Mountain bikers work to expand trail access
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Toolbox
By CHRIS HRENKO Correspondent - Published: May 4, 2008
Born in the late 70s, the young sport of mountain biking is starting to mature.
And if the efforts of the Vermont Mountain Bike Association and its local chapters are any indication, Vermonters can expect to see its continued growth for many years to come.
VMBA is to mountain biking what VAST is to snowmobilers in the Green Mountain State. But while cost, climate change and increasing environmental sensitivity may have snowmobiling on the wane, mountain biking is poised as a fashionably greener, more fitness-oriented alternative. The organization recently reached an agreement with the State of Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation (FPR) to become a corridor manager for mountain biking on state land.
This is good news to people like Brad Watson, Membership Coordinator for a VMBA-affiliated club called the Montpelier Area Mountain Bike Association (MAMBA).
"This year we raised dues purely to provide more support for VMBA and its Executive Director Patrick Kell because we feel that he's doing an incredible thing statewide with the FPR," Watson said. "He has proposed ride centers on state land. ... just like the VAST people have."
Both Watson and his wife Wendy grew up immersed in New England hockey culture and both still play recreationally. Both Watsons recently stepped down from coaching their kids' hockey teams, and it goes without saying that the pair understand and can appreciate the rewards of strong community involvement in a family-oriented fitness activity.
If trails could become as accessible as ice in the winter, there's no reason to believe that mountain biking couldn't become just as well-established as hockey in Vermont.
"Our biggest thing is to get families involved," said Watson. "It's really a family sport. The biggest thing that I like to see is the focus on fitness. With all the obesity and the idea that we've got to get these kids off the couch and away from the computers, in Vermont mountain biking is the perfect way to do it. I think mountain biking is going to explode on the scene here if we can get access to more public land. We've seen little pockets of it. There's the Kingdom Trails at Burke, and over at Ascutney there's the STAB trails. If you can provide these multi-use trails, you're going to get more people using them, and if you can get the families and the adults using them, then the kids will naturally follow. We have so much public land, and there's potential for many more trails; I think the state is starting to recognize that."
With the increased potential to access state lands brought about by the VMBA/FPR agreement, the prospects for expansion are looking better than ever for local VMBA chapters like MAMBA. Though MAMBA's roots run back to 2000, the group has only existed as a VMBA chapter since the summer of 2004. Since then, Montpelier-area public mountain bike access has grown exponentially.
MAMBA originated as an informal club called the Capital City Hill Climbers. By becoming a VMBA chapter, the club gained the ability to offer insurance to landowners who host trails, as well becoming a liaison to the National Forest System. The organization educates local chapters in building sustainable, erosion-and-liability-free trails, and the group has even started up a tool-loaning program. Becoming a VMBA chapter has helped MAMBA legitimize pre-existing trails, gain access to new land and open up new funding opportunities.
"We had this Thursday group that John Hollar and my wife Wendy and I were involved in," Watson said. "We started talking about how we've got to start a local chapter. We started with six or 10 people and it was growing every year. We were up to 40 people on our e-mail list for Thursday night rides. It was like, 'Why can't we get this thing going?' To be honest, it never got serious until Jase showed up in town."
It was Jase Roberts, a Michigan transplant and relative newcomer to the sport, who stepped in to provide the organizational push that got the club its VMBA affiliation and laid the groundwork of what, in four short years, has turned into a legitimate organization.
"We're still the Capital Climbers," Watson said. "But now everybody is a MAMBA member. So we automatically had instant membership of 30-plus people or families. Jase gets all the credit because it probably wouldn't have happened, or wouldn't have happened as soon, if he hadn't come along. We met Jase on one of our Capital Climber rides with his brother Kip. He had just moved into town and was looking to ride with some people. He hooked up with us on Thursday nights and he immediately said, 'Let's start a local chapter of VMBA.' The vision was out there before he got here, but Jase really made it happen – there's no doubt about that in my mind."
Roberts is affectionately referred to as "Land Beaver" by his friends, a nickname earned for his unbridled enthusiasm for any kind of digging or earthmoving. A natural organizer and trail builder, Roberts didn't let his lack of mountain bike experience hold him back.
"He wasn't into mountain biking at all really," said Kip Roberts, who sits on the MAMBA board and works at Onion River Sports in Montpelier. "We had Huffys and crap that we rode to school every once in a while in Michigan, but there was no mountain biking where we were growing up. We didn't know anything about it. But he's very psyched about organizations and organizing and that kind of stuff. That's what got him into mountain biking. You should see his bikes. He destroys them. He doesn't care about bike technology or maintenance. He likes getting out there and land beaverin'. When we were kids, he used to build a lot of dams in streams and ice luges too, where you get a sump pump and pump water out of the pond so you can ice down this luge course built out of snow. He'd spend two days building it, only I would hit it and then it would melt the next weekend."
On a shoestring budget, Jase Roberts spent his first summer in Vermont scouring local garage sales to find rakes, shovels and other tools for the club. His homemade scones and coffee only added more incentive for club members to volunteer for trail work days.
A larger pool of membership dues and a couple of grants – secured in part because of the VMBA affiliation – have allowed MAMBA to purchase construction materials for trail renovation in addition to buying a more complete arsenal of tools.
Roberts, who went on to serve as chairman of VMBA for two years, explained that while the core of the club hasn't changed much, MAMBA has come a long way in terms of trail-building knowledge and land/manager relations.
"We have much better technical expertise," Roberts said. "The first day we went out we had no idea what to do, what tools to buy, anything. We were just raking trails, that's all we did: rake and ride. Now we know how to build stone structures, we know how to build bridges, we got a grip hoist in conjunction with the city of Montpelier, which allows us to move really heavy stuff. ... Our biggest project so far has been the North Branch Trails. There's a new trail there that we built in 2006 which runs parallel to the Corridor Trail and allows you to access the East Montpelier Trail network."
While MAMBA steadily built up its manpower, the group was still held back by some red tape.
"It took a lot of advocacy, a lot of meetings," Roberts said. "The Montpelier Parks and Recreation Committee wouldn't let us use the existing Corridor Trail (a VAST trail used by snowmobiles for the same purpose in the winter). They thought that in order for it to be shared by bikers and walkers, it would have to be at least 11 feet wide, which sounds like a country road to me. But instead they let us build a new one."
Watson agreed that the effort to open a small part of the North Branch trail system to mountain bikes was a good example of how organizations like MAMBA and VMBA have successfully been working to overcome negative images and misconceptions about mountain bikers.
"There's a lot of public land out there and public land should accommodate many uses," Watson said. "There's always going to be someone who wants the peace and quiet and serenity, and being approached by a pack of mountain bikers would make them feel like that experience is being ruined. But I think that when you look at the interaction between the biker and hiker and birdwatcher, the negative instances are so few and far between that they are outweighed by the benefits from being able to use the public land in a variety of different ways."
By continuing to support the efforts of VMBA and its local chapters like MAMBA, Vermonters have the chance not only to embrace a healthy, emissions-free recreational activity, but to make the state a mountain biking destination.
"Mountain biking has been great for the East Burke economy, so why couldn't it be great statewide?" Watson said.
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