April Activities

A new month is upon us and we are finally seeing El Paso’s third “season”….WIND!  I classify our seasons into HOT, NICE, and WIND.  I’m staring at some shingles in my backyard.  I hope their not from my roof.

Anyway… 

Club ride this Sunday at Tom May’s.  9 am upper parking lot.  Look for the banner at one of the picnic tables.  The more that show, the more fun we’ll have.  Not sure on food as no one replied to my email earlier in the week.  I  will be riding over from the east side, so I’ll only be bringing the banners.  It doesn’t seem that many people really want to stick around for food anyway.

Meeting Monday at Sunset Pizza.  7 pm.  We’ve got a lot on the agenda.  come early for pizza and socialization.  I’m usually there around 6.  Agenda will include city trails status, 2010 Puzzler….(yep, already), state park trails work crews, changes in city parks/stormwater management, and final plans for bike patrol.  Please come if you have any interest in any of this stuff.  We need more members to volunteer to help with things….especially trail building.

Dave

 

Monthly meeting news and notes

Last night was a good meeting with 11 people in attendance.  Here’s what went down:

• Cesar Mendez from the State Park assured us that the trail over the northern pass in the park will be built and it will be AWESOME…but they’ll need some help.  We’ll keep everyone informed about future trail crews.
• Cesar informed us that the $25 individual bike pass is no longer being sold.  You must now buy a $60 pass, but you can add a friend on for an additional $15….just use the same address.  This pass is a good deal.  To pay it off you only need to ride in the park 15 times.
• The club is going to buy banners and a table to help our exposure at club rides.
• The club is going to buy new t-shirts, bumper stickers, socks, and hats.
• Trail flagging crews will be announced soon in order to finish flagging all the trail at the Westside Rec. Center.
• The old nmsu managed bmba email service will soon disappear…around August.  It has caused confusion as people think they are BMBA members when they sign up for that mail service.  you must pay $25 to be a true BMBA member.  Check the become a member link on the side.
• A small trail crew will do vegetation cleanup on Mad Cow Saturday morning.  Meet at Heinrich at 8:30.  Bring gloves and clippers…rake if you have one.  I’ll have a weedeater, mcleod, and maddox on my bob trailer.  I’m planning on using the weedeater with the blade to cut back all the veg that is sticking out or up.

Dave

 

IMBA IS COMING…IMBA IS COMING!!!

The schedule has been updated…as I finally got in direct contact with the IMBA crew.  Major changes include tonight’s dinner starts earlier….6 pm.  Sunday’s schedule has been changed to our normal club ride at Heinrich at 9 am.  Cookout to follow.  Either bring something to share, or plan to chip in some money.

Here is the current schedule:

• Thursday (Feb 26th) – Daytime- IMBA trailcare crew meets with city planner at Westside Rec. Center to survey site of trail building clinic and trail building session for the weekend.  Evening - Dinner at Sunset Pizza (starts around 6:00) with BMBA and whoever else wants to join.
• Friday (27th) – Daytime – IMBA crew spends the day with Robert Newman checking out a route over the north end of the Franklins.  Evening (5 to 8 pm)-Free food and half price drinks at Cincinatti Bar.**
• Saturday 9 am- Trail building clinic in the am at Westside Rec. Center, PM trail building session
• Sunday 9 am – group ride at Heinrich Park….cookout to follow.

**NOTICE- Free food and half price drinks at Cincinatti Bar.

 

Puzzler is over…now time for the real trail stuff!!

This past month has been really amazing with the Puzzler and all.  After the puzzler I got an email forwarded to me regarding the visit to El Paso from the IMBA trail care crew.  I was suprized that we hadn’t heard anything about this since we are the IMBA affiliated club for the area.  I made a few phone calls and found out that the city…yes…the city has hired a young lady who wants to finish a dirt trails master plan for the entire city.  We’re talking skills parks, trails through power line areas, connectors from Monk’s to Redd Rd., trails on the east side, mountain to river trails, more trails on psb land….(north of Heinrich???!!!)

The trail care crew needs a place to crash.  It’s a husband/wife team that need a place from the 26th of Feb to the 1st of March.  If anyone wants to host, please let me know.  You need to be on the west side.  I’d offer, but logistically it would add an hour or so a day of driving for them as I live off Magnetic.

 Also…..we need as many people as possible to join us for dinner the night of the 26th as this city planner is inviting developers to meet with the IMBA crew.  We need to be there in force to push our agenda.  We have several priorities that need to be addressed before the needs of the city as they have secured tons of land and her plan is to just get the trail master plan within 6 months.

 Our priorities consist of the following:

• Finish the epic loop around the park with a trail over the mountains into Hitt Canyon
• Develop bike patrol to help educate users…mostly for the northeast as the state park has little influence there at this time
• Begin a signage program for all of our amazing trails

 This master plan is a huge opportunity and I’ve given her the club’s commitment to helping her gps all the potential and existing trails.  I told her to stop killing herself on the trails stuff….secure the land and we’ll out the trails.  I’m assuming the city will pay for the construction.

So keep your calendar open for Thursday the 26th…dinner somewhere with the IMBA trail care crew and city developers.  I’ll keep everyone up to date on the location and time.

Also plan to join us on Saturday on the west side for a trail building clinic and construction session at the “three hills” off Redd Rd.

Here’s the link to sign up for the weekend.  Please sign up if you’d like to attend any of the weekend’s activities.

David Wilson, Club President

 P.S.  Thanks again to all the Puzzler volunteers.  I would have shot myself without your incredible help Saturday.

 Check out the coverage at cyclingnews.com.  http://cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2009/feb09/elpasopuzzler09

 

This Sunday’s Club Ride….

Feb. 1st is another Sunday group ride.  It will be held at the main state park in the upper parking lot.  We meet at 9am.

We are looking for someone to volunteer to take care of the food.  If you want to do this, please contact us at bmbaelpaso@hotmail.com.  We can reimburse you for the cost of the food.

Brent and I along with some others will be marking the course inside the main park.  If you would like to help, bring a hammer and a staple gun that will shoot the LONG staples (9/16″).  I have staples if you need them.

See you there!

 

Open space project funding from storm water $$$$

The Storm Water Utility Board is meeting Wednesday night (1/21) to determine funding for future projects.  10% of their funding is supposed to go to open space projects, but there are some people who want that money to go to projects not fully related to open space….like soccer fields.

This board is in dire need of intelligent input from the community.  This is another opportunity for you to let your voice be heard.

 The meeting is held at the Tech H2O center just east of Global Reach on Montana.  It starts at 6 pm.

 

Weekend update…

Today’s group ride was really fun.  Quite a few people showed up to ride on their own, others joined us for the Mad Cow-Sotol Forest loop.  What a blast!  Beautiful day, great trails, and food afterwards. 

Our club meeting is on for Monday night at 7.  Same place…Sunset Pizza on Mesa.  Come early to order your food and socialize a bit before the meeting.  Most of our agenda will cover things to do with the Puzzler. 

Upcoming events include the following:

Jan. 10 at 4 pm.  We’ll be hosting a Puzzler preparation party at Dave Wilson’s house.  We’ll be doing sign inventory, making some new signs, and building the trophies for this year’s puzzler.

Jan. 11  9 am - Puzzler loop leaderless ride.  This ride will leave from the upper parking lot in the Tom May’s unit of the State Park.  We’ll be firing up the grill after this ride for those who want to feast afterwards.  Emphasize that this ride is a NOT group ride.  Check the post previous to this one (below) for the gps file and maps.

 

HOLIDAYS!!!!

Wow! This year has flown by.  So many trails ridden….and more to come.

Here are the plans for the New Year:

January 4th – 9 am – Heinrich Park group ride and potluck.  We are calling it a potluck as we aren’t sure what the weather will be like or how many people will show up due to the holidays.  So bring your grill if you’ve got it and a little extra for your friends.  We’ll be there with membership apps and t-shirts.

January 5th – 7 pm – meeting at Sunset Pizza.

January 11th – 9am – Tom May’s (west side main state park) – UPPER PARKING LOT – Leaderless Puzzler loop ride.  Every man/woman/child for themselves.  First one back to the parking lot lights the grill.  Plan on about 5 hours for the fastest/shortest loop.  The full loop has been taking us close to 5 hours every time and we haven’t been messing around too much.  Download the gps file here so you won’t get lost.  And print out this map here so you will know where you are.

 

Missed opportunity

Today’s group ride/bike demo at Heinrich was really awesome.  But I will be the first to admit that the BMBA missed a wonderful opportunity to bring more members into the club.  Apologies go out to those who were looking to join up.  We now have membership applications available here.

Thanks to The Bicycle Co. for the cookout.  The demo was a blast and people got to ride bikes that they’d never think of riding if it wasn’t staring them in the face with trails just a few yards away.  I actually rode a road bike.  It’s the first road bike besides my own I’ve ridden in almost 10 years. 

Next month’s club ride will be at Heinrich Park….again.  We’ll be back on our normal schedule.  We’ll ride Jan. 4th at 9 am.  Our meeting will be Monday night the 5th at Sunset Pizza.

Dave

 

December Meeting

Wow!  This year has flown by and we’ve accomplished so much.  Yet there is so much more to be accomplished.

Join us Monday night (Dec. 1) at 7 pm at Sunset Pizza on Mesa for our monthly meeting/social gathering.

The agenda so far:

• Puzzler stuff (we’ll be meeting at 6 to discuss this)
• Membership, accounting
• Park issues – suggest a master plan, iron rangers on east side, existing trails, etc.
• TXDOT Culvert on west side
• Change of group ride on Dec. 7 to Heinrich Park
• Pedi-cab
• Member input