Spring Is Here!
The long weekend is over and as it would seem so is winter!! It’s also time for our April Newsletter. Hopefully everyone has been out enjoying the sunshine and riding the trails that have now started to open. The April newsletter includes our first trail report for the season, provided for you by our Trail Development Director – Jeff Rempel.
In our previous newsletter we did our best to thank everyone for their support last season, both sponsors and members alike. What we forgot to do was thank the outgoing board of directors for keeping the club alive through their dedicated efforts. They spent countless hours organizing events, maintaining club documents, hosting twoonie rides/trail days, updating the website, driving from shop to shop, communicating with other organizations, attending meetings, etc. – Without a dedicated team of directors MTBco would not exist. MTBco’s 2011 Board of directors consisted of:
- President – Johnny Smoke
- Treasurer – Matt MacDonald
- Operations – Brian McLelland
- Membership Director – Leanne Kemila
- Communications Coordinator – Sheila Gariepy
- Sponsorship & Marketing Director A – Monica McCosh
- Sponsorship & Marketing Director B – Justin Darbyshire
- Provincial Parks & Grants Director – Sean Kelly
- Trail Directors
- Gillard – Jeff Rempel
- Postill – Andrew McIntosh
- Powers – Dave Perry
- Smith Creek – Mike Smolak
- Crawford – Scott Lahrs
- Bike Park Director – Eric Rothwell
- Member at Large – Geoff Jukema
Bike Park Opening
Now that the snow has left and the dirt is starting to thaw out I’m sure there are many riders out there getting eager to head over and session the bike park. We plan on scheduling a couple of work days at the park to get it ready for the season before our grand opening (which will be sometime around the beginning of may) so please keep an eye on our website and facebook page for those dates. Also, If you are interested in helping out maintain the park throughout the season please contact our Bike Park Director Eric through email at erothwell@mtbco.ca. We aren’t planning any major changes right now but there is lot’s of re-working and maintenance that needs to be done before the heat hits and dries out the jumps. We also need to do a fair amount of general clean-up and de-weeding. If you have been out there riding it already please be sure to ride safe and clean-up garbage / repair jump damage. It’s your park so do your part!
MTBco is Reaching Out
As part of our efforts to gain support for the club, better promote mountain biking and increase the sense of community amongst riders within the region we have started to develop stronger relationships with the valleys other two clubs. In March members of the MTBco board of directors attended the AGM’s of both the Penticton Area Cycling Coalition and the North Okanagan Cycling Society. These two organizations share much in common with MTBco. It is our belief that we will able to share knowledge, pool resources and support each-other in our respective efforts to protect trails, promote mountain biking and engage riders. Our attendance was well received by the other two clubs and there will be further exchanges in the future. You can keep up with their efforts and events through the news tickers on our website or by visiting their websites:
NOCS – http://okcycling.com/
PACA – http://www.bikepenticton.com/
We Want Your Input
As I talked about in our last newsletter we received a lot of input from our membership at our annual general meeting. However, we felt bad that only people who came to the meeting were able to provide direction for MTBco. For that reason your president – Brian McClelland has created an online survey that you can all use to provide feedback for the directors as to what you think we do good, where we falter and what we should focus on. If you follow the link provided below it will take you to a very brief online survey that will let you contribute to the organization in a meaningful way. By knowing what you think of us we can better do our jobs!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QR8TMHR
Jeff’s Trail Update
Knox is in prime condition. Gates are open, so shuttle with respect and watch for hikers and cars. Get it while the gettin’ is good! A day or two of sun and the trails will be looser than loose! Next up is postill. Addiction has snow at the top still, please stay off if it is mucky/snowy. Lower addiction is good as is nato’s jump line. Watch for motos! Crawford is gonna be next… the low trails are tacky but will see spring runoff soon. Watch for hikers and horses. Gillard will be a while yet, keep an eye out for an update soon on whats open and rideable. A crew of riders cleared windfall up there a while back but there will be a lot more after all the stormy weather thats been passing through. If anyone is keen on helping out with windfall clearing at Gillard, Contact me at jeffrempel@hotmail.com and we can arrange a day!
Cheers to all, spring is here! … finally.
Jeff Rempel – Trail Development Director
Powers Creek Update
Our last newsletter contained some concerning information for all. The potential decommissioning of powers creek was upon our doorstep. Since then there has been a large amount of communication between MTBco and individuals from The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations plus some side discussions with representatives of The District of West Kelowna. We took a very pro-active but calm approach to the situation and it looks like Powers Creek will be safe from decommissioning for the time being. The situation has had a side benefit of reopening the conversation between MTBco and the Ministry in regards to our applications to have local trail networks sectioned off as official trails. We will be working hard through 2012 to protect local trails and to progress towards the end goal of obtaining official trail status for a majority of the trail networks we all enjoy. A big thanks goes out to our treasurer/membership director Andrew Mcintosh.
Reader Submissions
Did you just get back from wicked bike trip? Ride a trail recently that you would love to rave about? Have a love for biking and a passion for writing? Please feel free to forward any stories, trail reports, mountain biking news or general interest articles to info@mtbco.ca and you may find your article in our next newsletter!!
That’s about all for April. Ride On!
Jay – Secretary, MTBco