Nav view search
Navigation
Search
Our mission: to preserve, protect, and promote mountain bike access and diverse riding opportunities on Metropolitan Detroit’s public lands through education, communication, and unified action.
- Details
- Written by Administrator
- Details
- Written by Administrator
Now in its 12th year, the Spring Bike Demo at Island Lake is a great chance to talk face to face with people who live the life: building, riding, and maintaining the bikes you want to own. Then, take a few out for a test spin on the road and trails at Island Lake, finding the bike that pulls at your heartstrings.
See mcmba.org/demo for more information!
- Details
- Written by Administrator
Our next Chapter meeting is on March 30th at 7:00 PM at the Claddagh Irish Pub (17800 Haggerty Road, Livonia). We'll be discussing upcoming trail days, improvements for each trail, and other MCMBA events for the year!
Agenda is available here.
Also, if you were a FAFL award recipient - your awards are in! Pick them up at the meeting. These are a perfect way to unwind after a long trail day...
- Details
- Written by Administrator
Congrats to our 2016 FAFL award winners!
For almost 20 years, we have recognized significant volunteer efforts with the First Across the Finish Line (FAFL) awards. Each of these volunteers has reported at least 10 hours of boots on the ground trailwork this year at a chapter trail or at least 30 hours of other chapter advocacy work to further our goals. Our winners are:
- Michael Faulk
- Kevin Petts
- Mike Flack
- Dave Bastine
- Don Chisholm
- Tim Slabach
- Joe Foy
- Sharon Foy
- Nate Sefcik
- Bill Hermann
- Loren Konkus
- Katherine Rose
- Bryan Mitchell
- Dean Clark
- Terry Brown
- Steve Steinberg
- Jeffrey Oles
- Mike Robertson
- Brian Yost
- Jean Steinberg
- Bob Spleet
- Jennifer Lewis
- Karen Effner
- Sarah Vano
- Mark Dombrowski
- Mark Newton
- Curtis Kalina
- Michael Kearney
- Dave Cox
- Randy Kessler
- James Petiprin
- Carole Baker
- Dan VanDeneede
- Robert Hurley
- Amber Koa
- Michael Mcvicar
- Tom Hermann
- Jason Martin
- Gordon Hamilton
- Don Delagrange
- John Cobb
- John Jenkins
- Dave Hurst
- Jeremy Kozak
- Abby Flack
- Diane Ursu
- Dave Mackey
- Wendy Cox
Each of these outstanding volunteers will receive a small token of appreciation from the chapter. Please join us in saying "Thanks!", and let them know you appreciate their work next time you see one of them on the trail.
- Details
- Written by Administrator
I'm continually amazed at how fast the forest changes and grows. While we usually lament this fast growth as we're battling face slappers and vines, it's a real boon when healing abandoned trails. We just need to help it along...
Back in 2009, we had a short problem area at Lakeshore, a section of trail at the bottom of a hollow with no drainage. Days after each rainfall, it still looked like this:
Backtracking up the trail, we flagged a reroute on some higher ground.
A couple day's work later and we had 100 yards of old trail to reclaim. Dave and I began by running a tiller to break up the compacted soil. This is important because it lets rain penetrate and provides a great substrate for seeds and plants to get established. We also transplanted some small trees before duffing the trail with forest litter and branches. At the entrance, we transplanted a small pine sapling to camouflage the old trail and discourage anyone from re-opening the line.
16 months later, the entry to the old section looked like this:
That small pine tree in the center of the photo was planted directly in the old trail bed. You can see some of the logs and branches we used to duff the trail, but already the old trail was becoming a memory. Few riders took any notice of it at all.
Today, 3 years later, that area looks like this:
The pine tree we transplanted has grown to over 6 feet tall, and there are a number of tree saplings in the old trail that are nearing waist height. It's hard to remember that this was the muddy, rutted out trail in the first image:
Really the only clues that identify this as an old trail are the cut branch stubs on the tree trunks next to where the trail once passed. There's a lot of garlic mustard and other invasive plants that are all over this woods, but also a lot of small maples, beech (I think), and other desireables who will hopefully win out over time.
At a recent trail day at Maybury we followed the same techniques to reclaim some old abandoned trail near a wetland.
Hopefully, this trail too will be lost to time over the next couple years.