Tuesday, November 5, 2013

11/3 Page Hill Trail Day Recap

We put in another fun and productive trail day at Page Hill last Sunday with 10 people in attendance. The weather was cool, but calm, dry and sunny. We enjoyed coffee and doughnuts together in the parking lot (thanks Grant!) before heading to to the work site by foot, bike and truck. Matt and Grant made their way out with leaf blowers in hand. They got everything but Spring trail cleaned up. We hope to have Spring blown this week.

Working around the open area of the powerlines would have been pretty miserable if the day had been windy. As it was, we were able to just enjoy the nice views:


James sculpted the run-in of the trail to perfection:

 Mike and Don laughed at Jesse's silly ideas:




These two berms each have a 15' radius and are filled with rock to ensure they hold up. Greg, Don and James all served as test pilots. The smiles on their faces indicate that we got something right.
 When we finished the berms we took a quick break for snacks and coffee. 

As we come out on to the power lines we had to do some benching in pretty tough soils. We didn't build a million miles of trial, but what we built came out with a fun, rolling flow.

Mike and Greg contemplate the placement of the rock. This will serve as a launch point for a small drop. We left off with the landing built, but there the trail ends. Further progress will probably have to wait for next year.


We wrapped up trail day, and probably the trail building season, with pizza, soda and beer in the parking lot (thank again, Grant!). It was really great to bump into several trail users in the lot at that time! It really makes the work feel worthwhile to see others enjoy the result.


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Trail Day at Page Hill Sunday Nov 3rd

We're holding a trail day at Page Hill on Nov 3rd to build a new flow trail.  We'll have registration from 8 to 9AM in the parking lot on Murray Hill Rd., work until 2PM, then CNH NEMBA will provide pizza.  Please park either in the lot or on the same side of the road as the lot.

The work site is a couple miles from the parking lot.  I recommend bringing your bike to get out and back.  It will also come in handy for testing!

We'll provide tools, some light snacks, and water.  You should bring work gloves and additional water.

The goal for the style of the new trail is best described by the IMBA Flow Country model.  We're looking for creative input on the detailed design of the trail.  Please contact Jesse if you want to help out with design.


Thursday, October 17, 2013

Yet Another New Map for Spaulding Woods



Post trail day map of Spaulding Woods with Swamp Donkey added.  I was bummed to miss out on the work but it sounds like the day was a success.  Quick recap from the Youth Center:

"We had 18 people show up and totally roughed in Swamp Donkey, hauled lumber to build a bridge, added a couple berms, and built up a natural double. Smallish Varmint also got revamped with 5 micro berms and some rock armoring. Most of the other trails were leaf blown as well."

Also should probably mention here that riders will encounter some signage up towards the top of the hill asking riders to go no farther.  The Youth Center has reserved some of the shorter trails up towards the top of the hill for exclusive school use.  Do the right thing and respect their wishes and head back down the hill on the fun stuff.

All this place needs now is wheels and more wheels!  Get out there and check it out!

Friday, October 11, 2013

More Happenings!

Great ride last night at Franklin Falls.  Conditions are perfect right now.  Particularly on Caddywompus and Stump, expertly manacured and riding fast!  I'm assuming that is due to our trail adopters Al & Joan Morena.  Thanks guys!  We appreciate all the work you are putting in!

And new at Page Hill is a great looking new kiosk courtesy of LRCT.  We will be getting going on printing up a large trail map for display there soon.



Don't forget about the trail day at Spaulding Woods on the 13th.  Forecast looks great for this weekend.  Get out and ride!

Monday, October 7, 2013

Sign Posts Stolen at Ahern State Park

Last Thursday night Grant and a few others dug post holes at Ahern for trail signs. 

When they went to retrieve the posts (4x4 x8' PT) they were gone....stolen!  Somebody stole them where they were stashed in the woods between Monday and Thurs night. They even took one that was set in a hole already!

Its difficult to imagine anyone who would steal building materials and haul 15 heavy wet posts 1/4 mile to the parking lot by hand, would be the type of person that would be walking the state park trails.  Seems like it could have been kids but Grant searched the area to see if they were simply dragged to a different location and came up empty handed.
The posts belonged to the state, and they actually unloaded them at the location. 

Pretty disappointing..... Keep your eyes open if you go there to ride. Its still possible they are in the woods.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Updated Map for Spaulding Woods



A bit more detail, a few of the new trails added, and the names after the trail names are the classrooms that have been assigned to each trail to help out with various trail work efforts.  How cool is that!


Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Trail Day @Spaulding Woods Sunday Oct 13th

The folks from Spaulding Youth Center are looking to get out and do some trail work Sunday Oct 13th and we'd like to get a crew out there to assist them.

We know some of you have already been out there riding and I'm sure you'll agree this place has tons of potential, all it needs is some bodies and before you know it we'll have another premier riding spot in our backyard.

9am-2pm (with registration from 8-9am)
Meet up at the boat launch parking area on Shaker Rd. in Northfield, NH

Check the flyer for all the details.

Monday, September 30, 2013

Bear Brook Boogie Sunday Oct 6th

The next installment of the Kona MTB Adventure Series is this weekend at Bear Brook State Park.

There is a trailfest on Saturday run by the Southern NH chapter and rides for all ability levels on Sunday with several marked loops of varying distances.  This is probably the best way to get more familiar with one of the best riding spots in this area.

Registration for Sunday runs from 9-11am, most organized rides leave around 10am.

$25 for non-members
$10 for members
FREE for anyone who joins NEMBA on Sunday!

For more info head to NEMBA.org

Monday, September 23, 2013

Late Season CNH Happenings

Hey All,

Its been a bit of a quiet year for CNH NEMBA but that doesn't mean we haven't gotten a bunch of stuff done this year and Fall is one of the best times of year for trail work and riding.  We're planning on trying to squeeze in a few more trail days before the snow starts flying...Stay tuned!

We just wrapped up a very successful trial day at Page Hill and I would personally say that the current established loop is in very respectable riding condition.  The Dude Abides is IMO 95% rideable with one last little chunk of rock work needed on a short stretch.  All the work completed recently on Spring has it riding great and the slight modifications to MMT have it riding a lot smoother with much less debris as well.

If you were waiting to make the drive until things were more established I think its time you head over to check it out.  Just over 7 miles, with ample vert and tech.  I think it feels more like 10-12mi by the time you are done.  And there are options to add more miles with existing doubletrack.  We rode it all on our Thurs ride last week and good times were had.



There has also been some buzz lately about Spaulding Woods in Tilton/Northfield, NH.  The Spaulding Youth Center has some acreage with existing doubletrack and they have been working to build more singletrack.  We are hoping to assist them with this endeavor in the years to come (look for a possible trail day here this Fall).  This is a rough trail map of the existing network:


Parking is located by the boat launch on Shaker Rd.  Another great spot with lots of potential, and you can't go wrong with some of those trail names either.

Monday, September 16, 2013

9/15 Trail Day Recap - Page Hill

Sunday was a perfect day for working in the woods, nothing quite like trail work in the early Fall.  Jesse and crew had plans to refine Spring Trail and I couldn't let MMT exist in its current state any longer so I decided to finally do some line refinement and cleanup there.

I'm happy to report we were highly successful on both fronts.

I arrived early so I could quickly ride MMT and remind myself of the various points where I was errant with my line choices.  I think I made maybe 3-4 corrections.  Mostly small, a few to straighten out the line and eliminate overly ambitious tight switchbacks and another longer reroute to contour a bit and eliminate a needlessly punchy climb out of one of the smaller ravines.  Also took some measurements of the big wet spot before you start the climb, pondering options for what we'll do there...

last switchback on the first big ravine wall is now the 'birch chute'. Gonna be fast but the speed should help with the other side of the ravine.

Corduroy'd a wet spot / speed stealing divot

Tried to remove all the line ruining saplings and remove all the debris

Last wet spot that needs attention, hopefully before the end of this year.

Jesse and crew got a huge amount of work done on Spring Trail.  All kinds of benching, berming, bridge work, etc.  I'm sure it will be riding much nicer now and I can't wait to get out there and give it a shred.

Adam and Alan working on a bench cut

 Short kink bridge

 Double bridge section

 Hugh making sure berms are tamped and ready

 The Jensens were on hand helping out

Mike demonstrating proper overhead technique

The Fall riding season is here.  Be sure to check out this latest batch of work and let us know what you think.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Sept 15th - Trail Day at Page Hill


Join us Sept 15th at Page Hill for some benching, berming and bridging on Spring Trail. Also, come see the rototiller in action as a trail building tool!

Registration is from 8 to 9 AM on Range Rd in Hill, NH. From there it is a short walk, bike ride, or pick-up truck ride to the work site. 

Don't be mislead by Google maps; Clough Rd is not passable for most vehicles so plan to arrive via Currier Rd. 

For questions please contact Jesse McGowan at 603-581-4104


Thursday, August 29, 2013

Trailfest @ Highland Mountain Sept 21-22

More XC trails going in at Highland!

The NEMBA Trailfest will be held in a few weeks on Sept 21-22.  Several NEMBA Chapters will be headed up to help.  Plans are to build 1mi of advanced intermediate trail.

Info can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/502655893159545/

http://www.nemba.org/nembaevents/trailfests2013.htm#highland

Hope to see you there!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Adopt-a-Trail Program

We have a theory that there are many folks out there who are interested in trail work , but for one reason or another cannot attend organized trail days.  Since we could use all the help we can get, the Chapter would like to start an "Adopt a Trail" program for all of Central NH Chapter trail networks. The land managers expect us to provide  "Perpetual Care " of the trails, but until now it was rather haphazard and unstructured.

Central NH  Chapter holds about six "Trail Care" events per year. At those events we want to focus on building or reparing the trails, rather than perform standard maintenance. As the miles of trails we are responsible for grows each year, so does the responsibility to keep everything in order. All of you are already empowered to take care of obvious problems when you are out there riding. Limbs fall every day.

We would like to reach out to more of our members and friends to help keep the trails in tip-top shape by selecting their favorite trail to maintain. This maintenance can be any time they wish. The adopter does not need to be a NEMBA member either! All help will be greatly appreciated! Spread the word. It will be a great way for anyone to give back to the sport.

The Agreement:

The Trail-Adopter will be allowed to rake or leaf-blow the forest litter, remove fallen branches, do minor drainage and trim back new encroaching sapling growth.  Leaf blowers are OK but if you need chainsaw work or use some other power tool such as a brush saw we'd like to know and we want you to employ proper safety gear. If your not a chain saw person we can rustle one up to help. If you have a bridge on your trail make sure it is sound and repair it if you are handy. If not, just report back to the officers and we'll deal with it.

 The amount of work will depend on the trail. Some never seem to need much maintenance, while others seem to grow brush overnight. The frequency that you visit your trail is up to you. Probably once a month is a good rule of thumb. In the autumn raking or blowing us usually desirable, we have three chapter leaf blowers we can loan. There seems to be quite a few people already blowing and raking the leaves. We'd like to know who you are!

The trail adopter will not be allowed to make re-routes or build trails or features without going through the proper permission cycles or the NEMBA leaders and land managers. Suggested improvements however will certainly be considered as you see fit.

We would like to know how much time you spend on maintenance. The land managers all want us to keep track of volunteer hours. The more we log, the better we, as an organization, are looked upon. We want our land managers to be happy !

 Adoption will be first come first served. If you want to adopt a trail, or several trails  please contact me here or contact Mike Geldermann for Franklin Falls and Jesse McGowan for Page Hill. I will be handling Ahern State Park.  It would be great is anyone wanted to do something at Elm Brook, you can contact me for that one too.

Rusty Bucket, Lower Heritage, Cellar Hole and Lost Wall at Franklin Falls already have people signed up. If you don't know the trails by name or you want the leaders to make suggestions we certainly know which ones need to be loved the most.

Thanks, Grant


Monday, June 10, 2013

Page Hill Trail Day Recap

We had a fun and productive trail day on June 2nd. We addressed all the major stream crossings on Hydra, and also completed the last of the Spring cleanup. 

About 12 people met at the parking lot on Murray Hill Rd, arriving by car, truck, bicycle and motorcycle. After a champion's breakfast of doughnuts and coffee (thanks to Grant), everyone felt they need to burn up some energy. Luckily, I had a very heavy, pre-built bridge in the parking lot that needed to be carried about a mile into the woods. We stacked some tools on top of the bridge, each found a place to grab hold of it and headed off.

About half way to our destination, everyone's hands and arms were starting to go numb and mutiny was immanent. Once again, we were in luck. We had just reached the junction of Bear Claw and Hydra, where a wet spot was in need of some rock armoring. Collecting, carrying and placing rocks got the blood moving again in everyone's arms. Before we knew it was had dealt with the first wet ravine and were ready to move on with the bridge.


Without much struggle we made it to the 2nd ravine with the bridge. We collected stone to build a foundation for it. Since there was a good supply of stone nearby and the bridge was a little shorter than the wet area, we built up a stone and dirt causeway on either end of the bridge. 


Unburdened by the pre-built bridge, we skipped, frolicked and cartwheeled our way to the next wet spot. We stopped briefly at the third ravine to admire our handiwork from last year and take this photo:


The fourth ravine has a narrow, well defined crossing. We had hauled the lumber for this bridge out at the end of last year. These advantages meant that our well-seasoned bridging crew was able to knock this task out in minutes.


The corner leading into this bridge looked like it could get a little tight at speed, so we decided to expand the width at one end to round it out.


We had just enough time, energy and material to build one more bridge that day, out near the junction with Access Rd. The last bridge was quite shy and refused to have its photograph taken. If you'd like to see it then you'll need to ride out there in person.

The only thing that this trail needs now is YOUR tires to get out there and bed it in. See you on the trail!


Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Trail Day Sunday June 2nd at Page Hill!

Jesse has already been hard at work getting the trails cleared and prepped for the riding season but now we have to get some more bridges built on Hydra and Kevin is planning on some refinement work on MMT.

Registration will be from 8-9am at the parking lot on Murray Hill Rd. in Hill, NH

Check out the flyer for more detailed information and a link for driving directions.

Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Piche's Saturday Night Summer Ride Series

Just wanted to pass this along to all our local riders.  Piche's is starting up a Saturday night ride / BBQ the third Saturday of every month starting May 18th at Franklin Falls.  Bikes and burgers...hard to go wrong.


Sunday, May 5, 2013

Ramblin Vewe Trail Day Recap

What an amazing day!  Many thanks to the folks at Ramblin Vewe Farm for allowing us to come in and assist with their trail efforts.  AND after today the postings are down and the trails are open for riding!  There are probably still a few spots that we'll need to be gentle around so use your head and if areas are still a bit bogged out then step off and walk around for now.

We had an awesome turn out today, I don't know if anyone ever got an official head count but I would say by the end of the day we had around 20 folks working the trail.  The early risers got a crew of about 10 or so and started from the lower lot and the rest of us stragglers went top down from the Boyd Hill side.

battle implements

The target for the day was a new trail 'Farm Junk' that starts up top near Das Claw and works its way all the way down to the lower parking lot off Morrill St.  Bets are out on its overall length, we have yet to get a GPS device on the entire thing.  My current bet is around 1.5mi...yeah, its long.  Some others think even longer, some shorter.  We'll find out soon enough.


 Plenty of canine supervision today



Many hands make light work and the two groups met in the middle roughing things in well ahead of schedule, around 1030-11am.  That allowed us to break into groups and tackle mini projects along the trail.  Rock work, line refinement, sanitizing.  Its amazing what you can get done in a few hours with that many people.

 The initial stages of what I am told is a magnificent stone bridge over a drainage

 Trying to get the puzzle pieces to fit. We eventually figured it out.

Huck or Roll?

Afterwards we fired up the grill, had a few adult sodas and just enjoyed the great Spring weather.  Chatted a bit about some plans for this season.  Group rides kicking off soon, more social events, more trail work.  Things are buzzing in Central NH.


Cheers!

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Spring Soft Trail Reminder

Just a quick reminder to everyone that it is still Spring and while we are very fortunate to have such a quick drying spot like Franklin Falls in our backyard not all ride locations drain so easily.

There are still plenty of really soft spots in the woods some of which at our local ride spots.  Even though we have our trail day at Ramblin Vewe this weekend most of their trails there are still too soft to be ridden consistently and we all as local riders need to respect that.  Ramblin Vewe has signage up at their parking lots as an added reminder so if those signs are up please stay off the trails.  We will update here as soon as we know we have the green light.

Early reports are that Ahern is riding mostly dry with only a few wet spots remaining.  Those should obviously be avoided or just step off and tread lightly in those areas for the time being.

No specific word on Page Hill but as always use your best judgement.  Its only early May, we are just getting going.  There will be plenty of time to ride in the coming months.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact one of our officers.  See you out there soon!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Its Time to Get Going!

Hey Everybody!

Long time no see, we've been a bit radio silent lately but it wasn't because we were being lazy, quite the opposite.  Lots going on lately so here is an update as the season gets rolling.

- First and foremost we have our first Trail Day coming up Sunday May 5th 9AM at Ramblin Vewe Farm in Gilford, NH.  This is one of our up and coming locations that has lots of great riding already and we will be looking to add even more.

Check the Trail Day Flyer for more info.

- Our Chapter has officially entered agreement with the City of Franklin to start trail work on the Great Gains Forest (the land surrounding the Veteran's Memorial Ski Area in Franklin).  The MOU was signed recently and we have already done some initial scouting.  This is part of a bigger initiative in the Franklin Area that has been evolving over the last several months.  Things are still developing but there are many groups hard at work to make the Franklin area a recreational hub.  Lots of exciting ideas getting discussed...its a great time to get involved!

- Through some various grants our chapter is able to send members to the trail school at Highland Mountain on 'full scholarship'.  If anyone is interested in getting some professional trail building skills free of charge contact a chapter officer and we'll go from there.

- Thursday rides will hopefully start soon.  My schedule has changed a bit this year and I am not available to lead on Thursdays until mid May.  I'm hoping some other ride leaders will step up until then.  Anyone interested?  All you need to do is know the trails and be willing to show people around.  Easy-peasy.

Hopefully we'll see lots of folks Sunday May 5th at Ramblin Vewe and out on the trails soon!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

CNH Happenings

Hey All!

Last month our chapter officers had our bigger annual meeting to recap our past year and lay the ground work for what is looking like a VERY exciting 2013!  Linked below are the full meeting minutes of everything discussed for those interested:

Jan 2013 Meeting Minutes

If reading meeting minutes isn't really your thing, here is the cliff notes version:

- The Spaulding Youth Center in Northfield, NH is interested in developing a trail system on about 500 acres or so.  The land is across the Winnipesauke River from the exit 20 Tilton business district.  Access to the system would be next to the Kayak launch on Shaker Rd.  This is a great location and we are very excited to assist them in this endeavor.  Stay tuned for more news this year as this develops.

- Most officer positions stayed the same only changes are Kevin Orlowski taking over as our representative to the Board and Grant stepping in as an interim VP of Trails at Ahern State Park.

- We'll have a presence at the Concord Bike Swap again this year.  That takes place in May.

- We poured over a new By-Laws document that we are still working on which will eventually be posted here for members to view.

- We also started to pencil in some dates for 2013 Trail Days.  You will find those on our calendar but keep in mind those are still just tentative dates and as we get closer we will solidify those and announce them here and via email blast.

Thats probably all the key points minus some very exciting developments in the Franklin area but that is exciting enough to warrant its own post.  Check back soon!

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

NEMBAfest 2013! Mark your Calendars!

NEMBAfest returns to the Kingdom Trails!  Last years event was amazing and you definitely do NOT want to miss it this year.  Mark the calendar now and we'll see you June 21st - 23rd!

Info:
https://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/events/406054536146248/

Register:
http://www.mtbadventureseries.org/mtbadventure/NEMBAfest2013.htm