Club History

DTS and DVMBA join forces

While all of this was in progress, another couple of guys-Bill Bowen and Jim McGroerty formed the Delaware Trail Spinners in the summer of 1993. Their main goals were to have fun group rides and to put on a race at the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. They had created a couple of nice loops using some old Enduro trails with some new connectors. DTS held their first race, “The C & D Classic”, on Aug. 15th, 1993 with about 250 participants. This event proved to be the catalyst that brought DVMBA and DTS together. Over the winter of 1993 the combined groups set up regular meetings [first at Bill’s home, then the Pancake House on Rt. 40, and then the Yankee Restaurant at People’s Plaza], elected officers, started work on the club’s constitution and non-profit incorporation, and continued trail advocacy in the local parks. That first year there were only eight of us- Jim McGroerty [Pres.], Ed Tomic[Vice Pres.], Bill Bowen[Sec./Treas. and Race Director], Mark Vestal, Jim Dolan, Billy Miller, Ron Whitney, and myself.

These start-up years were difficult because we had no money in the club treasury, and everyone had to pitch in to put on the race event. One year we even sold $10 chances on a $2,000 mountain bike to raise race funds - not a popular idea-but it worked. 1994 saw Ron move to Pres., Mark to VP, Ed to Sec./Treas., and Bill to Race Director of the 2nd Annual Classic. In 1995 Kip Kelly joined and became Pres., Ken became VP, Sallieanne Kelly took over Sec./Treas., and Bill remained Race Director for 3rd Annual C & D Classic. This proved to be our last race at the canal, because the Delaware Enduro motorcycle race in Oct. was run in a driving rainstorm, which destroyed the trail system. After a futile attempt to repair a section of the trail, it was decided to find a new venue for our race.

Lucky for us, Fair Hill Natural Resource Area in nearby Maryland had just acquired a new manager, Ed Walls, who had been given the task of opening up Fair Hill to other recreational groups in addition to the equestrians. Bill Bowen initiated a wonderful rapport with Ed and the Park Rangers, and was able to convince them that we were a responsible trail user group. It wasn’t long before Bill and DTS were busy carving a new system of trails more suited to hikers and bikers. Over the years 40 to 50 miles of single track have been added to the park. In 1996 the first Fair Hill Classic mountain bike race was held at the park.

Commentary: Prior to this, Fair Hill was largely un-mowed, unmaintained and barely rideable. The Appleton Rd. Tunnel, for example, was filled with knee-deep mud until a DTS work party shoveled it out and fixed the drainage to re-open it for bike and horseback traffic. The work DTS did to repair these multi-use trails was noticed by the equestrians and hikers in the park, and some joined the work parties. Trailspinners also showed up in force and were outspoken in public hearings when a proposal to turn a good portion of Fair Hill into a golf course was being considered. These actions really helped ease trail user conflict in this historically equestrian-focused park, painting cyclists as friends of the trails instead of a menace.

Bill was also a master at squeezing mileage out of an area of land. He personally designed the twisting trails of “Drunken Sailor”, “Five Bridges” and “Crackhead Bob”, which provided much needed challenging “expert race loop” mileage. The Teapot/Ruins trail, and the South Park area were also created during this time period, along with countless repairs, re-routes and improvements to make the old network of horse trails more sustainable. Within a few years, Fair Hill had become a destination for mountain bikers in the Mid-Atlantic, and even occasionally showing up in the pages of Dirt Rag Magazine.