Athens Bicycle Club Meeting, July 14, 2003

Present: Malcolm Idleman, Tina Hall, Tracy Kitts, Mac Stricklen, Meredith Erlewine, Peter Kotses

1. Ohio Mountain Bike Series (OMBC) Race at Lake Hope State Park

OMBC will hold a race at Lake Hope State Park on Sunday, August 10. ABC previously voted to support the race by securing volunteers for race promoter Ryan O’Dell and by making advisements on the course. Club members also have been clearing downed trees from the trail. The race will begin at 1 p.m., with a kids race at noon. Ryan O’Dell has met with park officials twice, and they are excited about the event and hope that it will draw both cyclists and non-cyclists to watch the action.

Club members present at the meeting discussed using the race as an opportunity to inform the public about the club’s work at Lake Hope State Park and to raise some money for the club. Ideas discussed included a dunk tank, bake sale and raffle. Tina agreed to explore those options and make an advisement.

2. Tour of Athens to Zaleski

Club members present agreed that it would be a good idea to resurrect TAZ, which was on hiatus last year. We tentatively set dates for September 20 and 21, providing that they don’t conflict with Columbus Fall Challenge (CFC) and the Athens Criterium. There is no conflict; CFC is October 4-5 and the Athens Criterium is September 13. Other details:

· Club members agreed to limit the trip to 30 participants.
· Meredith suggested a trail-riding only option for those who might be interested in the camping trip and trail riding but are either overwhelmed at the thought of riding to and from the park or who simply aren’t interested in riding to and from the park. She volunteered to organize/lead a group ride if there turned out to be any interest in this option.
· Tracy agreed to call Big Chimney Bakery to see if they are available to cater and deliver on this date. Tracy also is going to call the park to secure the camp site and make sure this is an agreeable date.

3. Fall Club Mountain Biking Trip

We discussed several options for this year’s fall mountain bike/camping trip. We discussed either the weekends of October 18/19 or October 25/26. We discussed that it might be nice to try something new – Spruce Knob and Douthat have been repeated several times. The following areas were suggested, all because club members have ridden there and can vouch for the riding being good or because club members heard similar reviews from extremely reliable sources. Approximated travel distances are from mapsonus.com. To provide a point of reference, mapsonus said it would take 4 hours 36 minutes to get from Athens to Clifton Forge (Douthat).

· Brevard, NC: 8:14
· Harrisonburg, VA: 4:55
· State College, PA: 6:38
· Fayetteville, PA (Michaux State Forest): 5:59
· Cave Run Lake, KY (closest town is Farmers, KY): 3:12

Meredith said she would e-mail former IMBA trail care crew members Jen and Rich Edwards for suggestions on other places and for information about good camping with immediately nearby trails at the places listed above.

4. Current Paid Members

Malcolm asked for a list of current paid club members. The are: Malcolm Idleman, Chip Krieg, Mac Stricklen, Tracy Kitts, Tina Hall, Ellen Gerl, Jim Schulz, Meg Hummon, Tom Wolf, Tim Creamer, Meredith Erlewine, and Peter Kotses.

5. Donations for Club

Tracy will post a blurb on the club Web site explaining that people who love the trails we’ve built are welcome to send donations to help further our great work. (Tracy often gets e-mails sent to the Webmaster praising our trailbuilding – perhaps these fans would like to make a donation.)

6. Tracking Volunteer Time

The club needs to continue to track volunteer trailbuilding hours. All club members are asked to keep track of all the hours they spend working on trails, then bring that information to each club meeting so that it can be recorded and forwarded to the park.

7. Trail Maintenance

Recent storms have brought down lots of trees at Lake Hope State Park. The club will host a chainsaw-oriented trail maintenance day on Saturday, July 19. We will meet at Athens Bicycle at noon to carpool at noon, or at the Sidewinder/Trailhead Parking lot at 12:30.
Mac agreed to borrow his dad’s chainsaw and bring a BOB trailer
Meredith will bring a BOB trailer
Malcolm will call Bob West to see if he can help and bring a chainsaw.
Someone (?) will ask Kaleb to bring his BOB-like trailer.