Athens Bicycle Club Meeting, August 27, 2001

Present: Tracy Kitts, Tina hall, Paul Schulz, Eileen Schulz, Meredith Erlewine, Tim Creamer, Chip Krieg, Chip Rice, Kristin Buhn, Don Harse

Next meeting: The club did not decide on a time for the next meeting.

1. Tour of Athens to Zaleski (TAZ)

Instead of the Red Oak campground, we’re going to camp at the top of Habron, in spots 131-137. It’s closer to showers and water.

Paul will try to secure Matt/Big Chimney for catering; if Matt declines, we’ll come up with another plan.

The course will be similar to last year’s, but in the opposite direction -- we’ll ride the bikeway out and come back the other way.

The club approved the purchase of a 36-cup coffee pot and tote bag.

2. Need for Course Marshalls for Criterium/Sept. 21

Paul and Meredith volunteered; Chip Rice, Tracy and Don volunteered to be backup if needed.

3. Lake Hope Map

Tracy and Meredith agreed to modify the current map (add new trails) and brochure (add new info) and provide to Paul by Sept. 15.

Also, for a future map redo, Tracy has software that will put GPS data over a topographical map of the park.

4. Next Trail Maintenance Day -- Sept. 8

Anyone interested in doing trail maintenance at Lake Hope can meet at Athens Bicycle at 9:15 a.m. to carpool or meet at the Lake Hope Furnace parking lot at 10:15 a.m. Please bring weed whackers if you have them. Priority will be cutting down overgrowth on the Furnace Trail.

4. Trailbuilding Clinic/IMBA Trail Care Crew

The Ohio Mountain Bike Association is hosting an IMBA trail maintenance weekend the 27th and 28th of October at Alum Creek in Columbus.

If anyone is interested, visit www.joinomba.org.

5. Grant

Paul is preparing a $500 grant request to Rock Shox for an educational/promotional mountain bike project. The deadline is Oct. 1.

The proposed project would reroute the steep downhill on Habron. Paul and Malcolm have laid this out, but it will be a major amount of work. The club may try to get the Boy Scouts involved. After the work is done, the club would create an informational display to install in the park’s Nature Center with pictures of the original trail, pictures of the new layout, and descriptions of the problems and how they were solved.

Meredith volunteered to proofread and edit the grant proposal.

6. Fall Camping Trip

The group agreed to go to Virginia’s Douthat State Park for a camping/riding weekend Oct. 19-22.

Paul agreed to make camping arrangements.

7. OU Mountain Bike Club Race/Oct. 13 at Lake Hope State Park

Paul has ideas for an alternative course that includes gravel roads in case of heavy rain preceding the race or the day of the race.

The club agreed that ABC representatives should make it clear to Lake Hope staff that ABC and OU Mountain Bike Club are two separate entities.

The club discussed sending representatives to an OU Mountain Bike Club meeting to seek out volunteers for post-race trail maintenance. Also, the club discussed asking OU Mountain Bike Club Advisor Sean O’Malley if he would be willing to take the lead on implementing post-race trail maintenance.

Meredith and Tina volunteered to do a post-race garbage sweep and trail assessment.

8. Map Boxes

Chip Rice mentioned that there is a need for maps at the Lake Hope trail heads instead of at the Lake Hope park office. Chip Krieg agreed to ask Tom Bennett to build three map boxes to install during TAZ. The club also will deliver new maps to the ranger station and lodge during TAZ.

9. ABC Stickers

Tim agreed to work on the design of trailhead stickers.