Mike And Jan Help Build Trail With Mountain Bike Club Discovery, Netherlands

October 1998

Well! Europe has certainly been a different sort of experience for the TCC. We started our journey in the Netherlands, most people refer to this area as Holland, but in reality Holland is just a province of the Netherlands. We were working in a small village near Heerlen. Our host Joost Vandermark and Marcel Becker showed us that the Dutch know quite a bit about mountain biking! Our first day there was spent touring the area, then meeting with the land manager from the area where the local trail is (Vereniging Natuurmonumenten). Try to say that three times fast! We were treated to a great lunch at the nature center. After the meeting a reporter from the local paper showed up for a photo shoot on the trail. That evening we attended the clubs monthly meeting and showed an interpretive slide show on trail construction and maintenance. Every one loved the slides, but we weren't so sure that they understood what we were talking about. That is until the next day when 30 people showed up to work on the trail. They quickly proved that not only did they get it, but were ready to put it to good use. Let me tell you leading a large trail session and teaching advanced trail techniques proved to be quite the challenge when you don't speak the language. Fortunately for us we had some great help, some very hard workers and were able to complete 3 rolling crown switch backs and a short reroute. Later that same day we were given the honor of officially opening a new trail.

The next day a local bike shop provided us with a couple of trusty Cannondale steeds and we were invited on a mountain bike tour. A tour is a sort of group ride that is arranged by a club and usually includes upwards of 2000 riders during nice weather. The riders pay to participate and will ride anywhere from 35 kilometers to 60 kilometers depending on which route they choose. Being the weenies that we are we choose the shorter route. The really nice thing about the tour is that there are stops along the way with tables and chairs where you can sit, drink coffee, eat fruit or muffins and talk with your fellow riders. Then continue on your way. The pace is usually casual. Another nice feature of the tour is that the club gets permission to cross private land that is other wise closed to bikers. That day was cold and wet so only about 700 riders showed.

After the tour we returned to Marcel and Marion Beckers house, where we were staying, and after a badly needed hot shower we were treated to a wonderful hot meal prepared by Marion. She told us that it was a traditional dish served when the weather was cold. As usual, we ate way too much!!!

The next day we reluctantly said our good-byes and boarded a train bound for England, once we reached the coast we loaded onto a ferry to cross the channel. The water was a little choppy which caused the ferry to rock heavily and..uh, well we can talk about that next time.

Until then, Happy Trails!

Mike and Jan

View the Slide Show of Mike and Jan's adventures in the Netherlands. Click on a caption to view the picture. Note: each picture is about 100k but are worth the wait. Big thanks to Subaru for the digital cameras!

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