We had a very positive meeting with the director of Ella Sharp park today and members of Cascades Cycling Club about signing the trails and possibly rerouting the trails around some of the eroded areas.

I also learned some new stuff about the park today. Although, the park is in the city it does not fall under Jackson Parks & Rec. Dept. The land was donated to the city so it actually has a board of trustees that make all of the decisions regarding the park. The board meets again in June and the issue of new signage will be brought up then.

There are plans to add a large kiosk type board at the entrance to the park which will have all of the trails listed on it in the future. They will also be holding the collegiate race again in Sept. the park was really happy with the way things went last year so they are doing it again this year. He said it was really positive for the park.

The one thing we need from MMBA members is to step it up with volunteer help at this park. We told CCC that we can get a better turn out for trail days and helping to keep the park maintained. We will be scheduling a trail day within the next few weeks to clear the trail, pick up grabage, and possibly look at re-routing some of the current trail.

June 15^th

Burchfield Park

Mid-State Chapter Inaugural Poker Run.

This is a fund raising benefit for our chapter all proceeds will help us in purchasing trail building materials and new signage for our local trails.

There will be a $10 buy in for the event.

The Poker Run is being held in conjunction with our annual picnic. We will have free food and drinks for all participants.

We are also planning to have demo bikes for the day!

Additional details coming soon…

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008804130420

The final section of trail towards McNamara has been approved thanks to Jeff Popard and Bob Moore. Jeff took the lead on this project and walk the trail with Bob today. Bob actually put some of his own input into the new trail design and pointed out additional sections of trail to use throughout that section.

Jeff is going to add to additional flagging to the trail this weekend and we will start raking it in on Sunday, April 27th.

We will meet at the McNamara parking lot since it is closer to where we will be working. Meet at 9:00am.

Bring shovels, rakes, trimmers, etc… Basically, anything you have that we can cut the trai in with.

Brad spoke with the parks director and we have approval. There are a couple of steps before we start cutting trail, but he would still like to get those interested at the site this Saturday (April 12th). Plans would be to 1) walk what is currently flagged and adjust the route if necessary, 2) discuss strategies for completing the work (e.g. what skills and tools do we have available), and 3) organize some ideas for specific tasks that will need to be completed (in addition to the trail, we will be improving parking, creating signs, and adding a kiosk).

The first official ground breaking will begin in late April and/or May.

Let’s meet Saturday at 9:30 am at the first Wardell Rd pull off.