Katherine Fuller's blog

This guest post comes to us from Martha Leman. Martha is the advocacy director for the Sonoran Desert Mountain Bicyclists, IMBA's Tucson, Ariz.-based chapter and has spent her entire adult life working cycling-related jobs. She has been teaching mountain bike skills for more than 15 years in the Tucson region, and recently became certified through the IMBA Instructor Certification Program as a member of its inaugural training class.

IMBA and Western Spirit teamed up at the end of 2012 to reward two, outstanding IMBA chapter volunteers. Through the IMBA-REI Teaming for Trails program, chapter leaders nominated volunteers from their organizations that demonstrated outstanding efforts to improve their chapter and the sport of mountain biking.

Mountain Bike Festival Highlights Remote IMBA Epic

Photos courtesy of Jim Rankin

12 Finalists for Bell Built Grants Announced

IMBA and Bell Helmets are pleased to announce the 12 finalists for the 2013 Bell Built Grants. Bell Helmets is providing $100,000 to fund three, mountain bike trail projects, one each in the categories of bike park/pump track, flow trail and downhill trail.

To say that most of us here at IMBA don't race is an understatement. That has nothing to do with our competitiveness; we just find other (cheaper and less travel-intensive) outlets to relieve our desk-jockey work lives. But we jumped at the chance to race this year's 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo under a warm desert sun. It's particularly cold and snowy around here during February, translating to not much riding, or to very miserable riding.

Along the north rim of the Grand Canyon, a 45-minute drive up a remote dirt road and almost 2 hours from the nearest town, intrepid mountain bikers will find a simple camping area and a slice of singletrack heaven: the 18-mile Rainbow Rim Trail. The trail is managed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) North Kaibab Ranger District and is the only trail on the rim of the Grand Canyon open to bikes.

Welcome, New IMBA Chapters!

Twelve organizations joined the IMBA Chapter Program in the winter 2012 class, bringing the total to 113 chapter organizations. Click on the name to support the group nearest you, or see the full list of IMBA clubs and chapters HERE.

Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew — Jessie and Lori from the Trail Care Crew will be all over the southwest in early 2013. Here are your opportunities to catch the IMBA Trail Building School in the upcoming month. Click here for the full schedule, visit information and registration.

New Section Added to Pinhoti Trail (GA)

Deep in the woods of the Santa Claus Mountain between Cave Spring and Cedartown, GA, volunteers have been busy creating a new, natural-surface section of the Pinhoti Trail. The new, half-mile trail eliminates the need to travel four miles on a road.

+ Read a news article about the Pinhoti Trail in Georgia

IMBA Groups Contribute More Than 700,000 Volunteer Hours Annually

A recent survey of IMBA’s chapters and clubs about their volunteer-based activities documents an impressive record of pubic service. Based on these data, we estimate that the total population of 750 chapters/clubs contributed 707,102 volunteer hours in 2011, equaling a contribution of more than $15 million to public lands. Groups also built or maintained more than 23,000 miles of trail that year.

+ Read the full report