IMBA Trail Care Crew Recap
Chris and Leslie Kehmeier of IMBA are making their way to their next Trail Care Crew visit but the impact of their time here in Duluth is going to be felt for years to come. This weekend as a pivotal moment in COGGS history and is going to influence all Twin Ports trail users for decades.
On Thursday night over 40 COGGS members attended the Club Care Night at the Suites (room was graciously donated by Tom Skull). We had a two hour learning session where Chris and Leslie spent time showing us how the best cycling clubs in the world run their clubs and how we can improve the structure and activities of COGGS to best meet our vision and the needs of the Twin Ports. It was an exciting presentation and really facilitated some ideas to start forming. These ideas were hashed out further as after the presentation we all went to one of our favorite sponsors, the Thirsty Pagan in Superior, for pizza, beverages and comraderie. It was a great time with nearly everyone from the class taking the trip over the bridge. Steve Knauss, owner of the Pagan and regular COGGS volunteer, donated some pitchers and we can't thank him enough for how well he took care of us. Thanks Steve!
Everyday of the Trail Care Crew visit was great, but Friday may have been the single biggest moment in COGGS history. Through the hard work of Hansi Johnson, our local IMBA representative, we had over 40 land managers and trail users there to hear from Chris and Leslie how great trails benefit the economy and our communities. Don Ness also spoke about his desire to see Duluth as the trails capital of the Midwest and lastly Courtland Nelson, head of the MN DNR Parks and Trails Division, gave a presentation on the DNR's experience in Cuyuna, which was a $700,000 project producing 24 miles of what is sure to be some of the best singletrack any of us have ever ridden. Courtland gave specifics on how the project was done and also referred us to Andrew Korsberg, DNR Trail Program Coordinator, who was in attendence for the presentation and is the person responsible for giving our the Parks Legacy grants. These particular grants are in part apportioned for trails and can be given out for as much as $500,000. COGGS will be aggressively pursuing these and will have a proposal in for the March 2011 deadline. Another fantastic opportunity we had on Friday was to lay out the vision for the Grand Traverse. We got to talk about it at length and basically present it to all the land managers who we will be dealing with in this process. It was extremely well received and this puts COGGS in a great postition to actually move forward with our dream.
All COGGS members owe a huge debt of gratitude to Hansi for setting up that meeting. The IMBA Trail Care Crew had never done that presentation before, it's not a regular part of all their weekends. Hansi had them tailor it for this audience so that we could present the vision for the Grand Traverse in the most professional and effective way possible. This is the springboard to making Duluth realize the potential we all know it has.
Saturday was another great day as again we had around 40 folks, most COGGS members, have a 3 hour learning session in the morning and then went out into Hartley to do a reroute and learn the nuts and bolts of sustainable trails. The classroom session was incredibly comprehensive and I would say everyone learned new information that is going to make our next trailwork sessions as effective as possible. In the field we connected the reroutes we did on National Trails Day, cutting around 500' of trail in less than three hours.
That night we had a silent auction fundraiser and listened to the music of Clyde Iron (the band, not the restaurant) at the Zeitgeist. The Ski Hut, WTB, Continental, Bernicks and IMBA donated some swag and we raised $1,060 as people got in bidding wars for everything from a snowboard to commuter lights.
The weekend concluded Sunday with a really fun group ride in Piedmont and then Rudy graciously let us hang out in his backyard for the BBQ. We grilled some food and enjoyed salsa made with the awesome vegetables from YKer Acres and six growlers brought by Steve Knauss of the Thirsty Pagan. After we ate our fill we all migrated to lounge underneath Rudy's apple tree for an hour or two to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and the success of the weekend.
So some thank you's are definately in order. Again, thanks to Hansi for setting this up. The impact is immeasureable at this point, but we know it will be huge and Duluth is never going to be the same because of it.
Thanks to Chris and Leslie Kehmeier. Their presentations were very well done and I feel we are set to move forward with best practices and be the best club we can be.
Thanks to Matt Evingson for all his hard work organizing the weekend and also selecting and prepping the trailwork we did in Hartley (along with the help of Jim Shoberg, Dave Dawkins and John Kurth).
Thanks Jim Shoberg for help organizing the event and help signing in attendees.
Thanks to Andrea Grygo for a huge amount of work organizing the event, making the Grand Traverse map and helping prepare and serve the food at the Friday Luncheon for the land managers.
Thanks to Sherie Nelson for making the food for the luncheon. It was very healthy and super tasty. The land managers were impressed and it helped us come across as professional and organized.
Thanks Matt Weik for the great veggies donated for the luncheon
Thanks Todd McFadden for donated beverages for the luncheon and also for the Saturday trailwork session. Also thanks for the donated goods for the silent auction.
Thanks Ski Hut and Continental for donating a bunch of great stuff for swag giveaways and the silent auction. We appreciate your generosity.
Thanks Daryl Peterson and Matt Johnsrud for all the work on our first Bikes Belong grant and also for taking the time to learn exactly how we can pursue the Parks Legacy grant.
Thanks Rudy for letting us have the BBQ at your great place!
Thanks Mike Olsen at Zeitgeist for donating the space for the silent auction and also your generosity in bidding.
Thanks Clyde Iron for the great music at Zeitgeist on Saturday.
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
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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.
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 25 - Gitchee Gumee Gallivant (city-wide off road tour)
Oct 8-10 - 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
