FREE Riding Clinic at Memorial Park: GHORBA is offering a FREE riding
clinic at Memorial Park this Saturday morning starting at 9:00 a.m. We
will have both beginners and advanced sessions going on simultaneously.
You must wear a helmet and sign a waiver for yourself and/or your minor
child. Please plan to arrive around 8:30 to get signed in and have your
bike ready to start at 9:00 a.m.. We will have drinks available for
participants, but lunch will be had at a local restaurant near the park.
Why is it free? Budget issues with the city and the Parks Dept. require
that we are charged to use the park for any event we charge for, post a
damage deposit, and donate a portion of our proceeds. Since we typically
charge only $20/$25 per member, the permit fee and insurance costs make it
more of a hassle to charge this time for no real net profit (which is used
for trail-related activities and maintenance around Houston). Subsequent
clinics will charge a slightly higher entry fee and/or be located at venues
like Double Lake Recreation Area or Bluff Creek Ranch in Warda.

Womble Ride (from Keith): As my first official act as Interim GHORBA
Events Evangelist, I want to see how many people would like to join us for
a group ride on one of IMBA's Epic Rides, the Womble Trail in Arkansas. We
would leave at approx. 6:00 am Friday morning April 18th, ride a couple
hours in the afternoon stay at the RiverView Cabins ride most of the day
Saturday and a couple hours Sunday morning before the return trip home
(this is Easter weekend, just so you know). It is about an 8-hr drive, but
very much worth it. The cabins are neat and clean and have everything but
food. All you need to bring is food and clothes and a bathing suit for the
hot tub. Depending on how many you pile in a cabin, it will be about 65-70
bucks each for 2 nights in the cabin. If you want to see more info, go
here http://www.mtnbikerider.com/oden,_arkansas.htm It should be fun!!
Email Keith if you're interested: porterka@....

Group Ride at Rocky Hill on Sunday, Feb. 9th: Northwest Cycling Club is
having a group ride at Rocky Hill this Sunday. Many NWCC riders are also
GHORBA members, so feel free to join them (per their invitation). Plan to
arrive by 9:00 a.m. We will ride for several hours, then finish off the
day with an awesome Rocky Burger at the bar. To get to Rocky Hill take
I-10 west to Columbus and head northwest on Hwy 71. Take 71 to Smithville
and take the exit indicated for Beuscher State Park and go right (should be
the second Smithville exit). Rocky Hill Ranch is about 3/4 mile past the
park - it will be on your left. It will take you approx. 1 hour and 40
minutes to get there from downtown Houston.

February Meeting Monday, February 10th at JAX Grill: We will have our
monthly meeting OUTSIDE at Jax Grill starting at 7:00 p.m. We will discuss
the IMBA visit results, plans going forward, race opportunity for GHORBA,
determining monthly ride location for Feb and March, upcoming elections,
etc. Is your membership current? Need a GHORBA jersey? Miss out on the
Fat Tire Festival t-shirts? You can take care of all of this at the
meeting. Jax Grill is located between Shepherd and Durham about 2 blocks
south of I-10.

Trail Work Day at Huntsville Saturday, February 15th: We will be building
the 44-foot REI bridge at Huntsville State Park on Saturday the 15th
starting at 9:00 a.m. This counts for PayDirt points, although people
racing will probably be preriding at Rocky Hill. Come learn about bridge
construction and do work when it's actually cooler outside.

Racing season is starting in both mountain biking and adventure racing.
You can check out both calendars: www.tmbra.org and www.usara.org.