Pay to Play

So 2009 is here. Time to burn off all that holiday excess- to play in the great outdoors and enjoy what will be an all too short off season. There's a ton of fun stuff to do out here in Western Mass during the the winter- ski, snowshoe, hike, bomb down the frozen snowmobile trails on the mountain bike whatever you're in the mood for. But this year there's work to be done first.

Remember those gnarly ice storms that hit back around the time of cyclo-cross nationals? The Hilltowns got absolutely slammed during those storms. Some estimates are that up to 1/3 to 1/2 of the trees there suffered some sort of damage. Falling limbs and trees took down power lines, crushed cars and houses and closed roads. Many people were without power (and thus heat and running water) for a week or more. Well now that the power lines and telephone are back up and everyone has gotten the roads and houses clear it's time to work on the trails.

So at high noon on day one of 2009 Pioneer Valley NEMBA and friends assembled in Hawley (at the top of the Tour of the Hilltown's East Hawley Road Climb) to start trail work. Despite it being a whopping 5 degrees out there were over twenty people there to get busy. Our goal was to get into the woods and start clearing the side trails- the local snowmobile club would be working on the big fire roads. 3 hours later we'd only gotten part of two trails done. With 20 people and 4 chainsaws going non stop. Every ten feet there are blowdowns- so you cut and cut, drag the debris to the side and move down the trail another ten feet. Odds are it will take most of the winter to get it all done- the next work days are already scheduled. But if you're gonna play, you've got to pay.

If you're wondering what sort of New Years resolution to make here's a suggestion: The International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) has often promoted a 20/20/20 program. $20 to the national IMBA office, $20 to your local chapter, and 20 hours of trail work/volunteering per year. If you're not doing that now..... get on it.

Getting in the workout, any way you can.