IMBA's just announced their 2007 Spring/Summer schedule, and there's not only 1 Louisville visit (April 26-29), but also opportunities in IL and one in Nashville, TN (19-22) to attend the FREE training.
Started in 1997, the Traveling Trail Care Crew has completed over 1,000 projects and trained well over 100,000 people. There's currently 2 two-person professional full-time teams providing training in North America.
For the most current up-to-date trail education, the classes are highly recommended. You'll usually receive a combination of some very professional class room training and hands-on trail work during each session.
Let's hope that our local parks department takes full advantage of this training for the first time, especially w/the City of Parks Initiative gaining momentum.
This marks the 4th time in the last 8 yrs. that the Trail Care Crew has visited here in Louisville (which helps explain in part the very nice trail work taking place around town, especially at Waverly Park).
Maybe parks has something up their sleeve, and will use the visit to announce that some of the recently acquired park land throughout the county is now being opened up to mountain biking. (It's the least they could do, considering how poorly they've treated, or mis-treated would be a better description, the dedicated, loyal and passionate local off-roaders!)
Local IMBA Visits 2007
In March of 2006 I attended my first IMBA Trail Care Crew event at the Breaks Interstate Park on the KY/VA border. I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in trail advocacy, trail construction and trail maintenance attend an IMBA Trail Care Crew event when one is in their area. The knowledge shared really gets the mindset tuned to proven positive trail related actions....
yes, czar attended, but the
yes, czar attended, but the rest of us attended and worked...lol j/k... if you do go to one of these, take your gloves and eat a good breakfast, cause the work will move pretty fast... I was bonked before we even hit the trails after the work...
Glad to hear you gentlemen
Glad to hear you gentlemen attended and enjoyed the first-class presentation!
While the IMBA site says the upcoming visit is in Louisville, I was pleased to hear that Butler State Park will be the actual destination.
Richard Matthews, who's had a hand in leading the state's mtb efforts for over 15 years, has long been the caretaker of the trail system at Butler. He's also the former director of the state points series, a position he held for 15 yrs.
Butler has a great deal of potential. At one time the state attempted to make a go of a ski operation there, but that went bust several years ago. There's still plenty of reminders about, including a dilapidated lodge, and parts of the ski lift.
The site has plenty of elevation gain, a nice campsite that includes cabins, a small lake, and a lodge w/a full service restaurant. Within one mile of the entrance there's a small outlets mall, and a WalMart and several places to eat. All in all a very nice piece of property, only about 45 minutes from Louisville.
Let's hope that the current trail system, it's about a 5.5 loop, is improved by the visit and plans are put in place to make it a mtb destination spot!
Note- the state of KY, depending on how successful this visit is, could very well use this visit to re-assess the trails open to mountain biking, and help our state catch up w/others by allowing additional access at other state parks.
IMBA Trail Care Crew @
IMBA Trail Care Crew @ Butler is a good fit. Great location for such an event. Centrally located to draw participants from a few bigger city areas that have a lot of mountain bikers. I like that place too. I went to my first mountain bike race there in 1994 as a spectator....