Tag: <span>CROCT</span>

Published October 7, 2021 by

CROCT’s MTB skills park in Northfield gets an upgrade

With a big assist from the City of Northfield Public Works staff, the CROCT MTB skills park in Northfield’s Sechler Park got some improvements this year. Workers brought in several truckloads of dirt to improve six of the seven beginner and intermediate jumps in the main jump line and expand the launch mound. In addition, they moved the giant boulder lurking along the park’s swampy edge and reinstalled the kiosk next to the launch mound. Slideshow:

CROCT (Cannon River Offroad Cycling and Trails), our local mountain bike club in Rice County, has partnered with the City of Northfield to have a multi-purpose trail in the City’s Sechler Park since the club was founded in 2014. I’m one of the CROCT volunteers who helps to maintain the skills park.

Organizations Trail work

Cannon River Offroad Cycling & Trails CROCT Sechler skills park

Published September 5, 2016 by

MTB park features taking shape (ramping up?) at Sechler Pk

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ-UNQNgRSV/

Trail work

cannon CROCT Sechler Park Trail

Published September 2, 2016 by

What mountain bike chapter board members sometimes do: recruit volunteers

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ-bbR_gxqA/

Fundraiser

Cannon River Offroad Cycling & Trails CROCT

Published August 28, 2016 by

Sometimes mountain bike advocacy requires good working relationships with city hall

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ-XHMyA2bS

Advocacy

Cannon River Offroad Cycling & Trails City of Northfield CROCT Marty Larson

Adding some instruction to a weekly youth group mtb ride
Published June 17, 2016 by

Adding some instruction to a weekly youth group mtb ride

I’m co-leading CROCT’s Monday night youth group ride again this summer.  And now that I’ve got my MTB instructor certifications (IMBA ICP Level 2 and PMBI Level 1), I’m planning to add a little group instruction each week at the start of the ride.

At our first session, we did a quick braking assessment and I was surprised to see how much trouble the kids (approximate ages 6-13) had trying to come to a stop between a set of cones on a gentle slope.

For an assessment of their ability to select a gear for climbing, we had them pick their own ‘Goldilocks’ route up a grassy slope — not too easy, not too hard.  Unsurprisingly, many of the kids were clueless about how to shift to an easier gear to get up the slope.

So in the coming weeks, we’ll add some instruction, drills and games that incorporate braking and gear choice.  Some photos from week 1:

Learning to instruct Photo album

CROCT IMBA Instructor Certification Program (ICP) Professional Mountain Bike Instructor Association (PMBI)

Using a blog post to address citizen concerns about a mountain bike trail
Published June 2, 2016 by

Using a blog post to address citizen concerns about a mountain bike trail

I occasionally put on my mountain bike advocacy hat (helmet?) and in the past few of weeks I’ve had it on quite a bit in my role as a board member of my local IMBA chapter, Cannon River Offroad Cycling & Trails (CROCT). One issue I’ve worked on has been addressing  the concerns of some citizens who’ve had some objections about our mountain bike trail-building activities in Rice County’s Caron Park.

Rice-County-logo

While we are reaching out to these citizens to meet face-to-face, I’ve used our CROCT blog to address the main issues and invite further comments and discussion from anyone who might be interested. The idea is not so much to communicate to our CROCT members about the issue but rather:

  • to give elected/appointed officials and staff something they can see/read so that they can better understand what’s been done
  • to provide a link to a blog post that those officials can send to others who contact them with concerns
  • to help defuse the issue for some of the opponents who may feel that at least they’ve been listened to, even if we don’t agree with them.

See my post: Impact of CROCT’s mountain bike trails in Caron Park

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Advocacy

Caron Park CROCT Rice County Rice County Parks

A narrated slide presentation of CROCT’s activities, events, & accomplishments for 2015
Published February 12, 2016 by

A narrated slide presentation of CROCT’s activities, events, & accomplishments for 2015

As a board member for Cannon River Offroad Cycling & Trails (CROCT), I’ve been taking the lead on our PR and social media, not just to inform local mountain bikers about what we’re doing but also the wider community of Rice County where our IMBA chapter operates.

This is my narration to the slide presentation that CROCT President Marty Larson and I did for BikeNorthfield’s 3rd Annual Soup & Cycles meeting back in January.

It’s an overview of CROCT-related activities, events, and accomplishments in the past year.  Like most any online video, you can pause it, move the slider backwards and forwards, and watch it in full-screen mode. 23 minutes:

(Click here to view this presentation on the CROCT blog without the narration. Advantage: clickable titles to blog posts that provide more background on each topic.)

Advocacy Organizations

BikeNorthfield CROCT Marty Larson Soup and Cycles

My summer as an MTB skills park dirt boss and heavy equipment operator
Published November 20, 2015 by

My summer as an MTB skills park dirt boss and heavy equipment operator

This past summer, fellow mountain biker and uber volunteer Bill Nelson used his Ford Tractor to help CROCT, our local mountain bike club, fashion various obstacles in our new skills park area along our Sechler Park mountain bike trail. I soon became his apprentice operator and it inspired me to take on the role of skills park ‘dirt boss’ for the trail. More details and skills park photos in this CROCT blog post.

Bill Nelson, Ford tractor Griff Wigley, Bill Nelson

Equipment Trail work

Bill Nelson CROCT Sechler Park Trail skills park

CROCT photos & video: Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day, 2015
Published October 5, 2015 by

CROCT photos & video: Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day, 2015

Last Saturday was IMBA’s Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day (#TKMBD). I’m on the board of CROCT and we got a late start on planning activities for it. But rather than doing nothing, we decided at almost the last minute to invite CROCT members to meet at MORC’s Lebanon Hills Mountain Bike Trail where Dakota County was hosting its annual Wild Ride Mountain Bike Festival.

Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day 2015 Wild-Ride-Mountain-Bike-Festival-flyer-2015

We had 5 kids and 4 adults show up and we all had a blast among the many hundreds of others who attended. We’ll be better organized for next year’s TKMBD!

See the album of15 photos and a 1-minute video on the CROCT blog post.

 

Advocacy Group rides Organizations

CROCT Dakota County Lebanon Hills Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day TKMBD Wild Ride Mountain Bike Festival

CROCT leads an overnight youth group mountain bike trip at Cuyuna Lakes
Published August 29, 2015 by

CROCT leads an overnight youth group mountain bike trip at Cuyuna Lakes

Back in June I blogged about the weekly youth mountain biking group rides I was co-leading all summer, one of my activities as a CROCT board member.

As part of that collaboration with the Northfield Public Schools Community Services Division, we recently took the kids and some parents on an overnight youth group trip to the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Trail System.

I’ve published a long blog post with dozens of photos about the trip here: CROCT leads an overnight youth group mountain bike trip at Cuyuna Lakes.

CROCT youth trip - trail

Advocacy Group rides Organizations

CROCT Northfield Public Schools Community Services

CROCT’s first National Trails Day & membership drive: superb
Published June 8, 2015 by

CROCT’s first National Trails Day & membership drive: superb

Over three dozen trail workers (including 15+ kids) showed up at Rice County’s Caron Park on Saturday (National Trails Day) to work on the first segment of a CROCT mountain bike trail there (I’m a board member). The weather was gorgeous and the bugs were non-existent. Under the direction of trail steward and CROCT board prez Marty Larson, the crew worked from 9 am to noon.

The results? Amazing!

CROCT loop 1 Caron Park CROCT loop 1 Caron Park CROCT loop 1 Caron Park

We don’t yet know the mileage on the new intermediate-level segment that we’re currently calling Loop 1, but it’s significant and it’s going to be a blast to ride. (If you stay connected via the CROCT Facebook page, Twitter feed, email newsletter, or Google Group discussion list we’ll alert you when the trail officially is open to ride.)

We broke for lunch and beverages at noon. Milltown Cycles in Faribault donated and served the hot dogs, brats and pop. Bauers Southside Liquor in Faribault donated and served a great selection of beer:

CROCT membership picnic 2015 - Caron Park CROCT membership picnic 2015 - Caron Park CROCT membership picnic 2015 - Caron Park

After lunch, we raffled off some swag donated by Milltown Cycles to CROCT members in attendance. John Ebling and Kevin Keane won helmets and Jeff Kreis won a jersey. Four others got 3-packs of cycling socks: 

Read MoreCROCT’s first National Trails Day & membership drive: superb

Advocacy Events Fundraiser Trail work

CROCT IMBA