When Fairfield mountain biker Terry Klei heads out for a day at the trails, he’s just as likely to pack a chainsaw as his bike and helmet. And when he gets to one of the local parks that has a carefully crafted ribbon of trail twisting through its woods, he often leaves his bike in the car, preferring instead to spend his spare time cutting out fallen trees and invasive honeysuckle bushes.
Klei is the current president of the Cincinnati Off Road Alliance (CORA), a grassroots group of more than 100 mountain bike enthusiasts and the driving force behind one of Cincinnati’s hidden outdoor gems: 50-plus miles of public trails maintained at almost no cost to taxpayers.
Cincinnati is a long way from the slickrock of Moab, Utah, and the backcountry mountain epics that make New England famous among the mountain bike crowd. But any local with an urge to go hiking, bird watching and, of course, mountain biking can leave the city from north, south, east or west and find free trail access within a 30-minute drive.
It’s all thanks to CORA’s volunteer efforts.
“We’re not just six guys working on a few trails around here,” said Klei.
The history of CORA is a little murky, but members generally agree that a group of area bike shop employees started the club about 12 years ago. With few exceptions, local trails at that time were semi-legitimate paths cut into various parks by neighborhood riders. Many of them funneled rainwater into erosion-prone channels, making the trails too muddy or rutted for use much of the year.
“It was really not formal at all, mostly a basement operation,” said Geoff Thielmeyer, manager of Team Cycling and Fitness on Colerain Avenue.
“In 1996, the trail at Hueston Woods State Park was probably the only trail that was somewhat organized,” said local rider and CORA member Bryan King. “All the rest have been redeveloped in the last five years.”
Three changes motivated the renaissance. First, CORA members changed their approach to trail building. Rather than poaching existing hiking paths or simply carving trails that “looked right,” they adopted trail building guidelines established by the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA). The IMBA standards mandate trails that follow the contours of the land, and provide guidelines for protecting erosion-prone areas.
The result? Steep, difficult singletrack evolved into flowing paths that lasted longer, dried out faster after rain, and made the wooded sections of many parks accessible to more people. And though one might expect the club’s more experienced riders to complain about losing the technical challenge of the old trails, the opposite was often the case. The new trails allowed advanced riders to maintain higher speeds, and CORA trail stewards added rock gardens, log piles and other obstacles that keep experienced riders on their toes.
CORA also recently joined forces with the Ohio Mountain Bike Association (OMBA), a coalition of trail advocacy groups throughout the state. This meant exposure to more local riders and trail volunteers, as well as added legitimacy and clout from a statewide organization.
But the most significant change that has helped CORA’s trail building efforts may be a shift in attitudes toward mountain bikers.
“We’ve shown the environmental impact is low and we’ve cut back on rogue trail builders,” said King. “That’s changed the stereotype of mountain bikers as trail-messing thugs.”
Studies in Seattle, Washington, concluded that adding trails to urban parks can help reduce vagrancy and crime in those areas, and the rating standards for the League of American Bicyclists’ Bike Friendly Cities campaign favor communities with good access to off road paths as well as paved multiuse trails.
This new spirit of cooperation is evident in trail projects underway at Northern Kentucky’s Devou Park and Cincinnati’s Mitchell Memorial Forest. Both projects earned park managers’ blessings and were carefully designed in advance to minimize environmental impact. Construction of the Mitchell Memorial Forest trail, for example, was postponed for a number of weeks in 2008 to avoid disturbing a breeding pair of owls.
Along with its chainsaws and brush-removal tools, the club now owns the proper safety equipment to meet most park services’ work standards. Klei said that the professional image is an important key to the club’s success.
“When you go out to talk to a land manager and you show up with the right gear, they say, ‘these guys know what they’re doing,’ and trust us,” he said.
The Cincinnati Off Road Alliance isn’t just about trail building. Members meet for weekly rides and organize trips to trails and cycling events throughout the Midwest. The club also runs a summer race series in which competitors earn season points not only for racing, but also for attending trail maintenance days.
And when hikers, dog walkers, new cyclists and the occasional horse and rider come down the trail, many CORA members said they’re happy to see the fruit of their work being used by such a diverse crowd.
“I love seeing people out on the trails, even if they’re not mountain biking,” said King. “It’s good to see people using them.”
“I’m pretty proud of being part of it,” said CORA member Leslie Sergeant II. “It’s cool when you’re in a group of people who care about the trails and care about riding. That’s what it should be about.”
For more information about Cincinnati Off Road Alliance and a list of local trails, visit their web site.
Matt Cunningham is a freelance writer based in West Chester, Ohio. When not doggedly pursuing a Master’s degree in professional writing and editing at the University of Cincinnati, he writes for Soapbox, CityBeat and Cincinnati Magazine.
Photography by Scott Beseler
Photos take at Harbin Park, Fairfield, OH
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