May 6, 2013   Hey CR NEMBA members and friends,   The chair lifts are now closed for the season. What an awesome year for skiing!!!   Now on to longer, dryer days. It’s time to dust off your bikes and grab your tools. Here’s the scoop!   Calendar   I have attached the club calendar FYI. The calendar is also posted in on our website www.carrabassettnemba.org under “events”. On the calendar you will find dates and times for our group rides, regular trail projects and other cool stuff to do.   EVENTS 2013   CR NEMBA has two big events planned for this summer:  

• NEMBA TrailFest with Maine Huts and Trails June 8^th and 9^th 2013. For more information and or to register visit this link http://nemba.org/nembaevents/trailfests2013.htm#mainehuts
• Come for a day or make a weekend of it. There is limited space available, so if you’re interested please RSVP ASAP!

• The Carrabassett Backcountry Cycle Challenge is Back! July 13^th and 14^th 2013. Do you have what it takes? For more information or to register visit this link https://carrabassettnemba.org/carrabassett-backcountry-cycle-challenge-cbcc/

  TRAILS 2013   CR NEMBA has been advocating for new trail development and working with the Town of Carrabassett Valley, Sugarloaf and Maine Huts and Trails to produce a master plan for construction. This plan is taking shape. It’s a “living document” that will be revised as resources become available and proprieties shift. Where and when new trails are built will depend on when and where resources become available.  

• The town has received a sizeable grant from the state through a federally funded program called the Recreational Trails Program (RTP) for the construction of new single track trails at the Sugarloaf Outdoor Center. So there will be more new trails this summer and they will be awesome. This is a HUGE grant! Thank you Deb Bowker for you tireless work on this!
• A new single track trail connecting Main Huts and Trails, Stratton Brook Hut to the Narrow Gauge pathway will break ground June 8^th and 9^th . NEMBA members from all over New England will be helping to get this trail started. See the above link for detailed info about the NEMBA TrailFest with MH&T. Space is limited, register today. Registration required.
• CR NEMBA will be working on trails along the Narrow Gauge near Campbell Field and Bigelow Station. These trails will get a face lift in an effort to make them appealing to a wider range of riders.
• We are working with Sugarloaf on an initial plan for trail design and development on Sugarloaf land. It’s still preliminary but I would not be surprised to see some work performed on Sugarloaf property this summer.

  The trail map (version 2.0) is near completion and will be available at trail head kiosks June 23^rd (Memorial Day Weekend).   You   Your support is what makes these programs and trails possible. If you haven’t already, please join CR NEMBA today. https://carrabassettnemba.org/membership/   If you are already a member, THANKS! The club has experienced tremendous growth since it’ start in 2010. There’s plenty of opportunity for you to play a significant role through voluntarism and or leadership. Please contact me if you have interest in being more involved in the planning and/or execution of club activities.   This is shaping up to be a great season on all fronts! Tell your friends to bring their bikes to Carrabassett Valley this summer and sample some of the excitement.   On your bike or with a shovel in hand, see you on the trails!  

Newsletter Archives

April 4, 2012 – CR NEMBA Update – Happy Spring! Have you been on your bike yet?

Hello CR NEMBA Members and Friends,  CR NEMBA has been extremely busy this winter preparing for the 2012 season. Sorry for the long message but there is so much going on – Here’s the scoop…  Our web site is now up and running! We designed this site to be a resource for our members to  find information about club activities and for the general public to find information on anything from how to get to Carrabassett Valley, to trail head info, things to do and places to stay and eat. On the site there’s a link to our Facebook page where we hope people will go to connect with their riding buddies, plan outings and keep up with last minute changes on club projects and events. Take the site out for a test ride at www.carrabassettnemba.org  and while you’re there, join our newsletter mailing list (see below). New newsletter format – In order to keep in better contact with our members and friends, we will  be moving to a new newsletter format. The new format will be more dynamic and we will be sure that it’s not landing in your junk mail  folder. To continue receiving our newsletter you will need to sign up (that’s the way the widget works). You only need to do it once and it only takes a couple of seconds so please take the time to help us keep you informed. You can sign up from our web site www.carrabassettnemba.org.  The Carrabassett Backcountry Cycle Challenge is back for 2012. CR NEMBA will help the town of Carrabassett run the race again this year. All proceeds will go to CR NEMBA for the construction and maintenance of mountain bike trail in the area. The event will be held on July 22^nd and will feature three races; a 60+/- mile challenge, a 25 +/- mile challenge and a kids race. Racer information is available on our web site and at https://www.bikereg.com/Net/15826 . Last year’s inaugural running was extremely successful with 150 racers from all over New England and Atlantic Canada competing to see if or how fast they can complete the course. It would not have been possible without the 50 volunteers that helped make it happen. The race committee has been working hard preparing for the second annual running.  Join us on July 22^nd for some fun, adventure and competition! CBCC Race committee members: Peter Smith, Kimberly Truskowski, Dawn Smith, Deb Bowker, Josh Tauses & Alison Thayer Map and Signage – We have developed a map of mountain bike trails in the area which is posted on our website and will be available at the Outdoor Center as well as area businesses. These trails will be marked with directional signage with the difficulty classified by color (Green, Blue, and Black). These trails will be improved and maintained by the club with support from the town. New trails – At the Outdoor Center we will begin work on year two of the three year plan prepared by a professional mountain bike trail designer/builder from VT and approved by the town selectman in 2010. With the help of a grant we received from Bikes Belong and the Towns pledged to match, we will aid in the construction of a trail that circles the Moose Bog which is adjacent to the ODC base lodge. This trail is designed for beginner/intermediate riders (but fun for the expert too). With the trails built last year we will have three entry level trails under our belt including a trail that connects the Narrow Gauge to the Outdoor Center and will begin to work on more advanced trails in the area of the warming hut. New Bike shop at the Outdoor Center – Bob Ash will be opening the Carrabassett Valley Bike Shop at the Outdoor Center on or before May 28^th (Memorial Day). “Plans are to offer bike repair as well as some retail items, a small inventory of parts and drinks and trail snacks and energy bars etc. Of course maps and info will be available. Although there are a lot of details yet to be attended to, I am very excited about it all”. Bob Ash   Maine Huts and Trails has a new executive director! Nicole Freedman Olympic cyclist (Sydney 2000) is leaving her position as the director of bicycle programs for the city of Boston at the end of this month to Join MH&T as their new ED. She is a talented leader who has had great success in increasing and improving cycling in the Boston area. We look forward to working with her to promote cycling in the Carrabassett Region. Welcome Nicole! Here is a recent article about her move http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/downtown/2012/04/boston_bicycle_director_to_ste.html. MH&T is launching the first of a multi-year plan to improve their trail corridor for summer uses (including mountain biking). They are also planning some new trails to access the site of the future Stratton Brook Hut near Bigelow Station than may be built this season. The first of these trails will be a continuance of the reroute they built for the washout on the Narrow Gauge following Hurricane Irene.  This trail will contour along the south side of the hill above the Narrow Gauge to the Stratton Brook Hut site. The other trail will be on the Stratton Brook side of the hut site. This trail will be a reroute for the steep and eroded Dead Moose trail that connects to the Stratton Brook trail. This reroute will bring what is now the crux of a 20 mile loop to an intermediate level and provide connectivity directly to the Narrow Gauge. Check out the map on our web site for reference! Group Rides – The Sunday morning group ride at 10:00AM from the Outdoor Center and Monday afternoon woman’s ride will start in May and continue through the summer and fall months. We are exploring offering other dates and times TBD.  Check our web site and join us on Facebook for updates. Trail Work Days – We do not have a schedule yet but as soon as things start to dry out we will begin work on the trails along the Narrow Gauge and then move up into the Outdoor Center to open them up for the season. IMBA/NEMBA trails school – This year the trail school will be held at  Highland Mountain Bike Park in New Hampshire May 19 and 20th. This years focus will be on Mechanized trail construction and gravity trails. If you are interested in participating I recommend registering right away as space will fill up http://www.nemba.org/nembaevents/trail_school.htm NEMBA Fest is at the Kingdom Trails this year June 22 and 24^th. Registration includes camping, trail pass, shuttles, lift pas music, rides and bike demos. http://www.mtbadventureseries.org/mtbadventure/NEMBAfest2012.htm Executive Committee:  Alison Thayer, Kimberly Truskowski, Glenn Morrell, Josh Tauses, Barry Turcotte, Joe Hines, Deb Bowker, Sarah Pine, Matt Swan and Scott Waldron. Contact information for these outstanding people can be found on our website. www.carrabassettnemba.org There are openings on the committee and sub committees. If anyone is interested in taking a leadership role please let me know [email protected]. We’ve come a long way since we started in July, 2010. There has been an tremendous amount of work done by our executive committee. If you see any of them around be sure to give them a pat on the back or even better, buy them a beer. Thanks, Dave  _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

December, 2011 Year End Re-cap and 2012 Highlights

2011  has been an extremely productive year for Carrabassett Region NEMBA. We attribute our success to the partnerships we’ve formed with the Town of Carrabassett Valley and Maine Huts & Trails, as well as support from land owner/managers and a volunteer base that has stepped up in remarkable ways. Our volunteers put in over 1,000 hours on the construction and maintenance of trails in CV this past season Mountain Bike Trails  The club assisted the town at the Outdoor Center in the construction of a trail that connects the center to Rte 27 near Campbell Field and a children’s loop, both of which are located near the pump track we built last year. These trails are 3’ wide, bench cut and covered in a fine crushed stone. They were designed for the beginner rider and are intended to invite riders to the ODC from the Narrow Gauge rail trail. We also built a trail that uses x-country trails 7, 29 & 32 with a “tread with in a tread” and single track re-routes. This trail is slightly more technical but still enjoyable for the low-intermediate rider. We also worked on trails out side the Outdoor Center and improved existing trail sections on  Maine Huts and Trails system, in the Bigelow Preserve and on Penobscot Nation land in the Redington pond area. Organized Group Rides  The club organized 3 weekly group rides and welcomed members and non-members alike. Alison Thayer lead a Monday night ladies ride, Sunday mornings club members took turns leading a ride from the Outdoor Center and on Tuesday evenings Matt Swan lead a ride out of Northern Lights bike shop in  Farmington. These rides allowed us to meet new riders and to show people what there is for trails and how to link them up for a great ride. Events with regional draw The club partnered with the Town to host two events at the Outdoor Center that drew participants from all over New England and Atlantic Canada. IMBA/NEMBA Trail school – In May we hosted a trail building school. The program was presented by experts from the New England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA) and the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA). Class room discussion covered topics such as building and caring for trails, planning and executing trail projects and boardwalk construction. Field clinics included trail assessment and rehabilitation, designing & construction of new trails and working with rock. Over 50 people participated. It was an incredibly professional and informative event that helped set the stage for the trail work we completed over the summer. Carrabassett Back Country Cycle Challenge – In July we held a 60 mile mountain bike endurance race that was part of the US CAN endurance series. The series had two races in Canada and two in the US. 150 riders (6 pro’s) spent the weekend in Carrabassett to see if and how fast they could complete this course. Over 50 volunteers including the Sugarloaf Ski Patrol helped make this happen. By many accounts it was the best venue and course of the series. CR NEMBA 2012 We plan to continue the organized group rides, and to host the Carrabassett Back Country Cycle Challenge. Maybe we will be lucky enough to host a trail building school again. Map and signs – Our most important project over the winter is to develop a map and signage system for the trails at the Outdoor Center and throughout the valley. The Penobscot Nation has graciously given us permission to map, mark and maintain existing trials on Penobscot Nation land in the Redington area, along the Narrow Gauge and on the Houston Brook Rd. The Bureau of Parks and Land has given us similar permission for a trail that runs along the southern edge of the Bigelow Preserve. Look for a draft map in the Outdoor Center this winter! New trails – At the Outdoor Center we will begin work on year two of the three year plan that was approved by the town selectman in 2010. With the help of a grant we received from Bikes Belong and the Town pledged to match, we will construct a trail that circles the Moose Bog pond. This trail is designed for beginner/intermediate riders (but fun for the expert too). With the three entry level trails under our belt, we will begin to work on more advanced trails in the area of the warming hut. Maine Huts and Trails – will be launching the first year of a three year plan to improve their trails between and around the existing huts. They are doing this with mountain bikers in mind. We are talking to them about new trails in their trail corridor and around their huts. This is very exciting! So next year we will see a 20+ mile loop connecting trail systems at the Outdoor Center, in Redington pond area and the MH&T network. These trail systems will be marked and mapped and we look forward to inviting riders from all over New England to Carrabassett to see and experience what mountain biking in Carrabassett Valley is all about. If you’re a mountain biker and think it would be great to come to Carrabassett in the “off season” to enjoy your vacation home and ride some sweet trails please consider joining the club by visiting NEMBA’s web site www.NEMBA.org and/or contacting David Hughes d[email protected]  to discuss other ways you could help make Carrabassett a world class mountain bike destination.