"Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride" -- John F. Kennedy

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Letter from MROSD

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District is pleased to be partnering with ROMP and the IMBA National Mountain Bike Patrol to increase public awareness about the impacts of public use on the natural resources at El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve. With 35 miles of designated trails open to mountain biking, the preserve is a regional Mecca for mountain bicyclists. El Corte de Madera is also one of the few places in the Bay Area where bikes are allowed on single track trails, which is why the preserve draws visitors from all over the Bay Area, including the East Bay and Marin County.

The majority of cyclists follow the posted regulations: wearing a helmet; staying on designated trails; observing the 15 mph speed limit but a small minority of riders consistently disregard these rules, and continue to illegally build, maintain, and ride closed trails. The construction and use of closed and illegal trails seriously threatens and counteracts the natural resource preservation efforts of the Open Space District.

Recently, several regulatory agencies, including the National Marine Fisheries Service and the California Department of Fish and Game have determined that sedimentation in El Corte de Madera may be adversely affecting populations of steelhead trout, which spawn in the lower reaches of El Corte de Madera Creek. Fine grain sediments create negative impacts to the steelhead survival by filling pools, burying spawning gravels, and smothering eggs. Steelhead trout is listed by the Federal Government as a Threatened Species. As the landowner, the Open Space District is held responsible for identifying the sources of sedimentation and taking corrective actions to protect and restore downstream water quality.

In an effort to raise public awareness of these downstream impacts, IMBA Mountain Bike Patrol volunteers will be out on the trails, while District staff, Board members, and ROMP volunteers will staff information tables at Skeggs Point on most Sundays in April and May.Please stop by and visit us, roughly between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. To help minimize any sedimentation caused by mountain bicycling, please follow these guidelines:

In order to restore areas damaged by undesignated trail use and illegal trail construction, and to reduce the potential for sedimentation caused by off-trail use, all public use in the El Corte de Madera has been restricted to the designated trail system only.Public use is permitted only on trails that are on the map and marked with directional signs. This new restriction to on-trail use only, now makes all off-trail use a misdemeanor offense; doubles the fines for closed trail use; and requires violators to appear in court.

The Open Space District remains committed to preserving the natural resources of El Corte de Madera Creek Preserve while allowing appropriate multi-use recreational opportunities. The Open Space District is working with an engineering geologist to assess the preserve's roads and trails in an effort to identify potential sources of downstream sedimentation. Efforts to mitigate sedimentation may range from changes in road and trail maintenance practices, to road and trail design changes, closures and reroutes.

Please feel free to contact Susannah Anderson-Minshall, the Ranger assigned to El Corte de Madera Open Space Preserve, if you have any questions or comments. The Open Space District is eager to continue cooperative efforts with the mountain biking community to preserve El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve's natural resources, while maintaining its unique multi-use recreational opportunities.

Susannah Anderson-Minshall, Ranger
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District
SkylineRanger at openspace dot org

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Sprockids Check out the Sea Otter

There were some new biking enthusiasts showing up this year at the 2002 Sea Otter Classic. They were six young cyclists from three different Junior High Schools in the Oak Grove School District of San Jose. These young cyclists are the first Sprockids on the west coast of California to be a part of this season opening event and boy, were they excited!

The Sprockids were greeted by Kevin Stein from IMBA and introduced to Team Giant member Jeff Lenosky who is the 2-time North American and NORBA MTB Trials Champion. Jeff did a demo nstration for the kids, jumping over various obstacles, such as garbage cans, and later met the kids at the obstacle course for some one on one instruction and skills work. After receiving Team Giant hats, Alex Wassmann from SRAM saw to it that the Sprockids got some real cool swag, including a pair of SRAM socks and a SRAM hat.

Next the Sprockids stood in line for a chance to meet Ned Overend and get his signature on one of his posters.

These kids were really psyched about meeting all these biking giants and were in heaven just being a part of the whole biking scene. For my part, I was glad to see these kids showing enthusiasm and interest in some- thing other than computer games and shopping malls. Who knows, maybe a few of these kids will continue to develop a real love of biking and go on to be one of the next World Cup Champions of the mountain biking world or maybe they’ll just learn that cycling is a healthy lifestyle, and they’ll continue to ride a bike, even after the program ends.

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Survey Results Are IN!

We got our surveys back, and most of you seem to think we’re doing okay, but there’s room for improvement…

Most important to you; 1-5 (1 being most important)

Favorite rides;

Rank us, How's Romp doing? 1-5 (1 being best)

Will continue membership;

Thank you for completing the survey. Next years will be automated (no snail mail!) and on-line.

Henry Pastorelli, President

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Rompers Attend IMBA Summit

L to R, Me, Shaun Reid SF IMBA rep, Karen Sprockids/NMBP coordinator and John Morgan, Pete Luptovic (past Romp VP, local Moabian)

In April three Romp members spent three days at the IMBA Advocacy summit where 170 mountain cycling enthusiasts gathered at the recently opened Red Cliffs Lodge out side Moab. Three words; I was impressed. The logistics were executed flawlessly for accommodations, food, bikes and rides and the content was applicable to many of the issues Romp faces. Here are the highlights.

IMBA brought together many different government organizations and land management agencies, the most notable being:

Kit Kimball, Director of External and Intergovernmental Affairs, Department of the Interior
Ms Kimball (who reports directly to Gale Norton) spoke about the Department of the Interior’s future directions and the positive potential for mountain cycling. Specifically, they are looking at forming closer relationships with mountain cyclists as a healthful, sustainable, low impact means of recreation. Also noted was the economic revitalization mountain cycling provides to many communities, Moab being a prime example.

Bruce Hamilton, Sierra Club Conservation Director
Mr. Hamilton is a mountain biker and acknowledged mountain cycling belongs on single track. He applauded IMBA for continuing to promote conservation and identified many similar goals between the Sierra Club and IMBA.

Other government agencies represented included; US Forest Service, BLM, Army Corp of Engineers and the Federal Highway Administration.

One of the most interesting sessions I attended was titled "Taking your Club Pro". NEMBA (New England MTB Association) detailed how they have brought together many regional clubs to hire an Executive Director. NEMBA is now able to leverage and mobilize their large membership more efficiently and effectively. Examples of this include lobbying at the state and local level, increased sponsorship, grant writing, publishing a professional grade newsletter (almost a magazine) and through professional management ensuring things get done!

I presented on "Reinvigorating Your Mountain Bike Club" and Karen Morgan presented on "Sprockids—Building Community Around Youth Mountain Biking". All in all this was a memorable event that reinforced my belief that IMBA is an organization I am proud to be associated with.

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Joint Ride with BTCEB

Sunday April 21, 2002

 It was another beautiful day in Northern California, and I could not think of a more perfect way to be spending my Sunday, than doing a joint ride with the BTCEB club in the East Bay hills!  Janet, Paul and myself headed out to meet the gang at Briones Regional Park. We had just ridden 25 miles and about 5000 feet of climbing on Saturday, so we were all wondering what was in store for us, as this was to be a first for all of us.  I was extra excited about this, as I love to ride and experience new places.

ROMP joined up with another group, the BTCEB (Bicycle Trails Coouncil East Bay), and we all had a blast riding the endless green hills of Briones Regional Park.  Including our fearless leader Karl Vavrek, who is the ride coordinator for BTCEB, and a really swell guy, there were a total 15 riders: about 50% ROMP, 40% BTCEB; 10% other stragglers.  The riders were very compatible, and we had a strong presence of some incredible women, 7 to be exact.  One of the women who was there was the infamous Jacquie Phelan, who is one of the original Diva's of mountain biking in the 80's, and still going strong!  There was a good mix of riding abilities, and the wait was never very long for the last person.  There were some incredible climbs, that had us all panting and salivating like wild dogs, but the views at the top of each hill were breathtaking. There is an incredible rock "wall" we climbed on the Spengler Trail on the way to Table Top, that is worth a visit. You could see Mt. Diablo, Mt.Tam and the whole East Bay. The total mileage was 18, with about 2800 feet of climbing, and we were out for about 5 hours.  One last thing worth mentioning, is watch out for all the cow crap at the bottom, lots of riders could not help but to ride right through some fresh crap, and got it all over their bikes as well as themselves!  YUCK! So beware!

This was a really neat way to make some new riding friends, get out and experience new trails, and just have fun with fellow mountain bikers!  I hope to see more of this in the future with other biking clubs.

See ya out on the trails.

Chris Voci-Nam 

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Office Depot Supports Sprockids Program

As I was running out of ink while running off resource materials for the Sprockids program, I thought to myself, wouldn't it be nice if someone else was paying for this ink and paper? Then I decided to take a shot and write to Office Depot and ask them if they would be interested in being the Sprockids first corporate sponsor.

I really didn't expect anything to happen so I just kind of typed out a simple letter to Office Depot's Community Relations Director, Mary Wong. I know that when you ask for a donation, you must be specific as to what you want so I quickly estimated my future printing costs at $300 and sent off the email.

Well, to my surprise I received a telephone call less than a week later asking me where I wanted my donation mailed. Can you believe it? I was so excited when I received a FedEx letter containing the following letter and $300 worth of Office Depot Gift Certificates.

I would like to thank Office Depot for supporting the Sprockids Program and for being our first corporate sponsor. It is with the support from companies like Office Depot, and the people in these companies, that a program like Sprockids, that reaches today's youths, can exist and continue to grow.

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ROMP Mountain Bike Patrollers Lend a Hand

The ROMP Mountain Bike Patrol has been out patrolling the trails at El Corte de Madera Open Space Preserve, a large, rugged, heavily-forested preserve, containing some of the best singletrack in the entire Bay Area. This effort by ROMP and Mid- Pen is trying to reach the trail users and educate them about the recent illegal trail activity and it’s possible long-term environmental effects on the preserve.

Each week, thousands of visitors, including hikers, runners, bicyclists, equestrians, people with disabilities, and people walking their dogs, use the District's trails. With so many types of trails and users, it is crucial that visitors understand how to share the trails with others so that all preserve visitors may have a safe, pleasant experience.

The Patrollers are informing all trail users of the Trail and Safety regulations and basic trail etiquette guidelines. Cyclists are reminded to wear helmets at all times, to observe the 15-mph trail speed limit (5-mph when passing), and to ride on designated trails only (as indicated on preserve signs and maps).

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ROMP BARF!

Did you know that ROMP is 20 years old? While there is no way of knowing how many vertical miles and ridges ROMP riders have covered, it is a fact that they have pioneered some of the longest mountain bike group rides known. Back in the summer of 1992 when Gary Gellin and Glenn Wegner were returning from another long and greuling ride in Marin they concieved the acronym BARF for rides like the one they had just completed. It means Bay Area Riding Fanatics. BARF wasn’t a separate club or group. It was a descriptive name for such rides. A BARF ride is an extraordinary ride of over 5,000 ft. of climbing. The BARF ride turns 20 this summer!

To celebrate we will be offering monthly BARF rides this year. 1993 was the heyday for BARF rides with 9 rides listed. In those days rides attaining 5,000 feet of climbing on a mountain bike was considered near the upper limit of reasonable endurance. Typically routes of up to 40 miles and 6,000 ft. qualified as BARF rides.

In those halcyon years standards were different. Camelbacks didn’t exist. If you wanted to 100oz. of water, you had to carry 4 large water bottles. Most bikes only had mounts for 2 cages, so they would have to stuff the extra bottles in fanny or backpacks. This was also the dawn of front suspension, which in the early days was less of a boon and more of a curse. Half of the riders rode fully rigid bikes and a high-end bike weighed about 25 lbs. Today it is possible to get a full suspension bike with weight this low. Riding seven hours on a rigid bike takes more out of you than doing the same ride on today’s state of the art cycles.

The original BARF rides happened in places like Henry Coe, Nisene Marks, Pine Mountain, Big Basin, Mt. Diablo, and of course in the hills above Cupertino, Los Altos, and Portola Valley. In August of 1996 Peter Donohue led the first 10,000 ft. BARF ride in and around the Stevens Creek Canyon. This raised the bar for the long ride standard. Not all BARF rides are 10k, but they are never easy. This year Peter Donohue will be lading another 10k BARF ride this year in July along the classic lines on the original. The exact date to be announced. While no one has yet puked on a BARF ride, we will have plenty of opportunities this year.

We will be repeating some of the original BARF ride routes and enhancing them with challenges big and burly enough to bring todays modern mtb and cyclist to their limits. Expect infamous climbs such as The "Short-Cut" trail in Henry Coe, Johansen Rd in Big Basin, Charcoal Rd in Stevens Canyon, and Burma Rd. on Mt. Diablo, and equally dramatic descents.

The BARF ride goal is fun. These rides are relaxed and social, ridden at a moderate pace to prevent bonking. After six or seven hours in the saddle you get to know everyone on the ride. Afterwards we share our experiences over pizza or mexican food before departing. If you are interested in trying a BARF ride, keep on riding lots, and check the ROMP ride list this summer for the dates, times, and places. 1992-2002, celebrating 10 years of ROMP BARF!

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