We all know what great riding opportunities we have in our area and the Shoreline Cycling Club decided to get the word out to the rest of the cycling community. For the last year, a small committee has been working to produce the area’s first ride guide, the DIRTroad. The DIRTroad is a 36 page guide to 10 of the best MTB and road rides in our area with detailed maps and descriptions of each ride. 20,000 copies of the publication will be distributed to Michigan Welcome Centers, local Convention & Visitors Bureaus, Chambers of Commerce, regional bike shops, local motels along with many other locations. The DIRTroad committee sought out local grants, donations and advertisers in order to produce the guide. It is the Club’s intent to continue producing the DIRTroad in the future with additional rides and information for the cyclist. In the short term we are relying on membership dues and donations to make this project happen. In the long term we hope to actually generate income through advertising.
The next step for the Club is to generate an electronic version of the DIRTroad and update our website to host the e-version. The cost for this will be at least $500 and again we are seeking advertising, donations and membership dues in order to make this happen. If you would like more information about the e-DIRTroad let us know.
In other news, the Club is continuing to develop the Non-Motorized trail park in Manistee into an off-road amusement park with dirt jumps, a pump track and more singletrack. This past winter also saw a considerable increase in skier traffic on the XC ski trails.
The School Forest singletrack in Ludington will be completed this year with a total of over 5 miles of family friendly trails.
The Club is also involved with:
• Awesome looking new bike racks in downtown Ludington.
• Ludington Optimist Bike Rodeo.
• Healthy Active Manistee week in Manistee.
• Special Olympics
• Andy Klevorn’s Singletrack Showdown race.
• Trail upkeep and maintenance with the North Country Trail Assoc. and Manistee and Oceana Ski Councils.
As you can see, the Club has accomplished quite a lot in a few short years. We need your support to continue these projects and to begin new ones.
We will not be sending out invoices to existing members so unless you signed up at last fall’s meeting, you are up for renewal. All business members will be recognized on our website so include your logo. Memberships can be handled by using the PayPal button or print the membership application from the “join” page and send it in.
