6/1/2025 Iron Furnace MASS Series Mountain Bike Endurance Race

onetracker

onetracker

JORBA: President
JORBA.ORG
The Iron Furnace MASS Series Mountain Bike Endurance Race is back for 2025 brought to you by your friends at Black Bear Cycling. Bringing this race into 2025 as a longer endurance style event. Expect the lap distance to be 18-20 miles. The course will be a nice mix of singletrack, double track and lots of rocky goodness. Camping available, as always 🙂

Mark your calendar, we hope to see you!

For more information: https://www.bikereg.com/67975

***Due to the longer lap we are planning in 2025, we are looking for 3-4 volunteers to be on course (to monitor a corner or challenging area) or sweep during the event. Figure a 9am-3pm-ish day. For non Black Bear Cycling members, if you come out to help us for the day, we will make a $125 donation to jorba.org in your name (which would include a Green Circle Annual Membership). If you are interested, please send me a PM. Thanks in advance.***
 
The June 1, 2025 Iron Furnace Course will be 22 miles starting and finishing in the furnace area. We expect this to be a challenging but fun course slightly shorter then the previous Bearscat Race we promoted. Options for 1 or 2 laps. The MASS Race requiring the 2 Lap option to be scored in the series.

This course will pass through the furnace at the half way point of the race and then also finish in the furnace area. This allows for a self aid station/feed zone for nutrition to be set out by individuals for their own needs. There will be only a self service aid station setup of water at this point.

See map of course here. Work will be moving along with clearing blowdowns and pruning over the next few weeks so if you ride it and see something these will be addressed.
Registration can be found at:
https://www.bikereg.com/ironfurnace2025
 

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jeffstick said:
The June 1, 2025 Iron Furnace Course will be 22 miles starting and finishing in the furnace area. We expect this to be a challenging but fun course slightly shorter then the previous Bearscat Race we promoted. Options for 1 or 2 laps. The MASS Race requiring the 2 Lap option to be scored in the series.

This course will pass through the furnace at the half way point of the race and then also finish in the furnace area. This allows for a self aid station/feed zone for nutrition to be set out by individuals for their own needs. There will be only a self service aid station setup of water at this point.

See map of course here. Work will be moving along with clearing blowdowns and pruning over the next few weeks so if you ride it and see something these will be addressed.
Registration can be found at:
https://www.bikereg.com/ironfurnace2025
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That looks like a pretty sweet course! It's got plenty of fun stuff in there!
 
I will be using the Twin Bridges back. I was out last night and cut most of the trees on Red Dot but in one area there is a dangerous split tree along the trail. I am not comfortable sending people through there and thus need to change this. The section of Red Dot from both ends where it intersects with Twin Bridges will be closed by the park until the dangerous tree is dealt with or it falls on its own.
 
Rode a good chunk of the course today. At 6pm the conditions were hero dirt. A couple of mud puddles but most of the trails have a bit of moisture to keep down the dust. A little humid so the rocks were a bit sweaty but that burned off later in the day. The bridges can be slippery but stay off the brakes and be smooth (we also did some repairs today). Even if it rains a little tomorrow, the course will be super fun! Here are two photos which we think are pretty representative of conditions…

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Black Bear is a small, nonprofit club that consists of a small dedicated group of volunteers (also the JORBA Chapter for Wayway). We put on a race annually to generate funds for the operations of the club and to supplement money provided by JORBA and NYNJTC for materials to be used in the construction and maintenance of trails. Our number one priority is the health and sustainability of the trail system at Wayway.

On the Friday night before the race the park received 2-3' of rain which was not ideal. However, Saturday was very windy and we were hopeful that the trails would dry out. We were under zero financial pressure to make a decision one way or the other because we bought the event insurance. In collaboration with Wayway Park Officials, BBC made the decision to hold the race as scheduled. The race had 48 registrants and approx 44 started the race; this felt like a group ride rather than a race due to the small number of participants. The lap was 20 miles long and would not see racers doing many laps over the same terrain and causing a potential for large scale damage. After riding the course this week, we saw some post-race mudholes that need to be repaired in a few of areas which we will address (and hopefully make better through the addition of drains or armoring). But I did not see the trail get wider in any areas; the trails selected were the most resilient and rocky just in case we had a rain event. We are not motivated by profit (~48 participants * $55 plus a couple of day of registrants) yields very little $ in the end after expenses. We run these races because we enjoy putting on these events and to give back to a sport that has given us so much joy. Should we have cancelled the race? Maybe. But did we make the best decision at the time that we could in collaboration with the park; I think we did so. We have cancelled races in the past due to rain events; this one was tricky due to the timing of the rain storm. I offer these insights in the spirit of transparency. This is the first and last post that I will make on the matter; there is no point to internet debates. If you have questions or opinions, feel free to message me directly and I will be glad to discuss your options and perspectives either via DM or phone.
 
onetracker said:
Black Bear is a small, nonprofit club that consists of a small dedicated group of volunteers (also the JORBA Chapter for Wayway). We put on a race annually to generate funds for the operations of the club and to supplement money provided by JORBA and NYNJTC for materials to be used in the construction and maintenance of trails. Our number one priority is the health and sustainability of the trail system at Wayway.

On the Friday night before the race the park received 2-3' of rain which was not ideal. However, Saturday was very windy and we were hopeful that the trails would dry out. We were under zero financial pressure to make a decision one way or the other because we bought the event insurance. In collaboration with Wayway Park Officials, BBC made the decision to hold the race as scheduled. The race had 48 registrants and approx 44 started the race; this felt like a group ride rather than a race due to the small number of participants. The lap was 20 miles long and would not see racers doing many laps over the same terrain and causing a potential for large scale damage. After riding the course this week, we saw some post-race mudholes that need to be repaired in a few of areas which we will address (and hopefully make better through the addition of drains or armoring). But I did not see the trail get wider in any areas; the trails selected were the most resilient and rocky just in case we had a rain event. We are not motivated by profit (~48 participants * $55 plus a couple of day of registrants) yields very little $ in the end after expenses. We run these races because we enjoy putting on these events and to give back to a sport that has given us so much joy. Should we have cancelled the race? Maybe. But did we make the best decision at the time that we could in collaboration with the park; I think we did so. We have cancelled races in the past due to rain events; this one was tricky due to the timing of the rain storm. I offer these insights in the spirit of transparency. This is the first and last post that I will make on the matter; there is no point to internet debates. If you have questions or opinions, feel free to message me directly and I will be glad to discuss your options and perspectives either via DM or phone.
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Bill, I know you. You always do the the right thing. You and Black Bear do more good for the trails, MTBing and the community then anyone could expect. No need to defend yourself in my book. Keep up the good work and thank you guys..
 
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