Hello Cape Fear SORBA!
You must be wondering what in the world is going on with the Club. The Board of Directors has been hard at work dealing with various issues as well as making progress on major projects at Blue Clay. This email is intended to update our members of what is happening, and what will be happening in the not to distant future.

Club Business
One thing to note of here, the club By-Laws are nearly complete and will be available for viewing and commenting, before a final vote on approval, very soon.

Trail Status: Blue Clay
The County has hired a contractor to rebuild all the Bridges at Blue Clay. All bridges will be required to have handrails. Because of the cost of rebuilding these bridges, which New Hanover County absorbing it-self, we have been asked to reroute portions of the Juvenile side to save money. This will remove 4 bridges and add more trail to the intermediate portion of that side of the trail. We are hoping that the biggest bridge under the power lines, that is currently used as the exit bridge to return to the trailhead, will be replaced with a large pipe, dirt, and rock. This will allow EMS access, no maintenance on a wooden bridge, and give us access to more of the trail with larger vehicles when needed. We also hope to have four other smaller bridges replaced with pipe. This would make the total amount of bridges removed 9. One other thing that we will be doing to help the county save money is helping take the wood to the areas under construction.  This saves a full day (and cost) of labor for each bridge. The schedule now is to deliver wood on Saturdays at 9:00 a.m.  Now that the bridges are being built by New Hanover Conty our focus will now turn to the Juvi side reroute and working areas of the beginner trail with crush and run and concrete. In addition, look for our Cape Fear Bike patrol (Greg, Steve and Jamie) to be doing more patrols of the park.

Greg will be installing new signage at the park this week. If you would like to help out with this or would like to help out with hauling bridge materials to their construction locations each week please call Greg at 910-612-9145.

For those who have not gotten a chance to see one of the new bridges built at Blue Clay in person, I have attached a recent photo of the very first finished bridge!

Trail Status: Brunswick County
Brunswick County is awaiting two approvals currently. These approvals are for the first loop and connector loop 2. A plan for a bridge to cross one weland area is needed. They are also waiting for a meeting of the coastal land trust for the final approval to start building loop #1 and connector loop #2. Loop #3 will be next and so far all signs indicate that we will be able to build some fun stuff on this third loop which will be of an advanced level. Stay tuned for more updates on this.

Upcoming Work Day: May 15^th
First of all the Cape Fear SORBA board would like to thank all those who have helped get the lumber out to the bridges the past two weekends on short notice as well all those who have been at the many work days we have had at Blue Clay so far this year. That being said, there is more work to be done! Greg will be present this Saturday to get lumber to the next bridge which will be very close to the road. We would also like to remove three bridges on the Juvi side and reclaim trail close to those bridges per IMBA guidelines.  We hope that we can get about 10 volunteers to come out around 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 15^th to work for about 4 hours.

Club Group Ride Following May 15^th Work Day
Following the work day on May 15th we would like to have a nice club group ride that would start a little after 12:00. Even if you can’t make it out for the work day in the morning we still want to encourage you to come out and ride with Cape Fear SORBA and get to know some of your fellow club members. This is also a great time to get your input about the reroute of the Juvi Side. The final reroute of that side has not yet been turned into the County so we would like as much input from the membership as possible. We all will be riding the trail after all!

CFSORBA website
The Cape Fear SORBA website is coming along nicely and our Board Blog, home page, and about page should be up by the end of this week! We have also attached a sneak peek photo of what the home page of the website will most likely look like!

Bike Patrol Attends IMBA World Summit in Augusta GA
Our Bike Patrol of Jamie, Greg, and Steve volunteered this past week to patrol at the Forks Area Trail System (FATS) this past weekend during the World Mountain Bike Summit presented by the IMBA. It was an amazing experience for each of them as the got the chance to ride with a couple from Australia, IMBA Executive Director Mike Van Abel, and the second in command of SRAM. They also had the chance to ride a demo bike that featured the new SRAM XX. Needless to say, they were impressed by it. In addition they got to meet and network with various chapter presidents, trail builders, and SORBA staff.

Treasury Update
Cape Fear SORBA has opened its very own bank account and has received a donation of $300 from a fellow member.

Fundraising Update
Snapdragon Screen Printing has printed up the very first batch of Cape Fear SORBA T-Shirts for us and is allowing us to pay them as we sell them. All profits from these T-Shirts will go straight back to the club. Shirts will be available on Saturday at the work day for $15.00. This was a limited printing so when they are gone they are gone!

In addition, for those that may be unaware, Blue Clay will be hosting the Spring Race Series finale on June 6^th. Go to www.ecvelo.org for more information on the race series including race categories, standings, and other information. We will need volunteers to help with the road crossing, timing, and registration. If you would like to help with any of these things or more please email Austin Fenwick at Austin@pedalingforpeanuts.com

Pedaling for Peanuts Update
Cape Fear SORBA’s first big event in its history is scheduled to take place on September 18^th and 19^th of 2010! This event will feature a Bicycle Festival on day 1 and a 6 hour endurance race on day 2! Are you ready for the 6 Hour Challenge? Sponsors that have already committed are: SockGuy, Two Wheeler Dealer, Bike Cycles, JustSoap.com, Diesel Parts of Carolina, and Halley White Pediatric Dentistry. If you or someone you know is interested in helping out or being a sponsor of Pedaling for Peanuts please email Austin Fenwick at Austin@pedalingforpeanuts.com

That for the updates for now! Thanks again Cape Fear SORBA for all your hard work out there on the trails! Much more will be coming very soon as we continue to work on great opportunities for the club. Feel free to contact the Board members at any time with any questions or issues you may have. That’s what we are here for!

Sincerely,

Cape Fear SORBA Executive Board:

Greg Brinson
President
gregb@brinsonandsons.com

Austin Fenwick
Vice President
Austin@pedalingforpeanuts.com

Bryan Weinkle
Secretary
bweinkle@yahoo.com

Erol Caglarcan
Treasurer
sirbikesalot@gmail.com