional Park, turning a system that used to have two miles of doubletrack gravel into almost seven miles of singletrack that includes beginner, intermediate, expert and advanced expert level trails. We've received permission to build other trail systems around the city. Finally, we've opened dialogue and made progress with the Three Rivers Park District that manages 27,000 acres of park land in the Minneapolis metro area.
Tell us about your trailbuilding business.
Loc
Jim and Cathy Haagen Smit
Newcastle, California
imba representatives in the most contentious u.s. state
How did you get started in advocacy?
The local trail system near Sacramento was limited and we felt it was ripe for growth. We actually first worked in road cycling advocacy and managed to get 15 miles of bike lanes added along our commute route to work. We then took what we learned from road bike advocacy and applied it to mountain biking. Working with local land managers and the new mountain bike club, we helped build more extensive singletrack in the California state park near our home. Once the local mountain bike club became stronger, we moved on to our IMBA rep positions.
What are the biggest challenges facing mountain bikers in California today?
Too many people want to claim trails for private use by their specific user group. Segments of the environmental community don't always want to share trails, claiming bikes do too much environmental damage and should be banned from trails. Also, we need to do a better job convincing mountain bikers that an advocacy letter or two can make a difference.
How do you stay excited to do mountain bike advocacy after so many years of volunteering?
By dreaming of the day when IMBA will have paid staff members in California. And I make a point of always riding when the sun is shining, and saving advocacy for when it is either too dark, wet, cold or hot to ride. Also, our recent advocacy has been a great way to learn about the best singletrack throughout California.
