2005 Year in Review
2005 was another active year for North Shore NEMBA.  Highlights include seven trail care days and our 6th annual "Wicked Ride of the East".  The chapter kicked off the season in April with some trail work at Harold Parker State Forest.  This first trail care event involved rerouting a section of singletrack that runs along Route 125.  This very short section of trail was so steep, loose, and eroded that it was nearly impossible to ride up.  The rerouted trail can now be ridden in both directions and still offers some challenge when going up. 

We then held an exciting two day trail building event in May that resulted in some great new singletrack, more on this below.  In June, we moved away from Harold Parker for two trail care events.  The first June event was held at Bradley Palmer State Park and was part of the National Trails Day celebration organized the Hamilton Conservation Commission.  The second trail event was held in the Bald Hill area of Boxford State Forest.  Both of these events involved routine trail maintenance.
We returned to Harold Parker in September for some drainage work and to cut back brush along the trails.  This was all done in anticipation of the Wicked Ride of the East which was held on the Sunday before Halloween.  The Wicked Ride was a great success with nearly 200 riders of all abilities showing up for marked loops.  The advanced loop offered up over 20 miles of riding when the hero sections were included.

Our final trail care event of the season was held on a rainy day in October.  The forecast was light drizzle, so the event was not cancelled.  Boy was weatherman wrong!  We stuck it out through the rain, along with volunteers from the Essex County Greenbelt Association, and managed to complete a reroute for an eroded section of trail in the Beverly Conservation Area.
Volunteers worked through the rain to reroute a section of trail in the Beverly Conservation Area.
New "Unabomber" Trail in Harold Parker
North Shore NEMBA's biggest success last year was the building of a new singletrack that would help connect the Jenkins’ parking lot with the Salem Pond Loop.  As indicated above, this involved a two day trail care event held on Saturday May 14th and Sunday May 15th.  We had a better than normal turnout on both days.  Thankfully, the idea of building new singletrack always seems to draw a good crowd.
Lee Hollenbeck and Joe DiZazzo working on the Unabomber Trail.

Of course, as with most trail building projects, the work started well before the official trail care days.  Joe DiZazzo and Dan Streeter got the ball rolling by flagging out a rough trail line.  Dan then worked on the required paperwork necessary for getting the trail approved.  During the winter of 04/05, they even went as far as to repeatedly hike the trail, wearing snowshoes, in order to pack over a foot of snow so that the forest ranger could get out on the trail for a final approval.  Once approval was received and the weather improved, Joe, Dan, and myself (Kirk Goldsworthy) scratched out the tread so that volunteers would know exactly where the trail would be placed.  Always an exceptional trail builder, Joe spent countless hours both before and after the official trail days working on the some of the finer details of the trail.  These finer details typically involve the more technical aspects of the trail that we all appreciate so much.  I had the pleasure of joining Joe on some of these unofficial trail days to help build this great new trail.

So why is this trail being called the Unabomber Trail?  Evidently, the "Tin Shack" reminded some people of the unabomber's shack.  Since the new trail is considered an extension of the Tin Shack Trail and nobody was able to come up with a better name, people started referring to the new trail as the Unabomber Trail.
The Salem Pond Loop (aka Terry Trail) has been a favorite of north shore riders, especially since it was extended by NEMBA to complete the loop around Salem Pond.  Prior to the new trail being built, bikers had to ride a fairly boring stretch of fire road to access the Salem Pond Loop.  Now we have over a half mile of sweet single track to get us from the Tin Shack trail to the Salem Pond Loop.  The Jenkins side of the new trail has its entrance off of Harold Parker Rd, across from the Tin Shack trail. Harold Parker Rd is the dirt road that exits the Jenkins parking lot through the open field.  The Tin Shack trail is a single track running between Berry Pond Rd and Harold Parker Rd.
New Trail shown between two red dots relative to Jenkins parking lot.