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COTA Board Meeting December 12, 2003 at the Environmental
Center:
On Dec. 5th the board met with Marv Lang and Steve Hayden from the USFS to discuss issues at hand and here's an overview:
- Reroutes, we talked about completion and opening of the new connectors in the Phil's trailhead area. At or near completion are Kent's,
Phil's, Ben's (or Mike's if you prefer) and GS. Most are set to be opened by the beginning of spring 04 bike season.
-Power Tools, many of these new connectors were put in using varying degrees of power equipment, it was noted that under "good" soil moisture conditions, the addition of power tools is a good thing, but we'll continue to monitor each trails maturation.
-Features, much of the nights discussion centered on features. What kind, where, how etc. the priority list by preference was established: 1.Rock Armoring, 2.Natural
wood 3.Dimensional lumber.
-Signage/trail difficulty, for signage at the beginning of the trail, we seem to have settled on the
"Easy", "More Difficult", Most difficult" signs, and add to that Caution sign when encountering a substantially harder feature build with a get-around. it was also discussed that east trails should remain easy, and that as the difficulty continued to rise, so
would the features and their respective difficulty.
-Free ride/dirt jump park, this was a spectacular development, it looks like the USFS will let us build a park of some sort, maybe two. You'll be hearing a great deal more about this on the website soon!
-Event rehab, there was an as yet undecided discussion over events and there impact on our trail system.
-10 Year plan, we are in an ongoing design and placement discussion with the forest planners, most of the issues were tabled for a later date.
What's in a name? It seems that somewhere buried (no pun intended) in an obscure federal statute there's a line about trails only being able to be named for individuals who've been dead for five years or more. Let it be known that all board members who may/or may not have a trail named after them resist strongly the notion that we should be helped along in that regard.
Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU as they are called, was looked at for specifics and input between COTA and the Forest Service. If any members have
issues they'd like to be heard on, now would be the time to voice your opinion.
(politely of course!).
Kent Howes, Acting Secretary, COTA
To post a reply to this on www.cotamtb.org click the "Add Your Input!" links on the site or click this: www.cotamtb.org/newsform.html
read and respond to it at www.cotamtb.org/news.php?031211123345n
Read more . . . The long
answer is I have been impressed at the way our own mountain bicycling club, COTA, (Central Oregon Trails
Alliance) does things here in Bend. Their trails west of Bend are superb. Get a
map of Mountain Bike trails and ride or walk some yourself. These single track
trails are a joy, and the bikers are polite and "glad
to see ya". Until I can write more here, check the links
below and see for yourself.
Phil's Trail has put Central Oregon on the Mountain biking map
COTA:
Mountain bicyclists share the trials! Geocaching along the
mountain bike trail to Smith Rock
The Sport of Traditional Alpine
Mountaineering
OK, what is TraditionalMountaineering doing reporting on Mountain Bicycling?
Well, the short answer is lots of traditional mountaineers get to the mountains
on bicycles! German alpinists rode their bikes loaded with their gear, to Switzerland
in the 1930s, to assault the
North Face of the Eiger. More recently, Goran Kropp rode a bicycle from Sweden to
Mount Everest, climbed Everest solo and rode his bicycle back to Sweden!
International
Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) helps COTA build trails west of Bend
Oregon
Mountain bike trail maintenance by COTA in Bend Oregon
"Traditional Alpine Mountaineering is basically an aerobic sport.
Climbing, jogging, running, hiking the hills, backpacking, mountain biking, back
country skiing, snowshoeing, telemark skiing, adventure racing and similar
sports all act together to improve aerobic capacity, strength, balance and
athleticism. Some of my companions were born with these gifts; I had to work
hard at improving my abilities and to climb well. What workouts are you
enjoying?"
