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Next Meeting: March 15th, 2012
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News
Duluth Traverse Update
COGGS
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Dear COGGS Member,
Over the past three years COGGS primary focus has been establishing the Duluth Traverse, a multi-use singletrack trail that will completely traverse the City of Duluth from Lester Park to Jay Cooke State Park. When it’s all said and done we’ll have more than 100 miles of trail purpose built for mountain biking that is accessible to nearly everyone in our community. Duluth is one of the few urban areas in the country that could host such a trail system and COGGS feels a great deal of purpose to try and make this dream become a reality.
As many of you know, the City of Duluth won a State Legacy grant for $250,000 for the Duluth Traverse this December. This is a huge show of support from the State that the Duluth Traverse is a project with significant value for all Minnesotans and we are extremely excited to see this first injection of significant funding to get the project started.
Winning the Legacy grant has created a substantial buzz about COGGS and the Duluth Traverse in our community. Expectations are extremely high and many people are wondering how, when and where the trail will start being built. Because of these questions, COGGS has created this document to help answer everyone’s questions and let interested people know what really is and isn’t happening with the Duluth Traverse.
Thank you for your support for the Duluth Traverse and for your help in informing the rest of the community about this great project and the progress to date.
Sincerely,
Adam Sundberg
COGGS Chair
How was the Legacy grant acquired?
COGGS volunteer, Daryl Peterson, wrote the Legacy grant request and worked with the City of Duluth to apply. Legacy grants can only be acquired by major governmental agencies like a city or county. We originally wrote the grant for $100,000. However, after the State shutdown in the summer of 2011 postponed the grants, the Legacy grant funding changed from a 25% match to a 10% match and the deadlines were changed. After a meeting with Mayor Don Ness, COGGS and the City decided to apply for the full $500,000 amount. The City of Duluth was awarded $250,000 for construction of the Duluth Traverse by the MN DNR in December of 2011.
How much money is available for building the Duluth Traverse in 2012?
The Legacy grant is for $250,000 and the City of Duluth has agreed to contribute $100,000 to this project. We also have had smaller grants (Bikes Belong - $10,000, Parks Commision - $2000, Healthy Duluth Coalition - $4,000, Duluth Superior Community Foundation - $1,000) that have contributed $17,000. This, along with the $25,000 COGGS has fundraised privately equals $392,000 that is available for the DT in 2012 or was spent on planning/consulting in 2011. Thanks to our awesome team of grant writers and the City of Duluth’s support, our memberships’ contributions of $25,000 have been multiplied 16 times!
How will the money from the Legacy grant be spent?
The City of Duluth has won the Legacy grant, not COGGS. COGGS is ineligible to win a Legacy grant, it must be won by a governmental agency. However, the Legacy grant was written to fund the Duluth Traverse, so all $250,000 will go through the City to build the first phase of the Duluth Traverse. The City and COGGS have a Memorandum of Understanding in place allowing us to make joint decisions for the Duluth Traverse. This is a massive, multi-year project that will be done in many phases. For 2012, COGGS and the City of Duluth have prioritized finishing 3 miles of trail in Lester Park and beginning the construction of a substantial trail network in Mission Creek. The reason for these prioritizations are because we already have a professionally laid out trail corridor in Lester Park and it is one of the most highly used parks for outdoor recreation. By finishing the Lester system with 3 miles of professionally built trail with great flow, it will be a great example of the quality of trail that can be built using professionals and what can be expected for the rest of the Duluth Traverse. Mission Creek is a priority because it is a giant City park with excellent terrain for mountain biking and little barriers to trail development. Basically it is a blank canvas and the only area in Duluth where we can build a Cuyuna like system with double-digit miles of flow trail and loops of varying difficulty. The money will actually be spent on paying consultants to design the trail and contractors to build it. Our purpose for hiring professionals is two-fold. First and foremost, it’s because we want to build high quality, world-class trails. If we want the best trails possible, the best trailbuilders will be needed to design and build them. That means hiring people who build trails for a living and whose resumes include building the epic trails from all over the world. Our second reason for hiring pros is to accelerate how soon these world-class trails can be built. With significant funds available, we can hire a pro trailbuilding organization to come to Duluth with multiple machines and highly experienced operators and build more miles of trail in a month than we can in two years with volunteer labor alone.
Because the State Legacy grant has stringent environmental criteria, COGGS and the City of Duluth are spending their winter working on an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW), which requires an extensive review process. This is a very time-consuming process that is pushing the construction start date back to mid-July of 2012 at the earliest. Depending on how the many month review process of the EAW goes, it’s conceivable that our full authorization to build could be late into September or October, which could be too late to be able to hire a contractor to be able to build enough trail to make it worth the mobilization. We are working hard to avoid this scenario because we don’t want to lose momentum by losing our entire building season. The ways we are working to prevent this are going full gas on the environmental permits right now and also working on fundraising to be able to directly hire a contractor without the timely bidding process required by the Legacy grant to at least finish the Lester Park trail system this year once we have the EAW finished in July.
How much with the Duluth Traverse cost?
Our very rough estimates range from 1.6 to 2 million dollars. This includes having professional trail builders build world class looped systems from five different trail hubs (Lester, Hartley, Piedmont, Spirit Mountain and Mission Creek) and connecting them all with beginner level singletrack, called the Connector Trail. It’s expensive to have pro’s build the trail, but it’s the only way to build world-class trails in a timely manner. Estimated costs for pros building trail is $16,000/mile for easy terrain, $21,000/mile for moderate terrain and $42,000/mile for difficult terrain (read: rocky soil, and we have a lot of it). We also hope to build two bike parks, one in West Duluth and one at the Arlington athletic complex, and full-on downhill trails at Spirit Mountain. As you can see, although the $250,000 Legacy grant is an outstanding asset, it only gets us approximately 1/8 of the way to our goal of making Duluth the premier trail city in North America.
What kind of trail is the Duluth Traverse going to be?
COGGS vision for the Duluth Traverse is to build trails for all levels of riding ability. Duluth has a serious lack of beginner trails and it is a major hurdle to those who are new to the sport so this will be a focus. The Connector Trail is our name for a contiguous beginner level trail that will be the backbone of the Duluth Traverse. So from Lester Park to Fond du Lac there will be a beginner level flow trail. At our five trail hubs, we will have beginner, intermediate and advanced trails. Most of our current hubs already have plenty of intermediate and some advanced riding, but additional challenging trail will be built too. One consistent theme for all levels of trail will be flow. Flow is the often-used term to refer to trails that allow you to keep your momentum by not having unnecessarily sharp corners or unsustainable elevation changes. Riding a trail with good flow is similar to downhill skiing in powder. Whether the trail is for beginner or advanced riders, it’s not going to have unnecessary momentum killers, although the more difficult trails will have plenty of rock obstacles, other features and opportunities to get air. Along with these cross country trails, we also hope to build a full-on double black diamond downhill trails at Spirit Mountain and two bike parks with dirt jumps, pump tracks and skills park.
What will be the impact of the Duluth Traverse?
The Duluth Traverse is being built to IMBA (International Mountain Bike Association) standards for sustainable trail design and construction. This will minimize any impact on the environment and also minimize the costs of maintenance. The Duluth Traverse impact will have a much bigger impact on Duluth’s tourism industry and the economy than it will on the natural environment. The quality, size, and beautiful terrain will make it a regional draw and will bring riders here for multi-day vacations where they will also be able to enjoy all the other attractions that Duluth has to offer. The Duluth Traverse will help build a sense of inter-connectedness and community by connecting our parks with a greenway trail system. It will be one more reason why Duluth is increasingly becoming a great place to live, work, and play. The trail system will also be an economic engine attracting business owners and prospective employees to Duluth who want to take advantage of the recreational opportunities that the Duluth Traverse represents. But more importantly than all of that, it allows all of us out the door access to world class trails.
Who can use the Duluth Traverse trail system?
The Duluth Traverse trail system, though purpose built for mountain biking, will be suitable for many human powered recreational users such as trail running, hiking, dog-walking, nature watching, and snowshoeing. All of these sports are lifetime sports so people of all ages will be able to enjoy using the Duluth Traverse and it will contribute to a healthy and life-long active lifestyle. The trail system will pass near and benefit all Duluthians and visitors alike. It will make it easy for everyone to get out and enjoy Duluth’s beautiful park system and natural environment.
COGGS is rich now, so fundraising is done, right?
Sorry, but no. Because of winning four smaller grants and fundraising, COGGS currently has about $35,000 in the Duluth Traverse account and $10,000 in our operating account. $25,000 of the Duluth Traverse account will go towards the 10% match we need to fulfill our Legacy grant application (Pretty nice when we can multiply everyone’s contributions by 10). The remaining $10,000 may be used as matches for other grants, to pay for smaller projects, paying for environmental assessments or permitting and hiring consultants. Plus, in order to keep the project rolling, we’re going to be applying for the next round of Legacy grants and other grant opportunities, all of which will need match money. In order to keep this exciting project moving forward, fundraising is going to be a top priority from now until it’s done.
We can all quit building trail now because we can hire pros to do it, right?
COGGS has always been and will always be a group of people committed to building and maintaining trails. We currently have a system of 30 miles of existing trail that still needs a lot of work be become sustainable and be accessible to all types of riders. This will require a lot of volunteer trailwork to accomplish. As we mentioned above, hiring pros to build trail is expensive. As the Duluth Traverse is being built there may also be opportunities to supplement the professional trail labor with volunteer labor to increase the efficiency of the trail construction, especially with manual labor-intensive tasks such as clearing corridor and finishing work. Also, now that COGGS has put time and effort into training on how to build quality, sustainable trail, we are capable of transforming our network of marginal trails into something truly special. So we will still be picking up our pulaskis and mcleods every single week to make our trails better for everyone who uses them. Projects that will require volunteer trailwork for 2012 include:
• Significant reroutes on both east and west sides of Seven Bridges Rd in Lester
• Rehabilitating the Superior Hiking Trail to be sustainable from Hawk Ridge to Hartley, which COGGS has gained approval to be multi-use.
• Reroute of beginning and end of Guardrail loops in Hartley
• Several reroutes in Piedmont
• Building of 1 mile advanced loop called the Kissing Booth in Brewer Park
• 1-2 mile beginner loop near Spirit Mtn campground.
What is COGGS relationship with IMBA?
In 2011 COGGS became a chapter of the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA), an International organization that supports the interests of mountain bikers and a world leader in sustainable trail design and construction techniques.. What that means is that COGGS can now use IMBA’s resources to manage many aspects of our membership and promotions and part of the money that is taken in with memberships is shared with IMBA in a 60/40 split. IMBA will send each COGGS member renewal notices and will also send new members their membership gift. The reason COGGS became a chapter of IMBA is because IMBA has directly and indirectly had a hand in COGGS winning the $10,000 Bikes Belong grant and the $250,000 State Legacy grant, donated $7,000 of professional trail consulting towards the Duluth Traverse and their 2010 Trail Care Crew taught our entire team of volunteer trail builders sustainable trail design and construction, which is valued at $6,000. That means COGGS has received $274,000 of money and services that honestly would not have happened without IMBA’s support. Joining IMBA as a chapter, giving part of our membership dollars back to IMBA, and strengthening IMBA with our membership was the right thing to do so that they can continue to support us and other clubs like us.
How can I help?
First and foremost join COGGS, encourage your friends to join COGGS as well and make it an annual practice to renew your membership. Since COGGS is now a chapter of IMBA, membership brings with it some nice benefits like magazine subscriptions and a variety of discounts. Second, contribute some of your time and money to COGGS and encourage your friends and family to do the same. Think to yourself what is it worth to you to be able to ride great trails right here in your hometown. Since COGGS is now a 501©3 organization your donations can be made tax deductible. COGGS has trail workdays where members get together and work on sections of trail for a few hours. These efforts are fun, good exercise, and surprisingly rewarding when you ride along the sections of trail that you helped build and maintain. Also consider joining the COGGS board or putting some of your special skill sets to work in some other way helping COGGS such as fundraising, grant writing, organizing social events, etc… Spread the word and let others know what COGGS and Duluth’s trail systems mean to you.
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COGGS tax help
COGGS
Saturday, January 21, 2012
COGGS is now a 501-c3 and because of our extremely successful fundraising campaign this year is going to have to file taxes. This typically is a $700-800 bill and it has been considered to ask our membership if there are any accountants in our midst who would be willing to help COGGS file for 2011. If yourself or someone you know is a professional accountant who is willing to work pro-bono for COGGS we would be more than happy to add you to our sponsorship page at whatever level the service is valued at and also hook you up with one of the sweet Thirsty Pagan cycling hats that gets you 2 for 1's on your first round for all of 2012. Please contact Sherie Nelson at stienor@hotmail.com if you're able to help.
Thank you!
Adam
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Posted by: Jayvee on 02-14-2012
Always rerfehsing to hear a rational answer. |
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COGGS wins Legacy Grant!
COGGS
Friday, December 23, 2011
We have just learned that the City of Duluth has won a $250,000 Legacy grant from the State of Minnesota for the Duluth Traverse!
Merry Christmas to us!!!!!!
Extra special thanks to Daryl Peterson for writing the grant, Hansi Johnson of IMBA for getting some very important people to write support letters and for our awesome supporters in the City of Duluth like Matt Decur of Engineering who helped us through the process.
Our success in winning this grant goes all the way back to the IMBA Trail Care Crew two years ago when Hansi Johnson invited so many key land managers and gov't officials, including Andrew Korsberg, the man who received and reviewed our Legacy grant application, to the Better Lives Through Trails presentation where we unveiled the Duluth Traverse map. Everyone who needed to hear our vision was in that room and now in 2012 we are going to take a big chunk out of making this a reality.
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Limited edition cycling caps going fast!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Thanks to all of you who have donated to COGGS this month! We have raised over $11,000 that is going directly to trail building in the New Year!
There remain 70 of these sweet cycling caps which allow you 2:1 beers at the Thirsty Pagan beginning January 1. If we can move all of these to donors, we will have raised over $18,000!!
Order form: http://www.coggs.com/images/upload/66.jpg/
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Referendum Passed!
COGGS
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Thanks to the hard work of the Vote Yes! Campaign and a little help from COGGS, the Parks and Recreation referendum passed. This means not only will our Parks be fully funded and be able to provide the services for the parks we enjoy, but the libraries will be able to return to full hours and services.
Most importantly for COGGS, the passing of the referendum will actually financially benefit the progression of the Duluth Traverse, COGGS vision for a multi-use singletrack trail system that completely crosses Duluth.
Thank you for supporting this initiative! Get ready for Duluth to be transformed into the place we always knew it could be!
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Annual Meeting is Sunday, Dec 11 at 2:30
COGGS
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Each year COGGS last board meeting of the year is an all-member meeting that is really more of a celebration of the year's successes and a thank you to all of our members for making COGGS what it is. This year that meeting will be on Sunday, December 11th at the Thirsty Pagan Brewery in Superior, starting at 2:30 pm. The Pagan's owner, the affable and generous Steve Knauss, has agreed to close down the Pagan from 2:30-4 pm so that we can conduct our meeting and then once that is all said and done, he'll open it back up to the public and we'll get the pizza going.
This year each member will get two drink tickets and all the pizza they want. We'll also be giving away a couple goodies using the ticket numbers as lottery numbers.
Part of the reason we needed to have a private meeting before the party aspect is because there have been a number of insanely awesome developments that have occurred over the past six months that we have done a horrible job at communicating to the general membership. Here are some of the things that will be discussed in the meeting portion of our celebration:
- Midwest IMBA rep, Hansi Johnson, will give a presentation on what has been happening throughout the Midwest region to improve mtn biking
- Recognize this year's Board and Trail Stewards for their contributions
- Duluth Traverse, what it is, how it's being funded and our partnership with the City
- City of Duluth Parks and Recreation Master Plan and passing of the Referendum and how it will positively (huge understatement) effect the progression of the Duluth Traverse
- COGGS status as an IMBA chapter and what that means to us as club members
Once we've discussed all of that, then it's party time! Please remember that this meeting is open for all members. We want everyone to show up and learn what COGGS is doing and get to know fellow COGGers. So please come!
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Posted by: Tjaard on 12-09-2011
How about getting some club jerseys made? |
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Vote Yes! Campaign Fundraiser for City Parks and Rec at Zeitgeist
COGGS
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Vote Yes!
City of Duluth Parks and Recreation Referendum
Fundraiser
Oct 13th at Zeitgeist Arts Café Atrium
5:30 - Screening of the movie “Pedal Driven”at the Zinema. This is a documentary that examines the shared philosophies of stewardship and sustainability between mountain bikers and the US Forest service, while offering examples of ways in which opposing factions can find common ground in defense of our common grounds. Check out the trailer here: http://pedaldriven.howellatthemoon.com/videostrailers
7:00 – Silent Auction and Social featuring organizations such as COGGS, Superior Hiking Trail Association, Hartley Nature Center, Hawk Ridge, Duluth XC Ski Club, Friends of the Park and the Healthy Duluth Coalition. All organizations will bring fantastic silent auction items from local businesses and also have information about their organizations and how the Parks Referendum will help them fulfill their respective missions.
All proceeds from this event will go towards the Vote Yes! Campaign for the City of Duluth Parks and Recreation Referendum, which, if passed on the November 8th election, will authorize a Special Levy of $2,600,000 to support a Parks Fund.
What is a special levy Parks Fund?
It is a separate fund established to support Parks and Recreation. The Parks and Recreation budget will no longer be in the general operating budget of the City of Duluth. Funds to run and maintain our park system will come from a special tax levy.
Why is it important to establish a Parks Fund?
Parks and Recreation has experienced drastic cuts over the years leaving many of our parks, trails, and recreation areas in poor condition. Because the Parks Fund would be separate from the City’s General Operating Budget, reductions would not affect the Parks Fund and we continue our plan to maintain and improve our park system.
What will it cost me as a taxpayer?
It will cost less than $5.00 per month for an average house valued at $158,000.
Will our parks and green spaces improve because of the Parks Fund?
Yes. Dedicated money will be used for parks operations, youth recreational services, seasonal park employees, and pay as you go capital expenditures and park improvements.
What are some examples of improvements I can expect?
• Trail and Bikeway improvements
• Wayfinding signs for trails and parks
• Expanded recreation opportunities citywide
• Improved park maintenance
• New bathroom facilities at our parks
What will happen if the referendum does not pass?
The city would have to reduce parks and recreation services and consider closing recreation areas.
What will happen if the referendum passes?
A “yes” vote will establish the Special Levy fund for Parks and Recreation operations and capital improvements. The Parks and Recreation budget allocation would no longer be obtained from the City of Duluth’s General Fund. Those funds could be allocated to keep our branch libraries open 5 days a week and expand hours at the main Public Library, thus allowing the Library to operate at full capacity. Both Parks and Recreation and the Duluth Public Library system will benefit.
November Election Ballot: Parks Fund
Should Chapter 2 of the Duluth City Code, 1959, as amended, be amended to create a fund denominated as the “Parks Fund” and should the city levy a special levy in the amount of $2,600,000 on the referendum market value of all real property in the city, said levy being 0.0472654% of said referendum market value, for the purpose of providing a dedicated funding source for parks and recreation facilities, recreation activities, and for implementation of the concepts addressed in the Duluth Parks and Recreation Master Plan dated December 2010, in accordance with the authority contained in Laws of Minnesota, 1953, Chapter 560, Section 1:
1) Yes, I support the establishment of a park fund at a funding level of $2.6 million or an overall 3.2% property tax increase.
2) No, I do not support the establishment of a park fund.”
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Fall Extravaganza
COGGS
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Fall Extravaganza
This year the Fall Extravaganza will again be in Cable on the dates of Sept 30-Oct 2. This is a weekend where we all head over to ride the CAMBA Trails and hang out to celebrate the hardwork and successes that we've had together. We stay at 4 Seasons: (http://www.4seasonsresort.net/woodsviewvacationhomerental.html)
and we will be reserving our spot a little differently this year. If you want to stay at the townhouse, you need to get $20 to Adam Sundberg doing one of the following:
1. Mailing it to his house - 1016 N 12th Ave E Duluth MN 55805
2. Dropping it off at his work - Duluth Chiropractic Clinic 5807 Grand Ave
3. Hand delivering it to wherever he may be at the moment
Once Adam has your $20, you have a bed. If he doesn't have any money from you, you have no bed and there may or may not be some floor space for you. Keep in mind, the $20 gets you a bed for both nights. So if you stay Friday and Saturday or just Saturday, the cost is the same. So why not take off work a little early and come ride in the afternoon and then hang out Friday night as well?
Here's the itinerary:
Friday - feel free to coordinate where and when to ride with others. Potluck dinner at 4 Seasons Vacation Home at 7 pm
Saturday - 10 am, meet at Mosquito Brook parking lot and ride Makwa and then Fish Hatchery/Mosquito Brook for those who want more. Clean up at the townhouse and then eat some fine pizza at the Rivers Eatery in Cable
Sunday - 9 am ride at Rock Lake and Patsy Lake. Meet at the Namakogan town hall. A bit of an earlier start because the Delta Diner closes at 3 pm and we gotta' get there before it closes!
If this line-up of events looks awesome, it's because it is. So give Adam your $20 and let's get ready for a great weekend.
Here's how to get to 4 seasons from the Twin Ports:
Take Hwy 53 South (follow signs to Wisconsin) You will be going over the Blaknic Bridge to Wisconsin
At the end of the bridge, take the exit ramp (still Hwy 53)
Go through Superior, WI
Follow Hwy 53 approximately 25 miles to Hwy AA (just before the town of Solon Springs, WI)
Take a Left on Hwy AA to the stop sign
Take a Left at the stop sign which will be Hwy A
Stay on Hwy A (there will be a turn/Veer to the right, follow the signs)
Stay on Hwy A approximately 16 miles to Hwy 27 (there will be a stop sign at the intersection)
Turn right on Hwy 27
Take Hwy 27 for 1 mile
Turn Left on Cty Rd N
Follow Cty Rd N approximately 15 miles - all the way to Hwy 63 (there will be a stop sign at the intersection)
Take a right on Hwy 63 (south)
Go approximately 9 miles to Cable
Turn Left on Cty Rd M (in Cable)
Go 7 miles to the Dam Road, take a left
3 ½ miles on the Dam Road, take a right on Birch Point Road
½ mile turn left into the Four Seasons Resort
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Gitchee Gumee Gallivant August 20
COGGS
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
The GGG is this Saturday, August 20th. This is a free event that is not just for COGGS members. It's open to anyone who wants to go for a long off road ride and have a ton of fun. So please invite your friends to participate in this annual event that is a ton of fun every year we've done it. We will be starting to congregate in Chamber's Grove, the City park in Fond du Lac on the St. Louis River right after Hwy 210 splits off Hwy 23 at 8:30 am and we will mount our faithful steeds and commence riding at 9 am. Scones and coffee will be provided in the park.
Our route:
Through Mission Creek
On the DWP through West Duluth to the Big Kahuna
East on Skyline to the Powerlines through Brewer Park
As much of Piedmont as we have a hankering for
East on Skyline to Hartley
Owatonna Trail
Amity Creek trail
Lester-Amity singletrack
This ride is a casual, moderate paced lolligag that is all about hanging out, touring the beautiful city of Duluth and enjoying being on two wheels. The main goal of the day is to have a ton of fun. However, it is also about 50 miles of dirt. If the most you're ridden your bike this year is 10 miles at a time,this may not be the best event for you. It's suggested that you possibly meet up with us at one of the mid-points and jump in for the rest of the ride. This ride will consist of gravel roads, railroad grades, doubletrack, intermediate singletrack and advanced singletrack. Also, well-maintained bikes are highly appreciated. Please make sure your bike is in good working order as we have so much riding to do there isn't much time for maintenance breaks. Also, if we get a bunch of rain this week, we will still ride, just not on any singletrack. There's lots of gravel and doubletrack that we can take should the singletrack be too wet to ride.
After the ride is over we will be having a party at Whitey's house, starting at 6 pm. Michael Hillmeyer will be cooking up some phenomenal pulled pork. Please bring your favorite beverage to imbibe and a dish to share. If you want to bring something else to grill other than pork, I'm sure there will be room on a grill for that. Whitey lives on Maxwell Rd. If you take a right off of Jean Duluth on to Medin, take Medin for its entirety then take a left on Maxwell Rd. Whitey's place is the second or third place on your left with big spruce trees in the front yard.
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Kids Mountain Bike Skills and Games August 18 and 25
COGGS
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
COGGS member, educator and expert racer Joshua Tesch will be teaching two days of mountain bike skills and games for kids on August 18th and 25th. Both days will be held in Lester Park and will start at 6 pm. The focus will be on FUN and learning how to handle a mountain bike and build skills so that kids can enjoy riding on trails with the occasional technical feature. Games on bikes will be played that develop skills but most importantly are really fun. Kids aged 8-16 can attend and the sessions are absolutely free. Just show up at Lester Park at 6 pm and bring your mountain bike and helmet.
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Great Hawk Chase a Huge Success!
COGGS
Monday, August 8, 2011
Thank you to all the racers and volunteers for making the Great Hawk Chase such a great event yesterday. We had 265 racers enjoy some fantastic racing and initial estimates point to us making $3,000 that we get to put back into the trails we all love. Our local racers did quite well with top placings in nearly every race. Most importantly, thanks to the hard work of the road crossing volunteers (Kit and Stacia Grayson, Brad Gustason, Dave Schultz, Jon Heyeson, Eric Peterson, Ashley, Ross Fraboni, Jeff Fraboni, etc), we had no safety issues.
There are many people to thank for making the race such a success yesterday, and I apologize in advance for anyone who I leave off this list because I inevitably will.
First off, Mick Dodds selected which trails would make up the course and together with Daryl Peterson, he organized over a hundred hours of trailwork to make sure the course was in top shape. We got quite a bit of rain Saturday, but the trails shed the water well and by the sport race riders were finishing and looking clean. Joe Schneeweis, Brad Gustason, Ryan Nelson, Mike Reuter, Chris Thorson, Mark Wilhelmson, Mike Miller, Karl and Kurt Olhafen, Michelle Riley, Di Dawkins, Andy Kircher, Jim Shoberg and Steve Knauss and others all contributed to the trail being in such fine shape.
Steve Knauss was a huge help picking up the cones/vests for the road crossing volunteers as well as the water from Michaud. He has helped in so many ways with both of our races this year, we are so thankful!
A big thanks to Sherie Nelson for taking over all aspects of registration and her fellow registration maven Di Dawkins. They, along with Dee Bartlam and her daughter, Leslie Semler, Margy Fraboni, Teri Saunders made registration seemless for all participants. Also thanks to Dave Dawkins for helping with selling T-shirts and for endlessly promoting the Duluth Traverse to anyone who would listen.
Huge thanks to the Ragin' Cajun Don Velleux for cooking up his amazing ribs and also manning the grill for all concessions food. Bruce Smith and Margy were tireless in helping run the concessions stand and they were helped by Mike Miller.
Daryl set up the water station and Gus, Joe Schneewiess, Joe Ostazeski, Mark Wihelmson, Bill Bourassa, Rossyln Kendrik, Mike Miller, etc made sure all the riders were hydrated.
Dave Cizmas and Matt Evingson provided some much needed medical care. Thanks for sharing your expertise and helping out a few injured riders.
Amanda Brennan, Shane Olson, Leslie Semler, Rudy and Kari Gates helped with racer awards and swag giveways as well.
Again, apologies to all my mind isn't recollecting right now. Thank you so much for volunteering. We had an abundance of people and I will safely say that all of us were able to perform our roles for the race without stress or pressure because there were so many people to help.
I also want to thank some great sponsors for the race who really made it it a good experience for participants.
- Andy Kircher and Super One donated all the racer food and much of the concessions
- Todd McFadden and Bernicks donated gatorade and soda for concessions
- Michaud donated water for the water station
- The Ski Hut and Continental Ski and Bike donated awesome swag to giveaway to the racers
- The Brewhouse donated 12 growlers to give to volunteers. Don't worry, we'll be passing those along soon.
- Hansi and IMBA donated 20 sets of tires for volunteers. Again, they will be given out soon as well.
Thank you!
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COGGS Carnival
COGGS
Monday, June 6, 2011
On June 25th at Lester Park, COGGS will be having its first ever Carnival. Basically it's going to be a big jamboree of riding and hanging out together. We'll be grilling, having a potluck and riding a lot. Not only will it just be riding, but our resident trials expert, Rudy, will even lead a skills clinic that guarantees to make every participant at least as technically savvy as Rudy himself.
This event is free and open to members and non-members. So invite some people who you think could get plugged into our local riding community. The more the merrier!
June 25, 2011
1:00 Meet in Lester Park
1:30 Fast paced road ride - Ride up Lester River Road
1:30 Recreational mountain bike ride - Lap around the Lester Amity single track
3:30 Skills clinic - Learn to wheelie drop, step up obstacles, various techniques for log crossings,bunny hop, track stand and to ride skinnies.
3:30 Recreational road bike ride - Ride up Lester River Road
3:30 Fast paced mountain bike ride - Lap or two around the Lester Amity single track
5:00 Grill and other grub - Pot luck dinner – Meat and veggie burgers will be provided
6:00 Klunker ride - Take your crappiest bike and go for a ride up Seven Bridges Road and come back down the single track.
After the ride the finisher who is judged to have the crappiest bike wins a extra special prize.
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Tuesday Night Rides
COGGS
Monday, June 6, 2011
The trails at Mont du Lac have dried out and Tuesday Night Rides will be starting on June 7th. COGGS members ride for free, $5 for non-members. Membership applications and sweet COGGS socks for members will be available at 5:45 in the parking lot.
If you haven't been to Mont du Lac recently, you should check it out. The chalet has been redone, the bar and grill is open and the atmosphere is always welcoming and fun. Tuesday Night Rides are a blast at Mont du Lac these days.
See you at Mont du Lac!
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A Triumphant National Trails Day
COGGS
Monday, June 6, 2011
National Trails Day was a resounding success as 26 hearty Northlanders turned the disjointed mess that was the south termination of the Tunnel Trail and turned it into a beautiful flowing trail along a creek with bike friendly boardwalk. A special thank you to Matt Evingson for the extra time he put in to prepare the project so Saturday was a well-oiled machine of efficiency. Here's the list of the rest of the Do Gooders:
don velleux
alex valeux
peter lillesve
ryan and sherie nelson
jim shoberg
jason buffington
gordon buffington
catherine buffington
larry langloes
shane olson
patrick quinn
daryl peterson
karl oelhafen
kurt oellhafen
penny hagley
mark hagley
greg jarvis
dave dawkins
di dawkins
rudy o'brien
andrea grygo
mike reuter
eric viken
judy gibbs
Thanks to one and all of them and also to Larry Sampson and his crew of Superior Hiking Trail volunteers that worked on making the boardwalk more bike friendly on the portion of trail we share.
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Joey Klein's visit to Duluth
Joey Klein from IMBA Trail Solutions was recently in Duluth designing new trail for the Duluth Traverse
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Read Sam Cook's article from the Duluth News Tribune on 5/29
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Fitger's Brewhouse Does It Again !!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
COGGS and the Brewhouse ( http://brewhouse.net/ ) are teaming up again. Come on down to the Brewhouse on Thursday, May 19th for the "Taps For Trails" event kickoff.
For every $4 Duluth Traverse commemorative glass purchased $2 will go to COGGS devlopement of the "Duluth Traverse" trail ( http://coggs.com/trails.php )! Another $1 will be donated with every refill! There are only 288 glasses to be had. So don't hesitate!
This fundraising event will run May 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd. Donating to a great cause couldn't be any easier!
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Inaugural COGGS Duathlon
COGGS
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Whitey put on a fantastic Inaugural Lester Park Duathlon today and all participants had a great time.
Jake Boyce, Bob Braxton, Daryl Peterson, Mark Wilhelmson, Shane Olson, Jesse Martus, Dee Bartlam, Rudy O'Brien, Peter Lillesve and Dan Glizinksi all set off from Whitey's house and rode some hardpacked, albeit icy trails via bike before a loop of the ski trails at Lester. Jake Boyce gets the double MVP award for marking the ski course the day before and also for soundly winning the event in about an hour while not even letting his heartrate get above 55 bpm. Afterwards we hung out at Whitey's scheming about how to make the event even better next year.
This has the makings of a MUST DO Duluth event. It was a great effort with great people. Special thanks to Whitey for conjuring up the course and opening his home to the rest of us, Jake for marking the course, Rod Raymond for giving away 4 growlers from the Brewhouse to the participants and lastly to Todd McFadden of Bernicks Pepsi for keeping Whitey's fridge stocked with G2 and New Belgium products for the rest of us to enjoy.
See everyone at this great event next year!
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Posted by: Alicia on 05-09-2011
IS there a way to get on a mailing list to find out about this Duathlon next year? I just moved to Duluth in Sept, and am looking for events like that. |
Posted by: Mark Wilhelmson on 03-07-2011
What a fun event, I hope it happens again. Did anyone get the wrong silver swix pole? I have yours by mistake. |
COGGS in Outdoors Section of Duluth News Tribune
COGGS
Sunday, February 13, 2011
COGGS has been featured in a article by Sam Cooke in the Outdoor Section of the Duluth News Tribune. The article talks about COGGS being awarded $10,000 from Bikes Belong and our plans for the Duluth Traverse.
Check out the article here: http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/191157/
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COGGS awarded $10,000 grant from Bikes Belong!
COGGS
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
COGGS has been awarded a $10,000 grant from Bikes Belong (www.bikesbelong.org) for our Duluth Traverse project!
Bikes Belong had a stack of applications for all types of cycling projects throughout the country, and the Duluth Traverse was one of a handful that they decided to support. This is a huge show of support that our dream of a city-wide multi-use trail is a project worth pouring our energy into.
This now allows us to offer our contribution of $25,000 to our Parks Legacy grant application (to be quadrupled to $100,000) and still have a $10,000 operating budget for regular COGGS functions.
There are many people to thank for us having the opportunity to win this award. First and foremost is Daryl Peterson because he used his expertise to craft an outstanding application that won the support of Bikes Belong. A million thank you's to Daryl!
Hansi Johnson was also critical because he supported us through the process and recruited the letters of support that were key to our application. We got letters of support from Hansi himself, Mike Hartney of Specialized, Geoff Snudden of Trek, Whitey of the Ski Hut and Willie of Continental Ski and Bike. Hansi also used his presence through IMBA to highlight our project out of the many turned in. Gary Sjoquist, employee of QBP and director of the MNMBS also voiced his support to Bikes Belong as well.
Thank you to each and every COGGS member as well. We all have created an organization that is working hard to improve the quality of life for all trail users and people from outside the Twin Ports are taking notice. Great work, one and all!
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2010 Thank You!
COGGS
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
2010 was an amazing year for COGGS and there are many people to thank for it.
First off, our board:
Bill Schwalbe was treasurer and did a fine job managing our finances throughout the year. He also gave our website a complete facelift and it is awesome. If you haven't checked it out, do so right now (www.coggs.com).
Mike Miller was our Ride Coordinator. He put in a huge amount of time helping repair the trail damage after the Dirtspanker and drove through the I-35 construction each Tuesday to sign in new members and make sure everyone had a cold beverage when their ride was done.
Mick Dodds was promotions coordinator so he got our race posters and other communications out. He also helped direct the Great Hawk Chase and his ideas were pivotal in making that race the most successful race we've had in years. It was voted third best by the Minnesota Series riders this year.
Jim Shoberg stepped in as Membership Coordinator in the early summer and did a fantastic job. He put together a new member email, managed our member list and he also attended a week long trailbuilding course in May with Matt Evingson. The knowledge they got from that course has been incredibly beneficial for all our trailbuilding efforts this year. He also put in a ton of trailwork time at Hartley in Lester.
Andrea Grygo was our on-the-ball secretary and GIS specialist. She created the Duluth Traverse map that we've been using in all our presentations to land managers and the community. She also has worked in several other maps as well for us this year, spending countless hours sharing her expertise so that we can be as professional as possible when it comes to our maps.
Matt Evingson was our Trail Coordinator and put in over 200 hours of volunteer time this year. He coordinated all the sustainability improvements in Hartley this year, put in hours working with the Hartley Nature Center and City of Duluth to get those projects improved and was invaluable in assessing nearly all our trail projects for the year.
All in all we collectively did more than 1,200 hours of trailwork this year. Like the last 3 years, if any member did more than 20 hours of trailwork in a season, they earned a black Trailbuilder T-shirt. This year we also factored into those hours any work that anyone did on grants or fundraising as well, since that puts trail on the ground too. This year's first time Black Shirt winners were:
Kit Grayson - Kit stepped in as Piedmont Trail Steward in the middle of the season and logged almost 40 hours putting in boardwalk, weedwhacking and working on reroutes of various sizes.
Bruce Smith - Long time member Bruce logged 20 hours this year, much at Mont du Lac helping Mike Miller repair the Dirtspanker destruction.
Dave Dawkins - Dave has shown initiative to help COGGS with fundraising. He has helped work on several fundraising ideas (such as the Brewhouse/BU Fundraiser) and has also directly asked trail users for finanacial support. In just the past month COGGS has collected over $7,000, due almost in due Dave's efforts.
Hansi Johnson - our local IMBA rep has probably been the biggest instigator of nearly all COGGS new initiatives in the past year. His experience working with over 70 bike clubs in the Midwest is invaluable to helping us make decisions on how we should use our energy. He organized the IMBA Trail Care Crew and included the Land Manager Day where we got to share our vision for the Duluth Traverse with nearly all the Land Managers who we might be working with, one of the best things that could have ever happened to COGGS.
Mike Reuter - Mike stepped forward and spent many hours helping Matt, Jim and Daryl Peterson with projects in Hartley and Lester. Even better, he almost always recruited some buddies to come join him when he came to do trailwork and he also specifically asked to get trailwork during the weekday when he had the time do it.
Matt Jonserud - Matt put several trail hours in at Piedmont this year, but he also found a grant through the Duluth Superior Community Foundation to apply for, did so and we won it, earning $1,000 for building singletrack in the Nordic trails at Spirit Mountain.
Barry Buhr - Barry chipped away at trailwork all year, helping when he could and where he could to top out over 20 hours sometime in August. He often would often get information on projects we were doing and then borrow the tools so he could work on them at the odd times he had available.
I also wanted to say a big thank you to Daryl Peterson. He stepped forward and used his professional expertise to craft our Bikes Belong grant, which we submitted in November. A significant amount of time was put in by Daryl to create this proposal because it is basically the working draft we are going to use on all our grant applications in the future for the Duluth Traverse. After reading through the grant many times I am assured that we couldn't have put together a better one and are very fortunate to have Daryl.
Our sponsors really came up big for COGGS in several ways. Steve at the Thirsty Pagan, besides personally volunteering several times throughout the year, has been setting aside $25 per week for COGGS and now has compiled a $1,000 donation for COGGS. Todd McFadden and Bernicks has helped us many times throughout the year. They've donated beverages and provided signs for races, provided posters and donated soda for the Brewhouse/Burrito Union fundraiser and also donated beverages for the IMBA TCC. The Ski Hut and Continental donated lots of goodies for racer swag and also items for our silent auction fundraiser over the IMBA TCC weekend. COGGS is so grateful for their consistent support over the years.
Lastly, thank you to all our members. Above is not an exhaustive list of who's helped out with COGGS this year. Many people have pitched in on traildays, donated to the Duluth Traverse fund, volunteered or raced in our races, etc. COGGS has been incredibly active and successful this year and we couldn't be happier with the participation from our membership
THANK YOU!
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