As the chapter heads from spring to the summer months we will take a break from trail work and enjoy some riding time.  Two chapter ride meetings are planed for the summer months.

The first is on Thursday June 21.  This is the longest day of the year so this will allow for plenty of ride time in the Willowdale State Forest and Bradley Palmer State Park.  If you have not ridden this area in a while you should check it out, as there has been some improvements made including the NEMBA trail put in last year.  The trails are fun but not overly technical so this is a place for all abilities.  A chapter meeting will follow at the Majestic Dragon in Ipswich.

On Sunday August 19th Fred White will host the now annual Dog Town ride, followed by a cookout up in Rockport at his house.  Plenty of good trails and fine views of the ocean will be had on this event.  This event is again a relaxed pace and a lot of fun and there is always plenty of food.  I wood like to encourage all member s to attend chapter meeting, as more input is always welcome.

I want to thank all that helped with the trail work this spring.  Four trail days were held over the past few months, two in Harold Parker, one at the Thompson Street Reservation and finally at Ward Reservation.  The HP projects included some drainage and reroutes on the bottom of the School Daze Trail.  On Park Service day a good size reroute of several muddy section of the Bay Circuit Trail was completed on the northeast section of the park.  Nice twisty single track on a ridge is a great improvement over the old always-wet jeep trail.  Nation Trail Day had the group over to Cape Ann to help the Essex County Greenbelt Association and the Essex County Velo with a trail project at the Thompson Street Reservation.  The groups worked on a boardwalk, and some trail reroutes were completed.  The greenbelt is a good group to work with, they have preserved a lot of land on the North Shore and allow mountain bike on much of their trails.  Work on a 96 foot boardwalk was the project at the Ward Reservation on June 16th in the area were five trails come together, the beaver have effected this area in last few years and this hard work will again make the trails more passable.  The Trustees of Reservations is another group that NSNEMBA are working with so we can enjoy more trails.

More trail Merlin trail days are scheduled for the fall as the weather cools so plan to come out and help.  Please check the web site for updates and info at www.nsnemba.org.  Enjoy your summer and see you on the trails.

Frank Lane - North Shore Chapter President - May 13, 2007