The issue of mountain biking in Cleveland Metroparks is about more than legally riding a bicycle in the woods.  First, the issue is about a regional park system recognizing that it plays a critical role in the economic development of Northeast Ohio by attracting and retaining residents in our community.  While certainly not a panacea for the problems our region faces, developing world-class trails that permit bicycles is a cost-effective step that sends a message to residents, potential residents, and visitors.  The message is this: our region is serious about the recreational opportunities that young, talented, and educated professionals desire.  This key demographic is critical to the survival of our region.
 
Second, the issue is about the accountability of a public agency to taxpayers who fund its existence.  Mountain bikers have been asking Cleveland Metroparks for the right to ride a bicycle in the woods for 14 years.  Since its inception in 2001, the Cleveland Area Mountain Bike Association has gone above and beyond what should be expected from a group of volunteer, tax-paying residents for an issue as relatively insignificant as riding a bicycle off-road. 

 
Today, if you wish to legally ride a bicycle in the woods in Cuyahoga or Summit counties, you have less than two miles of trail available and you will complete this trail in less than 25 minutes.  In contrast, if you wish to hike or ride a horse, you have literally hundreds of miles to choose from and it would take you weeks to experience all of them.  For mountain bikers, you must drive to Medina, Ravenna, Hartville, or Madison.  From downtown Cleveland, you will be looking at at least 35 minutes in the car and often over an hour.

With this article, the Cleveland Area Mountain Bike Association (CAMBA) seeks to demonstrate that with a properly functioning park system, this issue would not require the level of effort that has been put forth by CAMBA.  And today, mountain bikers would not be asked to travel over 30 minutes, in a car, just to ride a bicycle in the woods.

100% Volunteer

Throughout the United States, the vast majority of trail work and trail advocacy, regardless of the user group, is done by volunteers and Northeast Ohio is no different.  Since the founding of the organization, CAMBA has always been 100% volunteer and no person has been paid for their time. Over the years we have donated upwards of 20,000 volunteer hours to Northeast Ohio’s parks.  As volunteers ourselves, we believe volunteers should be respected and their time valued.
 
CAMBA learns trail building  

CAMBA’s volunteers have more formal trail building education than any other group of trail building volunteers in Ohio.  In fact, we have more formal trail building education than the vast majority of park employees in our region and our state.

The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) offers their Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew program that includes two full-time, professional teams of trail experts who travel North America year-round leading Trailbuilding Schools, meeting with government officials and land managers, and working with over 700 IMBA-affiliated groups to improve mountain biking opportunities.  The Crews teach "sustainable" trail building, which means building trails that last a long time and require minimal maintenance. This helps reduce trail damage, protects the environment, and enhances visitor enjoyment.  In 2002, CAMBA brought the Trail Care Crew to Cleveland for the first time to teach our members sustainable trail building techniques.  Since 2002, the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew has come to Cleveland three times and conducted trail building seminars that are free and open to the public. 

As we educated ourselves in the practices of sustainable trail building, we quickly realized that these practices were not widely known or understood by the majority of our region's park employees.  We also realized that most of our region's park employees had little direct experience with the sport of mountain biking.  To help fill this gap, CAMBA brought the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew to Cleveland to conduct trail design and construction seminars specifically designed and exclusively for Northeast Ohio park employees.  Employees of Cleveland Metroparks, Metroparks Serving Summit County, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, as well as other county park and city park systems attended these seminars.

Initial advocacy efforts

Cleveland Metroparks has been a focus for CAMBA's advocacy efforts since the organization was started.  The greatest concentration of CAMBA's members reside in Cuyahoga County and whether you are a hiker, equestrian, trail runner, skier, or mountain biker, the logical place to recreate o­n trails is in the Cleveland Metroparks.  Therefore, finding legal options for off-road cycling in Cleveland Metroparks has always been a top priority for CAMBA.
 
Prior to CAMBA’s inception, the Northeast Ohio Mountain Bike Association ("NOMBA") had been working since 1994 to legalize off-road cycling in Cleveland Metroparks until they disbanded in approximately 1999. When you combine the efforts of CAMBA and NOMBA, mountain bikers have been asking for access to Cleveland Metroparks for over 14 years. 
 
CAMBA's first approach with Cleveland Metroparks was to meet with them and discuss the issue.  Shortly after the organization formed, our first meeting occurred in the Spring of 2001 when Mindy Kuth (former advocacy representative with CAMBA) and Mike Farley (CAMBA's founder) met with Bob Hinkle, Cleveland Metroparks’ Chief of Outdoor Education.  At that meeting we were told that mountain biking was not an activity that would be included in Cleveland Metroparks.
 
Later, in August of 2002, representatives of IMBA and several CAMBA leaders met with Cleveland Metroparks.  This time we met with Cleveland Metroparks Executive Director Vern Hartenburg and we reiterated CAMBA's desire for legal off-road cycling in the park.  Nothing changed at that meeting and riding a bicycle off-road remained illegal in the entire Cleveland Metroparks system. 
 
Over most of 2003, we were very busy building trails at West Branch State Park in Ravenna and Quail Hollow State Park in Hartville where the land managers at both parks have been extremely receptive to mountain biking.  However, both of these parks are around an hour drive from Cleveland and we felt this was unreasonable.  So, in the Spring of 2004, we sent a letter to Cleveland Metroparks again requesting a meeting to discuss mountain biking.  Around this time a number of Cleveland Metroparks staff, including Vern Hartenburg, Executive Director, came to the trail we built at West Branch State Park to see our trails and also joined us for a mountain bike ride.  At each meeting we again discussed the issue, but nothing came out of these discussions.
 
The November 2004 ballot in Cuyahoga County included a levy for Cleveland Metroparks.  Earlier that fall CAMBA received a specific request from Cleveland Metroparks for CAMBA's support o­n the levy campaign.  While mountain biking remained illegal throughout all Cleveland Metroparks reservations, we felt it was important that mountain bikers demonstrate our support for the park.  To show our support, CAMBA donated to the levy campaign and we also asked our members to vote for the levy with articles o­n our website and e-mails to our members.  The levy passed, but we quickly realized nothing was changing for mountain bikers and it was time to try something new.
 
Changing tactics
 
After many meetings with Cleveland Metroparks, CAMBA recognized our tactic of simply sitting down and talking with Cleveland Metroparks was not working.  For us as volunteers, these meetings were a big deal because we had to spend time preparing and to take time off work to attend the meeting.  For the park, it was just a normal day and their employees were being paid no matter what they were doing.  We were clearly wasting our time.
 
At the same time, our organization was gaining tremendous respect in the cycling community and we found we had the support of many new friends, including elected officials.  We found support from Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge David Matia, Ohio State Senator Robert Spada, Ohio State Representative Tim Degeeter, and Ohio Court of Appeals Eighth Appellate District Judge Sean C. Gallagher and each helped us by meeting with the park to discuss the issue.
   
In the summer of 2005, we issued our "2005 Call to Action".  We asked our supporters to write letters to Cleveland Metroparks asking for the right to legally ride a bicycle o­n trails in Cleveland Metroparks.  We are unsure how many letters were actually sent to the park, but we were copied o­n upwards of 100 response letters from the park.

West Creek

The West Creek  property in Parma consists of two former landfills, a beautifully preserved wooded area that was formally home to the Parma Archery Club (the property was leased to them by Gannet Communication), two TV tower complexes, and many trails that run throughout the property.  For many years the area lay dormant, then in the mid 1990’s it was considered for different types of development.  Mountain bikers had been riding the property virtually since the sport began gaining popularity in the early 1980’s.

When word spread that the land was being considered for development, a group of local residents formed the West Creek Preservation Committee ("WCPC") in an attempt to purchase the property and prevent it from being developed.  Through many years of effort obtaining grants from various sources and successfully campaigning for Parma bond issues 138 and 69, WCPC was able to put the parcels of land together to create West Creek Preserve.  However, WCPC and the City of Parma quickly realized that they did not have the resources to manage this large piece of property o­n a daily basis.  Throughout this time mountain biking continued to be a popular, legal activity at West Creek Preserve.

Since 2001, Frank Dessoffy, a mountain biker and nearby resident, had been involved with the WCPC efforts and assisted with writing and obtaining grants to purchase the properties.  In November of 2003, Frank arranged a meeting between CAMBA, WCPC, and Parma Parks Advisory.  The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possibility of CAMBA’s volunteers building a trail at West Creek that would be open to most user groups, including mountain bikes.  About the same time that CAMBA was in discussions with WCPC, the City of Parma and WCPC were in the later stages of discussions with Cleveland Metroparks to take over the property.  

In December of 2004, Cleveland Metroparks arranged for a professionally facilitated meeting to discuss the issue of mountain biking.  The meeting was attended by Cleveland Metroparks employees, Cuyahoga Valley National Park employees, employees of other area parks, WCPC members, and CAMBA’s Mike Farley.  

At the meeting, Mike Farley was seated at the front of the room while the attendees, the vast majority of whom were openly hostile toward mountain biking, peppered him with questions and opinions.  At multiple points during the meeting, the facilitator had to ask the attendees to remain calm and professional.  Interestingly, also in attendance were individuals from West Branch State Park and Lake Metroparks.  These individuals were the o­nly park employees in the area who had direct experience with CAMBA and mountain biking and they spoke very highly of both throughout the meeting. Unfortunately, very little attention was paid to their praise. Instead the focus and impetus of the meeting seemed to revolve around finding reasons why West Creek was different and why mountain biking would fail here.

In all, over a dozen public and private meetings, focus group sessions, and site visits that were specifically related to West Creek were attended by various members of CAMBA.  Despite all our efforts, at the urging of some WCPC board members, it was ultimately decided that mountain biking should not be allowed in West Creek Preserve.

On January 1st 2006 West Creek Reservation became the Metroparks 16th reservation.  Mountain biking immediately became illegal since it now fell under the same rules and regulations as all other reservations.  At the same time Parma Archery Club, who had used the land for 37 years, was formally evicted.  The Archery Club was told that the City of Parma would find them another location.  Unfortunately for the archery club, this also fell through and the club was later forced to purchase their own land in Lodi.

Plans were then made to develop much of the area to make way for a road, a ten foot wide asphalt path through the middle of the property, parking areas, and a $13 million "stewardship center".  Sadly, much of the land that Cleveland Metroparks plans to develop is the same land that WCPC fought so hard to preserve from development.  Many acres of what is today forest or open space will be bulldozed and covered with asphalt and buildings.

In the end, West Creek was a major defeat for mountain bikers and a huge lesson for CAMBA in many ways. 

Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation

Finally, in December of 2005, CAMBA had a breakthrough when Cleveland Metroparks approached CAMBA with the idea of building trails in Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation (OECR) and allowing bicycles o­n these trails.  In written communication and in board meeting minutes, we were told an evaluation had been undertaken and OECR was the o­nly location found to be “suitable and accommodating for mountain biking”.  Interestingly, we requested a copy of the evaluation in August, 2008 but were told no formal evaluation had been done.
 
During  previous discussions with the park we continually emphasized the need for a trail of at least five miles in length.  O­n trails in our area, mountain bikers typically travel at speeds of between six and eight miles per hour depending o­n ability and terrain.  We knew riders would find any distance of less than five miles unappealing.  After examining the property and discussing it with Cleveland Metroparks, both parties concluded that o­nly four miles was possible.  While not optimal, we decided we would compromise o­n the distance since it represented the o­nly property “suitable and accommodating for mountain biking”.  We also had concerns over the steepness of the terrain and the slope of the land in general. We realized that this area would present special challenges but felt that there were no other options. In January, 2006 CAMBA agreed to build the trail.

CAMBA spent much of 2006 routing the trail that our volunteers would be building that coming fall. 
We marked out our trails and representatives of Cleveland Metroparks visited the property to assess the design.  Our trail design was approved and construction began by our volunteer labor force in the fall.  Unfortunately, we ran into a number of problems along the way.

Landfills

Much of the land at OECR is landfill.  We learned that there are many types of landfills and that our trail was routed over two particular types: "construction & demolition" and "municipal solid waste".  We also learned that building anything, including the narrow, dirt trails CAMBA builds, o­n certain landfill types can require approval from various government agencies.

At the time, Cleveland Metroparks augmented their own legal staff with staff from an outside firm for issues related to landfills.  At some point during the construction process, both the legal staff of Cleveland Metroparks and attorneys from the outside firm became concerned about the routing of the trail CAMBA was building at OECR.  There was some confusion as to the exact location of each landfill type, if the trail we were building crossed these landfills, and whether or not additional approvals were required.  The confusion required us to halt our trail building and reschedule multiple trail building dates.  Canceling our trail building dates is not something CAMBA likes to do because it causes confusion about the schedule and frustrates our volunteers but we had no choice.

With our trail building schedule o­n hold and our volunteers in limbo, CAMBA's Mike Farley was summoned to a meeting at the outside firm.  The meeting was supposed to include Cleveland Metroparks legal staff and an environmental consultant, but the Cleveland Metroparks attorney did not attend.  At the meeting, Mike Farley, a volunteer with CAMBA, was forced to negotiate a plan with a lawyer from a top area law firm without any assistance and with no experience with these types of environmental issues.  The meeting was followed up with a visit to the property.  Again, Mike Farley attended this visit and toured the property with the outside firm's attorney and the consultant, but the Cleveland Metroparks attorney did not attend.

As part of the plan, the environmental consultant was asked to assess the property and make a final determination o­n the location of the landfills.  CAMBA was made aware of the final determination and was asked to adjust some of the trail design and change trail building practices to avoid any issues.  Trail construction resumed later in the winter of 2007.

The slip

The trails at OECR are built o­n some very steep slopes.  Building trails o­n steep slopes is not new and occurs o­n trails throughout the country.  CAMBA knew that this could be an issue and o­ne of our trail builders researched maximum suitable slopes at a trail building conference held in Nevada that winter.  Our trail builder found that the side slope was acceptable and we continued building. 

Some time around late winter, heavy rain caused a significant amount of land to slide in an area where we had just built a section of trail o­n some steep slope.  Cleveland Metroparks found out about this and controversy erupted.  Cleveland Metroparks sent a letter to CAMBA that, among other things, called our commitment to building sustainable trails into question and cited concerns over “…the amount of trash uncovered in the construction…”.  Obviously, it was never CAMBA’s desire to build o­n a landfill and we were surprised that our uncovering of trash during trail building was not expected by the park. 

The letter was disappointing to CAMBA and we responded to it quickly.  Further negotiations followed and CAMBA agreed to abandon the section of trail where the slip had occurred.  Because of the location of this section, abandoning it resulted in the loss of 1/2 mile of trail.  This was a significant loss because the trail was already shorter than we had hoped.  CAMBA  learned that this section of land had "slipped" in years past.  We have no doubt that the construction of the trail o­n this slope contributed to the slip, but clearly this was unstable land to begin with.  Cleveland Metroparks did not check into soil types prior to trail construction.  Nor did they offer professional advice or opinion o­n the suitability of the unstable slope. 

OECR trail opens

Most trails require CAMBA to spend about 250 volunteer hours per mile, but we found that because of the steep terrain, construction at Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation was far more time consuming. In the end, the trail required more than 2500 volunteer hours for about 1.75 miles of actual trail (the remainder was existing gravel service road).

On September 7, 2007, the mountain bike trail at OECR was finally finished and the trail was opened to the public.  Although the trail was very short, it received a very positive response from much of the mountain bike community because of the flowing nature of the trail.  The trail remained open until, as planned, it was shut down for the season. CAMBA has a policy of closing some trails in the winter when the trail became too wet to ride without damaging it.  Unfortunately, more controversy arose over the winter.

Unprecedented scrutiny

From the start of project at OECR, Cleveland Metroparks involved their Chief of Natural Resources, Dan Petit.  In 2007, Dan left Cleveland Metroparks for a new job and the position was later filled by John Mack.  As far as CAMBA can tell, o­ne of John Mack's first tasks as a Cleveland Metroparks employee was to examine the trail CAMBA built at OECR.  John provided a very lengthy analysis of the trail that included a 43 page slideshow and a written report.  As far as CAMBA is aware, no other trail in Cleveland Metroparks has received a level of scrutiny that approaches what the (less than two mile) mountain bike trail at OECR went through.  As was now typical, meetings and walks of the trail followed the issue of this report and CAMBA volunteers were required to attend each o­ne.  CAMBA encourages anyone to visit the trail today and see for themselves how the trail looks.  We feel strongly that most of these concerns were exaggerated.

A new permit

CAMBA builds trails in Cleveland Metroparks under a permit issued by the park system.  The permit is issued for a fixed length of time and is periodically renewed.  CAMBA's first permit for our activities expired after a year and Cleveland Metroparks took the renewal of the permit as an opportunity to include "Exhibit A" into the document.  Other than "Exhibit A", the new permit was not substantially different than the previous o­ne.

The first draft of "Exhibit A" was, in CAMBA's opinion, draconian.  CAMBA volunteers reviewed it along with some attorney friends, but it did not require an attorney to realize that if we signed it, we were locking ourselves into a serious, binding agreement  that, as a volunteer organization, we could never live up to.  Another conference call was put together and a revised "Exhibit A" was produced which we later signed and operate under today.

The trail today

Despite the obstacles we had to overcome to get it built, the trail at OECR is a huge success.  As far as CAMBA is aware, none of the negative scenarios that had been suggested by opponents of mountain biking have become a reality.  The short length of the trail results in loop times of less than 15 minutes for an experienced rider and less than 25 minutes for a less experienced rider. Although not a sufficient length to warrant a drive for most mountain bikers, it sees considerable use from those who live nearby.  It is popular with other user groups such as hikers, fishermen, and dog walkers who are seen o­n it regularly. It has also received considerable positive media attention.

Helping the park in other ways

Despite the challenges we encountered dealing with Cleveland Metroparks, we try to contribute to the park when possible.  For example, the park’s Youth Outdoors program maintains a fleet of bicycles for kids and these bikes are often in need of repair.  Since 2002, CAMBA has been organizing our volunteers, along with their bicycle repair skills and tools, to keep the bikes in good condition for the park.  In total, we have organized about ten of these repair sessions, including two in 2008, where we typically work o­n about 25 bikes.  Shops in the area typically charge about $55 for a tune-up, so the cost savings we have provided to the park is around $13,000.  This year we also voluntarily taught kids in the Youth Outdoors a class o­n mountain biking at the OECR trail.

CAMBA also organizes a chapter of IMBA’s National Mountain Bike Patrol and our volunteers periodically patrol the trail at OECR.  Patrolers are volunteers who are trained in CPR and First Aid. They look out for trail problems and assist users who may be having difficulties or are unaware of proper riding etiquette. CAMBA is deeply committed to this program and this year alone we invested $1500 into first aid training and supplies for our patrolers.

Park declines to consider expansion of mountain biking
 
In 2008, CAMBA sent letters to Cleveland Metroparks that outlined the following: recommendations for the mountain bike trail at OECR, our recommendation that Bedford Reservation would be a logical choice for expanding mountain biking, and requested a meeting to discuss the future of mountain biking in Cleveland Metroparks.  The park declined our request for a meeting and responded with a letter stating that no expansion of mountain biking will be considered in any other Cleveland Metroparks Reservation.  CAMBA responded to the letter with an article o­n our website.

Our vision

Our region is fortunate to have a massive, interconnected green space at its heart.  Like our lakefront, this asset is unique and represents a competitive advantage for our region.  CAMBA believes we are in a unique position to leverage this asset and create a world-class trail network in Northeast Ohio.  We believe our park systems, including Cleveland Metroparks, should work together to construct a network of world-class trails for hiking, walking, trail running, cross-country skiing, and mountain biking.  We believe this regional trail network should be at least o­ne hundred miles in length (one-third of which should be in Cleveland Metroparks) and should be interconnected using the towpath trail.  We believe this unique project would make bold statement about our region and do so at a relatively minimal cost.  Sadly, given our experience with Cleveland Metroparks, we are far from achieving this very reasonable goal.

Conclusion
 
As demonstrated in this article, we have spent a tremendous amount of effort trying to convince Cleveland Metroparks to accept an activity that is legal and successful in other cities and contributes to community health and recreation. Mountain biking clearly falls within the scope of the Cleveland Metroparks' mission which includes recreation.  And it is no more destructive to the resource than hiking.  To shut out mountain biking, Cleveland Metroparks representatives claim they "already have too many trails".  In what would be a creative solution,  the park could allow CAMBA to adopt and improve some of those trails at no cost.  But rather they choose to bemoan the problem and treat mountain bikers as criminals.  How will we ever make our city truly attractive to the those active professionals we so badly need with this inertia and lack of imagination?

We have tried many different tactics starting from simply meeting o­ne o­n o­ne, to writing letters and enlisting the support of area politicians, to educating park professionals about the sport and trail building techniques. During this time we have tried to be as positive, professional, and constructive as possible, but as a group of volunteers, the amount of time we can dedicate is limited.  Clearly, it is again time for another tactic.  After seven years and thousands of hours of volunteer time, we have a trail that is less than two miles long in a park system consisting of over 20,000 acres.  From Cleveland, we are forced to drive at least 35 minutes to find a legal trail to ride with significant distance.  At the same time, hikers and equestrians enjoy hundreds of miles of trails right here in Cuyahoga County. 
 
It is our opinion that tax-paying members of the public have a right to choose what activities are allowed in their parks.  We believe that distressed cities such as Cleveland need to use every opportunity and public asset to attract and retain talent and reinvigorate themselves. Park systems must acknowledge they play a role in the community and that the social and economic role they play is an important obligation owed to the taxpayers.  The traditional model of operating the park like it has been since the 1950's with an emphasis o­n golf courses and large visitor/nature centers needs to be reconsidered. We believe that the parks have a responsibility to listen to the public and respond with something more than negativity and token gestures.

Questions and comments

Comments or questions for CAMBA can be directed to Mike Farley (farley at CAMBA dot US).

Comments or questions for Cleveland Metroparks:

4101 Fulton Parkway
Cleveland, OH 44144
(216) 635-3200
FAX: (216) 635-3286
generalinfo@clevelandmetroparks.com