Tag: <span>Porter Million</span>

20th Anniversary MORC Gala at the Varsity TheaterThe 20th Anniversary MORC Gala at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis on Sunday was fabulous. As a MORC board member, I’m more than a little biased, of course.  So with that caveat, here’s a glimpse into the wingding.

Kristin Clark, MORC Board member, meteorologist, and 2WheelWeather bloggerThe doors opened at 2pm for the Surly Brewing Happy Hour, with live music by The Lost Wheels. MORC Board member, meteorologist, and 2WheelWeather blogger Kristin Clark (@2WheelWeather & @KClarkWx) was the Master of Ceremonies and began her duties by introducing each of the speakers.

Advocacy Fundraiser Photo album

Organizations Photo album

Reed Smidt, Jeff Leech, Porter Million, Drew Diller Porter Million,  Jeff Leech, Reed Smidt, Drew Diller Jeff Leech, Porter Million, Reed Smidt, Drew Diller
To the mountain bikers riding past this group of MORC dirt bosses (Drew Diller, Jeff Leech, Porter Million, Reed Smidt) on Friday night on the far west loop of the Carver Lake Park Off-Road Cycling Trail, it probably looked like they were discussing the best place for a picnic. Only partially true.

Carver Lake Park, west loop, playground Jeff Leech, Reed Smidt, Drew Diller, Porter Million Porter Million, Jeff Leech, Reed Smidt, Drew Diller Future site of picnic area
They were mainly doing planning for an elaborate technical feature in an area called the Playground, using many of the logs that the City of Woodbury graciously piled nearby at their request.  Photo on the right: that’s where they’re planning to eventually put a picnic table.

[Apologies to the young whippersnappers reading this who are all WTF? about the title of the blog post. My geezerly brain sometimes shifts to ancient song lyrics like this one when I have to think of a title.]

Trail work

Porter Million with SWC-TV crew Porter Million with SWC-TV crew Porter Million with SWC-TV crew
Back in June when I blogged the Anatomy of a MORC MTB trail work crew: reshaping corners at Carver Lake Park, I also took a few photos of MORC Dirt Boss Porter Million being interviewed by a film crew from SWC-TV who was working on a show for the City of Woodbury’s magazine-style program called Woodbury Citystyle.

The video of the show is now available online. Intro text:

Minnesota Off-Road Cyclists takes care of several off road bike trails in the Twin Cities area. Every Wednesday evening they meet at Carver Lake Park in Woodbury MN and take care of the Carver Lake Bike Trail.

httpv://vimeo.com/69473349

Media Trail work

Those of us who love to ride have endured a miserable spring here in the upper midwest, with the trails closed due to wet conditions as often as they’ve been open.  The weather has also taken its toll on the trails indirectly because so many of the weekly work crew maintenance sessions have had to be cancelled.

So with the weather cooperating last Wednesday night, I followed a MORC work crew at Carver Lake Park Off-Road Cycling Trail in Woodbury while they reshaped several corners.

Porter Million and Matt Walkowiak Matt Walkowiak Matt Walkowiak and Porter Million Porter Million and Matt Walkowiak
This section of the trail had become hazardous because it’s at the end of a relatively fast downhill. Riders were often hitting the tree or sliding out trying to go around it on the left. MORC Dirt Boss Porter Million and Matt Walkowiak removed the tree, and then dug up a lot of roots and moved a significant amount of dirt to both make a small berm and provide two places for rain water to flow away from it.

L to R: Ray Schwarz, Jeff Leech, Viv Jones, Aron Braggans Viv Jones and Aron Braggans Aron Braggans Viv Jones
Matt Walkowiak, Zach ?, William Sweasy 11-DSC01314 Zach ? and William Sweasy
Meanwhile, the rest of the crew was shoveling, hauling, and hand tamping a lot of dirt to build up three troublesome, off-camber, eroded corners on another section of the trail.

Foreground L to R: Jeff Leech, Viv Jones, Porter Million, Drew Diller, Zach ? Porter Million Foreground: Zach ? and William Sweasy
With a couple of coaching sessions from Porter, the crew reshaped the problematic corners into berms. I later emailed Porter for an explanation and he wrote:

These berms were carefully constructed to avoid puddling in the instance of rain. By taking the slope of the turn into consideration, and by also adding a roller, the crew was able to design the berm to direct any water flow to a specific drainage area off the trail. By adding the properly constructed berms to this section, a rider should be able to carry their speed through the turns, and have less fear of washing out on what use to be a couple of loose, off-camber turns.

Viv Jones, Ray Schwarz, William Sweasy, Drew Diller, Zach ? L to R: Porter Million, Zach ?, Drew Diller, Matt Walkowiak, Aron Braggans, William Sweasy, Viv Jones, Jeff Leech, Ray Schwarz, Joel Hampton
And the crew saw everything that they hath made, and behold, it was very good. Right photo, L to R: Porter Million, Zach ?, Drew Diller, Matt Walkowiak, Aron Braggans, William Sweasy, Viv Jones, Jeff Leech, Ray Schwarz, Joel Hampton

Trail work