Sometimes we get questions along the lines of “what have you done for me lately?” In fact we’ve even had people not renew their membership because they felt we were not really doing all that much. We try to keep everyone up to date throughout the year, but sometimes the big picture of all that we accomplish is missed when you only get it piecemeal. So with out further ado, here is the list of what the DMBA did in 2010.

Membership:

• Increased our membership from 200 to 350 regular members. The more members we have the more political clout we have, and the more influence we’ll have with land owners. Renew for 2011 and sign up your riding friends if they aren’t already members.
• All the local shops are corporate members. This includes shops in both the Durham and York Regions such as Northern Cycle, Impala Cycle, Cyclepath Markham, Evolution Cycles and Bicycles Plus.
• Welcomed a majority of the Durham Chapter of the (former) FlyGurlz club to merge the two clubs together.
• Northern Cycle hosted us for a “meet and greet” in the spring. It was a major success and many of our members renewed at that time.

Trail Work:

• Major reroute of Super Fly Alley, including new lines around a number of corners, rock armouring, and extensive closures on degraded fall lines.
• Another reroute in Durham Forest in the fall. The name of this section is “Stone Soup.”
• Led trail clean-up days in Durham Forest, where leaves, dead-fall and other debris from the winter were cleaned off the trails making them rideable early in the season.
• Two trail maintenance days (one spring, one fall) on the East Duffins Headwaters (Glen Major) trails.
• Started a regular trail clean-up effort at Ravenshoe (Brownhill Tract).
• Held an IMBA Sustainable Trail Building workshop.
• Volunteered time to help Bloomfield Bicycle Company permanently mark the Paul’s Dirty Enduro IMBA Epic Ride in Ganaraska Forest.
• Purchased a small set of trail building tools. This includes 6 McLeods, 2 pulaskis, and 2 fire rakes. This should slow grow each year.
• Submitted a “Letter of Intent” to officially engage in trail maintenance on select Durham Forest and Glen Major trails. This is still outstanding, but we hope to have an MOU in place for both properties in 2011.

Advocacy:

• Sent one of our members to the IMBA World Summit in Augusta Georgia.
• Continued with our commitments on the local stewardship committee for both the East Duffins Headwater properties (Glen Major/Walker Woods), Durham Forest, and Seaton Hiking Trail.
• Provided extensive feedback on the trail plans for both the Durham Forest and the East Duffins Headwaters. We also attended open houses for both trail plans to provide further feedback and recommendations.
• Led a major Earth Day garbage clean-up on the 7th Uxbridge Concession in Uxbridge. This has resulted in the DMBA officially adopting both the 7th and 6th Concessions. Look for the signs along the road.
• Were invited and have signed onto a colaborative agreement for the development of the Uxbridge rail-trail. This work to be completed with the help of a Trillium Foundation grant and the cooperation of the LSRCA, neighboring townships and other interested parties, including DMBA.
• Won a Soil Conservation Award from the LSRCA for our trail work done in Durham Forest.
• Attended both of the open-house meetings with land managers and consultants in regards The Rouge Park and it’s development. Cycling input was volunteered in a predominantly “hiker” and cycling-antagonistic crowd. Interest in our input was noted from the project consultants.
• Attended the Heber Down management plan open house. Not much interest in MTB on that property, but we are in dialog with the land owner (CLOCA) about other properties.
• Initiated contact with York Region department of Forestry about getting involved on their Forestry Advisory Council, specifically for the Ravenshoe (Brownhill Tract) property.
• Participated in two media profiles of trails and mountain biking. Both for Rogers Local Access, one profiled Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day, the other featured Jason Murray (past president) speaking about mountain biking generally.
• Contributed mountain biking material for the Township of Uxbridge’s trail table at the CNE.

Riding:

• Produced our third run of DMBA Jerseys. This year we had short sleeve, long sleeve, relaxed fit and ladies versions, as well as vests and shorts. We sold out again.
• 3rd annual spring “Kids & Pancakes” Ride.
• Regular Monday night ladies rides, Wednesday night and Saturday morning weekly group rides, we have anywhere from 5-20 riders regularly.
• Friday night’s at Joyride150. Only a handful come out, but the interest is growing.
• Regular Winter Saturday and Sunday morning snowshoeing in and around the Uxbridge wilderness. Regularly attended by 10-15 ’shoers.
• Offered a ride at Woodnewton (private property) as a thank-you for all our trail-building volunteers.
• Members participated in a number of team events including 2 corporate teams in the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice, solo/teams in the Spring and Fall 8 hour events, Crank the Shield, and the ORTA Team Adventure Relay (which we won again!).
• While we are not a racing team, we have many members who participate in the Ontario Cup series, the Substance Projects Marathon Series, and other events.
• Assisted a number of event promoters with course set-up, tear down, and sweeping, including Substance Projects Marathon Series, the Provincial O-Cup Championships, Paul’s Dirty Enduro, 5 Peaks Trail Running Durham Forest event, and the UHA Bike & Beast Event.
• Hosted our forth annual Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day. The turn out this year was 180+ kids!
• A road trip to Georgia for Spring Break 2010.

What will we do in 2011. More of the same, but also some new things as well. We’ve got some interesting ideas, but we need members and the broader mountain biking community to get involved if they’re to come to fruition.