Dear Rory,

Just a few quick updates.

First off, deer hunting season kicks off this weekend with muzzleloader Oct 29th through Nov 8th and regular rifle season runs from Nov 9th through Dec 4th. Be aware that most of the trails are open to hunting: wear bright clothes and consider a small bell. Same goes for your canine companion.

This year we are experimenting with NOT leaf blowing the trails. The leaves provide a nice cover during this transitional part of the season where the soil can be wet or in various states of freezing and thawing. To help folks riding at night to stay on the trails we have started putting small reflective tacks to mark some of the harder to follow trails.

Speaking of finding your way, we started selling paper maps of the Landmark/Boston Lot this Fall. You can pick one up at Mason Racing, Omer & Bob's, Drummond's, Claremont Cycle, Jake's Market on rt4, and Systems Plus at Centerra.

There are 2 months left in 2016. UVMBA has seen its political power increase 2x since 2015 with 255 paid members. The next milestone is only 45 away and that would move us to another class. These memberships of course provide us with funds for bridges, maps, websites and tools. However, the true power of membership is in the numbers and diversity of those numbers. This is because it shows local groups (LCC, HCC, TFPL) that UVMBA has the respect and trust of a large number of trail users. They know we can call on this group when we need action and they need this support as well. Please help us grow to 300 this year to help ensure that 2017 starts off with the best foot forward.

Finally, are you following us on Facebook? We try to post regularly about trail conditions, especially in the Winter, and other related matters: http://facebook.com/uvmba. Once you are following be sure to set the "See First" option as shown in the screenshot below to ensure Facebook actually shows you our posts (they can be a bit flaky).

Thanks!