Joe Sloane☆☆☆☆☆

The mastermind behind Blue Hills Mountain Bike Day(BHMTBD), an event

that started happening in 1994 and still happens every year. BHMTBD

always brings the local mountainbike community together to celebrate

our passion, but has also sucked in new riders with it's home-grown

approach. This family-friendly event has always been FREE, and for a

long time, was the only MTB event where the land managers (Mass. DCR)

actually hosted, sponsored, and worked the event. The formula worked,

and the DCR always has worked out a calendar spot for BHMTBD.

Joe Sloane has spent the better part of each year for the last 14

years, asking, hounding, pleading with busy bike shop owners, bigbox

bicycle companies, frame builders, energy bar moguls, local

restaurants, etc, to get them to donate products and services to the

famous raffle at the end of the day. They're all invited to setup a

tent to show off their stuff..........Joe also designed the kids bike

'rodeo' obstacle course and world-famous all-ages bike limbo

competition.

Joe has always been active in trails advocacy and maintenance in the

Blue Hills, and with Friends of Blue Hills and AMC. He has overseen

many important volunteer trail repair

crews, and is a founding member of Blue Hills Trail Watch, and 'eyes

and ears' DCR volunteer group that helps take care of the 150 miles of

trails and provides guidance to all trail users.

This summer, Joe was nominated by his peers to become one of LL Bean's

Outdoor Heroes. A surprise presentation was done at the annual Blue

Hills Trail Watch meeting/BBQ in August. The manager of the Mansfield

store did the honors.

Below is the official LL Bean text:

The L.L.Bean Outdoor Heroes(R) program was developed to thank those

who have dedicated their time to preserving the outdoors. These are

people who may not make the front page news, but who change the world

around us for the better.

We are pleased to introduce you to the recipients of the 2008 Outdoor

Heroes award. The winners have each been awarded a $5,000 grant

towards their organization—over and above any other L.L.Bean

sponsorships—to support continued preservation, conservation, and

educational efforts.

Sooo, the 5g's goes to Blue Hills TrailWatch--maybe a few new tools,

or a Muck Truck or Ditch Witch(plenty ditches to keep clear in the

BH)........

In addition, Joe recieved a $500 gift card AND a shiny chrome-plated

old-school lantern, for those all-night projects........

AND, in more recent news, Joe was captured and taken on a mountain

bike ride in Cutler Park, along with 16 of his good friends.......

SC

Time is Flyin' !!

Wow! Last post was before/about BHMTBD, now it's August, the Dog
Days, the Month Before September.......
BHMTBD was a washout, rained like dogs and cats just as we were
setting up the event, combined with depressing forecasts of thunder
and lightning.....it didn't actually get real stormy but the rain did
come down fora while. By 11 am most of the rain had stopped, and I
took a crew of 12 hardy souls up Buck Hill and back. A kids ride went
around the pond, and at least another posse of riders went and made
the best of it. The kids 'rodeo' finally got some use, and the bike
limbo was a hit as usual.
With about 50 registered riders including ride leaders and sweeps, it was the all-time lowest
attendance for the event, which has been known to attract 7-800 people
some years.......
July I don't think I even rode my Ted, but logged some good road
mileage commuting on my old Epic road bike. I saw some trail while
'patrolling' as a seasonal ranger in the BH on my old grey HooKoo
'battleship', or as it was referred to by a friend as my 'tool'.
August is here, and I've been through the Northeast Kingdom twice
without my bike(driving through on the way up to Quebec City and
back), which made me real sad, but after talking with the locals, the
trails are unrideable due to the VERY wet summer they've been having
up there. I saw a river rise ten feet in the three days we were gone,
while we were up in QC enjoying dry (but cold--63F!) weather . I won't
elaborate on that trip only to say that I could not find a bike shop!