Celebrating 20 Years of Riding and Saving the Trails SSingleingleTTrackrackSS March 2007, Number 90 www.nemba.org Spring Meccas! • Sedona, AZ • Santos, FL First Bike? Rigid or Suspension? Is Singlespeeding for you? SSingleingleTTrackS NEMBA, the New England Mountain Bike March 2007, Number 90 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 22 trails sensitively and responsibly. Building with SingleTracks is published six times a year by the New England Mountain Bike Association for the trail community. Stone Making trails out of solid rock to stand the test of time. ©SingleTracks Here’s how the folks at White Mountains NEMBA do it. Editor & Publisher: Philip Keyes By Rob Adair Contributing Writer: Jeff Cutler Copy Editor: Nanyee Keyes Executive Director: Philip Keyes [email protected] Sedona! NEMBA Are we in heaven yet? For New Englanders looking to PO Box 2221 escape to some warm weather riding in a land of magic, Acton MA 01720 Sedona is mountain bike heaven. By Bill Boles Voice 800.57.NEMBA 12 Fax: 717-326-8243 [email protected] Board of Directors Tom Grimble, President Winter Escape to Harold Green, Vice-President Anne Shepard, Treasurer 17 Tina Williams, Secretary Santos Florida isn’t for retirement any more now that it has the largest Rob Adair, White Mountains NEMBA public mountain bike playground in the country. By Vic Oliver Norman Blanchette, MV NEMBA Todd Bumen, Mt. Agamenticus NEMBA Bob Caporaso, CT NEMBA Jon Conti, White Mountains NEMBA Peter DeSantis, Seacoast NEMBA Hey, get creative! We wel- John Dudek, PV NEMBA SingleTracks Bob Giunta, Merrimack Valley NEMBA come submissions, photos and artwork. This is Rich Higgins, SE MA NEMBA your forum and your magazine. Be nice, and John Kibler, Maine NEMBA share! Rich Kordell, Blackstone Valley NEMBA Paper Trail On the Cover: Alf Berry shot this great picture Steve LaFlame, Central NH NEMBA Frank Lane, NS NEMBA on the trails at Thunder Mountain, Utah, outside Heather Linscott, Berkshire NEMBA Treadlines — 4 of Bryce Canyon National Park. Tom McCrumm, Berkshire NEMBA Scott Nixon, SC NH NEMBA Singlespeeding — 20 Have a pic that would make a good cover shot? Chris Patrick, SE MA NEMBA Email it to [email protected] Joseph Re, Greater Boston NEMBA Trailbuilding —22 Art Roti, CT NEMBA Want to Advertise? Places to Ride — 24 Harry Rubin, SC NH NEMBA SingleTracks offers inexpensive and targeted Matt Schulde, RI NEMBA Gear —26 Dan Streeter, North Shore NEMBA advertising which helps us defray the cost of Mike Tabaczynski, Greater Boston NEMBA SideTracks —28 producing this cool ‘zine. Call 800-57-NEMBA John Vosburg, Blackstone Valley NEMBA or email [email protected] for our media kit. Calvin Weeks, Maine NEMBA Basic Biking —29 Moving? Chapter News —24 Don’t miss an issue! Change your address online WWW.NEMBA.ORG NEMBA Rides —28 at nemba.org or mail it into SingleTracks, PO Box 2221, Acton MA 01720 Support our Sponsors—35 SingleTrackS No. 90 | 3 TREADLINES Blue Hills Holiday Toy Ride This year’s DCR Blue Hills Reservation Holiday Toy Drive and Mountain Bike Ride or Hike (say that five times fast) was a jolly good time. Mountain bikers and hikers powered by free coffee donated by Dunkin Donuts and filled with the generosity of the season came together for a fun filled good cause. Members of NEMBA, Blue Hills TrailWatch, and the general public enjoyed a beautiful sunny day. Several rides for all abil- ity levels occurred along with a hike led by a TrailWatch volunteer. Santa even made an appearance! The kids on scene got the chance to enjoy some hot chocolate and tell Santa all of their holiday wishes. Those who were taking a break from riding or just relaxing were able to enjoy the warmth of the bonfire and the camaraderie of enjoying the beautiful Blue Hills. I would like to thank everyone who attended and was able to give. The Rangers along with TrailWatcher Steve Cobble were able to donate a whole truck load of toys and games following the event to the Interfaith Social Services in Quincy. I am sure the children who are enjoying those toys and games greatly appreciate Blue Hills Rangers Tom Bender and Dave Furey, with Bettyanne Lang (InterFaith Social the generosity. —Ranger Dave Furey Services). ‘Tis the Season. NEMBA, TrailWatch, and the enthusiastic staff of the Blue Hills made the holidays brighter for many kids who might not otherwise get gifts Photo by Steve Cobble 4 | March 2007 TREADLINES REI Funds New Docks at Wompatuck State Park This past spring at one was where the funds would be of the Friends of allocated since the Friends of Wompatuck meetings, Wompatuck had not yet acquired Bill Boles (also the their non profit tax status. friend’s president) told Fortunately, Bill was able to work the group of a possible with NEMBA's Philip Keyes and $10,000 grant that REI come to an agreement that would was willing to make to let REI donate the money to the park. REI wanted NEMBA who would then allocate something added to the the money for the project. park which would bene- NEMBA's commitment to improv- fit its customer base ing our natural resources in the (camping, kayaking, Northeast is unfailing so it was a fishing, biking, etc). The perfect solution to the problem. challenge was to identi- fy a project that would Wompatuck ranger Steve meet both of these cri- Gammon acted as the liaison with teria. Bill Boles, working DCR and acquired approval for the with Wompatuck ranger project and then secured contrac- Steve Gammon, devel- ‘Thanks to Ranger Steve Gammon, riders can take a breather and enjoy the view tors to begin fabrication during oped the idea of putting from the new dock funded by REI. the summer. At the December a dock in Holly Pond FOW meeting, Steve informed the that people could use to dock kayaks, use for fishing, bird watching, group that the docks were finished and one of the two docks would and a rest place for hikers. Holly Pond is not too far from a road so be temporarily installed in Holly Pond for the public to view and use REI could come and do canoeing and kayaking demos. Ultimately, this before the onset of winter. Both docks will be installed at Holly pond project was approved by DCR and by REI. The only issue remaining come spring for all to enjoy! —Eric Oddleifson SingleTrackS No. 90 | 5 6 | March 2007 TREADLINES NEMBA Partners with US Army Corps of Engineers at Franklin Falls Dam, NH NEMBA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have had an NEMBA's White Mountains and Central NH chapters have been established relationship resulting from cooperative trail projects at actively involved in helping get the project off the ground. Rob Adair, Hodges Village Dam in Oxford, Massachusetts and Elm Brook Park in President of the White Mountains chapter remarked, "This is a very West Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Recently, NEMBA and the USACE exciting opportunity. The terrain is very impressive; well-drained and signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop non-motorized full of interesting topographical and historical features. The brief tour trails at the Franklin Falls Reservoir property in central New we took appears to be just scratching the surface of the possibilities." Hampshire. To date, Mike and friends have over 1.5 miles of new trail flagged and Located on both sides of the approved for construction. Most Pemigewasset River between New of the activity is centered near Hampton and Franklin, the property con- the Franklin Falls Dam area adja- sists of more than 2,500 wooded acres cent to the park's administrative that already contain existing trails. offices. Restoration of a trail pre- NEMBA member Mike Geldermann initi- viously lost to logging in the ated contact with Rangers Jennifer Coolidge Woods area near New Rockett and Karen Tryon to discuss Hampton has also been improving the existing trail system and approved. The long term goal is a creating additional single-track trails. continuous trail system on both After meetings with the rangers, the side of the river, with potential Memorandum of Understanding was for over forty miles of single- executed by the USACE and NEMBA's track trails. Executive Director Philip Keyes in Contact either the White January of 2007 to formalize the partner- Mountains or Central NH chap- ship at the Franklin Falls facility. ters to get involved. —Rob Adair SingleTrackS No. 90 | 7 TREADLINES Jamis Rewards Volunteer for the Jamis / NEMBA NH Trail Care Series We’re pleased to announce the winner of This is the first year that Jamis has sponsored this year’s Jamis Bicycles / NEMBA Trail the series. "Jamis Bicycles is excited and Care Series. The winner, Scott Nixon of proud to have aligned with NEMBA," says Merrimack (NH), is a past president of the Jamis' New England sale representative, Ed South Central NH NEMBA chapter and will Barber. "It's rare to work with a group that is be receiving a Jamis Dakar XLT dual sus- as dedicated, proactive, and as successful as pension bike, courtesy of Jamis Bicycles. NEMBA in insuring that mountain bikers con- tinue to have access to the trails we all love Nixon's name was selected at random out to ride, right here in our own back yard! The of over a hundred volunteers who attend- added benefit of sponsoring the NH Trail Care ed at least one of the twenty trail care Series sends a strong signal to the trail user events sponsored by Jamis Bicycles in the community at large that mountain bikers put state.