PA State Park Closures Possible - Urgent action needed

From a mssg on MTBR and an action request being forwarded around. As part the proposed budget of a (unnamed here to avoid politics) political party are cuts to the DCNR that would require closing of up to 50 PA state parks and forests.

"Story at this link:

http://www.publicopiniononline.com/localnews/ci_12465829

DCNR Press release here:

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us:80/news/resource/res2009/09-0520-budget.aspx

Here's where you can find out who your rep and senator are.

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/


Nutshell: Part of Senate Bill 850 is a proposal to close 35 PA State Parks as part of budget cuts. Also included is the possible closure of roughly 1000 miles of State Forest Roads. As people who recreate outside and often in PA's public lands, please write to your representatives and tell them you oppose this move.

Public lands should remain open and available to the public. Don't let a handful of politicians decide their fate.

Don't sit on the sidelines and think this couldn't possibly happen. If people don't tell the politicians they oppose this, that will be taken as though no one cares. If no one cares, we'll lose access to OUR public lands.

Don't let OUR public lands start to be playgrounds for private companies. What's the best thing to do with a closed state park? Sell it to a private company as a resort. It's been attempted before at Prince Gallitzin SP.

If 1,000 miles of forest roads are closed, who do you think will be the only ones to get in? Logging companies, that's who. F them and the politicians who came up with this idea.

Fight the Man. Send emails. Send it to your clubs.

There's a park on the list near you. I guarantee."

TNT

No not that kind of TNT! Thursday Night Trailworks. TNT's start this Thursday at Spring Valley. TNT's will be held on random Thursdays as leaders are available, starting at 6PM. This weeks TNT will meet at Spring Valley Crossroads lot and will head on over to Teakettle to work on the final section.

Teakettle Update - Trailwork 5-17-09

For this trailwork we had 8 dedicated members show up to work on Teakettle some more. They were able to finish off one section and start on another, bringing the trail that much closer to being ready to open. Thanks to Dan Walko, Susan Moury, Jody Coeyman, Skip Durgin, Paul Yeager, Lindsay Tobias, Larry Schlaline, and Dan Bowers. Also a special thanks to Gung Ho Bikes for donating another box of power bars to help fuel our volunteers.

Allegrippis Trails - Raystown Lake pt. 3 The Final Chapter

Sleeping in while group camping is not the easiest thing to do, even when you try to. The sun begins to rise and shine into the tent, the birds begin to sing and mountain bikers begin to stir. Up and out of the tent at 6:30 we slowly began to plot our day. First up was heating water for coffee and tea. Breakfast was supposed to be served at 7 AM, so we walked down to the pavilion. Noticing that that there was no food in sight we walked back down to the camp site and fired up the stoves. Out came the eggs, bacon, cheese and wheat bread as I cooked up breakfast sandwiches for the gang.


After eating breakfast we were ready to ride again by 9:15. To save some time we loaded the bikes onto the car and shuttled up to the trail head. Riding today it was just myself, Matthew, and Jim. We planned out a different route than Saturday to hit some of the trails we had missed. Our reactions to the trails were the same as the day before. We were laughing and having a great time as we hit spots such as these:




After our ride we packed up our gear and left Raystown Lake to head for home, all vowing to return again to ride these sweet sweet trails. I definitely recommend to everybody to make it up there at some point this year. The trails are well constructed and are fast, flowy and nontechnical. They only danger at Raystown Lake is speed, as too much can send you flying off one of the grade reversals. The trails are also marked excellently w/ directional arrows and trail names, and mapped out so there is little chance of getting lost. Here's a map of the rides that I did Saturday and Sunday and the official trail map.

Allegrippis Trails - Raystown Lake Pt 2

After our long ride in the morning we were starving. The organizers did a great job and had a hearty meal waiting for us. There were also vendor tents and test bikes that could be ridden on the trails in the lunch area.



We meant to ride again in the afternoon again. I'm not sure what happened. Maybe it was the good food, and the warm sun but we never did make it out. Before we knew it, it was supper time.




After dinner we noticed people walking past our site. Then more people. Well we had to see what it was. Turns out it was the PA advocacy meeting. Here Frank Maguire the Mid-Atlantic IMBA rep and talked about how the Alegrippis Trails came to be. Then the IMBA Trail Care Crew came up and gave a motivational speach on trail and club building. It was a very informative session.



Notice the Troegs van in the pictures above. They were kind enough to bring three kegs of beer along. Thanks to them there are no pictures fit to show from Saturday night. We again lit a fire and sat around drinking, laughing and having a good time. The last of us turned in around 1:00 AM to get some rest before another early morning ride.

to be cont.

Allegrippis Trails Report- Raystown Lake Trip pt.1

What a weekend it was. The grand-opening of the Allegrippis Trails at Raystown Lake was great time. Last Friday six YAMBA members and a few of their parents set up camp in the Big Meadow camping area for a weekend of good food, good riding, and good times.

Skip, Greg Spath, Jim Gable, and Susan Moury were able to get a ride in on friday before Matthew Houseknecht, and myself were able to make it up to the camp site. Their report had me excited to ride the next day. That night, as we sat around the campfire laughing and listening to music, we planned to get up by 7 AM and ride by 9 AM.


Bright and early the YAMBA crew rolled out of their tents thanks to the "racoon" that set off one of YAMBA's car alarms. Skips dad took over grill duty and Greg cooked up the eggs for a hearty pre-ride breakfast. There was one of us though that was feeling a little under the weather and couldn't eat, he shall remained unnamed.



We only missed our target ride time by 15 minutes and head out for the trail head. Everybody had a great time, evidenced by the giggling, laughing, whooping, and hollering as we head downhill hitting the rollers and berms.




to be cont.

Special Thanks

First to Scott Ramsay and Joel Dore for clearing out a mess of downed trees on the Goat Trail at The Lakes back in the middle of April. These trees had completely blocked one of the switchback sections and they did a great job opening it back up. They also blocked off a braid coming onto the trail from a nearby private property.

Second to Dick Mansberger who put in over 6 hours of work this past weekend at Spring Valley. Dick finished off benching and tamping the section of Teakettle that we were working on at the last trailwork.

Thanks guys!

Teakettle update pt. 2

On Saturday May 2, nine YAMBA members joined up at Spring Valley for the first morning workday of the year. They were able to put in extra time due to the early start and blazed their way down the hillside. Thanks to:

Dan Bowers, Susan Moury, Alyssa Mease, William Weismantel, Sherry and Dave Hahn, Markus Houser and Dick Mansberger.

Teakettle Update part 1

On April 19th, eight dedicated individuals met at Spring Valley to extend Teakettle over the ridgeline and down the hill. There was a new face in the group that joined us from the Our Gang riding club in Maryland even. Thanks to the following for putting in a hard afternoon of work:

Linda Reider, Susan Moury, Dan Walko, Dan Bowers, Jody Coeyman, Marcus Houser, Skip Durgin, and Dick Mansberger.