In the early 2000’s mountain bikers in Indiana had to look out of state for mountain bike events and even trails. Now the challenge is often figuring out which event to attend or which trail to ride on any summer or fall weekend.
These events and riders are all possible because of the hard work of HMBA volunteers. And it’s pretty often that multiple HMBA volunteer efforts are happening at the same time all across the State. This week was a good example. Here is a list of some of the many efforts made by HMBA volunteers this past week.
- Attending or volunteer at the Sundance Midwest Women’s Mountain Bike Camp.
- Organizing a silent auction at the Women’s Bike Camp that raise $3000 for the HMBA trail fund.
- The O’Bannon Woods Crew had 12 volunteers log over 60 hours clearing and maintain trails.
- 12 volunteers at Fort Harrison did armoring projects that will make the trails ridable more often next spring.
- A women’s ride was held at Fort Harrison with REI that had close to 30 women riders.
- HMBA supported the Hoosier Outdoor Experience. 40 volunteers worked throughout the eekend and we put 640 people out on the trails for a mountain bike ride. HOE Video
- And our local chainsaw crews at Fort Ben, Brown County, and Southwestway removed downed trees on the trails.
And on top of that, Alex Stewart’s trail crew was working all week to build the Hobbs Hollow Flow Trail.
Some special thanks goes out to:
- Frank Merritt, Staci Merritt, and Michelle Krall for organizing the Trail Fund raffle at the Women’s clinic
- Kate Nolan and Kate Chernivski for organizing the REI women’s ride at Fort Ben, and one REI (one of our key sponsors) for supporting the ride.
- Steve King for organizing the Hoosier Outdoor Experience MTB event and John Wall for providing bikes from the Headquaters mountain bike park.
- Mahk Adams who has put in over 100 hours of chainsaw work over the past month. Mahk spent a whole week working after the last big storm.
- Jason Wise and Pete Kemppainen for leading efforts at O’Bannon Woods State Park.
All of HMBA’s trails were built by and are maintained by volunteers. One great way to support your local trails is to come out and volunteer. If volunteer isn’t your thing, you can also support your local trail builders financially by joining HMBA and by donating to the HMBA trail Fund.
