Brush with greatness

[Burke]

So I get back from the MRTUA meeting where the DNR officially awarded $77,000 to the Murphy-Hanrehan trail project and my wife say "We've been invited to hang with the mayor."

What?

He's next door at a neighborhood meeting.

This is too good an opportunity to pass up.

So I go into the equipment trailer and pull out a Riders t-shirt in size large, pull out a business card from the wallet, and head over.

Mayor Rybak is in the backyard of my neighbor's house talking to the neighbors. He winds up his speech and shakes my neighbor's hand, then I'm next. I hand him the folded shirt with my business card on it. I start to introduce myself, and he reads my business card (MORC President, etc...) and steps back from me and starts to readdress the crowd. He talks about MORC and MOCA and I cut him off and thank him for the challenge to create Wirth trails and told him I wanted to present him with a small token of our appreciation, the shirt. He was pretty excited about the whole thing. The neighbors seemed pleased and only one said anything about Eloise Butler, but was appeased after I explained the situation.

The best part is IMO is Rybak said that if re-elected, his second challenge will be to make the trails at/near Ft. Snelling legitimate in the same sense that the Wirth trails came online. Living 1 mile from the 2nd trail challenge location, I'm all about that!!!

http://www.morcmtb.org/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1794&size=big&limit=recent


http://www.morcmtb.org/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1793&size=big&limit=recent

(disclaimer: This is not an endorsement by MORC, nor its officers of any particular candidate or political party. It's a post about a sweet coincidental run in with one of our supporters that happens to be a politico.)

[FSSS]

On a related note, this is from a Rybak interview in the North Star Journal (a local Sierra Club publication). At the end of the interview, he was asked if there was anything he wanted to add... he brought up 2 topics; the City of Lakes Loppet and the Wirth MTB trails!

"The legal mountain bike trails opened in Wirth Park this year, and they're wildly popular and have brought many folks in to see how beautiful Wirth Park is."

[Danimal]

Scott... your such a schmoozer. Bravo!

[[defective]]

The best part is IMO is Rybak said that if re-elected, his second challenge will be to make the trails at/near Ft. Snelling legitimate in the same sense that the Wirth trails came online. Living 1 mile from the 2nd trail challenge location, I'm all about that!!!

Damn! Ft. Snelling? Really? Yes!

I've been riding the Minnehaha/Ft. Snelling/Crosby Farm Trails since about '91. I'm currently living near Lake Hiawatha, and although I now usually drive to trails for riding these days, I still love the remnants of my old local loops.

I recently started helping with Theo trailwork, and met current Trail Steward, TallPete - who also lives in the area and (if I remember correctly) has never ridden the Snelling/Crosby trail, but expressed an interest in checking them out to see what's available for future legitimate development.

Please keep us posted. I'm very willing to help out in any way.

[Buck]

Heck yeah Scott!!! Way to always be looking for the opp!!!
L8R
Buck

[syntaxjunkie]

Nicely done, prez. You're cut out for this photo opp stuff.

By the way, is hizzoner ducking your attempted handshake in one of those pics?

[Burke]

By the way, is hizzoner ducking your attempted handshake in one of those pics?

No, it was between one of the few times we shook hands. He was pretty excited to see the president of MORC. I'd say me, but we've never met before.

[drmrboyalex]

thats awesome....way to go:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

[Wheels]

Nice job Scott...

As far as trails at Crosby/Falls area go - they're in the long term plan (Cedar to Sweeny is the short plan). If you guys want to get a rough plan together we can fly it by the city.

We talked at one time about going all the way up the river - so think big.

I'd say were looking good on the west side as far as access goes, if we could get another crew going over there - I say let's give a go.

[TML]

That's awesome Scott. Way to be home at the right time!

[[defective]]

So, now I feel like I should vote for Rybak... :alien:

[mara]

Way to go, Scott!

I'd say were looking good on the west side as far as access goes, if we could get another crew going over there - I say let's give a go.

Biking only half an hour to trailwork might be something I could really get into!

[manual63]

Sweet deal dude!!

I like it that we have support from higher levels of government and people like Scott. Without it, we would not be able to create trails nearly as much as we do.....thanks a lot.

Not only do we need to re-elect Rybak....we need to re-elect Scott.....oh wait.....we just did that a month ago.....:):)

[[defective]]

As far as trails at Crosby/Falls area go - they're in the long term plan (Cedar to Sweeny is the short plan). If you guys want to get a rough plan together we can fly it by the city.

We talked at one time about going all the way up the river - so think big.

I'd say were looking good on the west side as far as access goes, if we could get another crew going over there - I say let's give a go.

I assume that the Saint Paul side of the Mississippi and Crosby Farm wouldn't be tenable as it's outside of the Minneapolis Parks Board's control. Is Saint Paul open to developing anything similar? When I first started riding trails (around '91 when 20" was starting to explode my knees) the only stuff I initially knew about were the trails from the Lake Street bridge to near Ford Parkway on the east side of the river. I'd love to see some of that resurrected and maintained. Some of it was pretty hairy.

As far as the Minneapolis side, I'm rather familiar with the bikes prohibited hiking paths along the banks of the Mississippi from Franklin to Ford Parkway. From there you can take the Minnehaha Falls paths along the creek to Fort Snelling and all the way to Post Road by the airport. Most of this route has plenty of room for mtb trails, especially Fort Snelling, which alrerady has a lot of bike trail infrastructure. What would a proposal involve? Detailed topo maps with specific routes outlined? Attention paid to existing hiking paths, geography, botany, and drainage? Current usage studies? Petitions?

I wans't part of the Theo Wirth proposal. Is it available as an example?

[Burke]

I wasn't personally involved with the Wirth project getting going, but in general the following are good ideas to do or pull together before you go to the land manager with the request:

-Review of land, make sure you know who the land manager is (Fort Snelling proper is DNR, not MPRB. Where is the property line?)
-Review of current land users, identify how they would be impacted
-Review of land stakeholders (neighbors, trail users, local businesses, etc), how would they be affected
-Detailing desired outcome (sustainable mtb trail, maintained by MORC, etc)
-Develop maps of proposed trail with existing trail overlayed
-Laying out how proposal would be accomplished and funded (volunteers in cooperation with MPRB, MORC funds/city funds/grant monies)
-Neighborhood feedback (talk with neighborhood groups, i.e., NENA, Nokomis East, Neighborhood Association [hey, I live in NENA!])
-Acknowledge need of environmental assessment by MPRB gardner, or someone similar
-Proposed timeline
-Proposed responsibilities by groups involved in project (MORC, MOCA, MPRB, Neighborhood associations, other user groups/stakeholders)

On paper, this doesn't take up much space, but doing the homework and going through the process, as MOCA can attest, takes time. Often, a LOT of time.

BTW, sweet avatar

[manual63]

I wasn't personally involved with the Wirth project getting going, but in general the following are good ideas to do or pull together before you go to the land manager with the request:

To add to Scotts list, I think having an IMBA manual is a very good idea. This will help you and if you show land managers how things will be done and that there is a manual on how to build sustainable trail that you will follow, it is more likely to impress them.

[JayT]

To add to Scotts list, I think having an IMBA manual is a very good idea. This will help you and if you show land managers how things will be done and that there is a manual on how to build sustainable trail that you will follow, it is more likely to impress them.

Isn't that what the IMBA publication "Trail Solutions" is??

[JayT]

"DNR officially awarded"

Those three words set a lot into motion.

Thanks for the news Scott!

[Burke]

....we need to re-elect Scott.....

As much fun as getting mtb proponents elected is, MORC, its board members and officers, can't and don't formally endorse any politician, or political party. It's a 501(c)(3) thing.

I, on the other hand, will gladly accept endorsements.

Thanks for the kind words
Scott