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.

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

Go Ride!

The weather was amazing yesterday and looks to be good for a few days…get out and ride!  Midland’s City Forest is fast and fun.  The leaves are breaking down nicely, allowing riders to get more traction and actually see the trail.  Keep in mind that the daylight hours are limited for late afternoon rides.  Enjoy!

If you had a great ride recently, post a comment about it.