On the Trail with IMBA

Kelly and Collins Bishop are the newest addition to the Subaru IMBA Trial Care Crew! They recently loaded their lives into a few duffel bags, shipped their bikes, and flew out to Boulder CO to move into their new 90 square foot, all wheel drive home and begin what will surely be an exciting 2 years on the road. The Bishops are from Chattanooga Tennessee where they were very active in their local cycling community. Both come from a background in road and mountain bike racing and love any excuse to get out from behind the desk and hit the trail! It’s hard to introduce these two in less than 100 pages but hopefully you will get a chance to meet them as they bounce around the country. They are a couple of fun, energetic and incredibly knowledgeable cats!

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It only seemed proper to kick off the year with a ride at Gooseberry Mesa! We were all relived to see the snow disappearing to reveal beautiful slick rock as we headed south from Boulder.

Sunny and 60!

And a little Prickly!

The following week was full of good rides, amazing people, and a very cool trail design project at Glenn Canyon National Recreation Area.

Glenn Canyon National Recreation Area is in the planning process of creating a trail that will link the town of Page Arizona and the Rim Trail which surrounds Page to the scenic Horse Shoe Bend overlook which lies about 5 miles South East of town. Jason, Kelly, Collins and I worked along side local land managers, city planners, and trail users in designing a multi use trail which will appeal to hikers, mountain bikers, trail runners and equestrians.

This area is known as The Hallway by local hikers.

Kelly and Collins were careful to keep the grade in check with their shiny new inclinometers. One of the challenges of laying out this trail was working on steep sections of slick rock for much of the time and needing to keep it at a beginner friendly grade.

The other challenge was staying focused as the incredible views could suck you in! The trail will weave through slick rock spires and bowls along the rim of Glenn Canyon which drops 1200 feet to the Colorado River.

With a great week of laying out trail finished we waved goodbye to our new friends in Glenn Canyon and continued the adventure south like a bunch of geese. It’s sunny here in Sedona Arizona and the trails are looking good so I’d better go get my ride on!

Cheers!

-Anna

Out in the IMBA field office in Hood River, Oregon the snow has been falling! Saturday, the unexpectedly heavy snowfall caught everyone off guard. By the time we were headed out to hit Dixie’s, 8-10 inches of snow had fallen and the roads had yet to be plowed. We hung up our trusty commuters and dusted off our mountain bikes. A little air in the tires and we were ready to go. Our friends Rick and Nikki decided to brave the ride with Hudson (4 months) the Chariot. Wow, it’s not easy biking through that much snow. A little air out of the tires, gravity dropper set at low. A little momentum to push through.Rick with the Chariot actually did the best- Hudson was sound asleep and the extra weight and wheels stabilized his rear wheel.

The next morning even more snow had accumulated- now about 18 inches.

The plows had been running all night, so most roads were pretty clear. We had planned to go hit the mountain for some backcountry skiing, but instead decided to strap the skis on our backs and ride to the local trails at Post Canyon.


Home for hot cocoa.

Happy riding!

Almost the entire IMBA staff has converged on Boulder, Colorado for the 2008 annual planning meeting. It’s 4 full days of meetings, break-outs, planning sessions, reports, scheduling, computer repair, training, brain storming, and all out brain dumps.

The first days group planning session. It was an all-hands-on-deck discussion of 2008.

Once again, the planning week falls on my birthday. I celebrated as best i could at the office Thanks for the cake, jen!

Between email, phone and the web many of the IMBA staff only see each other in person once a year at best. Monday night we relaxed a bit and caught up with each other. They also sang a really tuneless, super-enthusiastic version of Happy Birthday. It was moving in many ways…

Tuesday we’re are back at it, planning the already announced 2008 IMBA World Summit

It’s 1pm so the lunch break-out session is over. Back to the meetings…

The word out of the San Fran region is that mountain bike access remains a struggle. While progress is being made in some Bay Area locations, the situation is not good for mountain biking at La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve in San Mateo County.

A draft management plan for the property offers just a couple miles of riding, but 30 miles of routes for hiking. It is disappointing that trail management plans are still being written that so drastically shut out mountain biking.

Hundreds of success stories from around the world have proven that mountain biking is an appropriate use of public lands. We’ve learned how to design and manage shared-use trail systems that work. We’ve learned that partnerships between user groups and land managers can overcome nearly all challenges. We’ve learned how to make mountain biking work. Yet many people still oppose the sport.

To learn more, read this newspaper story

and send an email via IMBA’s Action Alert

It’s hard to imagine that just a couple weeks ago we were in Tennessee, riding in short sleeves. Now we’re not so able to ride as it’s quite cold here in Oregon and there is a strange film of white powder covering the ground. So, we’ve turned to the famous Moxy the flying dog for entertainment and hope you too might get a kick out of her crazy leaping skills.

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