MMCC Trail Now 100% Complete

This Wednesday’s ride (June 3rd) will be at Mid Michigan Community College trail at 6pm sharp! The trail is now 100% complete and ready to ride. Course is 9 miles long and begins at the MMCC main parking lot on Clare Avenue.

Directions: US-10 west to US127 North. Take Exit 168 Mannsiding Rd – turn right for 1/4 mile. Turn left (north) at stop sign on Clare Avenue for 3/4 mile to main MMCC entrance. Or plug 1375 S. Clare Ave, Harrison, MI 48625 into your GPS. We’ll be in the parking lot closest to the road.

No worries…Red Wings are off that night!

Mountain Bike Skills Park (Teaser)

 

Mountain Bike Skills Park Concept

We are very close to kicking off the latest addition to the Northeast Chapter mountain bike offerings, a Skills Park at Midland City Forest.  The park will include beginner and intermediate level mountain bike features designed to improve your balance and bike handling skills.  It will be located behind the rear toboggan tower, in an unused, rectangular shaped, grassy clearing. Features will include: dirt jumps, drops, skinnies, log rides/piles, teeter-totters, rocks and a Lee McCormack designed pump track.  This will be the only publicly accessible mountain bike skills park in the Northeast Chapter region (that I know of).  Volunteers will be needed to efficiently build this park, so that we can start riding it as soon as possible.  A portion of this project will be completed thanks to the leadership of area Boy Scout, Matthew Zawisza, earning him an Eagle merit.

Materials for this project will mostly consist of recycled lumber, re-ground concrete, donated scrap rough sawn cedar and other donated items.  If you have or know of other (free) materials that could be used in the build, please contact thadhallberg[at]gmail[dot]com.  Galvanized fasteners and bagged concrete will be needed, as well.

The skills park design has gone through a few rounds of revisions.  Ideas for the current design are based on features seen while researching similar parks.  Some details could change slightly during the construction phase.  If you have some expertise in designing or constructing bike skills features, please volunteer some time, to help us get this right!  Work days will be announced soon.

IMBA calls Skills Parks the “gateway” feature at mountain bike areas.  It helps to introduce younger riders to the sport.  They hone their skills on the jumps and skinnies, then venture out into the nearby trail systems.  I think that the Skills Park will be a great addition to our mountain biking lineup (for all ages).  MMBA Northeast Chapter will be responsible for its maintenance and upkeep.  Please help us in this effort!  Pick up your trash, report damaged features, report or thwart any malicious destruction, ride smart, wear a helmet and other necessary gear, be aware of other riders, etc.  We are fortunate to have the City of Midland’s approval for this project.  Let’s keep the door open for future opportunities.  Thanks!

Feel free to leave any comments below.

MMBANE Site Stats…

 

Monthly Site Views (not including author)

 

 

Believe it or not the MMBA: Northeast Chapter site has some readers.  Our numbers have steadily increased over the last few months…thanks!

There is a lot going on in the local mountain biking scene (new trails, a new bike shop, on going trail maintenance, group rides, races, skills park – coming soon and more).  If you are a mountain biker and are enjoying this stuff, you should consider becoming a member of MMBA (Northeast Chapter).  Your support generates revenue that helps us continue to develop at the local level, as well as supporting the MMBA’s work at the State and National level.

If you are interested in being a contributing author to this site or have suggestions for it’s content, please contact thadhallberg[at]gmail[dot]com.  Please don’t hesitate to use the “comments” areas under each post…you can contribute here anonymously or (better yet) revealed.

BTW…the Northeast Chapter (MMBA) forum discussions have also increased.  This has been a great addition to the MMBA site!  We are encouraging all chapter correspondence to happen here.

We are about due for the next Northeast Chapter meeting…stay tuned for details.

MMCC Trail Nearly Complete (Now Ridden)

MMCC Trail (not completed)

Enough with the rakes, loppers and axes already…we’re going ridin’!  The new trail at Mid Michigan Community College has about 2 miles left to be cut in, but we were eager to ride it. Wednesday night a great group of riders met and did exactly that.  I plotted the 8.1 mile route on my GPS to give you a visual.  The combination of the heat and hill climbing earned us a spot at Ruckle’s (in Clare) for post ride beers, burgers and laughs.

A big thanks to Vaughn Murray and Steve Hoffman for their leadership and dedication to this project.  I could almost name the many others that volunteered their time as well, but I’m sure that I would miss someone.  Thanks to all that helped!

Stay tuned for details on the next build project…a mountain bike skills park at Midland City Forest, that will include dirt jumps, skinnies, drops, teeters and a pump track.  Approvals have been granted and we are finalizing the design.  Until then…RIDE!

First Group Ride at NEW MMCC Trail

This Wednesday’s ride will be at the Mid Michigan Community College Trail in Harrison. We’ll be leaving the main parking lot at MMCC at 6pm sharp. Figure on a 45-50 minute drive from downtown Midland. The weather forecast for Wednesday is PERFECT (sunny and 80 degrees) and we’d really like to get a good turnout for the ride this week – guaranteed worth the drive!

We’re really excited about getting on this trail. It’s set in a beautiful forest with massive trees (some that we ride under) and rolling hills. This trail sports some long, gentle climbs (a few not so gentle) and is completely dry. I don’t think we’ll need a single bridge, which is really great for these recent soggy days. Once we get this trail ridden in with a few bikes it should be fast (big ring?). A nice combination of mostly fast flowing trails (like Hanson Hills) some tighter technical trails (Burns Rd), with a couple short sections of hilly two tracks (Iceman). What’s not to love?

We made great progress this past weekend thanks to a really nice turnout for the trail work session on Saturday. We’re close to having the entire loop cut in, and should be able to easily navigate around the few sections still needing work for our ride. At this point, we probably have around 7-8 miles ready for riding, with perhaps 2-3 miles to go. We’re shooting for a 10 mile loop when all is said and done.

Directions: Take US-10 west to US-127 North about 12 miles to the Mannsiding Road exit (exit 168). Turn Right on Mannsiding Rd. for approx 1/4 mile to Old Clare Avenue. Turn left (North) on Old Clare Avenue for approximately 3/4 mile to the MMCC main entrance parking lot on right.

FYI: Some of us will be working on the trail during most of Wednesday afternoon, before the ride. If you’re interested in joining us , give Steve (430-7082) or Vaughn (205-5909) a call.

Ride on!

Steve

A little more help at MCF please…

…and then you can play!

Hey Mudhaters–

Another big rain last night. But the leaves are sprouting and soon the trees will start doing their work to pull the water out of the ground. In the meantime, the high use of the Midland City Forest trail during this wet spring has markedly increased the number of mudholes that need some work. We placed 12 minibridges, plus 3 mini-minis, mostly on the south end of the south loop last weekend, but there is more to do. We’ll concentrate on moving re-cycled sidewalk chunks and gravel to remaining trouble spots in the dismal swamp area of the South loop and the north end of the north-bound Gnu. Work gloves and heavy shoes are a must. Safety glasses too, for those of you who might want to release your inner hammerman to help shape the chunks.

Just a note on technique: It is important to level the joints between chunks to smooth the ride. Too many riders seem to prefer riding in the mud to staying on the armor, making the trail wide and ugly. Since I cannot be there to spank each of the weenies for their transgressions, we must lure the bums back onto the trail by the quality of our craftmanship. Think smooth! If you haven’t attended one of these work parties, take heart, I’ll get the concrete to the nearest 2-track crossing with my tractor; we only use the wheelbarrows from that point.

Meet at the main parking lot on Monroe at 1:00 pm, Sunday, May 17. Bring a wheelbarrow if you have one, and maybe something to cut small roots (an axe or lopping shears), a necessary step for leveling the pieces. Do I have a volunteer for cookie baking? Oh, and remember to bring a water bottle.

Hope to see A BUNCH OF YOU there. Remember to log your hours. Feel free to forward this note to anyone who might be interested.

Yrs in Dirt,  Jim

(989) 297-3009 cell

IMBA Trail Care Crew in Lansing

IMBA is coming to Lansing, MI, May 23-24, and you’re invited to join in the special events. Kelly and Collins Bishop of the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew are teaming up with the Michigan Mountain Biking Association Mid-State Chapter for a weekend dedicated to improving local trails and having fun.

The visit features a trailbuilding school and a group ride. This is your opportunity to rub shoulders with the IMBA Crew while learning all about trailbuilding. Check out the details below and come join in the fun.

Schedule:

Saturday

9:00 – Noon: Trailbuilding School classroom session at Delta Township Offices

1:00 – 4:00 PM: Trailbuilding School field session

Sunday

10:00 – Noon: Trail work

1:00 PM: Group ride

For additional information and to RSVP, please contact Chris Mensing (cmensing76@yahoo.com)

MMCC Work Party 9am Saturday, May 16th

Thanks to all the volunteers who have been helping at the Mid Michigan Community College mountain bike trail these last few weeks. We currently have almost half of the 10 mile loop cut and with a good turnout this week we hope to make a big dent in the remaining sections.

The next trail day is coming up this Saturday at 9am. We could really use some help with raking and pruning (loppers). We’ll meet at the MMCC main parking lot on Clare Ave (Old 27) and then head out to various sections.

Questions? Give Vaughn (205-5909) or Steve (430-7082) a shout. Thanks.

Steve

Mother’s Day Party at MCF

Well not really…

We’ve got to get our new minibridges installed (at Midland City Forest). I’m hoping at least a few of you can help to get the stuff we hammered together last week into the woods tomorrow afternoon. We’ll move concrete chunks and gravel on another day. Please meet at the main entrance to the MCF at 3:00 PM. We’ll make a quick tractor circuit of the park and tote the minibridges into place, mostly in the dismal swamp area of the south loop. Should take less than 2 hours. Bring work gloves.    -Jim

Another Mid-Michigan CC work day…

This is late notice, but if you would like to get involved with building the new trail near Harrison, be there tomorrow Saturday May 9th at 2pm.  Volunteers are meeting up in the main MMCC parking lot.  See older posts for details.  Big (plastic) leaf rakes work well and loppers/hand pruners.

Call Vaughn with any questions (989) 205-5909