On July 7, 2009, over eighty mountain bikers representing a cross-section of the Middlesex Fells Reservation riding community met at a meeting organized by NEMBA at the Mt. Hood Country Club in Melrose. The primary topic discussed was how to improve mountain bike access at the Fells, and included a detailed presentation about the issues currently found there, the vision for the park, and a series of next steps for the community to take. Also discussed was why NOW is the time to speak up and support equitable trail access. The injustice mountain bikers face at the Fells can not go on – we need more equitable access to singletrack trails. The policy for mountain biking at the Fells needs to be brought more in line with those found in virtually every other DCR park

To recap, NEMBA proposed to the community that we make the following proposed changes in the Fells:

1. Dark Hollow Pond Trail System should be converted to shared use.
2. Reservoir Trail should be converted to shared use.
3. Winter Closure policy should be changed to a Mud Season Closure policy.
4. Better signage and MTB-friendly marked loops need to be installed.
5. After work (after dark) access needs to be legitimized during Fall and Winter.
6. Redundant fire roads should be converted to additional singletrack opportunities.
7. Unmarked / unregistered trails need to be legitimized.

The community agreed overwhelmingly with the preceding proposals and NEMBA plans to move forward to pursue all of them. However, this is an awful lot of information to try to convey so we will break it down into segments or phases.

This is the first phase of our vision to expand access to singletrack in the Fells!

PLEASE SUPPORT THE PROPOSAL TO OPEN THE DARK HOLLOW POND TRAIL TO MOUNTAIN BIKES

NEMBA will put up additional action steps or phases in the coming weeks to address the other proposed changes in the Fells.