Carters Lake Enduro: NGMBA, 3rd Coast Productions and Blue Mountain Bikes
The summer is ending with the Carters Lake End of Summer Jam on August 28th. This event will be of Super D Format and will have 2 different courses. Run as many runs as you want, your fastest time is what counts.
7:00 Andy Miltons House
Attention mountain bikers of North Georgia!!! SORBA along with the NGMBA will be hosting a social ride hopefully within the next month. We have been watching the weather and it just does not want to cooperate with us planning the ride. Please keep watching for updates as we will post the event as soon as we get a break in the weather. We want all of our members to know that we are here and will continue to do our part in maintaining and building of new trails in the North Georgia area. Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing everyone on the trails!!!
The Athlos store has opened for you to order cool new NGMBA branded cycling wear. Offered are MTB Jerseys and shorts. Road Cycling Jerseys, bibs, shorts and arm warmers. Men's and Women's.
Hello to All,
Hope all of you and your families have faired well during this Covid19 crisis. We know it has been a long nine months or more and normal chapter activities seem to have come to a standstill, but we assure you this has not been the case, and we are working on existing and future NGMBA projects.
We wish we can get back to normalcy soon. The NGMBA and other groups have been doing some small work parties and doing some clearing. The last storm put a hurt on many of the trails. The NGMBA would like to thank all the volunteers who helped with the tree clearing and limited maintenance these last few months. Hopefully, 2021 will be year that we access USFS Sawyer B chainsaw certification, Trail Maintenance 101, Trail Building and Crew Leader Training Clinics.
As far as trail builds go, we are continuing with our projects. The Cartecay Tract re-route is now under construction. Ken Nix has started the re-route on the Boy Scout loop and progressing nicely. Here is the update on the Aska Fruitkof project; we just had a virtual stakeholder meeting with the Forest Service, and everyone is ready to move on with this project (here is the recording link). The Forest Service wants to improve the infrastructure leading up to the trailhead and parking lot before any trail builds can start, hopefully things will start to happen next summer. Forest Service has projected that the costs for improving Bear Lane (FS Rd 711), parking area and vault toilet will be $300k - $500k. The infrastructure project has been put on the list for funds coming from the Great American Outdoor Act passed by congress this past summer. This is the only project supporting a new mountain bike trail that I know of in Region 8.
We do have much to discuss and a lot of work to do the get back on track. We are planning to have a chapter meeting first week in December.
The link below is a recording for the Aska (Fruitkof Area) Project Stakeholder Virtual Meeting
Topic: Aska (Fruitkof Area) Project Stakeholder Virtual Meeting
Date: Nov 18, 2020 03:14 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Meeting Recording:
https://zoom.us/rec/share/HCyhbAbu13ZTgyiO6OitHMdTvzPyuoSqY8Nrgwp83EdyxY1TifdI1qNqfALPZnIm.wFgruP8oQvxWyGy2
Rich Mountain WMA - Cartecay Tract is one of the oldest trails systems in Georgia and it is finally getting a facelift. Georgia Department of Natural Resource, Wildlife Division has entered into a Land Use Agreement with NGMBA and has given their approval to reroute significant areas of the trail on the Red & White Loop. These reroutes will create a fun experience for beginner to intermediate riders, offer training trails for the local youth NICA teams and fulfill the mission and objective of DNR for wildlife management.
We are looking for donations through the IMBA Dig In fundraiser. NGMBA has raised $10,200 and we need approximately another $20,000 to finish the reroutes.
Work is already in progress and we hope to keep it moving along. Some of the funds are going to be used for volunteer training. In the spring of 2021, there will be a trail building clinic for kids and one for adults, where the participants will be able to actually build trail.
Click HERE to donate.
Thank you!
Big thanks to Flow Motion TrailBuilders, USACE, Carters Lake, Amicalola EMC and North Georgia Mountain Bike Association, and all the donations to make this project happen.
Exciting news! Ridgeway gravity trails, Ledges and Roots & Chutes are receiving a face lift. The bottom 300 feet of Ledges is being rerouted to eliminate badly eroded and hazardous trail section It is being replaced by a 800ft reroute that will end up closer to the boat ramp. The reroute and the rest of Ledges will be improved by increasing grade and height of dirt features, adding rock in the tread for texture and creating technical trail features.The approach will be modified to lead into the trail better.
The gap jump at the bottom of Roots & Chutes has been redesigned to better reflect the expert level of the trail and it looks and rides amazingly.
All these modifications were recommended by IMBA Trail Solutions in the IMBA Ride Center Evaluation performed last year.
Preston York of FlowMotion TrailBuilders has been working on this project all this week and should be done by the end of Saturday, July 18.The trails will be ready to ride!
This project was funded by the generous donation from Amicalola Electric Membership Corporation and the proceeds from the Carters Lake Reloaded Enduro.
This project was made possible by NGMBA in partnership with USACE Carters Lake and FlowMotion TrailBuilders.
The Athlos store has opened for you to order cool new NGMBA branded cycling wear. Offered are MTB Jerseys and shorts. Road Cycling Jerseys, bibs, shorts and arm warmers. Men's and Women's.
Order now or by July 16, 2020. Store closes after July 16, 2020
Click HERE to order.
Hello Mountain Bikers,
I hope all of you and your loved ones have faired well during this Covid19 event. I know you all are ready to get back to our lives as I am too. The shut down has slowed some of NGMBA’s projects and plans as you would expect, but we have used this time to plan future projects.
We are hopeful we can get back to our social rides and trail workdays in June even if at a somewhat limited scale. We have been working on tree clearing and limited maintenance during the shutdown and most of the trails are in fair shape. We will be assessing the trails to see where the maintenance priorities are and schedule accordingly. The website will be updated to let you know where our work parties are going to be starting in June. As many of you know we will have a work party each month at a different trail. Also NGMBA will be having a club ride at different locations once a month and we urge you to attend. We will still follow the state’s and the land manager Covid 19 protocols for social distancing and/or face masks.
As far as trail builds go, we have been working on those too. Aska’s Fruitkof project is making progress and fund raising has begun. Forest Service is holding a couple of stakeholder virtual meetings in June for comments and input, mostly from adjacent homeowners. Once these are complete then we can move forward with planning for construction later this year. Our goal is to be digging by years end.
Carters Lake will be getting some attention soon too. Our first step is going to be addressing the 2 gravity trails for safety and better flow. NGMBA has approval for 11 more miles at Woodring Branch and 2 more miles of flow trail at Ridgeway, which will be a huge addition to the trails currently there. NGMBA applied for a RTP grant last year and was able to raise the required matching 20% , but we did not make the cut for the grant. RTP grant is highly competitive and twice as many applications are submitted than are accepted.
Cartecay track reroutes will be starting very soon. NGMBA has decided to do a hybrid trail build which includes volunteers and a professional builder. We are hoping for a large volunteer effort including the kid’s teams (NICA) and eager volunteers wanting to learn and build trails. NGMBA will have Walt Brady do a one-day trail building class when we start to train and educate the volunteers who want to help with this project and trails in general. This will be a 1 day FREE trail building class for interested volunteers for this project. We are hopeful this will be a big community effort and we end up with a great reroute to boot. Once the class is completed there will be sections trail to build by hand with volunteers. Hopefully, these skills will be utilized at all our systems over the years. We will let you know as soon as we have dates for the class by email and on the website.
Talking Rock is going to get a much-needed parking lot expansion! The usage at Talking Rock is absolutely incredible to say the least. This is a demonstration of how a successful trail build attracts riders of all levels of ability with minimal trail tread maintenance.
Thank you.
Andy Milton, President
We understand that it is not a good time to ask for membership dollars. We know that, but if this crisis has taught us anything, it is that trails are more important now than ever before.
Please join or renew and help support our trails and future trail projects.
Join or renew during the months of May and June, 2020 and be automatically entered in the IMBA Membership Drive with 16 prize packages. How much does access to your local trails mean to you every month, please consider a recurring monthly membership starting at $5. Recurring membership keeps you automatically entered in the Spring and Fall membership drives.
Respect your local trail builders and be a good steward of the physical environment. Keep singletrack single by staying on the trail. Practice Leave No Trace principles. Do not ride muddy trails because it causes rutting, widening and maintenance headaches. Ride through standing water, not around it. Ride (or walk) technical features, not around them.
9.5 Miles of New Trail Approved for the Aska Trail System Enhancement Project - Fruitkof
BLUE RIDGE, Ga. – The 9.5-mile Aska (Fruitkof portion) New Trail Project on Lake Blue Ridge, Ga., has gained approval to proceed from the U.S. Forest Service’s (USFS) Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, Blue Ridge Ranger District. As part of the ongoing plan to upgrade and enhance the 17-mile Aska Trail System, the portion of Aska Trail (also known specifically as the Fruitkof Trail Project) will create 9.5 miles of new trail experiences for hikers, mountain bikers and trail runners. The experiences will range from beginner and family-friendly to expert bike-optimized trail with fabulous views and pedestrian access to Lake Blue Ridge.
The North Georgia Mountain Bike Association, a chapter of the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association (SORBA) and International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) Local Program, has been working for years with USFS to bring this project to the construction phase. The total project costs are estimated to be $476,650 which includes: 9.5 miles of new trail, restroom facility and parking. The first phase will be to build three miles of the beginner trail, parking area and a restroom facility. The cost for this phase is estimated to be $255,000.
Planners and organizers of the effort are poised to embark on the project as soon as funds are available to begin work. The trail will be built by a professional trail-building company that has expertise in creating a fun experience for beginner mountain bikers, hikers and trail runners. It is critical to build the trails correctly from the start to minimize environmental impacts and attract outdoor enthusiasts of all ages and abilities for years to come.
HELP US BUILD NEW TRAIL
BUY BY THE FOOT = BUILD A TRAIL ($5 = 1 Foot)
First $25k raised will be matched!
NGMBA is looking for volunteers to help out in the Mulberry Gap Turkey Shuffle November 30. 2019. Please contact Andy Milton at andy@ellijay.com, if you are interested.
GROUP RIDE
10/15 6:00 PM
Tires Down @ Talking Rock