Chapter Meeting Minutes - 1/11/10

Jay Wilkes opened the meeting at Pure Taqueria in Woodstock by commenting on the continued work with the City of Woodstock on the Olde Rope Mill Park-Taylor Randahl Memorial Trails project.  Work on these trails should begin this spring after the USACOE approvals have been received.  We will be acquiring a new diesel Dingo through a lease/purchase arrangement for this project.  We will have access to a demo this week for a “test drive”.  

We continue to move forward with the South Loop extension with the invaluable help of SOFA (SORBA Freeride Alliance).

Our need for volunteers will be strong throughout 2010 as we build new trails at Olde Rope Mill Park and Blankets Creek. 

Reinhart College continues to be very interested in improving their trail system to become a venue for high school mountain bike racing.  Charlie Shultz has done some preliminary work to reroute the existing trails to meet IMBA trailbuilding standards, creating a better flowing 5.5 miles of singletrack trail. 

There is a meeting open to all interested parties this Wednesday, 1/13/10, concerning the development of mountain bike clubs in the State's high schools. Stefanie Bunkley, will be there to address this program and how IMBA-SORBA and its chapters can help to build junior participation in mountain biking. Tom Saurett, Walt Bready, and Stephen Mullins with IMBA-SORBA will attend this meeting at Forsyth County Parks & Rec at 4075 Spot Road in Cumming, GA. 

Once again, the IMBA World Summit will be held in Augusta, GA on May 5-8, 2010.  Almost the entire IMBA staff will be coming to this event.  As has been discussed previously, this summit will showcase mountain biking in the Southeast U.S., the IMBA-SORBA partnership model and the FATS trails and other trails in the Augusta area.  As details about accommodations and camping options becomes available, we will post this information on www.sorbawoodstock.org. 

On that note, www.sorbawoodstock.com recently became available and we have purchased that URL.  Anyone entering that URL will be automatically routed to our .org site. 

The trail counter information has been posted on our web site.  The effects of trail closures in recent months are reflected in these counts. 

We closed the Blankets Creek trails effective today because of the freeze/thaw process that causes considerable damage to the trails.  Everyone is encouraged to check our chapter web site or call the trail condition hotline number (770) 621-5015 before making the drive to the trails.  We need to focus our volunteer hours on building new trails in 2010, not repairing existing trails damaged by riding on them when they are closed.  This closure could last for a couple of weeks or more.  

The reroute of a section of the Dragon’s Tail will be completed after some final Dingo work has been completed.  The Dingo demo will be used for this work.  This reroute was inspired by the Ridgeline Trail at Dupont in NC. 

The purchase of the approximately 5 acres of land adjacent to the Blankets Creek parking lot will be finalized shortly.  CRPA is targeting Fall of 2010 to build amenities, to include permanent bathrooms.  We are exploring building a BMX track and dirt jumps in this area.  There is an existing building on this property that will be used as a tool shed and work shop and can be used for chapter meetings when the weather prevents outdoor meetings at the trailhead.  A part of the purchase agreement for this land will allow the current property owner to reside in her home as long as she is able.  When she eventually leaves the property CRPA will have control of the entire parcel. 

The trail marking system should be in place by Spring 2010. 

The meeting was adjourned by Jay Wilkes.