IMBA/SORBA National Trails Day Festival

Cathy and I attended the National Trails Day Festival activities in Asheville last weekend. Amazingly enough , for years, there has not been an organized mountain bike club in the Asheville area. But things are changing in a big way for the region...

With literally hundreds of miles of trail in Buncomb County and beyond, an effort to build and maintain the trails was of the utmost importance. Pisgah Area SORBA was formed in November of 2005 as an effort to gather the collective resources of the mountain bike community to promote land access, trail preservation, and new trail development...

Friday night’s festivities kicked off with a meet and greet at Asheville’s Stone Ridge Tavern. Saturday’s announced work plan, a rework of the treasured “Greens Lick” trail in Bent Creek, was discussed. Apparently, in July of 2007 alone, almost 60 riders were evacuated from the trail, indicating the advanced level trail needed choke points and deterrents to keep the lesser qualified riders from getting in over their heads...

The plan included high skill rock gardens at the trail head to make a rider think twice before attempting the trail. Plenty of rock amouring of creek crossings, moving lines and berms, and modifying the final leap of faith, a three tiered tabletop system, giving riders a choice of a go-around and three increasing levels of jumping difficulty. 130 workers were on hand to assist in the process!

I was fortunate to meet with the IMBA Trail Crew of Kelly and Collins Bishop. It was quite interesting to hear that they were well aware of the Trailblazers physically challenged trail at Jetton Park. Apparently news of the trail had come up in a conference in Knoxville, just a few weeks ago! Word does travel fast...

In addition, I was introduced to Brian Williford, IMBA’s North Carolina Rep. Brian has many great ideas for interlocking clubs across the state, getting us to work together to secure grants, rally politicians and continue to grow NC as the southeast’s mountain bike capital. Brian will be attending the IMBA Club Care Clinic in Charlotte this November and we’ll discuss a roundtable of the NC clubs in the same time frame…

Walt Bready of SORBA was on hand to discuss the regional SORBA involvement. It was again interesting to note that our club, while not SORBA affiliated, is looked upon with much favor by the larger organizations. I met with Van Rogers, the Pisgah Area SORBA president. Van is interested in linking with our club to assist in the development of their fledgling organization. I assured him that we have probably made every mistake a club can make, so our knowledge would go a long way to making certain that they more forward quickly and avoid some of the pitfalls that we have fallen into as a club.

Mike and Claudia Nix, owners of Liberty Bikes in Asheville, threw an after party at the Liberty House on the grounds adjacent to the park, and it was the perfect place to party. Their chapter has a Green Man Ale sponsorship, so you can imagine the suds were flowing! It turns out that Claudia is on the NCDENR board that votes on RTP grants. She was familiar with our club and excited to have representation. She told me that she had just voted to approve the Trailblazers $5K SWDP Adopt-A-Trail grant...