IMBA Visit in Eastern Iowa

By Michelle Mais/Community contributor

The south wind brought with it a couple smiling faces, muddy boots and a Subaru filled to the brim to support life on the road. Eastern Iowa mountain bikers are coming down off a high of spending an active weekend with the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) Trail Care Crew June 3-5. Steve and Morgan (the crew) brought with them knowledge of trail building; experience doing the same and great attitude, despite the fairly damp weather.

The Iowa Coalition of Off Road Riders completed the application that brought the Crew to Beverly Park in Cedar Rapids and Sugarbottom outside of North Liberty. The crew and local trail stewards scouted Sugarbottom on Thursday in preparation for the weekend's work.

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Friday saw Steve and Morgan, along with local mountain bike advocates, presenting the benefits of singletrack dirt trails to land managers from Linn and Johnson counties. The discussion covered the building of trails, sustainability, and economic impacts and was followed with a Q&A session.

The event was hosted by Dave Fleck and Fleck Sales in their hospitality room. The evening culminated with a social outing and group ride at Beverly Park, organized by Linn Area Mountain Bike Association.

Saturday began with a free trail school that was open to the public, and covered the guidelines of proper trail building. After the morning classroom session, the group of volunteers took to the dirt and put into practice their new knowledge. With the help of those in attendance, a sustainable reroute of one of the trails at Sugarbottom, known as Troll Bridge, was completed.

A fond farewell was given to Steve and Morgan as they prepared to take their Subaru back to the road, enroute to the next group of eager mountain bikers and trail builders.