Loheit crosses country with engaging advice

IMBA Trail News
Volume 12, Number 3
August 1999

Kurt Loheit, IMBA's Trails Resource Director, has helped trail projects across America in 1999.

In February he spoke at the Texas Trails Symposium in Dallas about balancing resource protection and recreational access. He explained how to evaluate the ecological, cultural and historic values on landscapes and to assess and deal with the impacts of introducing recreational trails.

Kurt participated in an Advanced Trailbuilding School hosted by New England Mountain Bike Association in April at the Kenneth Dubuque Memorial State Park in Hawley, MA. He taught sessions on trail assessments, installation of geoweb ("a larger task than most people envisioned," he reported) and the art of trail alignment.

The Appalachian Mountain Club participated in the NEMBA event. Kurt said he had excellent conversations with the AMC reps. Although the hiking people still disagree with IMBA about some trail issues, they see the need for dialogue and this was a perfect opportunity. "They were impressed with our exceptionally high level of knowledge about trails. That's been a key factor. We do have the skills and are able to teach at a high level," he noted.

Back home in southern California, Kurt assisted his local club, the Concerned Off Road Bicyclists Association, on
National Trails Day to maintain a trail in designated Wilderness, where bikes are not allowed. That trail in the Santa Monica National Recreation Area was the first trail he ever worked on 15 years ago and it's also one of the oldest documented trails in California, a Native American path dating back roughly 400 years.

Kurt is also consulting for the Nature Conservancy and the Irvine Company at the large Irvine Ranch south of Newport Beach, CA to design a new mountain bike trail system.

As ITN goes to press, Kurt had just traveled to Portland, OR, to assist landowners who host equestrian events and trails and want to introduce mountain biking. Only a half-hour drive from downtown, these ranches could become an excellent venue for racing and pay-to-play trail riding.