[rpk1988]

Any new with whats goin on in Patapsco? Is the Jump Park coming or whats going to happen?

 

[urbaindk]

Any new with whats goin on in Patapsco? Is the Jump Park coming or whats going to happen?

Right now it's a muddy frickin' mess. I'm sure most of the spring work days will be devoted to fixing winter damage. I'm not sure what's the status of the jump park. citybikesmike, what's the latest word?

I do know for a fact that Rich Edwards and IMBA trail crew are building an advanced loop at Rosaryville the April 3 through 6th and 9th through 14th and again in June which will have lots of goodies, TTF's, terrain park, etc. I'm sure that they will need volunteers to come out to help build on each of those days. If anybody has a day or two to take off, they'd love / desperately need the help. Check the MORE site for more info.

Edit: MORE info here

I hope you all can come out again on 3-6 & 9-14 April with Rich Edwards and IMBA to work on the new Terrain Park/TTF area. Again on 5-8 & 11-15 June. AND once again on May 19th for the next MORE work day .

 

[rpk1988]

Anymore news?

 

[urbaindk]

Anymore news?

Nope. Apparently there are some major political issues. From what I understand, MORE's kind of been stonewalled by the park people and the state in Patapsco. It's not dead but it doesn't look real hopeful either. We'll see.

What's odd is that different parks people and different state people are ok with doing almost the exact same thing a Rosaryville. The MORE people are sort of afraid to tell the Patapsco people about Rosaryville because they think that the Rosaryville people will find out that that the Patapsco people are saying "No" and then the Rosaryville people with rethink their position and renege on what they are already offering. Everybody has to tread very lightly. To make matters worse there's a bunch of grant money involved that if it doesn't get used it might get taken back. It's all very complicated, political, and frustrating. It's basically a giant cluster f***.

All I can really say is try to be patient and don't go out building any crazy illegal stuff at Patapsco in the meantime. MORE is already having a hard enough time making their arguments without that kind of stuff going on.

 

[urbaindk]

Here's the latest update from the MORE/Patapsco liason as of 4/13/07.

http://www.more-mtb.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7193

The following update on the current situation regarding the unofficial jump trails commonly referred to around here as Lewis and Clark is direct from Eric our trail liaison and includes the latest info as of this posting. This topic comes up frequently as of late so I am adding this as a sitcky for easy reference.
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Patapsco Skills Area

Tons of stuff to respond to here, sorry this is so long. Hopefully this will shed some light on the facts. I'm Eric by the way, your faithful Patapsco Valley State Park Trail Liaison.

- We started this adventure on April 9.2006. < fast forward > A meeting is scheduled next week with the Deputy Secretary of DNR, who if I understand the org chart correctly, is two steps away from the Governor. We've talked to every person in between within their management structure and have yet to hear from anyone that this is a bad idea. Getting someone to officially let us do it though has proven elusive. We remain confident in our proposal and will continue to request authorization to begin construction.

- Our proposal will give the renegades more than they want. When we met with a crowd of users back in December we asked what they wanted, we encouraged them to use their imagination. There will be more opportunities to shape the technical trail features or TTF's, lest we forget, our proposal was designed by the guy that built the Florida stuff, it will be... well, this is a direct quote from the proposal about it:
'Phase 1 of the new facility proposes the construction of two challenge areas and a challenge trail. Natural materials will be used (rock, soil, and rot-resistant logs) to create enhanced natural features such as log-overs, rock sections, berms, and jumps. The challenge trail will provide enhanced natural TTFs along a condensed corridor, with the features being available to bicyclists riding in the downhill direction. This phase will also include the construction of a “pump track,” which is a circular course for improving bike handling skills at a reduced risk to the rider.'

- In the course of our conversations with DNR staff we have brought up items like equestrian jumps courses, advanced ropes courses and skateparks already present in DNR managed parks across Maryland.

- Liability is a major issue but so is sustainability, environmental impact and user conflict. Together these issues have proven formitable in our attempts to get approval to begin construction.

- Quoting again from the proposal:
'The Hilton trailhead is good choice for the skills area because of the campgrounds, independent address, established parking facility, and family-based amenities. An independent address allows maintenance and emergency vehicles to quickly locate the facility.'

- Horses have been regular visitors to Lewis & Clark since at least last fall.

- A rider who happens to work for DNR checks out Lewis & Clark unofficially very regularly. They know the timeline of most of the structures out there.

- The trail crew have posted signs multiple times within the confines of Lewis & Clark, even attempted to close the entrances once. Only to have their efforts torn down and shredded or completely removed. Was this action taken by the builders or riders? It could have been either.

- MORE is not going to go in and tear out Lewis & Clark.

- Our MTB access is not currently threatened by Lewis & Clark. I'll let you know when / if it begins to head in that direction. DNR understands this is the work of one or two people / groups and not representative of the general population of mountain bikers nor MORE. I've been working with Patapsco's staff since at least 1997 ( the details are a little fuzzy ). I'm going to look further into the history but I don't recall any problems with bike access at Patapsco in all that time. We did lose a little singletrack in that time but I don't know that our access on a whole was ever in jeopardy. We have always enjoyed a good working relationship at Patapsco.

- I've forwarded bikescience's message about the closures to Amy, our primary contact with Patapsco and the person responsible for the work I think you are referring to ( Connector Trail between Morning Choice and Ridge ? ). I suggested she be more diligent about signage, hopefully it will open a conversation about communication to all users when trail changes are required. They've done it correctly before, at least with signage, but they could do a better job through the website or something. There was a scheduling mishap on this one and signage is being created.

 

[urbaindk]

MORE had a meeting with DNR yesterday. Note I wasn't there, I'm just the cut and paste guy.

Here's the minutes of the meeting:

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EDIT: Whoops - I don't think I was supposed to post this yet. If you read it fine, if not you'll just have to wait.

Basically, there was meeting, some stuff was said, and the parks people want to have a "policy" meeting to determine whether a skills park fits their definition of "resource based recreation". And nobody on the MORE side knows whether that is good or bad.

Sorry to delete the news, Dave......


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