results for 7-28-10 are on the race info page.
IMBA Trail Care Crew coming in August!
The last weekend in August the IMBA Trail Care Crew is coming to Duluth and COGGS would love to have every member and every trail user, member or not, come take part in the weekend. This is going to be a huge leap forward for COGGS because we're going to learn from the best on how to be an effective advocate for trails in our area, the best practices for trail building and we're also going to have a weekend together to build friendships and a stronger club.
Here's the schedule, albeit without times at this point. Times and locations will all materialize in the next couple weeks, but with this schedule you'll at least know what times we'll be getting together.
Thursday, August 26 - This evening we're having the Club Care night, which is when the IMBA reps go over how to be the most effective and fun club we can be. All members are encouraged to attend this. After the class we're going to be heading over the the Thirsty Pagan for comraderie and to hatch further plans to take over the world.
Friday, August 27 - Landmanager Day. This is a day for all Land Managers (City, County, State, private, etc...) to learn about sustainable trailbuilding and to how best work together with clubs (i.e. COGGS). A two hour learning session is going to start at 10 am and then Courtland Nelson of the DNR is going to be giving an address to the group over lunch at noon. This isn't a day when many club members have to be there, but if you're a trail steward, want to be a trail steward or have a trail project in mind that is on public or someone else's private land, it's highly recommended to come and network with the land managers we work with on our trail projects.
Friday night we'll have having another social get together. This time we'll be meeting at Matt Evingson's place off of Hartley for a ride and also a big cookout. Bring food, drink, your bike, etc.
Saturday, August 28th - This is the big day when we want everyone, COGGS member or not, to be there. In the morning we'll have a classroom session about sustainable trailbuilding techniques. This session is a must for anyone who wants to take a leadership role on future trail projects for COGGS. In the afternoon we'll head out to a trail project and actually put to use the techniques that we learned in the morning. Other trail user groups are very welcome to attend and learn the best practices for making fun trails that last.
Saturday night we're working on other fun event to put on. Stay tuned.
You can register for the event at the following link: http://www.imba.com/tcc/schedule. Please Register as soon as possible so that we know how many people to plan for. Also, if you're a land manager or know a land manager well, have them contact Hansi Johnson directly and he will send them the link for the Land Manager registration. His email is hansi.johnson@imba.com
Also, COGGS could really use help fundraising for this event. Here are some of the needs we have:
Cost to book classrooms at Hartley
50 IMBA Managing Mountain Bike Trails books, which will be given to all Land Managers at the Friday session
Cost of lunch for the Land Manager Day
As COGGS is a 501-C3 organization, your contribution is tax deductible. This event is truly going to be the springboard to launch into making Duluth the premiere Midwest biking town and I couldn't recommend a more worthy cause to support. Feel free to email me at adamsundbergdc@hotmail.com if you're interested.
And don't forget to put the Trail Care Crew on your calendar, August 26-28th.
Mont Du Lac
Everyone who ever rides at Mont du Lac from now to eternity should be very thankful for the work of Barry Buhr, Don "Ragin' Cajun" Velleux, Mike Miller, Bruce Smith, Pam Schmidt, Matt Johnsrud, Kit Grayson, Brad Miller and Daryl Peterson. After the Dirtspanker the trail was completely trashed and these fine folk all put in significant time to make sure that the ruts were taken out and the trail had a reasonable outslope.
Because of their great efforts, Tuesday Night Rides are back on at Mont du Lac starting next week, July 6th. Come on out and help put the finishing touches on rehabing the course by riding your bike over it again and again. The bar is open and they serve food as well. It's a great night each week.
See you Tuesday!
The Time is Now
In the past six months there have been some incredible things happening with COGGS that I wanted to take a moment to share with the rest of the membership.
The absolute biggest thing is that a proposed multi-use, singletrack trail has been accepted by the City of Duluth's Master Plan (Huge thank you to Andrea Grygo for creating this!). The City is completely behind COGGS mission of developing a cross city trail and making Duluth a destination mountain biking town. Hansi Johnson, IMBA's midwest director, knows of no other city in the entire country that has the potential to have a trail of this scope within the City limits. This big picture dream has all the right components coming together for us to make it a reality.
More immediately, COGGS has verbal approval to begin designing specific projects for Mission Creek and the Spirit Mountain Nordic system. That, along with our current projects of Lester Park and Brewer Park, provide instant opportunity to continue helping establish the kind of trail system we all want.
It may seem like COGGS is doing great and better riding opportunities keep popping up all over the place. To a degree this is true, there are more riding opportunities, for a wider ranger of cyclists, than there were 5 years ago. However, currently we are severely limited by the amount of volunteer work we have to work with. The projects in Mission Creek, Spirit Mountain and Brewer park have all had an open door for moving forward for 1-3 years already, but because with our current level of help we can only really focus on one or two projects at a time, they sit dormant. The COGGS Board is working on ways to try and remedy this issue by looking at fundraising and grant opportunities. We also have the Yes! Duluth program providing workers that are being coordinated by a COGGS paid supervisor. This crew is currently working in Lester Park, and volunteers can also join them in their efforts. Things like the Yes! Duluth program are helping, but we need additional help to make the dreams we all have of Duluth being the best place to live and ride bikes it can possibly be.
So how can you help? Here are a few options:
1. Come out and volunteer at trail work days.
2. Donate to COGGS. Because we are a 501-C3, your contribution is tax deductible. Many members have been utlizing this, most notably the saint who matched the funds we collected from our spring membership drive.
3. Help with grant writing and seeking grant opportunities. Other towns of similar size have way bigger trailbuilding budgets and their local clubs just do planning while they hire the construction to be done. Rapid City, SD has had over a million dollars of money flow through they local cycling clubs. Specks on the map like Copper Harbor, MI have budgets over ten times ours. By winning grants we can pay for our trails to be done by professionals.
4. Participate in COGGS events. We have workdays, we put on races, we go on trips, we have parties. All of this builds community and this makes the work fun.
Again, right now each and every one of us has the opportunity to help the Twin Ports take a huge jump forward as far as being an epic place to ride if we all just do a little bit. I look forward to working with each of you to help this vision become a reality.
Adam Sundberg
COGGS Chair
Want to get on the Email List Serv?
Dirt Spanker Racers:
Please see the map provided on the Mont du Lac Recreation website.
www.skimontdulac.com/index.php/summer/mountain/trail-map
The map is one made from riding the course this year and is way, way more representative of this years course. 95%+ acurate. Hey, he rode early in the season and we've been working hard. For note, the rider took the citizen course downhill, so for you others: add the short 'expert loop' to the map where the red line hits the left side of the map. The new hilltop bypass with the switchbacks is at the bottom right of the text box "Mont du Lac...Trail"
My take on the new switchbacks:
Thanks to Adam's good vision and a little help from others, there shouldn't be any more complaints about the fourth switchback. Sounds like some are making all switchbacks and some are still putting a foot down. I think we have a new mini-challenge for you.
COGGS is a 501-C3
We received our letter from the IRS stating that we are officially a 501-C3 tax exempt organization. Our retroactive date is Dec 7, 2009, so if you've made a financial contribution to COGGS beyond your membership fee you can deduct that off your taxes.
Mountain Biking at Mont du Lac 7 Days a Week!
Mont du Lac is open to ride seven days a week. For the COGGS Tuesday Night Ride, COGGS members still get to ride for free. The other 6 1/2 days a week cost $5 per ride. If you want to buy a Season Pass, the cost is $50. However, the good folks at Mont du Lac are willing to give a free season pass to anyone willing to put 10 hours of trailwork in over the course of the summer. Several COGGS members have already achieved this and get to ride at Mont du as much as their hearts desire.
Also, the bar is open daily and they are also serving food. Here's the schedule from the Mont du Lac website (www.skimontdulac.com):
27 hole of disc golf & 9k of Biking. (18 holes currently open)
$5 daily fee or $50. season pass.
Food & Bev. available in the Chalet everyday.
Chalet hours:
Mon-Thurs. & Sun. 11am - 8pm. Limited food Menu. all day
Fri & Sat. 10am - 9pm. Summer Menu. Burgers, Brats, Hotdogs, Chicken, & Pizza. Grill open 11am - 8pm
Full service Bar.
Pay to Play Box available for "Early Bird's"
Please Call ahead for Chalet Hours during poor weather condition's.
Watch for New Summer Promo Day's coming this summer.
IMBA Trail Care Crew Coming to Duluth in August!
The last weekend in August, the IMBA Trail Care Crew will be paying a visit to Duluth to conduct a Trail building School. The Trail Care Crew is conducting 70 of these schools throughout the country this summer and through the hard work of Hansi Johnson, Duluth is scheduled to have one on August 26-29.
At this school the Trail Care Crew will conduct both classroom and field sessions where they will teach us the following essential trail building topics:
We are currently in the planning stages of this event and will post times, location and where the work projects will be when they are determined. All COGGS members are invited to attend and Trail Stewards, and those interested in becoming Trail Stewards) are strongly, strongly encouraged to attend. We will also be inviting local land managers and other trail groups such as St. Louis County Forest and Recreation Department, City of Duluth Parks and Rec, Superior Hiking Trail, Duluth Area Trails Allicance, Mont du lac, etc. so that we can build a better understanding of best practices for all of us to follow.
| | City of Duluth
Bike Route Network
Public Input Meetings
(April 22 - May 4, 2010) | |
| | To create a master plan for the citywide Bike Route network based on the best routes identified by the community.
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Background: | | Roadways in Duluth should be safe for all people to use. However, the truth is that this isn't always the case, especially for cyclists. High traffic speeds, bad road conditions, parked vehicles, and poorly marked lanes are all potential hazards that put both cyclists and motorists in danger. As the City adopts a Complete Streets policy, a new process will be developed that takes into account the safety of all users of the road (pedestrians, bicyclists, public transit, and automobiles) when a new road is being constructed or an existing road is recounstructed or resurfaced. At these meetings, we will be asking the community to identify the routes that they would use if conditions were safe. Afterward, all of the routes that were identified will be counted, and the most common routes will be used to create a final, long-term bike route network for Duluth. In addition, new bike rack locations will also be identified. As roadways need to be resurfaced, roads that are part of the bike network will need to be designed in a way that accomodates for cyclists as well as motorists. Some roads may need to be reconfigured to include shoulders or bike lanes, while other roads may not require any changes at all.
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Meeting Information: | | All meetings are open to the public. Anybody can attend any meeting, even if you live in a completely different neighborhood. People who don't bike reguarly but would try if it was safer/easier are also encouraged to attend. Food will also be provided! Every meeting starts at 6:00pm: - Thursday, April 22 at the Morgan Park Community Center (1242 88th Ave W)
- Monday, April 26 at the Piedmont Heights Community Center (2302 W 23rd St)
- Tuesday, April 27 at City Center West (5830 Grand Ave)
- Thursday, April 29 at the UMD Garden Room (1208 Kirby Dr)
- Monday, May 3 at the Central Hillside Community Center (12 E 4th St)
- Tuesday, May 4 at Portman Community Center (4601 McCulloch St)
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Contact: | | For additional information, or if you would like to give your input but can't make it to any of the meeting, contact:
| |
| | | Codie Leseman
Program Coordinator, Fit City Duluth
(218) 940-3186
lesem002@umn.edu
|
COGGS Vision for 2010
As 2009 comes to a close, COGGS is actively visioning and planning for having an even more successful 2010. We are currently at an important step in the growth of our organization, as we are going to be a 501-C3 organization very soon. This will allow us to pursue different sources of funding and also give incentive for individuals to donate more due to the potential for tax deductions. As we take these next steps, it is vital that we get additional help and support from our membership. The more active and motivated members we have the greater our influence and productivity can be, thus making the Twin Ports the best place to ride a bike we can possibly make it.
2010 Events
6/5 - National Trails Day (stay tuned for trail project scheduling)
6/13 - Dirt Spanker MNSCS race at Mont du Lac
7/24 - Lincoln Park Mountain Bike Challenge and Festival
8/22 - Great Hawk Chase MNSCS race at Lester Park
Sept - Gitchee Gumee Gallivant (city-wide off road tour)
Oct - Retreat to Cable (if we don't get more than 20 people this year, I'm seriously going to think you're all a bunch of crazy people)
Trail Projects
Maintaining our current trail system of Lester-Amity, Hartley, Piedmont, Brewer Park, Spirit Mountain, Pokegama and Mont du Lac.
Building two significant reroutes at Mont du Lac to accomodate for the construction that effects the Dirt Spanker Course.
Finishing the rehabilitation of the 4.5 mile Lester-Amity loop. We need to complete the upper NE section and also install signage.
Building two significant reroutes, putting in 200' of boardwalk and installing 2 bridges at Piedmont before the Lincoln Park Mountain Bike Challenge and Festival.
Finishing the connector trail through the northern part of Brewer Park (west of Piedmont) and possibly (keep your fingers crossed) building the entire proposed 4.6 mile loop.
Constructing a new trail at Spirit Mountain in the nordic ski trail system. As many people know, the Alpine Coaster is seriously effecting our current trail and Spirit Mtn has granted us access to build more trail. This will be a large, multi-year undertaking, but we'll get started in 2010
As you can see, COGGS has its hands full in 2010. We are growing and our accomplishments are adding up, but we are in serious need of more volunteers to help support our efforts. Out of the 1008 hours of trail work that COGGS did in 2009, 43% was done by only four people. It is unsustainable to have so much of the work being done by a small number of people so please try and help out in any way you can. Here are some ideas:
- Be a member. Part of your dues helps the financial position of the club
- Volunteer to help at races, build trail and/or solicit funds for the club
- Race in the three races we put on each year.
- Help recruit corporate sponsors for the club
- Help us network with lumber suppliers and builders for access to quality, green treated wood for boardwalk and bridges.
- Donate money. As we will be a 501-C3 in 2010, your contribution is tax deductible.
Thank You
Thirsty Pagan Brewery
COGGS owes a big thank you to the Thirsty Pagan Brewery in Superior, WI. Not only did they host our Annual Mtg and provide us with outstanding pizza and beer, but they have decided to make monthly financial contributions to COGGS as a way of supporting what we do.
Please show your support for the Thirsty Pagan by making it a frequent stop for you and your friends when you're looking for great food or drink.
COGGS BOARD Positions
At our Annual Mtg we voted in the new 2010 board for COGGS. They are:
Chair - Adam Sundberg
Secretary - Andrea Grygo
Treasurer - Bill Schwalbe
Trail Coordinator - Matt Evingson
Promotions Coordinator - Mick Dodds
Ride Coordinator - Mike Miller
Membership Coordinator - Jim Shoberg
Gitchee Gumee Gallivant
Our second attempt at the Gitchee Gumee Gallivant was not without inclement weather, but a baker's dozen of hearty pioneers braved the elements for a truly memorable first Triple G.
We met at the McFadden's beautiful home west of Spirit Mountain to leaves peaking, an inch of snow on the ground and temperatures in the 20's. Many drove over black ice and past cars skidding into the ditch to make it out for the start of the ride. Diana McFadden made everyone a great breakfast of eggs, pancakes and fruit and Angel Hohenstein also provided some fantastic cinnamon scones. Todd McFadden was the benevolent soul of the ride preparations as he assisted with my brakes and also gave Ed Holloday a pair of shoes and pedals to use for the day.
The dozen who started the day from McFaddens were:
Todd McFadden, Michael Hillmeyer (on his 4th mountain bike ride of the year), Steve Knauss (in jeans), Dave Cizmas, John Morrison, Matt Jonsenrud, Kent Lundholm, Charlie Griffin (both of the last two coming up from the Cities for the ride), Ed Holloday, Jim Van Druten, Ryan Reuter and Adam Sundberg.
We rode from McFadden's over the the singletrack at Spirit and slowly rolled through the trails along the western slopes, down Charlie's trail and Grady's downhill and through Fern Gully. The trail was really slick as it was all under 1" of snow. With the changing leaves and the white covering from snow the forest was absolutely gorgeous and a great scene for an epic ride.
From Spirit we headed east on the State Trail and up the Big Kahuna (only Todd made it all the way to the top) to Skyline. Jim guided Matt back home while the rest of us headed east to hit the 1/2 mile of new trail in Brewer Park and then we continued on through the portions of that trail that have only seen a brushsaw but no dirt work at all. This dropped us out on Haines Rd and the start of Piedmont, where we picked up Mike Reuter.
At Piedmont we rode Foxx Rocks, the Lower Burner of Stovetop and then down the Skyline Climb back down to Skyline. There we picked Jim Van Druten back up after he dropped off Matt and we continued on to Hartley. Steve and Michael headed home at this point while the rest of us plowed ahead, riding the Root Canal and then through the Pines to the Guardrail loop. At this point Todd ran out of time so he and Dave headed back. Ed, Kent and Mike called it a day as well so the last quintet, John, Ryan, Charles, Jim and Adam headed over to the Owatonna trail, down Amity and finished descending through the west side of the Lester Amity trails. We finished our ride at 3:30 in Lester Park to complete the first ever Triple G.
Next year we'll probably schedule this ride in September and hopefully get some good weather so everyone can enjoy this great ride. It was a beautiful day and thanks to everyone who came out to ride.
COGGS Featured in a WDIO's Up North
COGGS was recently featured in a WDIO News Up North segment. Thanks to Hansi Johnson for setting this opportunity up and getting COGGS some increased exposure.
Higher Quality (Flash Video) 7.2MB
Higher Quality (Windows Media) 20MB
Lower Quality (Quicktime) 6.9MB
Lincoln Park Mountain Bike Challenge and Festival
