Mountain Biking at Rockwood State Park in Morrison...help?

[jan]

Rockwood State Park in Morrison currently does not allow mountain biking, which is rather unfortunate given the terrain and also the fact that there are few trails up this way (we live here in Morrison). I'd love to look into getting a trail started here. I'm not afraid to make calls, write proposals, go to meetings, etc., but I really don't even know where to start. I have a few questions; maybe someone here can help.

1. Who determines whether or not mt. biking is allowed in state parks? The ranger? The conservation officer?

2. Who creates and maintains the trails in the QC area? Does FORC do all of the maintenance and trail creation, or do the parks help out?

3. Who covers expenses related to trail building--signage, building materials, etc.?

4. In parks where new trails have been created, are existing hiking and/or horse trails used, or is an entirely new trail cleared?

Thanks so much in advance for your help. I may hit a dead end with this idea, but I won't go down without a good fight. :)

[dgw2jr]

Trying to do all this by yourself?

[Russhole]

1. Who determines whether or not mt. biking is allowed in state parks? The ranger? The conservation officer?

2. Who creates and maintains the trails in the QC area? Does FORC do all of the maintenance and trail creation, or do the parks help out?

3. Who covers expenses related to trail building--signage, building materials, etc.?

4. In parks where new trails have been created, are existing hiking and/or horse trails used, or is an entirely new trail cleared?

Thanks so much in advance for your help. I may hit a dead end with this idea, but I won't go down without a good fight. :)

1. I don't know about state level. some of the others guys will prolly chime in, but I would say to first contact the IMBA regional director- Hansi ??? He can help out for sure.
2.FORC volunteers do it all baby...
3. sometimes cities will and other related entities offer grants. Locally we have great support through our cities and parks, but most of our related costs are through club members' dues.
4. yes. I would recommend starting your own hike and bike trails. It's safer for everyone and easier to maintain hike/ bike trails without horses on them.

You can never have enough trail to ride although you can have enough to maintain. good luck. Look up Hansi. He will be a wealth of knowledge. Find him on IMBA's web site. maybe someone will have his #. You can always keep asking ??? here too.

[Russhole]

Oh I almost forgot. there will be a lot of haters along the way so get as many friends together as possible and try to visit all the city and state peeps you can.

[jan]

1. I don't know about state level. some of the others guys will prolly chime in, but I would say to first contact the IMBA regional director- Hansi ??? He can help out for sure.
2.FORC volunteers do it all baby...
3. sometimes cities will and other related entities offer grants. Locally we have great support through our cities and parks, but most of our related costs are through club members' dues.
4. yes. I would recommend starting your own hike and bike trails. It's safer for everyone and easier to maintain hike/ bike trails without horses on them.

You can never have enough trail to ride although you can have enough to maintain. good luck. Look up Hansi. He will be a wealth of knowledge. Find him on IMBA's web site. maybe someone will have his #. You can always keep asking ??? here too.

Thank you so much for your info. That is a great place to start. And no, not going to attempt this alone. I would look to get a group of interested riders together. I'm not silly enough to think I can create and maintain a mountain bike trail on my own.

[jan]

Oh I almost forgot. there will be a lot of haters along the way so get as many friends together as possible and try to visit all the city and state peeps you can.

Yeah, I figured. The horseback riders, especially, will not be pleased.

[Vibrato]

I'd start by trying to get a group of like minded people together and start up a group that can take on these things. A "group" that can get organized and approach a park with a plan for trails- an actual map of the proposed trails system, a timeline for putting them in, the rating of each trail, the IMBA sheet showing what the ratings are, and a plan for maintaining the trails long term.

Have the person who may end up being the "trail Steward" for the park attend IMBA's trail building class when they come around. Then have the Steward appoint 3-10 people as the Dirt Crew. The dirt crew will help the steward get things set up so when 25 people show nup for trail day they've got somethign to do, AND it gives a 1st teir list of people the steward can call when someone tells him there's a tree down, etc...

You should make the "Trail Steward" the 1 person who deals with the park. The ranger doesn't want 10 people calling him up and trying to get him to be on their side when stoopid arguments come up, and they do- all the time. You'll be shut out in a heartbeat if you do this. Since the trail steward deals directly with the ranger and other park reps, the steward knows what is expected of the club and the desires of the ranger. Therfore, within the park the trail steward is GOD, and no other position or person within the group can over rule him or her. Not even the president.

It can be TOUGH to get started- remember that park rangers are approached almost daily by people wanting to do this or that on their land. MOST want the rangers to finance and build their projects for them. If you can offer the amenities and show you have the ability to pull it off you may have a chance, but you really have to have your poop in a group to get a large park to give you a chance.

FORC had the good fortune to find a chunk of land that a city owned and wasn't using for anything. Some of the old school doods got permission to build some trails there- and as the popularity grew, so did the parks amenities and now that chunik of woods is Sunderbruch park, in Davenport Iowa.

Contact Hansi- he's good. Keep asking questions, and good luck!!

[ew_perry]

Try and get some of your interested people to attend the Midwest Mountain Bike Festival here in the Quad Cities. This is not a shameless plug! It will really benefit you. Friday is full of interesting and useful advocacy training. Then of course just being around people and asking the type of questions you are here but doing it in person.

http://www.qcforc.org/content.php?143

Also touch base with the Illinois Valley Cycling Association. http://www.bikeiv.org/ I mention them because they maintain a trail system that is in a State Park so they should have lots of experience to share.

[DH001]

Step 1: get yourself a copy of "Trail Solutions - IMBAs Guide to Building Sweet Singletrack"
Step 2: Read this book cover to cover.
Step 3: Read it again.

After that, start by talking to the agency that oversees management of the land in question (the park ranger is a good start). The land managers will probably want some type of organized group that can share the maintenance workload if you will be building a significant amount of trail. Start a local MTB club. If you can show them that there is a large demand for mtb trails and a long term commitment to maintaining the trail system you will be much more successful in gaining access. You may want to contact the folks at PAMBA and the Illinois Valley Cycling Association as well. They maintain MTB trails at Jubilee College and Matthiessen State Parks and may have more insight into the details of getting access to a state park.

FORC volunteers have done an overwhelming majority of the work on local trails in terms of building and maintenance.

Many of the management agencies for our local parks have provided funding for signage, but FORC usually fronts the bill for tools and materials for trail construction. We recently received a grant from a local non-profit conservation organization (www.riveraction.org) to cover trail building expenses for an extension of trail at one of the local systems.

Depending on the type of trails already at the park, you may want to propose a different trail layout. Many state park hiking only trails I have seen in the area are not well suited for MTB use and do not follow sustainable building practices (ie. very steep trail grades >~10% or trails through very flat areas). Trail maintenance will be a loosing battle on these types of trails and significant erosion/rutting is highly probable if it hasn't already occurred on the steeper sections. Very steep trails also contribute to higher risk to all users by increasing MTB user speeds and reducing bike controllability. This may be why bikes are currently not allowed on the trails. This is really a problem with the design of the trails not MTB users.

Our experiences on sharing local trails with equestrians has been rather negative. The high clay content of our soils does not hold up well to horse traffic when wet. The equestrians in your area may be better about not using the trails when wet or the park managers may be more vigilant in enforcement trail closures to prevent damage.

Good luck on this project, I really hope you are successful because the park looks like a great place for MTB trails.

[jan]

Thank you for the information, everyone! You've really given me a lot to work with. I am going to start by educating myself and then we'll work on getting a group together to see who's interested in doing the dirty work. My husband has been a cyclist in the area for a long time, so I know he has several people in mind to help. This does sound like a big project, but I knew it would be and had no illusions of getting started on the trail next month.