February 2024 Recap
ARR Trail Crew - “Windy Loop” at Walnut Creek Metro Park - January 6 2024
If you had a chance to read our 2023 recap you know last year was exciting for Austin Ridge Riders. Our Ride Program grew and we added an alternate location on the first Sunday of each month which has been a hit so far. Our Trails Program also had a big year with the added workload of winter ice storm recovery. We had some awesome special events too, like our movie nights, and Cranksgiving.
In 2024 we want to take this solid foundation and build on it, with new ride destinations, new trail building opportunities, and fresh ideas for events. This recap follows our activities in both January and February; however, going forward this will be a monthly blog.
We will also look at some upcoming events, and Cullen McMorrow has also included our Trail Advocacy update which is at the end of this post.
New ARR Members
Join us in welcoming these new ARR members in January and February: Yasar A., Iwona C., Armando C., Matthew E., Brandon G., Bianca H., Sebastian H., William H., Jeremy L., Domanique M., Michael M., William M., Colleen N., Felipe P., Angie S., Jared S., Joan S., James T.
Website Updates
The entire ARR site has seen changes over the last few months - most notably the styling; however, we have been adding content as well like trail stewards and ride leaders. Additional changes are planned that will add more robust trail status and reporting, a volunteer staff portal with resources for workdays, group rides and events, and a detailed list of ways local riders can get involved or contribute to the community.
Meet the 2024 ARR Board of Directors
Our organization is led by elected volunteers who are active members of the local MTB community. Together we plan trail work days, group ride events, and maintain relationships with the local government, land managers, and other community organizations to ensure we have great trails for riders to enjoy. This year we have some returning members - a few in new roles - and a few new folks to introduce…
Welcome back to the board Charlie Riou, who took some time off but returns as our President. Cullen McMorrow, our former Trails Coordinator will be our Vice President, and Jeff Daugherty and Renee Mocha will remain in their roles as Treasurer and Secretary.
Geoff Hargreaves, Brooks Lawson, and Caroline Alexander join us as Directors of our Trails, Special Event, and Grants Programs! Lara Bridges remains our Women’s Ride Program Director, Dale Daugherty and Clint Newman will continue as Directors of Marketing/Communications. You can read our bios here!
Here are what a few of our outgoing board members had to say…
Congratulations to the 2024 Board of Directors! The Board has a great mix of prior experience and new members. It’s been my honor to serve as President the past three years and meeting so many great people! Encourage your friends to join the Austin Ridge Riders, a larger voice is a more powerful voice for trail advocacy and rider education! Ride on!
-Lee Compton, President
Congratulations to the Austin Ridge Riders Board of 2024! I look forward to watching our community benefit from your future successes as you continue to champion mountain biking in Austin and the surrounding areas. The Austin Ridge Riders plays an important role in expanding mountain biking opportunities in our area whether through trail advocacy, rider and non-rider education, relationship building, weekly/monthly rides, women’s programs, and so forth. It has been an honor and a privilege to have been granted the opportunity to serve on the board for the past seven years. As I step aside, I’m excited to pass the torch onto a very capable group of mountain biking enthusiasts and wish you all the very best!
-Rachelle Wood, Vice President
It was a pleasure to serve as a board member with ARR these past few years! There's nothing better than working on an amazing mission with like-minded people. The passion and stoke for mountain biking in Austin is high, and I look forward to watching everyone's successes in the future!
-Jenny Burden, Grants Director
Austin Ridge Riders thanks Lee Compton, Rachelle Wood, Jenny Burden, Cheyenne Dolin, and Stephanie Martinez for their service on the board.
New Trail! “Billy Goat” at Brushy Creek Park
We are excited to announce that "Billy Goat" trail is now open at Brushy Creek Park following a positive walk-thru with county officials on February 21st. Named in honor of the late Rob Paulk who was an active member of our community, this trail - the result of many volunteer hours - will allow riders to complete a ten-mile loop of the parks singletrack without a need to hop on the concrete path! Thank you to Trail Stewards Ronan O’Connor, Tommy Kerstetter, David Green, and Scott Williams, and all the volunteers who put in the hours to get this built.
“The Meg” Loop at Brushy Creek includes : 1/4 Notch - Double Down - Bob Ross - The Rim (to top, down Dave’s Ditch, climb back to Rim, left towards The Bowl) - The Bowl - Billy Goat - Picnic
January and February Trail Crew Workdays
Walnut Creek Metro Park: In January and February we hit the ground shoveling! Windy Loop saw a full-rebuild of a berm originally built back around 2007 (nicknamed the “Corner Pocket” for its tight radius and tall walls), followed by a new easy log jump feature and three rollers. Over at Powerline Flow trail, we did drainage work while working on the 5-berm area as well as along the Northern Walnut Creek concrete trail.
January 6 Damn near perfect weather for the Austin Ridge Riders Trail Work day today at Walnut Creek Mountain Biking - Austin on Windy Loop. We worked on drainage from the pipe under the park road that tends to flood Windy Loop. AND we Revamped a berm (originally built more than ten years ago) in the middle of Windy Loop. It may take another work day get fully dialed but it’s rideable now, so check it out!! And volunteers picked up several bags of trash from the trail near Lamar.
A Thousand Thanks to Gage Talbert, Dereck Padden, Teresa Franzke, Brian Preston, Colin Hancock, Rafal Butryn, Craig Thomerson, Kyle Heck, Susan Moore, Griffin Moore, Caroline Alexander, Manuel Gallegos, Kate & Will Stricklin, Alden Hoffman, Daniel Holden, Geoff Hargreaves, Suzanne O’Connor, Charlie Riou, (and Joe Wieck and Woody Harrison prep days)!
- Cullen McMorrow, ARR Vice President and Walnut Creek Trail Steward
January 10 Got dirty today 😜. After ten years of service since it's last rebuild, Rock Bridge crossing was getting eroded underneath and needed some tuning up. An awesome crew of volunteers with the Austin Ridge Riders Mountain Bike Club hauled a ton of rock in to shore up the eroded edges and undercut areas below the crossing and reset shifted paving stone.
- Charilie Riou, ARR President
January 27 After lots of soaking rain in the last week, we had great dirt conditions and a fantastic volunteer crew for today’s Austin Ridge Riders work day. We returned to Windy Loop middle flow section, and finished one log jump feature and four rollers. (The log jump is an optional B line, next to existing trail). Additionally, Assistant Trail Steward Dewayne Buratti led a crew dealing with the long-running issue of water flowing down the exit section of Windy.
Thanks a ton to James Mitchell, Manuel Gallegos, Colin Hancock, Brendan Feldmeier, Alden Hoffman, Steven Garcia, Kyle Heck, Rich Hollenbeck, Teresa Franzke, Forrest Knoll, Craig Thomerson, Artur J., Olga Ostrorskaya, Chris Lovin, Dereck Padden, Dewayne Buratti and Geoff Hargreaves.
- Cullen McMorrow
Bolm Park Vision Planning
Bolm District Park (District 2) in east Austin is currently in the vision planning process which will determine how this 68.1-acre property is utilized by the residents. Halff Associates - the folks developing the project - are soliciting community input, and Austin Ridge Riders is encouraged to see that the round one feedback from 2023 included Trails and a Bike Park.
We’ve set up a page with more information about what we would like to see come out of this project, and a link to the current public input survey! Please spend just a moment to read and then take the survey.
News and Updates
Trailforks Affiliate Program
We’ve partnered with the Trailforks Affiliate Program to offer a 30% discount on an annual Trailforks subscription while also giving a $5 credit to Austin Ridge Riders! This navigation and ride tracking app provides riders with a ton of features to find local trail, plan routes, log rides and report maintenance issues and trail conditions. It also gives ARR a lot of useful data on the back end - particularly as it relates to trail reports - and Trailforks is the only platform that gives our organization control over local riding area maps.
Riders who are currently enrolled at full price should make sure they are not set up for auto renew, and then use the link on our Trailforks page to sign up.
Party In The Pines
Saturday, March 9th we will be co-hosting Party In The Pines with Freeride 512 at Rocky Hill Ranch. This members-only event will be a great way for riders of all skill level to practice and play around on jumps, drops, and skinnies. The airbag will be running all day, Dialed Bike Co and The Peddler will be there, and Manny Pandya will also be taking bike + rider portraits!
We still need volunteers! We are looking for folks to rotate up to the front gate to check in riders, as well as trail and airbag chaperones to keep an eye on rider traffic and ensure safety! If you are interested, please fill out this form!
Cameron Park Monthly Ride
We had a blast at Dana Peak in February and we finally got that South Austin Trail Network Sunday ride in! For March we are heading back up north to visit Cameron Park in Waco! Please be sure to RSVP since we do provide lunch.
Trail Advocacy Update
By Cullen McMorrow
Bolm Park
See “Bolm Park Vision Planning” section above.
Cedar Park – Parks & Rec Master Planning Process
ARR requested and was granted stakeholder group status for the upcoming 2024 Parks and Recreation Master Planning process for the whole City of Cedar Park. “The Cedar Park Parks and Recreation team is currently developing a new 2024 Parks and Recreation Master Plan. This plan will provide priority recommendations for future park and facility development/redevelopment and current/future community events and programs. As a part of this process, several public engagement sessions will be offered for the general public to provide feedback. Information on the two initial sessions can be found here.
City of Austin PARKnerships Program
ARR has met with key folks in the City of Austin and their consultant SIGLO Group to continue our ongoing stewardship activities in Austin parks. We are helping the City formally understand what our volunteers bring the table.
Hill Country Conservancy
ARR met with George Cofer about the future extension of the Violet Crown Trail, which will involve approximately 16 miles of natural surface singletrack in water quality protection land.
Little Walnut Creek Greenbelt (E. 51st Street, Springdale and Hwy 183) aka “Area 51.”
Advocating for an improved network of natural surface trail, for general use as well as specific bike- optimized areas. In January 2019, after several years of efforts by the Pecan Springs Springdale Neighborhood Association, and with input from Austin Ridge Riders at the time, a Community Master Plan was adopted by the City of Austin Parks Board. The Plan noted the poor quality of legacy trails (old ranch roads, off- road motorcycle trails, and “social” trails), but unfortunately did not contain a clear mandate or plan on how to improve the trails. ARR has been meeting with City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD), Austin Parks Foundation (APF), and the neighborhood association to seek a path forward to supplement the Master Plan with a specific trail system improvement plan. To prove our commitment (and just generally help out the trails), we have done several It’s My Park Day cleanups with the neighborhood association, contributing hundreds of volunteer hours to the cause. In January and February 2024, Austin Ridge Riders participated in video meetings and site visits with Austin Parks Foundation and Texas Conservation Corps (TCC).
Marshall Middle School at Mueller Development
MTB Trail and Pump Track-- AISD teacher Bobby Sandoval is a cyclist and a teacher at the school, who is also the leader of the student biking club. She is very interested in both a pump track installation as well as potentially an MTB trail at the Mueller Development. We are networking further with the Mueller folks to see how feasible that is. We already met with WOOM at their headquarters and they offered to supply their wooden modular pump track for the site.
Milburn Bike Park, Cedar Park
ARR efforts over the last several years convinced Parks Director Curt Randa and Assistant parks Director Mike DeVito to seek and secure $100K in 4B funding for Milburn Bike Park improvements. ARR will be meeting with the project manager in March to discuss desired upgrades. Concepts in the works include a small-kids area; a beginner/intermediate jump line that is more mountain- bike oriented; and possibly a couple of more advanced features.
Travis County Parks
ARR has been reaching out to Travis County Parks officials and Travis County Parks Foundation to be involved as a stakeholder organization when the master planning process starts for Pace Bend, as well as the general master planning process for all of Travis County Parks.
Walnut Creek Metro Park
Homeless Camps on and near BMX Loop – We reached out to the City’s homeless services coordinator as well as the City Council District 7 office. Many other folks submitted 311 reports, including several incidents involving threats. It’s unclear what eventually caused the unhoused folks vacate the area, but that’s where things currently stand!
