January 2009 #101 - NEMBA | New England Mountain … Files/ST200901 1… · · 2016-12-15New...

January 2009 #101www.nemba.org

January 2009 #101www.nemba.org

SingleTrackS No. 101 | 3

SingleTrackSNEMBA, the New England Mountain BikeAssociation, is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organi-zation dedicated to promoting trail access,maintaining trails open for mountain bicyclists,and educating mountain bicyclists to use thesetrails sensitively and responsibly.

SingleTracks is published six times a year by theNew England Mountain Bike Association forthe trail community.

©SingleTracks Editor & Publisher: Philip Keyes

Contributing Writer: Jeff CutlerCopy Editor: Nanyee Keyes

Executive Director: Philip [email protected]

NEMBAPO Box 2221

Acton MA 01720

Voice 800.57.NEMBAFax: 717-326-8243

[email protected]

Board of DirectorsHarold Green, President

Peter DeSantis, Vice-PresidentAnne Shepard, TreasurerTom Grimble, Secretary

Rob Adair, White Mountains NEMBABart Angelo, RI NEMBANorman Blanchette, MV NEMBAMatt Bowser, SCNH NEMBATodd Bumen, Mt. Agamenticus NEMBASteve Cobble, SE MA NEMBAJon Conti, White Mountains NEMBAEammon Carleton, BV NEMBAKevin Davis, Midcoast Maine NEMBAPeter DeSantis, Southern NH NEMBABob Giunta, Merrimack Valley NEMBARich Kordell, Blackstone Valley NEMBASteve LaFlame, Central NH NEMBAFrank Lane, NS NEMBACasey Leonard, Midcoast Maine NEMBAHeather Linscott, Berkshire NEMBAEric Mayhew, CT NEMBALiam O’Brien, PV NEMBATim Post, GB NEMBAMatt Schulde, RI NEMBATren Spence, CT NEMBADan Streeter, North Shore NEMBAMike Tabaczynski, Greater Boston NEMBAKerry Tull, Southern NH NEMBAJohn Vosburg, Blackstone Valley NEMBACalvin Weeks, Maine NEMBAJim Wrightson, Wachusett NEMBA

W W W . N E M B A . O R G

SingleTrackSNovember 2008, Number 100

Paper TrailTreadlines — 5Riding with Teens — 20SideTracks — 21Places to Ride — 21Basic Biking — 22Chapter News —23NEMBA Rides —31Support our Sponsors —39

SingleTracks Hey, get creative! We wel-come submissions, photos and artwork. This isyour forum and your magazine. Be nice, andshare!

On the Cover: Tina Gagnon clowning aroundat the Wicked Ride of th e East. Photo by PhilipKeyes

Have a pic that would make a good cover shot?Email it to [email protected]

Want to Underwrite in ST?SingleTracks offers inexpensive and targetedunderwriting which helps us defray the cost ofproducing this cool ‘zine. Call 800-57-NEMBAor email [email protected] for our media kit.

Moving?Don’t miss an issue! Change your address onlineat nemba.org or mail it into SingleTracks, PO Box2221, Acton MA 01720

Rumble in the

JungleLa Ruta de los Conquistadores is an epic 4-day race in

Costa Rica. River crossings, trestle bridge crossings,volcano crossings, this race has everything! By Greg

Brown

Winterize your

BikeDon’t hang up your bike until next spring -- there’splenty of riding fun in the snow. Here are some hot

tips for cold days so you can keep on riding in thewhite stuff. By Ryan Deroche.

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T R E A D L I N E S

NEMBA’s JerseyThe Holidays are Here!

Imagine vivid blues, luscious greens and bril-liant oranges and red — this is classic New

England. Ride with Pride, Ride Hard!

Available Online @ www.NEMBA.org

CT NEMBA's Paula BurtonSpeaks at the New England Parks

Association's Annual Meeting Paula Burton was invited to present a workshop on Designing andBuilding Sustainable Trails at the annual conference of the NewEngland Parks Association on September 8 in Dennis, MA. Twentyfour land managers were in attendance. The attendees designed a vir-tual trail, incorporating the features and recreational groups found in

their parks. Other topics included communicating with volunteers tofacilitate high quality trail work. Another topic of interest to the landmanagers was mountain biking as recreation, which included the fullspectrum of mountain biking from casual dirt road type riding, tosingle track cross country, and to freeriding with constructed obsta-cles.

Join NEMBA's HeadcapLeadership SocietyDisplay your above and beyondsupport of NEMBA with a cus-tom NEMBA headset cap foryour bike.

Donors of $100 or more willreceive a black and silver CNC'dheadset cap with the NEMBAlogo and become part of ourHeadcap Leadership Society.

Donate $100 to NEMBA’sAnnual Appeal and ride withpride!

NEMBA TrainingOnce again NEMBA participated in the annual trail school forMassachusetts staff of the Department of Recreation andConservation. NEMBA Instructors, Tom Grimble and MikeTabaczynski, provided detailed information on sustainable trail designand construction. MA DCR has a renewed commitment to trails, sig-nage and the quality of user experiences. Philip Keyes also present-ed the group with the partnership opportunities involving NEMBA.

CT NEMBA’s Paula Burton and Dyana Martin, President of the New EnglandParks Association

SE MA NEMBA’s Take a KidMountain Biking Day

A bright but cool sunny day greeted NEMBA, FOW, and TrailWatchWompatuck volunteers as we setup for our first ever 'Take a KidMountain Biking Day' at the park. Steve Cobble spearheaded theevent and set up two 10 X10 tents for registration and a space fora volunteer from the Ski Market to wrench and perform bike safetychecks for the kids. From 9:30 to 12 noon we offered bike safetychecks, skill development lessons, and guided rides in the park.Custom tours of the park were created to accommodate kids withdifferent riding abilities and to ensure everyone had a great time.By noon, we had approximately 25 kids and parents participate inthe festivities. The Friends of Wompatuck are excited to grow thisevent in the future to promote an interest in off road riding and tobroaden the public's understanding of the sport and our contribu-tions to the community.

Photo by Joe Sloane

6 | January 2009

T R E A D L I N E S

The Sinister Bike Vietnam Trail CareTour 2008 has come to a close. In2008, we had over 55 volunteers whoattended 27 official trail days, dedi-cating over 700 hours working on thetrails this year. This brings the totalvolunteer hours over the last 4 yearsin Vietnam to over 3000 hours. Thisis a testament to the quality and pop-ularity of the trails. I'd like to give ashout out to Don Johnson, whologged the most trail days attended:25 of the 27 trail days.

The trails built in Vietnam area start-ed with the Milford access trail on thewest side of the Upper CharlesHeadwaters Area, the infamous DLS(Dirty Little Secret), Rubber Stamp(formerly known as TNT), and nowLincoln Logs at the bottom of Rubber Stamp. The trails range fromXC to fast-flowing freeriding. The technical trail features includedrops, step ups, rock gardens, kickers, and now skinnies. The workthis year wrapped up with the building of a 85' log ride, which is chal-lenging and committing with a fair bit of exposure.

Dynamic Bicycles and Blackstone NEMBA hosted the Volunteer

Appreciation Event on Sunday,October 26th. The event was forvolunteers who worked in Vietnam,and it included a ride, post-rideBBQ, and drawing for the SinisterBikes Gruitr frame. Volunteersreceived an entry for the frame foreach trail event attended. I ampleased to announce that DaveRiding is the winner of the Gruitrframe. Congratulations DR!

We look forward to continuing thetrail work next season. TuesdayNight Trail crew (TNT) will start inthe late winter/spring. Sinister hasgraciously stepped up to supportthe trail work in Vietnam by donat-ing a frame for the 2009 trail build-ing season. If you enjoy the new

trails in Nam, please try to find one Tuesday evening or weekend dayto help continue the tradition of building and maintaining high qual-ity trails in the Upper Charles Headwaters Area (aka Vietnam).

The New England Mountain Bike Association thanks you for yoursupport. —John Vosburg, Chair of the Vietnam Land ManagementCommittee

Vietnam Rocks with the Sinister Trail Care Tour

Dave Mitchell, Mike DeCristofaro, and Eammon Carleton on RubberStamp. Photo by Robert Taylor


T R E A D L I N E S

It was a great way to end a wicked great season of the Kona MTBAdventure Series. Three hundred riders came to check out the won-derful trails at Harold Parker State Forest cared for by North ShoreNEMBA, raising over $2,300 in the process. Once again Seth andthe crew at New England Bicycle brought out some Kona Bicycles,and it was good to have Sinister Bikes, Cycle Loft, the Luna Chixand Team Vitamin Water in the house.Anthony of Cycle Loft cooked up over 250 hot-

dogs, kilbasa and brats, and the now infamous Lee Hollenbeckscorched the crowd with his homemade chili. This was definitelyone of those rides where you leave with more calories than you lefton the trail!. Our thanks to North Shore NEMBA, and especiallySteve Charrette, for hosting such a wonderful fixture of the moun-tain bike scene! We thank you all, as well as all the sponsors that

make the Kona Bicycles MTB Series possible. .

Wicked Ride, Wicked Fun

Bruce the Firefighter, Sinister Bikes Steve Charrette, Wicked PromoterPhotos by PK

Joe DiZazzo, Wicked Trailbuilder

8 | January 2009

NEMBA Raffle Winners

NEMBA’s annual raffle was one of the mostsuccessful in recent history, raising more than$7,000 for NEMBA’s Trails Grant and advocacyprograms. All this is made possible by you, aswell as the generosity of our vendors.

Harold Green was the lucky winner ofthe Giant Trance XO.

John Siener won the trip with WesternSpirit Cycling.

Frank Lane won the Exposure LightsEnduro Maxx and Joystick.

Tim Cosgrave won the Fox Shox.

Matt Schulde won the Mavic CrossMaxwheelset.

John Sumner won the VDO Z1 Altimetercyclecomputer

But the real winner is all of us since the fund-ing will be used to promote more places to rideand better trails on public lands.

Thank you for the support!

T R E A D L I N E S


What a Season it has Been!As 2008 comes to a close, we can be proud of the many things thatNEMBA has done to make the world better for mountain biking.Here's the short list:

• we held 100 Trail Care Events in 44 different parks as part of ourTrek Bicycles, Jamis Bicycles and Sinister Bikes Trail Care Series.Ask yourself - how many days are there in the summer? That’sa lot of days, then add on to this all of the Tuesday Night TrailCare at Vietnam! Or look at it this way, this represents over8,000 hours of volunteerism on New England trails, or theequivalent of $80,000 of donated labor, plus materials!

• We had 1350 rides in 2008, by our members for our members.

• We put on five charity rides, the Kona Bicycles MTB AdventureSeries, that raised over $8,000 for our parks and advocacy.

• We held two MTB Days at the Middlesex Fells and the Blue Hills,as well as a fabulous Fall Fiesta at Greyville Falls Park inConnecticut to promote family riding and improved trail access.

• We put on three Take a Kid Mountain Biking events, and the oneat the Fells had over 120 kids!

• We were contracted for two Trail Building Workshops with theMA Dept. of Conservation & Recreation.

• We built a Pump Track in Camden, Maine and have another onein the works in the White Mountains.

• We are holding at least three Toy Drive rides during the holidaysto collect toys for needy children

• We held three trail building workshops, in addition to our week-end Trail Building School.

• We designed and built the first new trail in the Berkshires inyears!

• Received two large grants from REI for our Ambassador Programin Rhode Island and for Wompatuck State Park. We also gotover $11K for our Ambassador program in Connecticut from theDept. of Environmental Protection.

• Awarded a $30K Recreational Trails Program Grant for trailbuilding at the Beaver Brook Reservation, and have applied forover $16K for various projects in 2009

• We put on 18 Riding Clinics in addition to three weekly clinics

• Our new NEMBA Explorers Kids Program held four kids rides atthe Fells, and our Explorers program with the Pembroke SkiMarket has been holding weekly kids rides.

• For fun, we helped organize three movie screenings of Klunkerzand The Collective, helped out with the Redbones Block Partyand put on our 20th Anniversary Celebration Banquet

We thank all the hundreds of volunteers who made this possible, andwe welcome you to come out and lend a hand in 2009!

T R E A D L I N E S

10 | January 2009

Iwondered yet again whether all theresearch I was doing, reading everyblog, forum, and bike magazine article

related to La Ruta del losConquistadores, was somehow going todetract from the experience. After all,this was an adventure race. BetweenGoogle Earth, GPS tracks and variousother reports, I was starting to feel like Iknew the route. Certainly it was a far cryfrom the information the originalConquistadores had at their disposal,though on the other hand, our itinerarywas not quite the same as theirs either,thankfully leaving out the sacking andpillaging of natives…

Rumble in the JungleLa Ruta de los Conquistadores

by Greg Brown


In my defense was one fact that I'd kept tomyself since I'd registered for the race, backin the depths of a New England winter 2007- I was signing on to La Ruta as a total moun-tain bike novice. In fact, I only bought myfirst MTB in March of 2008.

As a long time roadie I was pretty sure of mygeneral fitness, but the challenge I had set formyself, that is, get to a La Ruta level in 8months was bordering on absurd. Still, I hadalways prided myself on the ability to bite offmore than I could chew then chew hard, sorather than dwell on things I immersedmyself in the world of MTB, signing up forany and every race in the region, especiallyanything 6 hours or longer. I learned a lot oflessons during this period: not just how tohandle a bike on singletrack, but also a lotabout the perils of mud and sticks in a drivetrain, the need to jealously protect aderailleur hanger, and most importantly howto fall off and not break too many bones.

So with that fast-tracked education behindme, I finally sealed up my bike box, zipped upthe bags and headed out the door, committedto manage with whatever I had, both in myluggage and in my legs.

The next trick was checking in... I'd put mostof my tools, spares, pump, and assorted bitsand pieces in with the bike which broughtthe total weight to just over 70 lbs. Thismeant a bit of fast talking/pleading to avoidoverweight cargo charges (which these daysare crazy high). In the end it cost $150 forthe bike ($100 + $50 charge for bags >50lbs). Luckily my other bags went on forfree since I booked my flight back in March.

A trouble-free flight to San Jose, Costa Ricahelped start things off on the right foot.Contrary to many other's experiences withlost luggage and other stressful negotiations,I spent the Monday in my hotel preparing thebike, packing the race kit, spares, gels/elec-trolytes/hydration powder... and trying notto get too nervous. To let off a bit of steam Ispun out in the hotel gym for a bit which atleast gave me a good chance to feel thehumidity. It was not that warm in San Jose,but sure was humid.

With no major hassles building my bike, Iwas done much sooner than expected, so Ikilled a bunch of time hanging out in thelobby watching the other racers arrive. It waseasy to spot the racers amongst the crowds:you just had to look for the shaved legs! (Themassive bike boxes in their luggage were alsoa pretty good clue...) We were all in the sameboat - nowhere to go but the Denny's nextdoor, or the Subway across the street. So weended up sharing the same slightly nervousconversations with recurring themes: wheredo we store our bike boxes, will we have

access to them during the race, what are thebest tires to be running, is 17000 feet ofclimbing on day 1 the craziest thing you'veever heard. (Answers: Here, Yes, Any tire thatstays inflated - they're all going to get packedin mud, and Yes)

Tuesday it all started getting much more seri-ous. After lining up in the sun to load ourbikes on the trucks we were all shuttled tothe start town (Jaco Beach) with a stop alongthe way at a bike store for last minute sup-plies. Brake pads were a popular item, but Ialso saw one guy buying a set of handlebars

- somehow in the pre-race excitement backat home he'd forgotten to pack this reason-ably important item. As the bus full of rac-ers wound its way over the mountains beforeplunging down to the Pacific coast of CostaRica, we were all nervously looking at eachother. Hmm, there seem to be a lot of moun-tains in the country. Yes, and steep ones too.Putting two and two together, all of us cameto the same conclusion: this is gonna hurt.

Day 1 was the very definition of epic. It start-ed with a 2:45am wake up call, a 3 am break-fast of leftover pizza, getting lined up with

Crossing one of many, many trestle bridges

12 | January 2009

450 other racers at 4am, then hitting the road at 5... Apparently MTBersdon't like riding in packs since at the very first corner there was a Cat5 stylepile up, but once this was cleared the first 10 km stayed on tarmac and peo-ple were hammering. This all changed abruptly when we hit the first climbs,and things only got harder as the day went on. I had started pretty hard, andwas spinning up these first climbs on a wave of adrenaline, all the whileknowing that at some point I'd have to back off or pay a heavy price.

Soon after as we entered the Carara Rainforest there was plenty of thefamous La Ruta mud and about 5 miles of it was more or less unridable. Yes,that was a very long way to carry/push a bike which has an extra 20 poundsof mud attached. It was about here that I really started to struggle. At firstI could not find a good way to carry the bike, and ended up wasting a lot ofenergy wrestling with it. More than once I had to take a time out and con-centrate on trying to find a rhythm. Eventually things started working them-selves out, and instead of moving backwards through the group I was keep-ing my position.

One of many highlights on the day included the bike wash and chain lubeservice provided along the way by locals. It was incredible to see the amountof support the locals were putting into this race. Whether or not you want-ed the liberal application of motor oil slapped onto your chain, it was hardto fault their enthusiasm.

Much, much more climbing followed including an 18km climb to the highpoint of the day. The 10 km descent was a screaming doubletrack - loose androcky. The finale was a 15km climb (no surprise) up gravel roads - all at 15%or so. The surprise was the position of the finish line, about 10km furtherthan expected. It seemed to be never ending, and the locals would alwaysyell out "only 2km to go". Yes it may have been 2km to somewhere, just notto our finish line.Concentrating on a rocky and loose descent.


The good news is that I (and my bike) made it throughintact (but very, very dirty) and with a mid-pack overallposition and well inside the time limit. A lot of riders didnot make it in time, and as darkness fell so did the rain,making for a depressing finish to a long day.

My thoughts immediately shifted to showers and food,lots of it. I crossed my fingers that my legs could recov-er for more of the same punishment tomorrow.

Day 2's stage was a real climb-fest: 14000 feet of eleva-tion gain in 48 miles. No mud like yesterday, but seem-ingly unending climbs of gradients that defied belief.What were the road engineers thinking?!? How did theyget the tarmac to stick? Some of the sections were onlybarely rideable in a 24/34 granny gear (making my previ-ous benchmarks of steep roads like Appalachian Gaplook like a highway overpass). It was not uncommon tohave to walk a lot of these sections since that was fasterthan riding. I think I set a new personal slow-speedrecord today: at one point I was riding at 3.6 kph (I'mtoo embarrassed to convert that to mph). These climb-ing sections went on and on, and just when youthought the top was around the next corner, somehowthe road went up again. Lesson learned: don't listen to locals whenthey say the top is "100 meters around the next bend".

There were many other highlights: the rocky and STEEP descents weresketchy but kind of fun in a masochistic way (I completely worethrough a brand new set of brake pads in only 2 days...); the techni-

cal descents through not one but two coffee plantations; the everincreasing camaraderie between the racers as we all started to appre-ciate the enormity of the task we had undertaken; but best of all wasthe support offered by tons of local school kids who would line upwaiting for a high-five while others sprayed us with water from a firehose. The noise, the smiles and the scene were just what we needed

Climbing above the clouds on the slopes of Volcano Irazu. 20 km of this gradient wascertainly a big effort.

14 | January 2009

to push us over the top of the next climb. I can't say enough abouthow friendly and open the locals (Ticos) were.

So at this halfway point the two most climbingest days were done, aswell as the hardest day (Day 1), but was by no means over yet. I hadalready climbed the equivalent of sea level to over the top of Mount

Everest, so the residual effect that had on the bodywould make the final two days quite the chal-lenge. I ate a second dinner then crawled off tobed, ready for another dreaded 4am wake-up call...

Today we went up a volcano and came down whatappeared to be a rocky riverbed!

Waking up at 4am with really sore legs, I struggledto get myself moving and force down some redbeans and rice. I was feeling really dehydratedfrom yesterday's effort so was trying to drink any-thing and everything, knowing that another longhard day was in store.

From the gun we started the climbing, first on tar-mac but it rapidly turned into a dirt doubletrackwith fist sized rocks. At 8km we passed throughan incredible tunnel of moss before emerging ontoan unrideable dirt/mud wall. Beyond that wasmore dirt/loose climbing at about 15-20% andthen finally we hit tarmac again. Here the climbingreally started. We climbed for 20 more km to thetop of Volcan Irazu (just over 10000'). I was feel-ing a lot of knee tendon pain on this climb and so

spent most of it spinning in the granny ring. La Ruta is all about man-agement of pain and equipment, so sacrificing some speed and glorywas the most sensible thing to do by far. At the top I interrupted my"Ode to the Granny Gear" which I had been composing al the way up,

The Start Line: Day Three


and filled up with 100oz of water, 1 bottle ofGatorade and downed a few cups of hot sweettea.

Immediately the ruta left the tarmac and head-ed onto a rocky, loose and dangerous descent.My full suspension 29er was soaking it up so Iopened the throttles and let it rip. I started fly-ing by others on the trail who had a more cau-tious approach, or at least being on hardtailshad no choice... This descending went on, andon, and on. As we dropped altitude the vegeta-tion changed as did the character of the trail.We had to cross a few creeks (and thus had toclimb out of them again) but generally it was20km of blazing downhill. The trickiest sectionwas about 2/3 of the way down where bouldersmixed in with babyhead rocks promised thatany slip would have painful consequences. Imanaged to hold it together with only a fewheart stopping wobbles - a few choice words tomyself had me back in line...

The last bit of the descent was a switchbacktrack through a coffee plantation - really dry andgravelly (i.e. slippery) but soon enough I was under the banner anddone in 6hr:10min. A much better performance (GC wise) than thefirst two stages, but most importantly the bike and myself wereinjury-free. This afternoon really felt like a turning point for me - I had

been surviving the first two stages but now I felt like I was finally rac-ing. The man who went up a hill and came down a mountain - orsome variation on this.

Back at the hotel we sat around with our legs dangling in an icy coldswimming pool - with one stage to go all of us were starting to see

Crossing a beautifully cool river. The baking temperatures on Day 4 were taking their toll, soa quick dip in this water was essential!

16 | January 2009

the light at the end of the tunnel...

Another short night of sleep and more beans/rice for breakfast. Theytest you in many ways at La Ruta - the logistics and food being justpart of it.

Fortunately our hotel was close to the start so we had a lot of timeto prep the bikes, fill up with water and get set for what was to bethe longest stage (by distance). We were under no illusions that thiswould be an easy day, especially since the sky was clear and it was

shaping up to be a scorching hot day. I listened to a guy telling thestory of his buddy who suffered an electrolyte shortage on day 1 andended up in hospital in a coma. He recovered thankfully. A soberingwarning indeed - I took a few more swigs of Gatorade...

Once again they took no pity on us and blared "classic" 90's Eurotechno through the speakers on the start line. Finally we could escapethis and start climbing up through the same coffee plantation switch-backs that we had descended yesterday. Ouch! A 5km loose climb

was not the most welcome thing to do right off the line. By the top(about 45 minutes later) I was soaked in sweat and halfway throughmy Camelbak. I filled it at the 15km checkpoint and kept on going.Some fast and rocky descents followed but nothing like yesterday, andthen at about 38km we headed up one last 1200' dirt/gravel climb. Bynow it was blazing hot. The most important word to know in Spanishbecame "agua" - yelling it out to local bystanders would mostly resultin getting a bucket/bottle/hose thrown over you! This was a real lifesaver. I was suffering a lot on this climb, the heat, the gradient andthe effects of the three previous days were conspiring against me. Itried visualizing myself dancing on the pedals, but kept gettingbrought back to earth as the dance became more of a slow shuffle.

We started down there in the valley. Not a bad morning's workFlying down the rough descent from Volcano Irazu

Food selection was great, but the flies on the tuna sandwiches were a bit of aturn-off. The boiled/salted potatoes were great.


At the top of this I experienced a realsense of relief - there was no more sig-nificant climbing in La Ruta. Emotionsby now were only just beneath the sur-face, but there were still 80 hot km togo, so it was not quite time to celebrate.

Perhaps the only "easy" bit of the racefollowed - a dirt/tarmac descent wherespeeds of 45-50mph were reached...Woo hoo! Bunches of riders were start-ing to form, so we drafted one another,all with the same thoughts of getting tothe finish as soon as possible. Thisdownhill ended all too soon anddeposited us in the flat lands where thetemperatures were pushing 100+degrees.

Of course La Ruta was not finished withus. The infamous train sections andriver crossings on dodgy trestle bridgeshad to be navigated. I found thesebridges pretty easy, as I'm not afraid ofheights and my long legs could easilystep over the gaps in the trestles. Thefirst few sections of riding between thetracks were ok too, and I was beginning to think that this was all abit overrated. Just as I had that thought we headed back onto thetracks for a bone jarring, slippery and soul destroying hour or so. Iwas caught behind some slower riders, but with nowhere to pass Iwas content to follow in their wake. An hour passed and then thesmell of the air was changing.Sure enough the sound of surfhitting the beach could also beheard. Good news!

Under the baking sun, I foundmyself starting to think nega-tive thoughts of the traintracks, the people around meand myself. I realized I was onthe verge of bonking - theefforts of the day and the onespreceding it finally catching upwith me. My vision was tun-neling in around the odometeron my bike computer - thefinal checkpoint should havebeen 5km ago, where was it?

Just in time the checkpointcame into view and I refuelledone last time. Never has a tunasandwich tasted so good. Feelingremarkably better I cruised the last 6 km to the finish with one of mymany new friends. Crossing the line at Playa Bonita, the feeling ofachievement, and utter relief that it was all over will never be forgot-ten. We are all now Conquistadores.

I looked down at my handlebars and at the messages I had written onthem to give me inspiration during the race. The one that stood outthe most summed up the biggest question of whole year: can we takea roadie and turn him into a La Ruta Conquistador? "Yes We Can".

Some of the climbs got steeper and steeper. There were sections over 30% just around the corner.

Heading in for a dip in the Caribbean

18 | January 2009

Some years, I mountain bike a lotduring the winter months. Istretch on a couple of studded

tires, fill my Camelback with hotchocolate, and gut out the cold. Otheryears, I opt to ride inside, bolting an oldclunker to a fluid trainer. Last season, Iresigned myself to gaining a few winterpounds, and hoped for an early spring.This year, I've decided to turn over anew leaf to try my hand at winter com-muting. I'm doing it as much to keep offthe weight as to save a little on gas andcar expenses. Winters around here canbe pretty tough, though, so I havesome preparing to do.

Getting ready for winter commuting inNew England involves preparing twomajor pieces of equipment, your bikeand your body. Failing to attend toeither of these two items can mean thedifference between a relatively fun andlow-key off-season, and a series of cru-elly cold winter death-marches.

Most bikes will need to be at leastslightly re-outfitted for typical winter riding conditions. That said, acouple of years into a winter riding program will teach you prettyquickly that there really is nothing typical about winters around here.If you are comfortable making changes on your bike from day to day,as conditions warrant, go for it, otherwise, read on!

The type of bike that you will be using should be your first thought.Normally, you won't want to ride your prize winning show bikethrough 3 inches of snow, salt, and sand (that is, if you have a prize-winning show-bike…). In any case, winter riding conditions canwreak havoc on virtually every part of your steed, including the fin-ish, so you'll want to choose a bike you don't particularly cherish forits beauty.

To protect everything (including you) against wet salty spray, youshould pick a ride that has good tire clearance, 'cause you're going towant to mount fenders and or racks. Rigid mountain bikes, hybridsand cyclocross bikes tend to be the best choices for mud-guard clear-ance.

Choosing a good set of tires is next on your to-do list. Pick studdedknobby tires if you plan on riding through ice and snow, and selectall-condition slicks for everything else (how well do they plow yourstreets?).

Full length housing for brake and derailleur cables will help preventsticky/corroded controls and is an inexpensive conversion on manybikes. Frequent lubing with lighter lubes tends to be the cleanestmost reliable way to keep your bits running smooth through the win-ter. Heavy lubes tend to attract grime and are harder to clean off, aswell as getting a bit stiff in extreme cold.

Single speed bikes or internally geared systems tend to be much morereliable and easier to deal with during really nasty snow conditions,but this may not be an easy conversion on many modern bikes.

Disc brakes and drum brakes are much more reliable, and have a moreconsistent feel even in really horrible conditions, than v-brakes or

canti's. Good stoppers will make your riding, whether recreational orcommuting, much more enjoyable.

Finally, J.P Weigel Frame Saver (a rust inhibitor) sprayed into a frame,will protect steel from moisture that gets trapped inside your bike. J.P.can make even a steel clunker frame last for many winter seasons.

During the winter months, dressing correctly can be even moreimportant than setting up your bike properly. Preparing yourwardrobe for arctic conditions has a two-fold purpose, keeping youwarm and keeping you visible (think: cold and dark). Much like yourbike preparations, your clothing choices will be dependent on yourtolerance for cold and nasty weather conditions.

Keeping your core warm is of course your biggest concern, so chooseyour technical clothing and base layers wisely. For cold weather, pickbase layers that will wick away sweat (clothing that is soaked-through only wicks away body heat!). Most clothing companies thatspecialize in winter gear will inform you of the temperature range thateach of their articles is made to handle. While you're at it, choose atleast one outer layer that has a generous amount of reflectivity.

Usually clothing with wind blocking abilities is a smart choice for atleast one of your cold-weather layers. New England's winter zephyrsalways seem to be of the headwind variety, and they cut thoughwimpy clothing like a knife.

Proper shoes and gloves are essential to both comfort and safety.Protect the outer-most extremities on your body, where blood flowsclosest to the surface and you'll help preserve your core temperature.Aside from being miserable, hands that have been frozen into rigidclaws aren't good for much. Ditto frozen feet. Glove liners worninside a heavier glove are a good idea, especially if you ever have totake your hands out to adjust your helmet, or take care of a mechan-ical issue. Warm wool socks help keep the toes warm even whenwet-and once in a while those little chemical warmers packets stuffedinto gloves or shoes can be life savers.

A light weight skull cap or a full face-mask (balaclava) rounds out a

Winterizing Your Bikeby Ryan Deroche, Service Manager for The Cycle Loft, www.cycleloft.com

Don’t let the white stuff stop you from getting out! Your favorite trails take on a whole new beauty andchallenge in the winter. Photo by Michael Rowell.


winter clothing ensemble, and can help keep your pretty face protect-ed and less chapped. Heavier hats are tough to fit under a helmet, soconsider taping up the vents on your trusty lid (or buying a ready-made helmet cover). Some severe weather riders will even wear gog-gles to protect their eyes from the elements.

Finally, dress in layers. Carry an extra layer or two as well. It's easyto get carried away when getting ready to brave the elements. Wintercycling can run the gamut from high to low metabolic heat production.If you're going out for a leisurely spin, wear more. If you're heading outfor a hard session, don't over dress. For the latter type of ride, a goodrule of thumb to keep in mind is that if you're NOT cold for the first10 or 15 minutes of your ride, then you're overdressed.

Lights and fenders round out your winter preparation. A good set ofrechargeable headlights and bright rear flashers can help you year'round, but on those grey snowy evenings and short days they’re espe-cially important for visibility. As was mentioned earlier, fenders areextremely useful as well, not only to keep snow and grime off yourride, but also to keep it off of you, keeping you drier and warmer.

Last of all; equip yourself with some common sense. Diehard wintermountain bikers know this. A clothing and equipment plan that is per-fectly suited for a hard night ride in Lynn Woods could be totally inad-equate for fixing a flat tire on Mass. Ave. Be prepared for rapidlychanging conditions, and plan ahead.

With that said, no matter how you choose to use your bike this win-ter, be safe make some tracks, and maybe we'll see you out there!Cheers!

Wayne Cunningham dresses for success: windproof thermal tights, winterboots, layered upper body, and stylish balaclava! Photo by PK

20 | January 2009

Riding with teens is just as much fun as riding with younger kids.(*See the September issue of SingleTracks.)Only they learnfaster. I clearly remember riding with one youngster who had

joined an adult ride with his dad only to find out that he couldn't keepup. He didn't like the fact that the rest of us were constantly waitingfor him. He stuck with it and only a few months later, he could rideall of the adults on that ride into the ground.

When I'm leading a ride for teens, I assume that there will be at leasttwo types of riders along - good riders on good bikes and inexperi-enced riders who may be riding anything. So, the ride starts off witha bike safety check that includes checking tire pressure, the brakes,shifting etc. If there are adults along on the ride, I check their bikestoo. This gives me a chance to talk to everyone, ask them how muchthey ride, and get an advanced look at their equipment.

I make sure that everyone has plenty of water and some kind of asnack. As the ride's leader, I make sure that I carry a couple of extratubes, and on longer rides I've been know to stash some cold drinksand snacks somewhere along the route.

Before the ride have a riders meeting. Take the time to introduce your-self, tell them a bit about the place that you'll be riding in. Thankthem for coming and invite any parents that are there to join you.Describe your planned route and mention a few of the things that youexpect to encounter. If there's a big downhill, or an awesome single-

track on your route, mention it now. Get everyone a bit excited aboutthe ride.

It's a good idea to make the first half hour of the ride pretty easy. Thatway you can see how well everyone is riding and guesstimate howdifficult you can make the rest of the ride. Remember: rides are always"led" by the slowest and most inexperienced riders. Forget that ruleand your ride will become a disaster.

Older kids like challenges. They like to push themselves and they liketo push you too. It can be more of an effort to keep a handle on thingswhen you're riding with teens as personalities can sometimes get inthe way of fun. A good way to get everyone on the same page is tohave a skill session of some kind. For example: demonstrate how tojump a log, then have everyone try it for themselves. Then, find a big-ger log, and then a really large log. By the time you're done, you'll beriding with a team, not individuals.

Fitness and skill levels will vary. A good ride will be one that lasts longenough to get everyone tired, but that isn't so fast that anyone burnsout. Striking a balance between those two factors can be a challengethough. One way to extend a ride, and to give slower or less fit rid-ers a chance to catch their breaths is to do a bit of trail work. Is therea deadfall blocking the path? If so, a group of kids working togethercan usually pick it up and drag it into the woods. If you bring a smallfolding saw, give everyone a chance to do a bit of "work". Thenrefreshed and rested, everybody will be ready to get back to the ride.

Route selection is important. You should be riding in an area thatallows you to be flexible. You may need to alter your planned routemaking it, easier, harder, longer or shorter depending on how wellyour group is doing. It's probably a good idea to limit your first ridewith a new group of kids to about an hour and a half. Plan for stopsand breaks as needed.

Remember to keep the ride fun. Choose a route that has somethingunexpected in it. I'll never forget one kids ride that I helped out on. Itwas a hot humid summer's day and after we'd been out about an houreveryone was starting to drag. Then we got to a lake with a ropeswing. A half hour later, we were back on our bikes, soaked, but ener-gized enough to finish the ride with giant smiles on our faces.

Routes should have a variety of trail experiences, fireroads, single-tracks, maybe a paved road to relax on, and be sure to put in at leastone long downhill. Kids don't want to go on training rides. They wantto be challenged a bit, but not too much. When you get to a difficulttechnical section, don't just ride through it. Stop for a while, showeveryone how to manage it, and then offer encouragement as every-one tries. Everyone likes to develop new skills and after a few ridestogether you'll be amazed at how much better your 'riders' are doing.

After your ride is over thank the kids for coming. Tell them that youenjoyed riding with them, and thank their parents too. Ask the kidshow they liked the ride, what they enjoyed the most, the least andhow it could be made better. If you're planning to do another ridesoon, mention it now.

If you're inspired to lead a NEMBA Kids Ride, contact me [email protected]. You'll have a blast, and your kids will too.

Riding with Teensby Bill Boles

H O W T O


I've never seen the movie Cocoon, so you canbe assured that this column isn't aboutsome coming-of-age film featuring Wilford

Brimley and 47 other seniors. While we're talk-ing about Brimley, you can also be certain thatI'm not writing about diabetes, oatmeal or oddmustaches.

Nope. Today's missive is about actuallycocooning. The act of turning the couch into acave by using the cushions; of turning up thewood stove and bringing your bikes insidewhile you build wheels and polish stems andforks; the delight of eating GU packets assnacks because it's too cold to go outside.

If you're one of those cyclocross freaks, usethese pages to give yourself a paper cut andthen pour lemon juice in it. That's what I thinkof your sport. It's hard-core and a little silly.You might argue that it's the purest of thecycling sports because it's just like riding abike-messenger route in the woods.

I'd argue that if you could be home in a heated,massaging recliner with a clicker in one handand a hot Tang in the other, why wouldn't youchoose the cocoon?

Further, in 15 years of conducting a consumerelectronics research survey, the team at CEA(the Consumer Electronics Association) statedin November that 2008/9 will be a record-set-ting time for cocooning.

People are going to surround themselves withelectronics and most of these are going to begeneral entertainment devices and not any-thing related to toys or exercise. In fact, theitems topping the list in CEA's research arecomputers, televisions (HD) and GPS devicesfor the car.

That's where I come in.

As a self-confessed gadget fiend and a cyclist,I'm here to give you some guidance when buy-ing gifts for those in your family who are moreinclined to cocoon than cycle.

You'll make people smile and a grand side-effectis that they'll be so busy playing with their newtoys that you'll have more time to run and ridethrough the snow and mud; scream downfrozen trails; and perhaps even take to the roadduring what could be the coldest winter onrecord.

First, think about the digital conversion onFebruary 17. At that point all televisions willhave to be able to read a digital signal becauseanalog television is going away. If your lovedones are still bending a coat hanger to get aclear signal, do them a favor and get them a realtelevision.

In fact, if you're like a lot of the people I ridewith, television has taken a back seat to out-door recreation. Some of you don't even havecable. Well, the problem is that without a con-version box you won't be able to pull down atelevision signal after the second week ofFebruary.

If you're in this boat, get thyself to a Best Buyor Circuit City and tell the guy in the red orblue shirt that you need to get a converter box.They're about $40, but the U.S. government ishanding out $40 coupons to offset the cost ofthese boxes.

Better still, buy a new TV. For less than the costof a wheelset, you can outfit your family roomwith a proper HDTV and not have to worryabout signal - at least until the governmentchanges the standard again.

Next up are computers. I'm not even going togo there because I have taken a healthy swigfrom the Apple Kool-Aid and can only recom-mend one brand. Therefore, all I can say is thatif you need a new computer, find one that doeseverything you need it to do. And make sureyou're comparing apples to apples.

Lastly, take a long hard look at digital cameras.Every new device on the market boasts either atouchscreen, the ability to find faces, unheardof resolution, or a mix of all three.

One thing to think of when getting a camerafor the cocooners in your life is size.Manufacturers are increasingly making digitalcameras that fit into the coin pocket on yourjeans. This might be a nice feature for some,but if you want to compose your photo on theLCD screen or press only one button and notmash three of them with your fingertip, don'tget too excited about miniaturized shooters.

Also, think about power sources and memorycards. The standards are AA for batteries andSD or xD for memory cards. Buy gadgets thatcan use these and you'll save yourself and yourgift recipients some hardship when they go tobuy more capacity and replace batteries.

Ultimately, the shopping season is here in fullforce, Black Friday has come and gone, andstores have already begun to slash prices. Takemy advice and do some careful shopping thisseason. You'll make those who are cocooning athome very happy with some cool new gadgets.

Jeff can be reached via email at [email protected] and you can read his other writing atwww.jeffcutler.com.

Getting Your Cocoon ReadyBy Jeff Cutler

S I D E T R A C K S

Harpby Johanna Kasidi

Ode to a Trail

The trail,flowing back and forth

in a networkof parallel lanes

narrowing in placescausing descending branches

to brush our skin.

Moving in and out ofthe afternoon sunlight

as it reflectsthe fading colors ofan autumn forest.

A zephyrcombining the scents

of decaying leavesand fresh pine needles.

The sounds of birdsand small animals

scurrying awayat the swoosh of our tires

gliding over the dirt

and the sound of dead leaves on the path succumbing

to the weight of our bikes.

You, in the leadMe, following,watching you

intrepidly move your bikeover the trail,

around its' curvesand out of site.

Embracing the solitudeof being alone

and the peace of the day.

Allowing my thoughtsto advance

to visions of usriding this trailin ten years,

twenty years. . .

and the forest smiles, welcoming us.

22 | January 2009

Anew rider askedme, "How do youride with other

people in the woods?" Ittook me a while tounderstand what hewas asking me. He was-n't asking how to findother people to ridewith, nor was he askingme for tips on how toride with a group of rid-ers. Instead he was ask-ing me, "How do moun-tain bikers fit in withthe other trail users."Once I understood hisquestion I explainedthat we fit in quite well.And that a good moun-tain biker always wentout of his or her way tomake sure that theirenjoyment of the trailsdidn't detract from thetrail experience of theother people that theymet out on the trails.

I explained how whenovertaking a pedestrianor especially a horse,that a good rider slowedto the speed of the person ahead of them, and quietly said "Hello!Nice day to be out on the trails isn't it?" Or something similar. Thatin the case of a horse, that you keep talking until the horse's riderbecomes aware of you. The horse of course will be aware of you first,and will pick up from your spoken words the fact that you're a personand not a predator. I explained how you would then wait for instruc-tions from the equestrian as to whether or not is was safe to pass, orwait a bit until the horse had a chance to pull off the trail. I talkedabout encountering a family on the trails, or people with dogs, andhow you always just assume that the kids or the dogs will run in frontof you. And how you'd stop until you're sure it's OK to go by. I talkedabout meeting other bikers on the trails, how one normally yieldedthe right of way to someone going up a hill. Or waited while some-one was attempting to ride through something difficult. I told himhow experienced mountain bikers always said at least, "Hello! How'sit going? Nice day isn't it?" to everyone they saw in the woods. Sothat other trail users didn't think that the usually oddly dressedcyclists were weird or unfriendly. But mostly I explained how a most-ly silent moving bicycle can be seen as a threat by the people that youencounter on the trails, and that it's the job of the mountain biker toinsure that that perceived threat doesn't become a reality.

Shortly after that, while riding down a familiar trail I went around ablind corner and discovered that a low hanging branch was blockingmy path. If I'd been going a bit faster I would have hit it face first. ButI wasn't, and I was able to bring my bike to a stop without even lock-ing up my wheels. This got me to thinking about how many people,especially on familiar trails, ride as though they were the only ones inthe woods. They go around blind corners, or down hills, expecting

things to be exactly the same, as they were the last time that theywere there. Well, things are rarely exactly the same. Deadfalls, lowhanging branches, new stones in the treadway, slippery mud, or evenpeople can and will pop up unexpectedly every time that you ride.And your first response to these things can't be locking up yourbrakes and skidding to a panic stop.

A good rider always rides within himself or herself. That is to say theywill never ride faster than they can see. When they're going down ahill, around a corner or through a rock field they never override theirability to be in complete control of their bikes. They are in completecontrol of their bikes, not by riding slow, but rather, by not riding toofast.

There is one exception to this. When you're riding with a group yousort of depend on the people in front of you to be the first eyes onthe trail. And you tend to follow their lines. But still, on unfamiliartrails, you leave enough space between yourself and the person justahead of you so that you can react when or if they make a mistake.

Controlling your bike makes you a better rider. It can save you a lotof bruises and scrapped skin when you ride. And when you're ridingon trails that are populated by others, you'll be seen as a fellow trav-eler in the woods and not a threat.

Controlling your bike makes you the master of the trails that you ride,and it insures that you don't leave a bad impression behind you.

Fitting Inby Bill Boles

B A S I C B I K I N G

The trail community has a big tent, and we all can fit it. Do your part to be a diplomat for our sport. Photo by Joe Sloane


Summer has been gone for awhile now, we've moved theclocks back, days are short-er and nights colder. I'vejoined a few of you on nightrides after work, a couple offrosty early morning rideson weekends and the occa-sional mid-day ride whenthe weather couldn't havebeen better. This is the timeof year when thoughts startdrifting to snow sports butI'm happy to see that a lot ofyou haven't forgotten yourbikes just yet.

We're going to be holding achapter meeting in December, please keep youreyes open for the exact date and location; theywill be published on the NEMBA web forum andmailing list as well as the BVNEMBA homepage.We're looking to renew our relationships withland managers over the next year and to workwith them on some exciting trail projects. Weneed your help though. If you enjoy the access toall of the varied parks we have here in theBlackstone Valley I encourage you to come out toour meetings and events. With your help we canensure our access and maintain the trails we alllove to ride.

We've also talked about restructuring theWednesday night rides again and returning to aset schedule so everyone knows in advancewhere we're going to be. If you have any sugges-tions on where you would like to ride please letus know. If you're unable to ride on Wednesdayevenings and would be interested in leading aride on another day we can help you get thatorganized as well.

See you on the trails. —Eammon Carleton

Greetings from Cape Cod NEMBA! It has beensome time since you heard from us on this sideof the Canal and I thought I would take thisopportunity to catch you up on the latest newsfrom here.

Many plans are in the works for the WestBarnstable Conservation trail system (alsoknown as "The Trail of Tears"). As you may know,I am the Tree Warden for the Town of Barnstableand part of my job responsibilities lies in provid-ing support to the Barnstable ConservationDepartment. We are currently in process of re-mapping the Trail of Tears area. There are manynew trails not on the current map and the Townhas recently purchased a new cartography soft-ware program that will enable us to create a moreaccurate map. Part of this project will includeidentification system of all trail intersections.Each will be numbered and signed so that moun-tain bikers, hikers and equestrians can easilyidentify their location on the map.

A few years ago the Town of Barnstable pur-chased 193 acres of land known as the DanforthProperty that abuts the Trail of Tears conserva-tion area. There are 84 acres already being man-aged as an active airport with grass runways. Theadditional 109 acres have been designated foropen space. The Town of Barnstable Growth

Management Department has developed recre-ational goals for this parcel to include mountainbiking, hiking, and kayaking. A small parking lothas been built to accommodate 10 cars. A shorttrail leads from there to the shore of Mystic Pond.A new trail system is currently being developedto connect to the Trail of Tears. It will lead under-neath Race Lane through an old cow tunnel, thenmeander northerly through old meadows andpasture and ultimately link to the Trail of Tearsbehind the airport. Another trail junction willdirect bikers and hikers to the Otis AtwoodConservation across Route 149. It is estimatedthat this will add about 3-4 new miles of trail.

On a sadder note, the Cape Cod NEMBA com-

munity lost a dear friend in early summer. ScottFenner was an avid mountain biker, a charismat-ic personality and a generous spirit with a heartof gold. His untimely passing has created a greatvoid in our circle and will be sorely missed. If youcome across 'Scott Rock' when out on the Trail ofTears, pause a moment and consider the beautyof the woods around you and the friendships youhold dear.

Happy Trails, Scott, Peace be with you. —CharlieGenatossio

C H A P T E R N E W S

BlackstoneValleyPresident: Eammon Carleton,

[email protected], 508-987-7655Vice President: John GoellerTreasurer: Rich KordellSecretary: Anne ShepardRide Coordinator: Jeff GalloCallahan SF: Anne ShepardDouglas SF: VacantHale Reservation: Jack MaxwellHodges Village Dam: Eammon Carleton Vietnam: John GoellerWestboro/Hopkinton: VacantEmail List: [email protected]: www.bvnemba.org.Webmaster: Mitchell Steinberg

Cape CodPresident: Charlie Genatossio,508-477-

4936, [email protected]

Secretary: Ellin Borrus

Treasurer: Margaret Moore

Email List: [email protected]

The Genatossios and Michael Dube at NEMBA’s 20th Anniversary Banquet. Photo by Lee Hollenbeck

Sinister BikesTrail Care Appreciation. Photo by Robert Taylor

24 | January 2009

New Trails Completed at Franklin Falls DamRecreation Area, Franklin, NH

During the third and fourth weekends of Octobersignificant trail work was accomplished at theFranklin Falls Recreation Area. The Tilton SchoolMountain Bike team, members of Central NewHampshire NEMBA, and local volunteers cut intwo new trails, expanding the variety of riding atthe dam.

The first new trail called "Rogue" features severaloff-camber bench cuts, tough climbs, and somefantastic views of the flood control river bottom.The second trail roughed-in was "Mighty Chicken".It will be a fast, flowing, down hill wall surf, shoot-ing the rider up and down the sides of a ravine. Notquite dialed in yet but work continues.

Once the new trails are fully packed in, they will bea great addition to the growing inventory of moun-tain bike trails at the park. In the past 18 months,Central NEMBA has completed nine new trails atFranklin Falls. Counting the original, existing trails,this brings the total number of trails in the park tofourteen.

We were very excited to have the Tilton SchoolMountain Bike Team help build the new trails onthe 18th and 25th. The young people came outand put in many hours of hard work with CNHNEMBA. The Tilton School team, led by CoachGeorge LaPierre and V.P. Mike Geldermann, VP ofCNH put in a huge effort roughing in the two newtrails

Sunday 19th was our fall Jamis Trail Care day withgood support from the local mountain biking com-munity. Nine people contributed to the effortincluding eight Central NH NEMBA members.Fully fueled with nutritious donuts and coffee sub-sidized by Chainline Cycles, work started at 10 amSunday morning. The group split into two teamsand started from opposite ends of the trail.Approximately four hours later they met in themiddle and Rogue Trail was virtually completed.After inspecting each others efforts, everyone wasconvinced they had worked harder and built a bet-ter section than the other team. Next up, the test

pilots mounted and rode. With a few suggestedtweaks, the general impression was two thumbsup.

Special thanks to NEMBA members KevinOrlowski, Mike Henderson, Rhonda Blackey, JesseMcGowan, Grant Drew, Matt Bowser, MikeGeldermann and Scott Pelletier. Also thanks toJohn Ferrante for his effort. Big thanks go toGeorge Lapierre and the Tilton School MountainBike Team for their help on Saturday. HallieGeldermann and Josie Girona also chipped in tohelp.

Over 100 volunteer hours were logged for themonth of October to make it all happen. As

always, thanks go to the Army Corp of Engineersat Franklin Falls for giving us the opportunity tobuild sustainable trails at the park.

The trails at Franklin Falls are predominantly fun,fast, flowing single track suitable for all levels ofmountain bikers. Franklin Falls is located atGranite Drive in Franklin. The trail site is off Hwy127 between Franklin and Sanbornton NewHampshire. The Dam has a parking lot and restrooms. The latest map is located in the Trail Mapssection of our web site CNHNEMBA.ORG andmore pictures can be found in the Photos area. —Mike Geldermann, Matt Bowser, & Grant Drew

Underwrite inSingleTracks

Reach thousands of mountain bikersthroughout New England!

Call 800-57-NEMBA for rates.

Donít Miss AnIssue!

Renew Your Membership and Changeyour Address Online

Central NHPresident: Steve LaFlame,

[email protected], 603-746-2464VP: Holly Carson, Matt BowserSecretary: Keith CunninghamTreasurer: Scott Lewis

Twisty and sweepy new singletrack at Franklin Falls Dam. Photo by Mike Geldermann


We are headed quickly into winter... or is it sum-mer? I can't tell this year. Last night when I rode itwas below 30 degrees and last week it was 65degrees. Our weather patterns are getting asstrange as the stock market….

We had an extremely successful Fall Fiesta. Over100 people attended and participated in severaldifferent group rides and individual rides atGrayville Park in Hebron, CT. If you are not famil-iar with Grayville you should check it out. Thereare some incredible trails of all varieties and abilitylevels. The day started off a bit cold but warmedup to a nice 65 degrees. After all of the rides wehad our annual meeting and had a raffle of all kindsof schwag donated by EMS, North Haven Bike,Pedal Power, Vernon Cycle and IMBA.

We just had our first board meeting after the FallFiesta where we reconfirmed the board. All of thepeople on the board in 2008 will remain for 2009in the same positions. We had a brainstormingsession about what CT NEMBA would like toaccomplish next year. Some of the ideas include apump track (probably in the Hartford area), build-ing on the trails that we started this year, and alsogroup rides. We continue to encourage all mem-bers to get out and participate in trail maintenanceor join the Trail Ambassador program to help keepus in the loop on trail issues in the CT riding spots.

Speaking of CT riding spots, there have been sever-al issues with night riding early this fall. The Stateof CT is ticketing people found in the State Parksafter close. To date I have heard of issues inGrayville, Penwood and Shenipsit. We are doingsome research on feasibility of getting the state toallow mountain biking after dark in the parks. Todate we have not found any good cases elsewherein the US but will continue to work the issue sothat we can all continue to enjoy night riding inour favorite spots.

A CT board member, Paula Burton, had the excit-ing opportunity to speak to the New England ParksAssociation at their annual meeting in WestDennis, MA on September 8 about designing andbuilding sustainable shared use trails. Twenty fiveland managers participated in the workshop andlearned about mountain biking as recreation, and

how to design and build trails to meet the needs oftheir parks.

Keep an eye on the forums for winter activities andif you have ideas for projects for next year pleasecontact us. —Art Roti

Nothing like tight, technical single track and an ocean view!! CT NEMBA member, Mike Coleman hasbeen riding there for the last ten years and never took a picture ... until now!

ConnecticutPresident: Art Roti, [email protected],

860-875-0682 VP: Mark LurieSecretary: Al TintiTreasurer: Glenn VernesBOD Reps: Eric Mayhew & Tren SpenceAt Large: Paula BurtonEmail List: [email protected] Web: www.ctnemba.net

NEMBA Holiday Gift Ideas @ www.nemba.org

Socks Trail Jersey JerseyBallcaps

Change is indeed in the air as September ushers inthe cooler temperatures, and the natural beautythat is fall in New England. Hopefully we'll have anice long stretch before we see the return of win-ters snow cover. Meanwhile there should be manyopportunities to get in some great fall riding. Ourlocal playground right here in the Lowell DracutTyngsboro State Forest has a well deserved reputa-

26 | January 2009

As the season winds down here in Mid-CoastMaine, you're likely to see more hunters in thewoods than bikers, but at night and Sundays, themountain-bikers are still hanging on for than onelast ride of the season. It's hard to believe the stud-ded-snow tires will soon be coming off the shelf.Winter riding in Maine is a blast.

McNEMBA helped out with the 5th annual RaggedMountain Festival this past October. The lodge andmountain were filled with hikers, families, moun-tain-bikers, kids and leaf-peepers who came for afree chair-lift ride to the top of RaggedMountain(Camden Snow Bowl), also McNEMBA'shome turf. The day started out with a deliciouspancake breakfast, followed buy fun kids events,pumpkin hunt on the mountain, live music, and agreat cookout in the afternoon. McNEMBA wasable to assist the Camden Recreation Department,and helped design a quick and easy hanging systemfor the bikes, so the mountain bikers could catch alift and avoid the 60+- switch-backs to the top ofthe mountain. This was the first time in history thechair-lift was open to mountain bikers and itproved to be a huge success. We are working withthe Snowbowl to see about opening the lift next

summer. This could help bring in some off seasonrevenue for the Snowbowl. If we do continue tooffer lift serve mountain-biking, we are going tohave to create more trails from the top-down. Nota problem since we love to build trails. Bikerscame from all over the state that day to ride the liftand also participate in some of our club activities.We hosted a dual slalom race, some guided rides,a hill climb competition, and a pump track contest.It was a blast and many thanks to all the volun-teers and the Camden Recreation Department forbeing so supportive and helpful to mountain-bik-ers. Many thanks to IMBA for donating the racingbibs, cool stickers, tee shirts, and more for "Take aKid Biking Day." We were lucky enough to win the"IMBA Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day" raffle bikeand we are going to donate it to the Maine JuniorBike League. Also check out the November issue ofBIKE magazines "Exploring Maine's hidden trails". Agreat article about the Snowbowl.

McNEMBA's first President, Kevin Davis, hasstepped down and we have chosen John Anders totake the con. Kevin was one of the founding mem-bers of McNEMBA and helped get our feet off theground in so many ways. He will stay involvedwith helping us with land use agreements, and willcontinue with his awesome trail savvy advocacy.Thanks Kevin for all your hard work. John Andershas sat on the executive committee and will guideus from here. He is a huge proponent for mountainbiking and we look forward to working with him inthe future. Mike White also joined the executivecommittee. Good to have him on board.

Our high school team captured its 10th straightMaine State XC Championship this past fall. Theteam uses the trails at the Snowbowl for theirtraining regime and participated in a trail work dayat the Snowbowl. They also had an opportunity toride with fellow Mainer, and Pro Mountain BikerAdam Craig, who came down for a ride with theteam after the Olympics. An amazing experiencefor the kids to meet and ride with one of the bestcyclists in the world. In that vein, congratulationsare in order to the Camden Hills Regional HighSchool Mountain Bike Team!

In other good news, the Town of Camden votedunanimously to give the Ragged Mountain Re-development Assoc. , permission to raise $4.5 mil-lion from private funding. If they raise this money,the taxpayers will kick in $2 million, bringing thetotal coast of upgrades to $6.5 million. The facilityat the Camden Snowbowl, which is town owned,including the lifts and lodge, are outdated and needupgrading. Part of the upgrade will include a newlodge, new beginner lift serve, and new chair-lifts,improve snowmaking, new trails for both skiersand mountain-bikers, bike wash. This is great newsfor our community and we will continue to sup-port the plan and be the voice of the mountain bikecommunity.

Hope to see all of you on the trails. Bundle up andget out there and ride. The hardest part of winterriding is putting on the boots. —Casey Leonard

Mid CoastMainePresident: John Anders, 207-542-3112,

[email protected] Committee:

Kevin Davis, Mike Hartley, SteveKoskinen, Mike White

Treasurer/Secretary: Casey Leonard

McNEMBA’s New President, John Anders

Boardwalk construction at Lowell-Dracut-Tyngsboro SF. Photo by Norman Blanchette

MerrimackValleyPresident: Norman Blanchette, 978 455-

5605, [email protected] Groton Town Fst VP: Mike AndersenLowell-Dracut SF VP: Bob GiuntaTreasurer: Hugh Folsom, (978) 244-0633Email List: mtb-

[email protected]: www.mv-nemba.org

tion of draining very well and should provide fan-tastic riding for the rest of the year and beyond.Keep your eyes open for posted rides and feel free

to drop a line about riding suggestions and oppor-tunities.

This year our chapter completed 6 successfulTREK/NEMBA trail maintenance days here in theMerrimack Valley. The trail system out at RussellMills in Chelmsford continues to expand and hasmore than doubled in size this year alone. We hada total of 41 volunteers putting in over 200 hoursof official trail work. I say official because the 6 traildays mentioned only represents advertised traildays and doesn't include the many "unofficial" traildays that come up when emergencies occur liketrees down across the trails. A big tip of the hel-met to Bob Giunta for staying on top of thoseissues throughout the year. I think I can also saythat thanks to Lionel Chapman, the Tuesday nightrides at LDT are the most successful, most organ-ized, and most well represented rides in NewEngland. If not, prove it.

Our latest trail project in the Tyngsboro side of theDracut State Forest resulted in the construction ofa major boardwalk. This boardwalk will allow safeand clean passage through an area normally asso-ciated with GLICA (Greater Lowell Indian CulturalAssociation). This is an area of the forest that has-n't seen much in the way of new Singletrack but ishome to many of the forest traditional fire roads

and fast double-track trails. This becomes signifi-cant as the snow begins to pile up. When thesnow becomes too deep, our great Singletrackbecomes more difficult to navigate. But these trailsout in Tyngsboro will now become more attractiveto us as the snowmobiles and x-country skierspack these trails down for some great traction andriding.

As the ponds freeze up we now have the ability tonavigate the forest in ways that are unimaginableduring the summer. And of course the bugs andpoison ivy are put on ice till next year. This winterwe'll sit down with the DCR and come up withnew and exciting projects to make us all proud inthe Merrimack Valley. We'll continue to tweak andrefine the trails in the Dracut state forest as well asthe new trail system out at Russell Mills inChelmsford. There's talk of taking a look at whatBillerica may have to offer. And of course there'salways Great Brook Farm. The DCR has alreadyapproached us about some possible new trail workout in Carlisle. But let's not get too far ahead ofourselves talking about trail work. That's all behindus now for the next few months. Now it's play-time: Happy Holidays to all. —Norman Blanchette

It rained hard all night with high winds but that didnot stop 271mountain biker from showing up forthe ninth annual Wicked Ride of the East onSunday October 26th. Slick trails in the earlymorning gave way to bright sunshine while peopleenjoyed the 20 plus miles of single track thatHarold Parker offers, still others enjoyed the noviceloop that wound its way through the fire roads ofthe park. All enjoyed Lee's now famous chili andhotdogs cooked by Cycle Loft. Checking out themany vendors in attendance while eating andhanging out at the Berry Pond picnic area hasbecome a post ride ritual.

Many thanks to all the support team that helpedmake the final Kona MTB Adventure Series ride ofthe season a success. Over a dozen chapter mem-bers helped over several days to make this eventhappen, from preparing food, lining up vendors,arrowing the trails, parking cars, registering all theriders, leading rides, and cleaning up afterwards.This event gets bigger each year and many hoursgo into making the wicked ride great fun, let usknow if you can help next year as we can alwaysuse more help.

The final Trek Bicycle trail day was held on October

19th at Ward Reservation in North Andover. Twoboardwalks were constructed and a long section ofrockwork was completed on the Bay Circuit Trailwith hard work by the dozen or so that participat-ed.

The final Chapter Meeting/ride of the year tookplace on November 9th as twenty riders enjoyed aride through Willowdale State Forest, and BradleyPalmer State Park. The meeting followed with top-ics of discussion including ideas for the 10thanniversary Wicked ride next year and increasingthe ride schedule for 2009. The final business ofthe day was the Election of officers. The followingpeople were elected as the North Shore Chapterofficers.

President Frank LaneVices President Fred WhiteSecretary Jim HumphreyTreasurer Kirk GoldsworthyBOD Dan StreeterBOD alternates Frank LaneWicked Ride Chairman Steve Charrette

Ron Corporon has done an outstanding job asNorth Shore chapter treasurer for many years. Ronwill be stepping down so he can enjoy more ridingtime with his buddies. —Frank Lane


North ShorePresident:Frank Lane, frank.lane@bostik-

findley-us.com,978-465-2295

Vice-President: Fred White Treasurer: Kirk GoldsworthySecretary: Jim HumphreyBOD Reps: Dan Streeter & Frank LaneWicked Ride Chair: Steve CharretteEmail List: [email protected]

Bob Giunta riding Lowell-Dracut

Thanks to Steve Charrette and all the others that made the Wicked Ride such a success. Photo by PK

2008 was a pretty darn good year for mountainbiking here in the Valley. Anyone who rides regu-larly in the Valley (Batchelor St, Earl's, Wendell,DAR (Chapel Falls), Robinson, Greenfield Ridge,Deerfield ridge and many other smaller but stillpretty cool locations) probably notices how goodthe trails (both in terms of quality and amount) areand how nice they stay year round. I wish I couldclaim responsibility for all the different riding areas,but I can't, as each place has its own dedicatedcrew, that though usually small in number, does atremendous amount of work.

What I can claim is that many of these unknownsoldiers are NEMBA members. Furthermore, we'vebeen very active in targeting these folks and get-ting funds to them for bridges, tools and training.I think these efforts are paying dividends in thegeneral riding experience of the Pioneer valley.However, the local riders will have to be the ulti-mate judges of that.

Steve Rossi continued his very popular kids rideseries at Robinson SF culminating in a trick or treatNIGHT RIDE for the kids. These events are fantas-tically well attended and well run. Thanks asalways to Steve and his family who do all the legwork on these.

The 1st Annual PV-NEMBA Triple-Epic ride serieswent off really well (if also somewhat belatedly!).

The idea was to offer a supported-group ride forstronger riders that highlighted the longerthroughways available in our region. For fun, weoffered free commemorative T-shirts to anyonewho completed all three events (FWIW, Myself, Mr.Rossi, and Chris Jenkins were the only recipients ofthese shirts). Honestly, I figured we'd get 8-12 rid-ers at each event. Well on our first ride in Augustthat ran from Sugarloaf South in Deerfield up to theFalls River Riding area in Gill (a hilly 36 miler) wehad 37 game bikers. At the second event inWendell (35 miles), we had 27 riders. And for theGrand Finale ride that ran from Penwood SP in CTto Robinson SF in Agawam we had 30 intrepid rid-ers! I must admit that Mr. Rossi and I (the rideorganizers) were both surprised and pleased by theenthusiastic turn out. We'll definitely be doingthis again next year. I'll change the Wendell Rideand make it a point-to-point; probably startingfrom Mount Grace and Heading south to Wendell.I hope this ride series continues to grow legs sea-son to season. Extra thanks to New EnglandBicycle (formerly the much cooler-named GravityWarehouse) in Southwick, MA and BicyclesUnlimited in Greenfield for providing support andpost-ride swag for participants. Bob and Seth,Thank you gentlemen, it's contributions like yoursthat help to turn our riding region into a ridingcommunity!

We had talked about charging a donation fee onthese rides (at least to cover the food and beverageexpenses). But, in the end, we decided to dig intothe PV-NEMBA coffers and just kick back a littlesomething to our riders without asking for any-thing in return. I felt pretty good about that to behonest with you all, but I do hope everyone whocomes out on these rides either joins NEMBA orre-ups their memberships! I think we're worth the25 bucks, and I hope others do as well.

What's on the horizon for PV-NEMBA?? That's agood question, I have to admit, I don't really know.We will most likely add another trail at Wendell

(through the logging zone off of Brook rd). Wehave some bridge and trail projects lined up for theDAR and a few other local haunts. But other thanthat and a few other maintenance issues, I have noother big plans.

That brings me to my next thought. Like mostNEMBA chapters, there is an ebb and flow of lead-ership as each group ages out and a new vigorousgroup with energy and enthusiasm comes in andreinvigorates the club. There's been a palpableupswing in trails here in the northern end of thevalley, and the tireless work of Mr. Rossi (and theGranville crew as well) has enabled a trailRenaissance in the southern region. And, ofcourse, Earl's crew and Pete's crew keep everythingawesome at Holyoke-Skinner SF. Not to mentionthe impressive work of other trail groups, like theAshfield Trails Committee that are adding new,fantastic, multi-use trails as well. The Adventureseries rides have been tremendous the last threeyears, and as I said before, I'm pretty stoked aboutthe beginning of the annual Epic ride series. I thinkthe trail school scholarships were beneficial as welland we'll send some more new folks next year.

But, now, as far as new initiatives or places to takethe chapter, I have to admit I'm tapped. So, I'mputting it out to the membership: What should wedo next?? Where do we need to go as a chapter?I'd love to get some new ideas and new bloodinvolved (just remember anything you suggestyou'll have to be part of making it happen!).

Oh yeah, we'll be holding the Annual Meetingpretty soon (though the date is still undeter-mined). Please check the www.nemba.org/forumsand the forums.mtbr.com Massachusetts sectionfor the exact time and location. I know not every-one likes using the Internet for this sort of info-butI find it's the most convenient, focused and far-reaching media for putting out chapter news.

That's it. Remember it's hunting season and oakleaves are really slippery. —Liam O’Brien

28 | January 2009

PioneerValleyPresident: Liam O’Brien,

[email protected], 413-665-9524

VP Hamden County: Steve Rossi

VP Hampshire County: Rich LaBombard,

VP Franklin County: MarkCourtemanche

Treasurer: George Willard Email List:[email protected]

PV NEMBAns, Steve Rossi and Rich LaBombard at the Kona MTB ride at D.A.R. State Park. Photo by PK

Liam O’Brien, stylin’. Photo by PK

Fall riding is winding down, and winter riding isaround the corner. The mild winters in RI meansthat riding year round is an option, so don't putaway the bike. Getting out in the woods when itis cold or when there is a little snow on the groundis really rewarding, so keep pedaling!

This year was jam packed for RI NEMBA. Betweenthe trail days, clean-ups and ride series in Arcadia,Lincoln Woods, Burlingame and elsewhere- therewere plenty of opportunities to get out and meetnew people on the saddle. It seemed like everyweekend there was an organized ride. If we did notsee you on the trails, what was your excuse?

Jim Grimley put together another great route forthe fall fun ride in Arcadia, hitting the West andSouthwestern parts of Arcadia. Even though theweather said 0% chance of rain- it turned out to bemiserable. However, that did not stop about 70people from coming out to ride. We raised anoth-er $400 to go to Trips for Kids and came away witha bunch of new members. Thanks to all who lenta hand (Leo, Rob, Wayne, Sara, Jim, Janet, Jim H,Mike, Al, Tina, Randy and the aforementioned JimG) and made things run smoothly. Also- welcometo all you new and renewed members! As men-tioned, the turn out was surprisingly good consid-ering the weather, but it seems like the cold andmoisture may have shortened many people's ride.When taking down the arrows it seems like notmany people braved the entire route. All I have tosay is- there is some good terrain out there thatJim looped in, make sure to get out and do someexploring on your next ride.

As we head into the colder months it is time toplan next year's activities. Please check the web-site (www.rinemba.org) for the monthly meetingtime and place- usually the first Tuesday- andcome on out and get involved! Meetings are lowkey: we ride, then eat, go through the agenda, chatfor a while then head home. Many hands makelight lifting, so come on down and say hi and vol-unteer. Considering the turmoil recently with theWater Resource Board which governs Big RiverManagement Area we could use the help.

Our current Presidente, Brendan Dee, is going tohave to step down this year. His efforts and enthu-siasm the past year were fantastic and we arehappy to note that he is sticking around to helpout in Lincoln Woods and with the AmbassadorProgram. The resident Mad Scientist Peter Genglerhas accepted the nomination to fill the role of El

Presidente and I think he will be perfect. So, as wehead into 2009, get involved, keep pedaling andkeep the rubber side down. -Matt Schulde

This fall was amazing—starting with Nembafestand all of the work that our chapter put into thatevent, for the third straight year. Attendance waslow due to the stormy weather that had been fore-cast, but the weather turned out okay anyways.We're sad to see it go, but relieved as well, as it isa huge commitment to our volunteer pool, who I'msure will be happy to travel to Bear Brook next yearand taste the SoNH flavor.......Speaking of flavor,'BBQ Jaime' and his crew were very generous instaying the entire weekend to serve up their

famous pork productsat the 'fest as well asthe Landmine Classicon Sunday. TheLandmine continuesto be the Friends ofWompatuck mainfundraising event, andit gets better everyyear.....what will bemissed will be thesynergy between thetwo events.

October brought usIMBA's Take-a-KidMountain Biking Day,which was a smallsuccess......anytimewe can get kids out-doors on a bike is pre-cious, and the groupswe had were tenaciousenough to hang in there despite a few mechanicalplagues......everyone came back all smiles.

SEMass and Friends of Wompatuck are jointlyworking on the railbed initiative which is reallystarting to gain some momentum.......the hugenetwork of abandoned railbeds that snake throughthe woods will offer easier riding for families andbeginners, as well as a fast, flat alternative for get-ting to other parts of the park......

One BIG goal of our chapter in 2009 will be spread-ing the good NEMBA word and trying to help theorganization grow as a whole, to keep us

strong.....we'd like to also remind everyone toremember to not let their membership expire, andthose who have, because the power of NEMBA isYOU! The money you donate may not make youpedal faster, but it does keep the NEMBA machinein touch with the land managers, and it's thosegreat relationships that help provide us with all ofthat sweet singletrack!

We are due for a SEMass meeting soon, so staytuned for our 2009 events schedule.... —SteveCobble


Rhode IslandPresident: Peter Gengler,


VP Arcadia: Jim Grimley

VP Big River: Peter Gengler

VP Burlingame: Lennon Schroeder

VP Lincoln Woods: Leo Corrigan

Treasurer: Sara Grimley

Secretary: Bart Angelo

NEMBA BOD Rep: Matt Schulde

NEMBA BOD Rep: Bart Angelo

Email List: [email protected]

Web: RINEMBA.org

SE MassPresident: Steve Cobble,

[email protected], 781-254-8796Treasurer: Bill Boles, 508-583-0067Ames Nowell VP: Malcolm Neilson,

508-510-9606Blue Hills VP: Joe Sloane, 617-696-3533Borderland VP: Christopher Patrick, Franklin SF: Jan Hubbell, 508-341-5509

Massasoit SF: John BaileyWompatuck: Steve Cobble, 781-254-

8796Wrentham: Kevin Delaney, 401-722-

2426Secretary: Eero Kola, 781-356-2518Email List: [email protected]

Steve Cobble @ the NEMBAfest. Photo by PK

Jeff Prive riding Arcadia. Photo by Matt Schulde

30 | January 2009

WOW! A great fall day in October presented itselffor the Bear Brook Boogie MBAS ride this year.About 170 riders traversed trails through out thePark while enjoying some great New Hampshire fallfoliage. To top it all off, we raised almost $1600 forfuture trail projects. We had riders visiting from allover New England. Thanks to everyone whoattended this event. Plans are underway for aneven bigger and better event next year!

October also was the month for our annual week-end trail event at Bear Brook. We finished work onChipmunk trail that we started last year. Majorwork was done turnpiking and re-building a flood-ed section of the trail. We rented machinery tohelp move material to the work site which saved alot of manual labor. In the future, I hope to usemachines when practical. It should let us get more

done with our dedicated volunteers. Sunday's workincluded some smaller projects that the Park man-ager really appreciated.

New trails at Pawtuckaway have been flagged andare being reviewed by the State of NH, Bureau ofTrails. Hopefully we will have approval for con-struction next spring. If you know someone at theBureau, give them a call and help speed thingsalong! It seems the motorized crowd is getting allthe focus lately.

Finally, we elected officers for next year at our lastmeeting. I will continue as president, as well asJean Rubin and Kevin Cox as Vice Presidents. Noriewill also continue as treasurer. The secretary posi-tion is currently open and waiting for you. Pleasefeel free to contact me with your questions orcomments concerning our chapter. —PeterDeSantis

It's been up and down this year for us inWestminster this season. The good news is we'refinishing strong. Besides what we established inthe spring off the Midstate Trail, we've been work-ing on low key projects with private landowners.We've communicated agreements to gain trailaccess and established approximately 2mi of newsingletrack. One owner with a very large amount ofland has been very supportive. He even walked hisproperty with us to show the lay of the land. Weoriginally agreed just to pass through on the exist-ing doubletrack, but the more we talked, it evolvedinto creating a connecting trail for the owner and asingletrack on the perimeter of the property forusers passing through. 1st We cleaned up theexisting trails. 2nd We built a short connectingtrail to link the existing doubletracks togetherestablishing a loop for the owners to walk theirdogs and snowshoe in the winter. 3rd We com-pleted the perimeter trail called "Tomb trail". Thistrail was designed to bypass the main doubletrackand divert public trail users away from the proper-ty owner's house. The Tomb trail passes an oldabandoned cemetery with no head stones, only a

lone tomb. From what I've been told, the tomb wasof the original owner of the historic farmhouse onthe property. This little project was a win/win sit-uation that worked out great and is part of theeffort to complete a large loop in Westminster.

One of our goals for next year is to plan and estab-lish a 2mi+ loop on Westminster property off theMidstate trail near Muddy Pond, as well as, discusspossibilities with High Ridge Wildlife ManagementArea. We've talked to the Westminster ConComand Open Space in the past and they support theidea of trails in these areas.

Notice: Please walk your bikes on the section ofthe Midstate trail that crosses the farm on HowardRoad. It's very muddy and the owners havebrought up concern to the town. There's a possi-bility bikes will not be allowed to pass through.

Our thanks to the Private landowners, Wachusettvolunteers, Slapheadmofos, and WachusettBrewing Co. If you'd like to volunteer or just gettrail information, please contact me at:[email protected] —Don Seifert

SouthernNew HampshirePresident: Peter DeSantis, peterdesan-

[email protected], 603-483-2410VP: Kevin Cox & Jean RubinSecretary: Needed!Treasurer: Eleanor KnottWebsite: www.snemba.orgEmail list: [email protected]

Bear Brook Boogie was a blast, and raised lots of money for future trail work. Photo by PK

The new Tomb Trail adds to Westimister’s growing system of singletrack. Photo by Don Seifert

WachusettPresident: Jim Wrightson,


VP Mid-State Trail: Don Seifert,[email protected], 978-464-2097

Treasurer: Fred MeyerEmail List: [email protected]


Winter riding conditions are upon us, with coldtemperatures and short days. We are truly blessedto have four very distinct seasons and each isunique with the beauty and challenges it provides.

Pump track - the White Mountain Chapterreceived approval to build a pump track inConway's Pudding Pond Conservation Area nearthe popular Sticks & Stones trail. A Memorandumof Understanding has been executed with theTown of Conway that delineates responsibilitiesand initial layout is complete. Construction should

be well underway by the time you read this.

We mentioned in the last issue that over 70 vol-unteers contributed close to 300 hours of mainte-nance work on our local trails during the JamisBicycles Trail Care Series. Other highlights of2008 include:

Our 8th annual White Mountains trail buildingweekend was held on August 16 & 17th. Twenty-three people showed up and did some much need-ed work on the middle Nanamocomuck Trail andthe Red Tail Trail. While the afternoon showerscancelled Saturday's rides and forced the barbecueindoors, the timing was perfect for compacting theberms and drainage dips. Thank you to everybodywho showed up and dug in.

The Maine Bike Rally in early July was ahuge success. The weather was perfect and rideswent off without a hitch. I heard from a number ofpeople that the mountain bike segment at this rallywas better than any in years past. Peter Minnich,Jean Lee, John Barley, Dave Kinsman and a numberof other people deserve a lot of credit for a greatjob preplanning the mountain bike aspect of thisevent. Thank you to all the volunteers and partici-pants for doing a fantastic job representing theSaco River Valley.

The Valley Bike and Gear Swap at theMoat Mountain Smoke House on Saturday 6/14turned out to be a great event. There was a nicevariety of interesting merchandise to be found atvery good prices. I know I scored some great dealsand even managed to sell a few items. CathySteers, Andrea Masters and Glenn Ashworthdeserve a lot of credit for the great response.

Movie Premier: We put on a Klunkerz moviefund raiser at Matty B's Mountainside Café acrossfrom Attitash, and it was also a rocking good time.Matty served up a delicious pizza buffet and finelibations were flowing. The event raised close to$300 for our tool & material fund, and we put halfof that income toward bridge materials for July'strail work at Moose Brook State Park in Gorham. Ifyou didn't make it to the movie, please considerbuying the DVD at www.klunkerz.com, it is des-tined to be a classic.

We continued to contribute to community eventsmore this year than ever before. Besides co-spon-soring and helping out at the Red Jersey CyclerySummer Race Series, we participated in a mountainbike segment at the Jen's Friends Climb AgainstCancer fundraiser at Mt. Cranmore and helped puton the North Conway Library's annual Bike forBooks fundraising mountain bike tour. —RobAdair

WhiteMountainsPresident: Rob Adair,


VPs: Jon Conti & Mark JenksTreasurer: Phil Ostroski Secretary: Jean LeeEmail List: mtb-

[email protected]

NEMBA RidesNEMBA rides are led by individual NEMBA members for other mem-bers and prospective members. So if you haven't yet joined NEMBA,please do. Rides are usually for small numbers of people and vary withthe location and the personal style of the host. Rides have beenknown to change location or time at the last moment. So be sure tocall the ride's leader, both to sign up, and to find out more about theride. **Be sure to contact the ride leader a couple of days before theride takes place. That way you will be sure that the ride is on.

If you commit to a ride, go, since space is limited. That way the rideswill stay manageable and will be enjoyable for everyone. Helmets arerequired on all NEMBA rides. Contact your ride's leader if the weath-er looks questionable.

HEY! - Why not lead a NEMBA ride yourself? Contact Bill Boles at508-583-0067 or [email protected] for more information.

(T/FR) Indicates a technical or freeride(MBA) Indicates a NEMBA Mountain Bike Adventure Series Ride(EN) Indicates an EFTA/NEMBA Fun Ride.(AM) Indicates a weekday daytime morning ride.(DB) Indicates a daybreak or early morning ride.(BHTW) Indicates a Blue Hills Trail Watch ride.(Dog) Indicates you can bring your dog.(W) Indicates a Women's ride.(CALL) Indicates contact the leader to see if the ride is on.(TBA) Indicates location to be determined.(U) Indicates an urban ride.(GAR) Gravity Assisted Ride(SS) Indicates Single Speed bicycles are OK.(SKILLS) Indicates a skills training session(KIDS) A ride for Kids, parents are often welcome too.

The following ride categories are only general guidelines. You shouldask the ride's leader exactly what type of ride he or she is planning interms of distance, pace and technicality. Also, be realistic about yourlevel of riding skills and don't join a ride that is beyond your presentability or fitness level.

MBAS Topeak-Kenda Adventure Series ride. 10-20 miles.A ride on a marked course for all ability levels.Normally includes short and long loops. Call formore information.

EFTA/NEMBA 10-25 miles. Marked loops for all ability levels.Normally includes multiple loops. Call for moreinformation.

Kids/Family 2-10 miles, usually easy pace & terrain. Theserides are aimed at parents with young children.

Beginner 2-7 miles, easy terrain, easy pace. These rides areaimed at riders with little or no riding experience.

Novice 4-9 miles, mellow pace, easy terrain, frequentstops.

Advanced Novice6-10 miles, mellow pace, either mostly easy ter-rain, or could be technical terrain done slowly, fre-quent stops.

Intermediate 10-20 miles, moderately technical, somewhatfaster pace, occasional stops and bail out points.Intermediate rides are designed for people whoride frequently, and have some skills, but whoprobably don't enter races.

Advanced Intermediate The same as intermediate, except fasterand harder terrain.

32 | January 2009

Cape Cod & Islands12/24 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-869012/31 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86901/7 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86901/14 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86901/21 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86901/28 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86902/4 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86902/11 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86902/18 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86902/15 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86902/22 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86902/29 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86903/4 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86903/11 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86903/18 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86903/25 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-86904/1 Hyannis/Yarmouth Intermediate EMS Hyannis [email protected] 508-362-8690

Central, Wachusett & Western Mass12/17 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-270012/21 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-480012/24 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-270012/28 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-480012/31 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-27001/4 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-48001/7 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-27001/11 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-48001/14 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-27001/18 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-48001/21 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-27001/25 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-48001/28 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-27002/1 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-48002/4 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-27002/8 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-48002/11 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-27002/15 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-48002/18 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-27002/22 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-48002/25 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-27003/1 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-48003/4 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-27003/8 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-48003/11 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-27003/15 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-48003/18 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-27003/22 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-48003/25 Greenfield area All Bob Perry [email protected] 413-772-27003/29 Leominster SF All Jim Wrightson [email protected] 978-852-4800

Connecticut12/15 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-601012/15 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-7740

Advanced 20-30 miles, high technical difficulty, fast pace, few stops or chances to bail out. These rides are intended for advanced rid-ers or, racers who would like to go for a challenging ride at less than all out race pace.

Women's Ride Can be any level of difficulty. Call for more information.


12/18 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-601012/22 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-601012/22 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-774012/25 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-601012/29 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-601012/29 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-77401/1 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60101/5 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60101/5 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-77401/8 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60101/12 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60101/12 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-77401/15 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60101/19 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60101/19 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-77401/22 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60101/26 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60101/26 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-77401/29 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60102/2 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60102/2 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-77402/5 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60102/9 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60102/9 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-77402/12 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60102/16 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60102/16 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-77402/19 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60102/23 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60102/23 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-77402/26 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60103/2 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60103/2 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-77403/5 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60103/9 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60103/9 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-77403/12 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60103/16 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60103/16 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-77403/19 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60103/23 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60103/23 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-77403/26 Danielson Beginner Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60103/29 TBA Intermediate Danielson Adv. Sports [email protected] 860-774-60103/29 TBA Advanced Vernon Cycles [email protected] 860-872-7740

Maine, New Hampshire & Vermont12/16 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-477912/16 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-181712/17 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-477912/17 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-544812/18 TBD Night-ride Casey Leonard [email protected]/23 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-477912/23 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-181712/24 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-477912/24 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-544812/30 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-477912/30 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-181712/31 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-4779

34 | January 2009

12/31 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-54481/1 Headache Healer, ME All Casey Leonard [email protected]/6 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47791/6 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-18171/7 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47791/7 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-54481/13 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47791/13 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-18171/14 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47791/14 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-54481/18 TBD, ME All Casey Leonard [email protected]/20 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47791/20 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-18171/21 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47791/21 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-54481/27 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47791/27 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-18171/28 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47791/28 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-54482/3 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47792/3 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-18172/4 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47792/4 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-54482/10 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47792/10 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-18172/11 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47792/11 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-54482/17 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47792/17 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-18172/18 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47792/18 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-54482/24 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47792/24 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-18172/25 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47792/25 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-54483/3 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47793/3 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-18173/4 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47793/4 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-54483/10 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47793/10 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-18173/11 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47793/11 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-54483/17 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47793/17 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-18173/18 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47793/18 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-54483/24 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47793/24 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-18173/25 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47793/25 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-54483/31 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47793/31 TBD, NH Intermediate Bob Hall [email protected] 603-673-18174/1 TBD, NH Adv. Intermediate Peter DeSantis [email protected] 603-493-47794/1 TBD Central NH All Matt Bowser [email protected] 603-491-5448Metro Boston, Merrimack & North Shore 12/16 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org12/16 Great Brook SP All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com


12/18 Great Brook SP All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com12/18 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-438512/20 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com12/23 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org12/23 Great Brook SP All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com12/25 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-438512/27 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com12/30 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org1/1 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43851/3 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com1/6 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org1/8 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43851/10 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com1/13 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org1/15 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43851/17 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com1/20 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org1/22 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43851/24 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com1/27 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org1/29 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43851/31 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com1/27 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org1/29 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43851/31 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com2/3 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org2/5 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43852/7 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com2/10 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org2/12 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43852/14 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com2/17 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org2/19 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43852/21 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com2/24 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org2/26 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43852/28 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com3/3 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org3/5 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43853/7 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com3/10 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org3/12 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43853/14 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com3/17 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org3/19 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43853/21 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com3/24 Lowell, Dracut SF Intermediate Merrimack Valley NEMBA http://mv-nemba.org3/26 Groton All Mike Andersen [email protected] 617-851-43853//28 TBD All David Zizza [email protected] www.gratefultread.com

Southeastern Mass, Blackstone Valley & Rhode Island12/17 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-669412/18 Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-066512/18 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/19 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-509512/20 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)12/21 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-123512/24 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-6694

36 | January 2009

12/25 Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-066512/25 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/26 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-509512/27 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)12/28 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-123512/31 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-66941/1 Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-06651/1 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/2 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-50951/3 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)1/4 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-12351/7 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-66941/8 Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-06651/8 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/9 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-50951/10 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)1/11 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-12351/14 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-66941/15 Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-06651/15 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/16 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-50951/17 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)1/18 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-12351/21 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-66941/22 Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-06651/22 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/23 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-50951/24 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)1/25 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-12351/28 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-66941/29 Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-06651/29 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/30 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-50951/31 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)2/1 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-12352/4 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-66942/5 TBD Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-06652/5 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/6 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-50952/7 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)2/8 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-12352/11 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-66942/12 Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-06652/12 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/13 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-50952/14 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)2/15 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-12352/18 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-66942/19 Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-06652/19 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/20 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-50952/21 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)2/22 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-12352/25 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-66942/26 Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-06652/26 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/27 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-5095


2/28 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)2/29 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-12353/4 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-66943/5 TBD Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-06653/5 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/6 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-50953/7 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)3/8 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-12353/11 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-66943/12 Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-06653/12 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/13 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-50953/14 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)3/15 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-12353/18 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-66943/19 Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-06653/19 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/20 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-50953/21 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)3/22 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-12353/25 Burlingame RI Adv. Beginner Lennon Schroeder [email protected] 401-212-66943/26 Foxboro SF Intermediate Dan Ibbitson [email protected] 508-384-06653/26 Vietnam Intermediate John Goeller [email protected]/27 Duxbury All Walter Masgul [email protected] 603-512-50953/28 Pembroke area Kids [email protected] 781-826-1155(KIDS)3/29 Ames Nowell SP Beginner- Adv. Nov. Malcolm Neilson [email protected] 617-334-1235

Ride the Trails ~ Save the TrailsJoin NEMBA to Support Mountain Biking inNew England ! Pick a Chapter!

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NEMBA, PO Box 2221, Acton MA 01720 Join online at WWW.NEMBA.ORG

38 | January 2009

S.O.S.: Support Our Sponsors!$1000+Ace Wheelworks, Somerville MABelmont Wheel Works, Belmont MABikebarn, Whitman MACycle Loft, Burlington MAFox Racing Shox, Watsonville CAIndependent Fabrication, SomervilleInternational Bicycle Center, NewtonLandry’s Bicycles, Natick MAMerlin Metalworks, Chattanooga TNRedbones BBQ, Somerville MASeven Cycles, Watertown MATed Wojcik Bicycles, Hampstead NHThe Bikeway Source, Bedford MA

$500Breakstone, White-Lief & Gluck, PCGoodale’s Bike Shop, Concord NH

$250Biker’s Edge, Bristol CTFlye Cycles, Inc., S. Deerfield MAPedal Power, Middleton CTSouhegan Cycles, MIlford NHThe Bicycle Shop of Topsfield, MAThe Bike Shop, Manchester CTWashington Street Tavern, BrooklineWheel Power, Exeter NH

$100Benidorm Bikes, Canton CTBicycle Link, Weymouth MABicycle World, Weymouth MADanielson Adventure Sports, CTDave’s Bike Infirmary, Milton MAEMS, Inc NewtonEMS, Inc Peterborough NH

Exeter Cycles, Exeter NHFreeport National Ski & Bike, MEGranny Gear Productions, Davis WVIBEX/USE, Portsmouth NHMilford Bicycles, Milford MANorco Bikes, Port Coquitlam BCNorth Haven Bike, North Haven CTNortheast Bicycle Club, Burlingtonos20gear, Arlington MARiverside Cycles, Newburyport MASki Market, Avon MASki Market, Boston MASki Market, Danvers MASki Market, Framingham MASki Market, Norwalk CTSki Market, Pembroke MASki Market, Topsfield MASki Market, Wellesley MASki Market, Warwick RIThe Bike Shop, Manchester CTXtra Effort Solutions, Westford MA

$75Minuteman Road Club, Ivoryton CTSinister Bikes, Glouceter MA

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