The Greater Houston Off-Road Mountain Biking Association held it's
monthly meeting on Monday, August 11, 2003 at Otto's BBQ.

TREASURER'S REPORT: Mike Lutomski reports that GHORBA is in good shape
financially. We are selling raffle
tickets for a Jamis Dakar XLT ($1,500 retail value) full suspension
mountain bike to help offset some of the costs associated
with the Double Lake race. Tickets are $5 each and can be purchased on
the GHORBA web site using pay pal. If you would
like to help by selling tickets see Keith Porter. Thanks to Cyclone
Cycles for donating the bike!

TMBRA RACE UPDATE: Houston Big Ring Challenge, Double Lake Recreation
Area, October 25-26, 2003
Keith Porter reports that a work party will be scheduled for the first
weekend in September (more details soon) to clear brush
and face slappers. This will count for PAY DIRT points racers! The
race course has been plotted and can be seen on the
GHORBA web site (http://www.ghorba.org/). We will need lots of
volunteers for the weekend of the race. If you can help
please email Keith at porterka@.... Camping at Double Lake is
available for race weekend - make your
reservations early. This will be a great race and we're planning on a
good turnout. Awesome course to try your first mountain
bike race - tell all of your riding buddies!

TRAILS REPORT: Kelly Strader has a few new trail opportunities in the
works for the Houston area. One is in Aldine,
near Highway 59 the other is at Stephen F. Austin State Park in San
Felipe (near Sealy).

There is a work party scheduled for Huntsville State Park on August 30
at 8 am. Pay dirt!! They will be working on
rerouting the entrance to the trails. If you haven't been to Huntsville
lately this is a good opportunity to come help with the trails
and then ride to see all of the great work the guys have done there!
There was a very complimentary article in the September
issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife Monthly magazine.

Jack Brooks Park: Coby and Edgar and their volunteers have put in
literally thousands of hours working on the trails there.
They will be celebrating their efforts by hosting a Bike-A-Rama on
November 1, 2003. This will be a family oriented event
with activities for all skill levels, including (but not limited to) a
Time Trial, Obstacle Course, Poker Run and Kids activities.
They welcome anyone who would like to volunteer with this event. A work
party has been scheduled for August 24 at 8 am
or 11:30.
Memorial Park: The flurry of interest over the dump area has settled
and as of yet there have been no sections of trail closed. GHORBA has
scouted out a re-route section should this portion of trail be closed.
A work party is to be scheduled for a non
race weekend in September - more information soon..

Hill at Simms Bayou: Jeff Nielson reports that this new site, which was
slated to be the Olympic Mountain Bike Race venue (had Houston been
selected to host), is still in the works. The dirt work is to go out
for bid in November with digging of the retention basin to begin in
January. GHORBA has been asked to help with vegetation restoration and
trail design upon completion of the dirt work (approx. 2005). This will
be a premier trail system designed following IMBA guidelines. Jeff has
the construction plans, which are said to be 80% complete. Check out
the design on the trails section of the GHORBA website.

Memorial Park Master Plan: GHORBA's Larry Pruitt was appointed to the
newly formed Trails Committee. The plan has
to be approved by City Council which is a lengthy process. GHORBA has
requested the re-opening of the Triangle Area as
part of the plan.

Next meeting will be held at Otto's on Memorial at 7 pm on September
8th.

Check the web site for more details http://www.ghorba.org/



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