NEW ENGLAND MOUNTAIN BIKE ASSOCIATION March 2014 #132 www.nemba.org SSingleingleTTrackS NEMBA, the New England Mountain Bike February / March 2014, Number 132 Association, 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 these trails sensitively and responsibly. SingleTracks is published six times a year by the New England Mountain Bike Association for Women of Dirt the trail community. We profile some of the key ladies that are involved with NEMBA and out trailbuilding. ©SingleTracks By Paula Burton Editor & Publisher: Philip Keyes 6 Contributing Writer: Bill Boles Copy Editor: Nanyee Keyes Executive Director: Philip Keyes [email protected] NEMBA PO Box 2221 Acton MA 01720 Riding Punkhorn Board of Directors 13 Adam Glick, President Parkland Matt Schulde, Vice-President Located in Brewster, on the Cape, Punhorn is a great Anne Shepard, Treasurer Harry Meyer, Secretary venue for early spring riding. By Bill Boles Rob Adair, White Mountains NEMBA Brian Alexander, CeMeNEMBA John Anders, Midcoast Maine NEMBA Eric Boudreau, Wachusett NEMBA Matt Bowser, Central NH NEMBA Aaron Brasslett, Penobscot Region NEMBA Paula Burton, CT NEMBA Eammon Carleton, BV NEMBA Matt Caron, Southern NH NEMBA Steve Cobble, SE MA NEMBA Leo Corrigan, RI NEMBA Paper Trail SingleTracks Hey, get creative! We wel- Brian Danz, Greater Portland NEMBA Peter DeSantis, Southern NH NEMBA come submissions, photos and artwork. This is Erik daSilva, Penobscot Region NEMBA Treadlines — 4 your forum and your magazine. Be nice, and Andrew Favreau, Greater Portland NEMBA share! Harold Green, Pioneer Valley NEMBA Basic Biking — 14 David Hughes, Carrabassett Region NEMBA On the Cover: Nicole Bolin riding her fatbike Chris Joosen, White Mountains NEMBA Annual Fund Donors — 16 at Horse Hill Preserve, Merrimack NH. Photo by Steffi Krug, Pioneer Valley NEMBA PK. Chris Kezckemethy, Fairfield County NEMBA Chapter News — 17 Frank Lane, North Shore NEMBA Do you have a photo that would make a good Bill Markham, Berkshire NEMBA NEMBA Rides — 36 Stuart McDonald, Merrimack Valley NEMBA cover shot? Email it to [email protected] Harry Meyers, Berkshire NEMBA Support our Sponsors — 38 Barry Moore, Merrimack Valley NEMBA Want to Underwrite in ST? Chris O’Toole, CeMeNEMBA Kevin Orlowski, Central NH NEMBA SingleTracks offers inexpensive and targeted Peter Poanessa, BK NEMBA underwriting which helps us defray the cost of David Riding, SE MA NEMBA producing this cool ‘zine. Call 800-57-NEMBA Pete Schraeder, BK NEMBA or email [email protected] for our media kit. Dan Streeter, North Shore NEMBA Joshua Tauses, Carrabassett Valley NEMBA Moving? Chris Thurrott, Greater Boston NEMBA Al Tinti, CT NEMBA Don’t miss an issue! Change your address online Ryan Tucker, Fairfield County NEMBA at nemba.org or mail it into SingleTracks, PO Box 2221, Acton MA 01720 WWW.NEMBA.ORG Save the Trails SingleTrackS No. 132 | 3 TREADLINES Annual Election of NEMBA’s Board of Directors NEMBA members are cordially invited to NEMBA's Annual Meeting and Election of our Board of Directors on April 4 at 12pm at Resort & Conference Center in Hyannis, located at 35 Scudder Ave., Hyannis MA. NEMBA's chapters have nominated who will represent their chapter on NEMBA's Board as a primary voting member and alternate. Now it's time for NEMBA membership to vote. Berkshire NEMBA Central NH NEMBA Midcoast Maine NEMBA Rhode Island NEMBA Harry Meyer Kevin Orlowski John Anders Matt Schulde Bill Markham (Alternate) Matt Bowser (Alternate) Peter Gengler (Alternate) North Shore NEMBA Blackstone Valley NEMBA Central CT NEMBA Frank Lane SE MA NEMBA Eammon Carleton Al Tinti Hank Kells (Alternate) Steve Cobble Anne Shepard Paula Burton (Alternate) David Riding (Alternate) North West CT NEMBA Brattleboro-Keene NEMBA Fairfield County NEMBA Jon Regan Southern NH NEMBA Peter Poanessa Ryan Tucker Scott Ruel (Alternate) Matt Caron Bob Shalit (Alternate) Chris Kezckemethy (alternate) Peter DeSantis (Alternate) Penobscot Region NEMBA Cape Cod NEMBA Greater Boston NEMBA Aaron Brasslett Wachusett NEMBA Mike Dube Adam Glick Kris Sornberger (Alternate) Eric Boudreau Maciej Sobieszek (Alternate) Dave Burnham (Alternate) Carrabassett Region NEMBA Pioneer Vally NEMBA David Hughes Greater Portland NEMBA Harold Green White Mountains NEMBA Josh Tauses (Alternate) Andrew Favreau Marc Lombard (Alternate) Rob Adair Jim Tasse (Alternate) Chris Joosen (Alternate) Central Maine NEMBA Quiet Corner NEMBA Brian Alexander Merrimack Valley NEMBA Stacey Jimenez Chris O'Toole (Alternate) Barry Moore Jeff Doyle (Alternate) Malen Anderson (Alternate) 4 |March 2014 Ride the Trails TREADLINES "Off-Season" with NEMBA Racing Can we really call it 'off' any and high contrast thanks to the more? Let's be honest, do any snow makes it easy to spot of us really turn off for the interesting lines. Strap on your winter months? Sure, maybe snowshoes and take the dog for we loosen the belt and indulge a walk, who knows what you during the holidays but we might find! cyclists are a restless folk. By the time this hits the press Some of us transition to ski- NEMBA Racing will be working ing; many of us have jumped hard to recruit new members, on the Fat Bike bandwagon. establish more sponsorship Anything to stay off those relationships and start the 2014 damn indoor trainers, am I season as strong as ever. We right?! are looking to continue to Who knows, before too long increase our footprint in the we may have an entire fat bike New England race scene and get winter race series. The inau- more racers involved in advoca- gural edition of the Moose cy. Brook Fat Bike Race in I'm also looking forward to shar- Gorham, NH sold out their ing our stories during the race registration in just a few days. season with a more permanent There is now no doubt the presence here in SingleTracks. demand is there, just a matter of time before supply catches up. The Be on the lookout for race highlights and recaps, racer trail work Kingdom Trails are offering more winter biking trails than ever before efforts, training and gear tips and anything else we can think of. as well as fat bike rentals. All we need now is hover-bikes that float Here's to a great 2014! above the mud in the spring and New England will be a year-round riding destination. —Kevin Orlowski Winter is also a great time to scout out new singletrack. No leaves Ride Like a Girl Series Recap It is hard to believe another woke up Sunday stoked, so I season has come and gone! hit the dirt and think I Thanks to the support of "shredded" some trails. I Holly Carson, Tina Dwan, may have even carved a Kathy Evans, Kate Parhiala, berm? Felt so good I took and Christine Nason approxi- some trails I'd been avoid- mately 30 women, dedicated ing, and handled them just to hitting up as many clinics fine. It was awesome- my as possible, exhibited some awareness to the trail and impressive progression over all its offerings was height- this season, not to mention ened, like I was seeing more the other 70 or so helped of it- and I wasn't as timid with attaining particular skill when it came to deciding to sets sought after by attending muscle through an area, or select clinics. It truly was a gingerly navigate past. stellar season for RLG partici- Because of your clinic I pants! This is what they are saying: understood I had options, which instilled a feeling of control (how- ever fleeting), which boosted my confidence, and viola! Success. so “Thank you for all your work this season on the Ride-Like-A-Girl very cool. You know, it's one thing to read this stuff and look at pic- series. You and all the coaches offered great encouragement, great tures, or video- it's quite another to see it firsthand. So a hearty direction and great fun. Although this was my fourth season rid- thank you to you and the girls for coming over to show us the way. ing, I am now thinking about things in a much different way. I got You all were very impressive, and the other riders were inspirational more familiar with my bike, learned new thinking tricks to improve too! I wish every woman would get involved in this sport; it's so my ride, and have been able to fine-tune my thinking about what liberating, and healthy...and FUN! SWEET! Thanks again, Kathy” to work upon next summer. I also liked the exposure to trails out of my area, and the opportunity to work with knowledgeable I could not agree more!! Once again, thanks to Highland Mountain women riders was invaluable. I never dreamed I would ride "down- Bike Park, The New England Mountain Bike Association, and all of the hill" — thanks to Tina for that!!... I definitely will be attending the volunteers behind the scenes that makes Ride Like A Girl possible! women's weekend again. - Anne” Until spring ... “I attended your way cool clinic last Saturday! Man, that was a —Karen Eagan blast- in fact, I think the high's just starting to wear off now!! I Save the Trails SingleTrackS No. 132 | 5 The Women of Dirt By Paula Burton always scour the mountain biking maga- zines for articles about access and trail I builders. I read them more than once, wonderful stories about trails and trail builders around the country and world. I keep waiting for one article, the article about women designing and building trails. Once in a while IMBA has a short blurb about their traveling trail crew, a couple driving around in a brightly painted Subaru, and I'd like to give a shout out to Jill and Jen and the rest of the IMBA Trail Care Crew women.