As noted here on the blog a couple of weeks ago, CROCT is partnering with the Northfield Public Schools Community Services this summer to offer area youth weekly mountain biking group rides.
Some photos from our first session on Monday, June 6th:
Once again, CROCT is partnering with the Northfield Public Schools Community Services this summer to offer area youth weekly mountain biking group rides.
Page 17 of their summer 2016 print brochure (sent to every household in the Northfield School District) has some details.
The online registration page description says:
Over the river and through the woods! Join Cannon River Offroad Cycling & Trails (CROCT) staff as they lead you on an offroad adventure on your bicycle. Group rides are offered for boys and girls on Monday evenings throughout the summer and will often be divided by gender. Rides will consist of technical riding and general instruction on the new and exciting trails and obstacles of Sechler Park. Mountain biking may also take place at Caron Park. Attend as many rides as fits into your schedule. Riders should meet on bikes in the cul-de-sac at the entrance to Sechler Park behind Walgreens. Those not yet entering fifth grade may register and participate if accompanied by a parent or if approved by the instructors. Bikes must have two inch tires. Bike rentals are available by contacting Community Services at 507-664-3502.
Marty Larson and I are the official ride/activity leaders but we’ll need parents and CROCT members to help us.
Despite the horribly warm & snowfree winter day, yesterday’s local Global Fat Bike Day #GFBD2015 brought out two dozen riders for an afternoon 13-mile group ride around Northfield, culminating with snacks & refreshments at Downtown Bicycles.
Props to CROCT member Christopher Tassava @tassava & Downtown Bicycles owner Tom Bisel for organizing & hosting this event.
A fun ride to celebrate the greatest of all the winter holidays: Global Fat Bike Day 2015!
#GFBD2015 is one of those contrived holidays that’s still a lot of fun: a day to get out and ride fat bikes in the conditions they love most – winter.
PARTICULARS:
GFBD rides are happening all over state, the country, and the world (seriously: it’s crazy), but here’s the plan for our Northfield event:
MORE NOTES:
A. This is all for fun! Everyone is welcome as long as they have a fat bike or a tough enough MTB to handle the conditions – kids, beginners, recreational riders, experts and racers. Feel free to invite “outsiders,” but make sure they know that they’re then obliged to ride our trails a least once a month for the rest of their lives.
B. We’ll hang together so that nobody gets dropped, though if the group’s big enough, riders might sort themselves out into faster/further and slower/closer. The route will be easy to follow so it’ll be easy to cut if or when your bike gets tired and needs to go home.
C. This ride will happen in rain, snow, sun, or shade, because fat bikes!
Register (free) here!
Last Saturday was IMBA’s Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day (#TKMBD).
We got a late start on planning activities for it but rather than doing nothing, decided at almost the last minute to invite CROCT members to meet at MORC’s Lebanon Hills Mountain Bike Trail where Dakota County was hosting its annual Wild Ride Mountain Bike Festival.
We had 5 kids and 4 adults show up and we all had a blast among the many hundreds of others who attended. We’ll be better organized for next year’s TKMBD!
15 photos and a 1-minute video:
Planning for an overnight youth group trip to the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Trail System began way back in January when Melissa Bernhard, Recreation Coordinator with the Northfield Public Schools Community Services Division, contacted us via email:
I am specifically looking for your group to lead a mountain biking adventure…..anywhere for youth and their families. I received a grant for the Adventure Mania program and would like you to be involved in giving the youth in our community a great experience on a mountain bike. Any ideas? This past summer a group of ours went to Lebanon. Since I have grant money, I’d like to really use it by traveling somewhere special and then later on if there is no grant, I’d plan to be as local as possible.
When I forwarded her email to fellow CROCT Board members, Carl Arnold wrote:
Do you have a location in mind, since they are looking for an adventure trip that doesn’t have to be local? Cuyuna? Less than 3 hr drive. Great campgrounds! Could we get a bus?
Carl’s vision became reality.
On Thursday morning, Aug 13, kids and families met at the NCRC Building where we stuffed bikes, Gear Resource Outfitters camping equipment including lots of binoculars and a rangefinder to view nature, many bodies into an EcoTrans mini-bus and CROCT President Marty Larson’s trailer:
Melissa and some parents gave us a proper send-off:
Three hours later, we arrived at our group site in the DNR’s Portsmouth Campground in the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area. Marty’s wife Lisa Neitge had taken charge of the grocery shopping and meal preparation so we all got a terrific lunch after setting up camp:
Since the bikes were still in the mini-bus, we hauled them to the bike park/pump track in the little town of Cuyuna, about 3 miles from the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Trail System which is adjacent to the twin towns of Crosby-Ironton. For most of the kids and parents, riding the rollers and berms and jumps was a new experience: Continue reading CROCT leads an overnight youth group mountain bike trip at Cuyuna Lakes