To Paydirt or not to Paydirt?

Every year someone raises the question “Should there be Paydirt?” usually this question comes from a racer, but in reality it is about more than just racing. I would like to take some time to explain what it is all about.

First, what is Paydirt? Paydirt is the program that records volunteer trail work hours for JORBA (Jersey Off Road Bicycle Assoc). The program has several purposes. It creates incentives for mountain bikers to volunteer in local public parks. It encourages mountain bikers to build working relationships with land mangers. It encourages trail maintainers to record their volunteer hours so that the hours can be used towards grants. It helps build working relationships between trail maintainers, race promoters and land mangers, assuring bike access and the continuation of bike community fund raising events like racing on public lands.

So, where and how did Paydirt start? Paydirt, a concept brainstormed by trail advocates Wally Tunison and Sarah Frost in 1996, was the birth of Jorba. Wally, a long time motorcycle racer adopted the idea from enduro racing where dirt bike racers had to do trail work to allow access onto public lands for racing. Sarah created a similar program called Paydirt to encourage mountain bike racers to step up and help land managers maintain trails to keep bike access in New Jersey Parks. At that time, both Essex and Bergen Counties had banned bikes from the trails leaving many mountain bikers with no local trails to ride. Since then, Paydirt has logged over 60,000 volunteer man hours in actual trail work, and has received recognition from many land mangers. If you have ridden trails in NJ, you already know that there are some pretty cool trails that mountain bikers have built and maintained legally.

As a trail maintainer, I can confirm that the series race point system brings in many hours, especially in the final month. I am sure that many serious racers find Paydirt very annoying, and would rather spend 100% of their time training. They may say it has nothing to do with racing, but in actuality, it has everything to do with racing on really cool trails on public land. These trails would not exist to race on if racers did not come out to help. Of course not all racers know this, because they do not take the time to get involved or look beyond racing, hence the need for education. Every year a new wave of racers enter the fold, uneducated about trail access and the future of the sport. As they take the hook, they immediately learn about Paydirt and come out to get their points and see what it is about. Many of Jorba's trail care leaders started as racers. Some still are racers. It is not "me" or "them", it is "us". Paydirt is built in education for those that enter the sport through racing. There are places for serious racing like National Championships, which by the way are on private land. However if you want racing on cool public trails to live on, your best bet is to support the Paydirt program.

As far as the grants go. Each Jorba park has a volunteer leader or trail boss. Ideally, each park should have 4-5 leaders to keep things running smoothly. Jorba is lucky to have one person per park that will handle the responsibilities. We all know that when we are not at our paid jobs, we want to be out riding our bikes. Besides exercise being good for our physical health, mountain biking is an important part of our emotional health in the form of stress relief. Trail bosses take their personal time to lead trail work crews, and they still need to take time to record hours, file reports and make proposals with the park. This is where Paydirt comes in. You may think that you are the annoying racer that is pleading to get signed off for points, but you are actually helping Jorba get recorded for grant purposes. Jorba thanks the trail bosses and the racers for following through with paperwork that not only advertises what Jorba does, but helps the project and tool grant process as well.

As the Paydirt Administrator, I may be biased about how great Paydirt has been for mountain biking in New Jersey, but by having my eye on it every week, I have seen great things happen for the sport. In 2013 racers in the H2H series performed close to 1200 hours of volunteer trail work. The state of NJ values it's volunteer trail work at $23. an hour. That is $27,600. that Paydirt brings in for it's trails from racers. Do you like riding Jungle Habitat, Six Mile Run, Ringwood, Allaire and Allamuchy? ...much of them built on Paydirt. I urge you to support Paydirt and most importantly, get involved. For those of you that have participated and support Paydirt, Jorba thanks you! .... Now let's go out and ride!


Ellen

Summer Building Winding Down

Thanks to the volunteers that came out to work on the Crossover Trail re-route this past week. A good chunk of this re-route is complete. We will probably work a few more Thursdays to finish this section up, so that it can be blazed and opened shortly. Yes, I know I use "we" loosely, as I have not been able to work myself due to a sprained ankle. I hope to be well enough to work next Thursday. While on the subject of volunteers, I would like to mention a few: James and Manny have been above and beyond in not only helping with actual work, but in also helping with planning and leading volunteers. This has been a huge help for Art, and also allows for fresh ideas to come into the mix at the planning and building stages. If you like the trail and run into these guys, please let them know how you feel. They deserve some credit for these improvements.

If you have been out riding these 2 new trails, I'm sure you have noticed a slightly different flow from many other trails in the park and actually less rocks on the trail. This is not a permanent sea change in our trail building style, but rather an attempt to add variety into the park in a way that will suit it's users. As we work east up to Peirson Ridge, the trail will be more advanced as it goes deeper into the park.

If you would like to work the next few Thursdays, please rsvp to Art Wednesday night for his work plans. September hours will count for 2014 race Paydirt points.



Lots of rain this year has made an incredible display of mushrooms in the park. I hope you all get a chance to get out to enjoy in between the rain drops.

Crossover Trail Part 2

Thanks to all the volunteers that have come out this year. Construction on the first section of the crossover trail re-route is complete, however it will not be blazed until the upper section is complete. We hope to start that section late next year. The past few weeks, we also took the time to do a small re-route on the race course poison ivy section and both this section and the new crossover section flow nicely together and are riding great.

We have started our next section of re-route which will eliminate the muddy road between Millie Whites and Ice pond. We plan to work Thursdays through the end of August, and have Saturday August 31 penciled in as tentative. We will confirm on that a week before. So if you are looking for some last minute Paydirt, we may be able to put you to work on the last day for 2013 points.

Crossover Trail Part 1 of 5 Near Complete

Since the first official work day in March, we have put in 11 work days, working every Thursday and a few weekend days. During those days, 45 volunteers have put in over 350 hours. Without volunteers, this would not get done, so we would like to thank all that have come out to help in whatever form they have been able. This trail is made by them, and we hope they feel a connection to the process and the trail itself.

The actual work done so far has included: layout, design, bench cutting and rock work. This section of Ringwood is surprisingly less rocky than most other sections, offering some much needed moderate and flowing terrain in the inner loops closer to parking lot C. No need to stress if you are a tech loving rock freak, because as our project goes east, the terrain becomes much more steep and rocky and the trail will reflect the more extreme terrain. If you like our work on red going out to Skyline Dr, it will be more like that.

In the mean time, we are thrilled to offer some flowing, low angle single-track, instead of eroded fire roads as connectors to the already popular riding trails. We anticipate that this project will greatly improve the ride/hike experience within the Brushwood section of Ringwood.

We have two Thursdays ahead and Saturday June 1, National Trail Day when we hope to to complete the finishing touches and officially open this section at both ends. If you are able, we hope you can come out to help during the next few weeks to make this happen. Happy Trails!

First Trail Work Day!

Thanks to the 29 volunteers that came out to work 110 hours last Saturday! Jorba volunteers made great progress this first day in 2013. Section 1 of 5 of the proposed trail re-routes has been cleared and raked with a great start to bench cutting and rock working. We plan to continue with tread work over the next series of works days, until this section is complete and open for riding.

For those looking to get in some week day work, Art will be starting Dirty Thursday work nights this week April 4, and working from 4:00-7:00pm. Meet at the work site when you can by foot or bike. RSVP for location by 2:00 that day, so Art has enough tools. He plans to pull tools in to work site by bike and trailer.

Also another work day in April has been added: Sunday April 14, 9:00am meet at Reyerson school and work until 1:00.
Reyerson School
130 Valley Rd
Ringwood NJ 07456

Happy Trails!
Ellen

First Work Day March 30 !!

As you know, Spring has arrived according to the calendar, yet there may be some doubt in our minds as we look over the woods covered in snow. Please don't let that little bit of snow, ruin your dreams, ... spring will show her face and we will be riding and building trails very shortly.

We have great news for 2013. The park has approved for us to build some new sustainable single-track on the Crossover Trail (white) that will replace existing routes co-aligned with certain eroded fire roads. What does this mean? .... mountain bikers and hikers will be able to connect already great popular trails with single track. This will greatly improve the ride and hike experience for all, and we are really exited about this. However, we need all of you, in the form of volunteers to make this happen. I hope some of you will come on out and volunteer.

Our first trail building day is less then 2 weeks away on March 30th. We will be starting the Crossover Trail (white) project with hopes of completing the first few sections this year.

First Work Day:
March 30th Saturday
9:00 am
Meet at:
Ryerson School parking lot. (Park and lot C are still closed)
130 Valley Rd
Ringwpood NJ 07456

Please bring work gloves and sturdy shoes, tools will be provided. Steady rain cancels. Plan to walk in about 1 mile on low angle climbing.

Message from a Ringwood trail crew leader:

As many of you know, volunteers have built most of the trail we ride on. That being said you guys have built 2 of the best trails in the area the last couple of years, Skylands and the Red trail to TOS, these two trails are by far my favorite ones to ride. We are very excited about the White trail project and when you get out and see what we are doing I hope you will be too. We have hopefully designed and will build another gem for all mountain bikers to enjoy. Hope to see you all on the 30th.

James

Pipeline Construction 2013

Please be advised that pipeline construction is underway and some of Ringwood State Park Brushwood section between Shepherds Lake and Ice Pond Rd is considered closed and signed accordingly. This is effective immediately until April 15 2013. The Ringwood-Ramapo (red) trail from Ice Pond Rd heading south to Skyline Dr remains open and is not effected by construction. Trail maintenance during this time time will meet at Reyerson School.

2012 Wrap Up

Looking back on last year, I feel as if we crossed a major milestone by completing re-routes on the Ringwood-Ramapo Trail to Skyline Project. We projected the project to take three to five years and at times some thought it could never be done. Three years later and now that it is done, there is much satisfaction each time I go out and ride this section.

Besides establishing a legal for bikes connector trail between Ringwood and Ramapo Mountain State Forest, the engineering project itself was quite ambitious, as the original trail was aligned in very steep rocky terrain. This project was our most challenging project to date, and has been a great learning experience in many ways. We both hope that we are better trail builders for gaining this experience.

After completion of this project in August, Art and I scheduled a well deserved break from trail work to absorb all that we had learned as well as to take the time to start the ground work for the next project. However, mother nature had it’s own plans, when Hurricane Sandy blew down many trees in Ringwood and Ramapo, leaving some areas un-passable by foot or bike. Thankfully, for the many volunteers that stepped up, we were out there working and clearing the trails before we had power and communications back at our homes. I suppose these parks are like home to many of us.

Many thanks to our hard working volunteers that give their time to our trails! Jorba volunteers logged 664 hours at Ringwood in 2012. Looking forward to new and exciting projects in spring!