Categories
Trailwork Reports

Cutaway Kids Team Trailwork Day

cutawayfall2016-1The kids from the Cutaway team are at it again! Twice a year, coach Joe Hoskins brings his crew of young racers (and their parents) out to help CAMBC maintain local trails. The kids learn the importance of proper trail design, how to prevent erosion damage, and how to keep the trails in top shape for years to come. This fall, their project was at the top of O-Hill. Clearing back invasive brush and building water drainage features were the tasks for the day. In total, 20 kids and their parents showed up, and gave some very old trails a much needed tune-up.

CAMBC’s biggest goal is to provide sustainable trails for our local cycling and hiking community. We are very fortunate to have a vibrant junior cycling community ready to give back and show their love for their local trails. These kids will carry the torch onwards assuring a future of great trails.

 

Categories
Advocacy

Joint Letter in Support of Shared Use at Ragged Mountain

CAMBC, Rivanna Trails Foundation, and Charlottesville Area Trailrunners have delivered a letter to Mr. Brian Daly of the City of Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Department to endorse a shared use plan for Ragged Mountain access. “Option E” is one of several plans on the table for future of Ragged Mountain. This is the only viable plan that allows shared trail access within the park. For more information about the options that will be presented to City Council, please visit:

http://www.charlottesville.org/departments-and-services/departments-h-z/parks-recreation-/parks-trails/city-parks/ragged-mountain

https://cambc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Option-E-endorsement-letter-CAMBC-RTF-CAT-signed.pdf

Categories
Community

Take a Kid Mountain Biking

TKMBD 2016Come help us celebrate the first annual spring edition of TKMBD. The second Saturday in June is the official ride date, designated by the U.S. Congress.IMBA’s Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day strives to encourage communities in the U.S.A. and around the world to join together and ride mountain bikes with kids. Last year over 15,000 kids and family members participated in 150+ community events in the U.S. Several events were registered in other countries including: Italy, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Malaysia, and Mexico. You, your family or your company are encouraged to join the fun and participate in IMBA’s Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day.

TKMBD will be hosted by CAMBC from 12-4 on Saturday June 11th in Earlysville at Teventrails. Food and drinks will be provided.

Categories
Community

Bluegrass, Bikes, and Beers

On April 23rd, Travis Book and Devil’s Backbone are throwing another party to benefit CAMBC. Great music, great beer, and mountain bike rides.

DBPoster2016

image2016 Bluegrass, Bikes, and Beer is coming April 23rd!! Devils Backbone has donated beer, and Travis Book has lined up some great entertainment. We will be selling collectible steel pint cups for $20. With this cup, you also get 3 beer tickets. All proceeds go to CAMBC, and our local trail building efforts.

Here is the schedule of events:
10AM: Group Ride leaves from Sherando Lake State Park.
12PM: Group Ride at Devils Backbone
2PM-6PM: Music, Beer, and Partying with Travis Book and The Hot Seats
6PM: Group Ride at Devils Backbone

There will be no camping at the brewery this year, but we’ve secured a group camp site at Sherando for Friday and Saturday night. Space is very limited, so if you are interested in camping email mjones@cambc.org.

 

Categories
Community

Help Needed for the Toy Lift Bike Build

 

Come help build bikes on Dec 3rd

Check out pictures from last years event

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Categories
Uncategorized

We’re Home Owners!!!

CAMBC outgrew our trusty little tool trailer. We’ve bought an enormous shed to store our tools, house a workbench, and store all the gear we use for area riding events. We even have some awesome neighbors! The Rivanna Trail Foundation’s tool shed is right next door, so we can easily gear up for joint RTF/CAMBC trail work days.

This new shed will help us keep our gear organized and in top condition. It will help us grow our tool inventory as our local trail networks expand, including larger tools like wheelbarrows. It will eventually serve as a great meeting spot for club events, like bike wrenching workshops. The best part is that there is no more crawling around trying to find what you need to build trail. Gone are the days of near decapitation by falling McCleods while trying to grab an ancient Gatorade from the cooler. No more finding folding saws in the box of pancake mix.

On behalf of the Board and CAMBC’s other regular trail workers, thank you for your contribution to the club. This is your membership dollars, volunteer hours, and other donations at work! Shed

Categories
Trailwork Reports

CAMBC and RTF Plan to Reroute a Dangerous Section at O-Hill

Please join us for trailwork on Nov. 14th!!!

Most people familiar with O-Hill are aware of the trail on the cliff above the highway. It is a trail that developed as an offshoot from the Rivanna Trail near Fontaine. These types of “social trails” develop when existing trails guide users away from features or destinations they want to see. If people go off-trail repeatedly and follow the same path, new unsustainable and potentially dangerous trails can be the result.

Badly eroded trail perched high above the highway.
Badly eroded trail perched high above the highway.

CAMBC and RTF are setting out to fix a hazardous situation. The trail we are targeting sits precariously above the highway, and experiences a massive amount of erosion each year. The cliff edge that once defined the outside edge of the trail has begun to erode across the trail. This creates a dangerous situation for trail users, and users of the highway below.  In addition, we will be rerouting a section of existing marked trail that is badly eroded because it travels down the steepest part of the hill.

The re-route has required dozens of hours to plan out, starting with CAMBC members going onsite numerous times to measure slopes, locate interesting areas where the trail should go, and dangerous areas to avoid.  Several iterations of the design were drawn on maps and discussed. Finally the brightly colored pin flags were put on the ground to mark the new route. Our primary goal is to build sustainable trail that won’t erode. The result will be less steep trail with ruts and roots that O-Hill has a reputation for, and longer, fun, flowy trail that is appealing to everyone.

With a week remaining before the workday, we need as many volunteers as possible to be ready to take action. There will be a ton of leaves to move, and a lot trail to cut. We will be building proper turns out of rock. This will be a joint effort between CAMBC, RTF, and hopefully several other trail use groups. These trails see a lot of use from bikers, runners, hikers, naturalists, and others. With the recent MOU with UVA to perform work on O-Hill, CAMBC and its partners are ready to take action and provide miles of trails to the outdoors community.

Thanks Drew Duke for the photos, and thank you Jason Hiser and all the other volunteers that have helped plan this.
Categories
Uncategorized

Take a Kid Mountain Biking was a Success

IMBA TKMBD PosterHoriz FINAL (1)-page-001The event was a big hit and had around 40 kids and their parents show up!  Scott Ramsey did safety checks on all the bikes prior to them entering the riding area.  We had a strider course (built by Joe Hoskins) and a wooden roller (built by Mark Brookman).  Both were very popular!  Skills stations for wheel lifts, turning, and “skinnies”  were set up for the kids to rotate between.  Several of our BRC Jr team members assisted by demonstrating good technique.  We held “slow” races to practice control and had multiple groups head out on different rides on the trails according to skill level.  We even had some new-to-riding parents come along!  The event ended with the Paranormal kids race.  It was lots of fun and couldn’t have been done without the help of so many volunteers- Ellen and Scott Ramsey, Matt Holbrook, Colleen Compton, Amanda Brookman, Annette Dusenbury, Chris Little, Morgan Cruthirds, Gordon Wadsworth, BRC Jr team members and probably others that I’m forgetting. It was great to see so many people involved!

 

Thanks Drew Duke for the Photos!!!!

Categories
Accomplishments Advocacy

IMBA Trail Care Crew Visits Charlottesville

IMG_20151017_104915Trails are one of the earliest and clearest markers of society, CAMBC president David Stackhouse reminds us. To move about efficiently, early humans created trails. Trails provide protection to our surrounding natural resources by concentrating travel patterns as we explore our world. And above all, trails unite communities.

Dave shared this message of unity to kick off a trail building workshop led by the International Mountain Bicycling Association’s Trail Care Crew. The attendees included mountain bikers, hikers, and trail runners from various areas of Virginia. Our IMBA Trail Care Crew leaders, Lani and Jordan reinforced this message as they discussed the impact of trail design on various trail use types. IMBA promotes mountain bike friendly trails, but the vast majority of their projects are shared-use; appropriate for biking, hiking, running, and often equestrian use. The goal of the day was to learn to build quality, sustainable trail, instead of just following the shortest path through the woods. “You are leaving a legacy”, Lani said of properly built trail.

Following the workshop, 30 volunteers worked on a new 800 foot section of Rivanna Trail behind UVA’s campus. This section of trail will reroute a 100 foot section of steeply sloping and unsustainable legacy trail. The new trail follows more closely to the contours of the hillside, and will handle water runoff much better than the legacy trail. The work site had many steep slopes to deal with, and where bench cuts were not enough to secure the trail, rock retaining walls were constructed. The crew of volunteers worked hard, and completed more than we had anticipated for the day. Remaining work includes connecting the ends of the trail to the existing trail, moving an existing bridge to a new stream crossing, and removing the legacy trail to encourage use of the new reroute.

It was a great honor to work with IMBA’s Trail Care Crew. It had been 12 years since their last visit to Charlottesville. We hope this visit will encourage our club and other local trail use communities to push for sustainable multi-use trail in our area. The knowledge this small group gained can be shared with thousands of other trail users. Special thanks to Lani and Jordan from IMBA, and Dave Stackhouse from CAMBC for hosting this event.12122687_618229088315802_3428516918974402531_n

Categories
Community

Take a Kid Mountain Biking

IMBA TKMBD PosterHoriz FINAL (1)-page-001We will be hosting the annual Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day at The Tevendale Farm. Event starts at 12:30PM on October 17th. Kids of all ages are welcome.

It’s free! It’s a great way to introduce your kids to mountain biking with a group of volunteers that help to build and maintain the trails in Albemarle. Bring your bikes and helmets. We will start out with a safety check then break up into short supervised rides. We will have water, hot dogs and Clif Bars.

Safety checks will start at 12:30PM and rides will start around 1:30. There will be a kid’s mountain bike race at 3PM, kicking off the annual Paranormal race. Bring your Halloween costumes to be part of the Paranormal fun!