Muscle Powered Carson City

Well, it’s another year, where do they go?

Muscle Powered has started the year with a BANG!

On January 12, 2012 we had our first Board Meeting of the year at Sassafras and we elected the following officers:

President: Donna Inversin Treasurer: Marcus Marchegger
Secretary: Anne Macquarie
Board members:
John Aragon – Insurance Cortney Bloomer – Summer Bike Rides
Kelly Clark Denis Coyne
Chas Macquarie – Technical Advisor Jeff Moser IT and Bike to Work Week
Jeff Potter – Trails Mark Johnson
Todd Erickson Candace Chartraw

We followed the election of officers with the annual planning meeting, and do we have some plans for 2012:

Anne Macquarie has offered to lead a 6-week “Reentry Ride” series of easy bike rides in May-June for beginning or “reentry” riders looking to get back on their bikes, including a flat tire seminar. This is something that I’m definitely planning of taking advantage of.

Cortney Bloomer will lead more strenuous summer bike rides, so you intrepid adventurers watch the calendar.

I will continue to lead the Tuesday evening walks. I have even found a couple of new ones, getting really close to that 52 different walks goal. Families are welcome on most walks, call me if you’re not sure about children participating.

Of course, don’t forget Bike to Work Week which will be May 14-18 this year. Watch for lots of fun events during the month of May.

Muscle Powered will again ‘man’ the bike valet at the 3rd Street Farmer’s Market this summer. If you’ve never done this give it a try, it’s a blast.

Tim Rowe has offered to lead a League of American Bicyclists Traffic skills course. I bet we could all use this.

And, let’s not forget the Ash Canyon to Kings Canyon Trail. Jeff Potter along with Chas Macquarie and others have done a lot work to get us to where we are today. On Monday February 13, 2012 there was an information meeting for public comment on the trail. We are near the last hurdle and should start cutting trail this spring.

Anne Macquarie hopes to have the new and improved bike map ready in time for Bike to Work Week. So if yours is getting old and tattered, there is hope.

So keep an eye on the calendar so that you won’t miss a thing.

Feel like your missing out on all the fun? Well we’d love to have you. If you’re interested in working on any of these projects please contact any of us, you’ll find the Board Member’s email address’ under CONTACT.

If you haven’t yet paid you 2012 membership dues, now is the time. Just click on BECOME A MEMBER.

And if you didn’t make the board meeting last month, how about the next one. Board meetings are open to all members. The next one with be April 5 at 6 p.m. at Sassafras.

Looking forward to an exciting and productive 2012

Donna N. Inversin
President

Ann B, Kelly, Natalie and Donna discussing plants during the botany survey.

There was a large turnout at the Kings Canyon to Ash Canyon Trail scoping meeting on Monday, February 13th, with over seventy people attending.  The meeting was set up open house style: project information was presented on tables where attendees could fill out a comment form, and two large project maps were available for viewing. Dan Morris from the U.S. Forest Service and Ann Bolinger from Carson City Parks & Rec did a great job organizing this meeting.

Scoping is the public portion of the NEPA process where citizens can voice their concerns or show support for the project under review. For our project the USFS is going for a Categorical Exclusion (CE), meaning, “a category of actions which do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment . . . and for which, therefore, neither an environmental assessment nor an environmental impact statement is required”.  With our ground surveys completed and the strong public support, getting a CE is a good possibility. Considering we didn’t hear any negative comments at the meeting, the decision will depend on written comments the USFS receives regarding the project.

The attendance reflected the tremendous support base this project is garnering from the community and local trail groups.   Jeremy Vlcan from the CVTA attended, and the entire board from the Poedunks ( I’m not sure if it was the entire board, but pretty darn close) showed up to give support. Thanks,guys!

There were also a few local legends in the crowd.  Ranger Bill (Champion) from State Parks was there.  It was great talking with Ranger Bill about the “Big Picture” that the Kings/Ash Canyon trail will one day be a part of. With all the outstanding contributions to trail access (from TAMBA in the State Park, the Poedunks in Reno, the CVTA in Carson Valley, and Muscle Powered in Carson City) it isn’t hard to imagine that with a few connections to link the systems, we could eventually have an amazing trail network that would offer a myriad of epic loop opportunities.

If we receive a CE, the next step will be to scope the project and negotiate cooperative agreements with Carson City and the USFS.  If all goes well we could break ground this summer.

If you would like to show support for this project here are a few ways you can comment:

Send a letter to:
Dan Morris Recreation Officer
Carson Ranger District
1536 S Carson Street
Carson City, NV 89701

Or call: 884-8140

Or email:
comments-intermtn-humboldt-toiyabe-carson@fs.fed.us

Comment deadline is March 2nd, with a decision expected on March 15th.

If you would like to get involved with the Kings Canyon to Ash Canyon Trail please contact me at: jeffpotter@musclepowered.org

Thanks!

Student Bike

by Anne Macquarie

I ride an eighteen-year-old black Trek road bike everywhere. It’s my commute bike, errand bike, road bike. It’s comfortable and I like it. I’m attached to it. But now, I’ve seen the future and my old bike might not be in it.
When I was up in Portland last week I stopped by the Museum of Contemporary Craft and saw some really nice custom bikes – prototypes for what might become the city bikes of the future, designed and built by some of the country’s finest bike crafters, including Ziba Design, Signal Cycles, Ideo, Rock Lobster Cycles, Geekhouse, Quixote Cycles, and more. The occasion was a competition to “design and build the ultimate modern utility bike”.
Here are some pictures:

This little green bike was designed and built by students at the university of Oregon. Judges called it fresh, creative, and the ideal campus bike

I loved this bike, second place prize winner designed and built by  Rob Tsunehiro of Tsunehiro Cyles and Silas Beebe of ID+. Its slightly retro look disguises some cool features, like a headlight attached to the stem right below the handlebars that casts light in a 360 degree arc, paniers that in some magical way become huge when you open them up, and  – this is my favorite – the frame paint is retroreflective, so the whole bike glows at night. Imagine seeing that if you’re driving down the road at night (It probably wouldn’t be a good transportation choice for a cat burgler though.)

There were lots more. The winning bikes will be at the Museum of Contemporary Craft until the end of October. Here’s the museum’s website: http://museumofcontemporarycraft.org/

For pictures of the bikes and their makers, go here: http://oregonmanifest.com/challenge/

These bikes make me happy. I hope some of them go into commercial production – Mr Tsunehiro and Mr Beebe, you hear me? – before I’m too old to ride my bike anymore.