New Jamestown map from Rock Solid!
Check out the latest Jamestown Trail map from our friends at Rock Solid! The highlighted area (bottom left) is the location for the skills area we hope to build this fall via the raising of $50,000 by 4/15/23. The stoke level is high – thanks for everyone’s support. Don’t forget the open house opportunity on 3/25/23!
Jamestown Update March 2023
Tour the property on March 25th at 9am! Unique opportunity for a guided tour of the Jamestown Trail property. Check out our many awesome ravines and walk portion(s) of the flagged trail. The trail head address is adjacent to an electrical substation; park in the road (parking is legal) and meet in the open area adjacent to the substation. Printed maps will be available. You won’t be disappointed – see you there! RSVP on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/180260951422979
Over the winter we’ve made some exciting progress and have some awesome news to share!
1. We have been in discussions with RockSolid Trail Contracting, a premier trail builder known for their work in Bentonville & Copper Harbor, to build the Jamestown trail. RockSolid was contracted to come onsite in early December for pre-build design planning. We will be sharing the RockSolid Jamestown detailed plan will be shared in the very near future.
2. Through incredible support from the community and valuable partners, we have raised $154,000 to date, 20% of the funding required to build the full RockSolid Jamestown design. The trail team is excited to announce our intentions to bring RockSolid Trail Contracting onsite this fall to begin construction of a connector trail from the parking lot to a skills area that will be unique to west Michigan. WE NEED YOUR HELP to raise an additional $50,000 by April 15th 2023 to secure RockSolid’s construction crews for this fall. The initial work will showcase the unique terrain and give both our riders and potential donors a taste of what to expect for the entire loop.
3. We are going to be hosting a site walk for the community / potential funding partners at the site on March 25th at 9am. This will be a short walk into the property with some show and tell of the area of the skills park and what types of features will be included with the build. We will also show visitors the incredible scenery, vistas, and potential of this property with the goal to increase awareness for fundraising opportunities. Details of this event will be posted at ridememba.com and on our FB page.
4. Help us raise an additional $50,000 by April 15th to make the work this fall a reality – let’s get this built! Contributions can be made to the ridememba.com/donate, designating the Jamestown project or contacting us directly at jamestown@ridememba.com. Know someone, an organization or a company that might help us reach our $50,000 goal? If so, please reach out to us! Thanks in advance for your support to build this amazing trail system!
2022/23 Winter Trails Report
While this winter hasn’t been as long and snowy as we’d like, it did give us some solid conditions for fat biking! A huge shout out to the volunteer groomers for building multiple bases (the hard part) and working with what we were given. Riley (grooming sponsored by Team Velo; thanks!), Mosquito Creek, & Owasippe all had perfect conditions at one point or another.
Another shout out for all the folks who purchased grooming stickers this winter! The financial support keeps the machines running and the stickers remind all the volunteers how much their work is appreciated. Stickers are still available for purchase here!
Prep those snow dances for later this year!
The MEMBA Advocacy Fund
2022 was the inaugural year of the MEMBA Advocacy Fund, which afforded us the opportunity to help support 3 local youth cycling programs! Junior Velo, MSBC Raptors, & West Michigan Coyotes are all programs that call MEMBA trails home base to their cycling-focused youth development activities. In addition to supporting our future trail users (and member base!), this investment brought the organization 60 new MEMBAs and got our logo on some sweet jerseys!
The goal of this fund is to both help programs that already exist in our community and also offer an avenue to encourage folks to start new ones.
What makes for a successful MEMBA Advocacy Fund recipient?
- non-profit status (suggested, not required)
- cycling-focused programming
- MEMBA trail use
- desire to learn about/contribute to trails
- a following to spread the good word of MEMBA to
Do you know of a program, or have an idea for a program, that fits the bill? Would you like to contribute directly to help grow the fund? Are you interested in helping manage the fund? Let us know! We can be reached via email at fund@ridememba.com.
Welcome to the MEMBAVerse!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Michigan’s Edge Mountain Biking Association (MEMBA) to Discontinue all Physical Reality Operations and Redirect All Efforts and Resources Towards Building The MEMBAVerse in Virtual Reality
West Michigan – Newly appointed MEMBA President, Joe Lampen, is announcing today that, effective immediately, all resources collected and the efforts of the board, trail coordinators, and community volunteers will be redirected towards building the MEMBAVerse, a virtual reality world for people to enjoy the sport of mountain biking. “The future of mountain biking is not actually outside mountain biking” said Lampen. “The MEMBAVerse will be THE place for people to pursue a healthy lifestyle in virtual reality.”
The new MEMBAVerse will be built on the Ethereum blockchain in order to allow for the creation of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT’s) for trail segments and bike equipment. Developers will be given the opportunity to create trail segments and earn Builtcoin or issue an NFT for the segment that financial sponsors will be able to purchase. Virtual riders will be able to earn Fitcoin by riding trail segments, which will also create new Builtcoins that will be issued to the developer of that trail segment and the name of the holder of the NFT for the trail segment will be presented as the sponsor (ad) to the rider while they ride the segment. Fitcoins will be able to be exchanged for beer, coffee, or, well…. virtually anything.
Bike shops will have an opportunity to participate in the new MEMBAVerse as well. They will be able to sell the bikes and equipment in the new virtual world in exchange for Bitscoin. Bikes will also have NFT’s attached to them to validate authenticity and ownership of the bike. Bitscoin will also be able to be exchanged for bike ‘bits’ necessary to maintain the bike’s NFT value. Bitscoin can be purchased from MEMBA (details coming) and will be shared with the bike shops.
Bike events will also be held in the MEMBAVerse by allowing event managers to create scheduled events where riders can sign up and show up for events like bike races. Lampen commented on how those events would be managed by explaining “MEMBAVerse races will become available for participants by uploading their biometric data and ability level to appropriately place into competitive race classes. We trust people will be honest about their information.”
“Current physical reality riders will be able to participate in the new MEMBAVerse as well”, Lampen added. All MEMBA members (MEMBAs) as of April 3, 2022 will become permanently enshrined as founding MEMBAs of the MEMBAVerse giving them perpetual recognition for helping to fund the fun for generations to come.
Happy April. Fool. But seriously…we’d love it if you became a physical MEMBA by April 3…
The trail in Jamestown Fundraising Progress Report!
Thanks to some incredible partners we have made some exciting progress in the past 6 weeks! We are happy to report that we have raised 25% of our total fundraising goal and 50% to a phase 1 build! If we can raise the remaining amount for the phase 1 build there is a chance we can see trail this year, but we need your help!
Winter trail report farewell 2022
And just like that, another Spring is here! Winter 2022 brought lots of snow, great temps, plenty of sun, and some really, really, rrreeeaaallly good riding throughout the MEMBA system!
Winter trail report: 3/4/22
Hopefully you found some of the good conditions that were around last weekend because it’s looking like we’ve reached the end! If you want to get out on the ice, today’s likely your last chance. The good news is that 50s this weekend should be a nice kickstart to making our way to spring riding! We’ll be back in freeze/thaw territory which means fragile trails, so please take care and we’ll all be kicking up dirt in no time!
Tonight’s final Friday Night Lights ride at Owasippe has been cancelled. We’re grateful to have at least gotten one in this year and look forward to trying again next year! Are you interested in Friday night rides throughout the rest of the year (at any trails)? Let us know!
Winter trail report: 2/25/22
Last weekend’s bits of snow ended up making (some) trails surprisingly rideable! The mixture of sun, upper-freezing temps, and some more snow late this week should make for a decent weekend of trail conditions (at least at Owasippe)! Keep in mind there’s likely still plenty of ice despite what you see; ride accordingly.
Winter trail report: 2/18/22
Say it ain’t so! Wednesday’s warmth and rain really went to work on all the trails, causing the cancellation of the Friday Night Lights ride at Owasippe and postponement of our Winter Trail Celebration at Riley on Saturday 😔 Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more details as we will definitely not be skipping the opportunity to celebrate all of the groomers’ hard work, whether there’s snow on the trails or not!