2011 – The Year That Was
The CMBA had a pretty darn good 2011, thanks to lots of hard work from lots of people [mostly YOU]:
Major Growth in 2011
We experienced a surge in membership this year with 154 people signing up to support the trails (compared to 76 in 2010). We say it often, but it bears repeating: THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
A Year of Fun Events
We had quite a few events happen away from the trails…
Cyclepath Club Night – On a frosty January evening, Cyclepath opened its doors and fed us sandwiches and beer, plus gave us sweet deals on bike stuff. Thanks guys!
Double Header Film Festival – Held at the Uptown Theatre on May 1, we had a great turnout. Look for the 2012 movie night at a new venue…
CMBA Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day – Kids and bikes go great together, and seeing all those happy faces is simply wonderful. We’ll be doing it again in 2012!
Moose Poker Ride – What a great time! This one is definitely back on for 2012, although probably shifted to West Bragg and all the wonderful new trails that just got built.
Trail Work
“Special Ops” Crew Lead Training – The purpose of this training session was to help develop crew leading skills. We had a great turnout, and we’ll do our best to run it again in 2012.
12 Mile and Bowmont Park – We did a little less in 12 Mile Coulee and Bowmont park than we were hoping to, but it was still successful. Working together with City of Calgary Parks, several fixes were made to existing sections of singletrack in both areas. In the future, we’ll hopefully be able to do more work in 12 Mile Coulee, pending the outcome of the City’s discussions with the provincial government.
Fish Creek Park – So much work was done in Fish Creek this year, it boggles the mind. Many reroutes had to be built to deal with flooding [beavers, spring rain, stormwater ponds] and then the old trails-to-nowhere had to be reclaimed properly. The CMBA worked closely with Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation and the Friends of Fish Creek Park to make it happen. Are we done? No, there is still lots to be done, and 2012 will see more time and energy being put into FCP.
Kananaskis – Our first trail day of the year happened in conjunction with the Spin Sisters, and completed a reroute adjacent to Sulphur Springs that had been worked on intermittently since 2009. The new route rides great and stayed dry all season. Work on Ridgeback took up the remainder of the season, but a lot got done. Aproximately 1000m of trail needed to be rerouted due to a combination of factors, and 300m of wet, icky trail was reclaimed. Ridgeback also grew some berms, which have received a favourable reception from riders. All the major work on Ridgeback was done by the time Transrockies rolled through in August. Even bigger is the new trail development in West Bragg Creek. To give you an idea of the scope, here are a couple of maps of the new trails: 1, 2. While CMBA played an advisory role in 2011, we’ll be stepping up our involvement in this project in 2012.
Skills Parks
The CMBA started working with the City of Calgary on this in late 2002 / early 2003, and it has been pushed ahead by various individuals over the last few years. Back in 2002, the team consisted of Jeff Gruttz [charter member of the CMBA], Danny Laroche, John Taplin and Radek Burka [better known as a founder of Pinkbike]. These days, the Calgary Mountain Bike Skills Park Association [CMBSPA] is leading the charge, and has been successful largely due to Arden Greanya’s efforts. After literally years of meetings, the City has agreed to lease land to the CMBSPA in two locations – Bottomlands Park and South Glenmore. This is HUGE.
What’s Next?
There will be all sorts of things going on in 2012, and we’ll be releasing details shortly. If you have a request, we’re listening…
From everyone at CMBA, thanks for a great year and great rides!
— Chris, Richard, Kim, Don, Becky, Jason, Olivier, Brad, Nicole, Jack and David