GROC Genesee Regional Off-Road Cyclists

A volunteer posed this question to a group of city youth participating in the first GROC Singletrack Academy Bike Right Skills Clinic, held at Dryer Road Park on June 8. The children had gathered at the trailhead to review the Rules of the Trail sign. Ten-year-old Marquial Johnson answered quickly.

“Because the owner might go into his house, get his gun, and shoot you.”

Marquial’s sober response underscores the importance of this event, which is one of the ways GROC is fulfilling its mission to mentor underprivileged children and promote health and fitness through mountain biking. In partnership with Singletrack Academy and The Community Place of Greater Rochester, GROC volunteers provided instruction, equipment, transportation, and meals to 20 inner city youth, ages 9 to 14.

GROC board member and Singletrack Academy founder Adam Reitz organized the activities, providing basic lessons on bike setup, equipment safety, mounting and dismounting, attack position, turning, and braking. The children participated in multiple skills drills before heading out to Kaleidoscope for their first trail ride. Throughout the day, participants also learned about road and trail safety, rules, and etiquette, as well as stewardship and advocacy.

Another GROC board member, Don Casper, recorded all of the excitement on video. His production company, EPIC10, is producing a mini-documentary which will premiere during Rochester’s 2013 Greentopia Festival. Don will continue filming throughout the summer – since many of the children were awarded scholarships to attend GROC’s annual Singletrack Academy summer program.

In addition to its partners, GROC received support for this event from the Town of Victor Parks & Recreation, the Victor Central School District, and Rochester General Hospital. Funding was provided by the GROC SA sponsors listed below, as well as the Greater Rochester Health Foundation. Additional sponsors and volunteers are always welcome! For more information, contact Adam Reitz at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

2013 GROC SA Sponsors and Supporters

• Community Place of Greater Rochester (and Greater Rochester Health Foundation)
• Victor Central Schools
• Victor Parks and Recreation
• Rochester General Hospital
• Stan’s NoTubes
• Bellwether
• Bike Zone
• Community Real Estate Group
• Full Moon Vista Bike & Sport
• Mac5Bikes
• Park Ave Bikeshop
• Rochester Fitness & Cycling
• RV&E
• Towpath Bike
• Tryon Bike
• Geneva Bicycle Center

Status of Harriet Hollister Spencer Park
Highlights of Recent Meeting of Advisory Team/User Group, 3/28/13

• GROC was invited to this meeting by the new park manager, Arthur Briley.  Attending were folks from various groups who use the park, including XC skiers, snowmobilers, mountain bikers, hikers, dog walkers, hang gliders (who jump off at the lookout), dogsledders and snowshoers.
• Mr. Briley made the point that the trails are all shared use with some reasonable cautions to accommodate snowmobiling and non motorized winter activity trail users, but no real segregation and no bias expressed by him or any of the trail users concerning mountain biking; we are clearly welcome to ride there.
• He is open to mountain bikers and others to do maintenance on existing trails. He is open to folks building new trails, with the only requirement being that they must first get his approval.
• He wants to create accurate maps of existing trails with GIS technology
• There is a new property that they have acquired south of the existing park, apparently just as large, but the two parcels are separated by about 1/4 mile of private property, open for winter use on a connecting trail by snowmobilers. It isn't clear if permission from the land owner could be obtained to allow use of that trail the rest of the year by other trail users.  A separate access and possible parking development  was discussed to allow folks to use "HHSP-South" as it was referred to.
• Dogs must be on lead in the park; this will be enforced.

What does this mean to GROC and to mountain bikers in general?

• Up to now, the major mountain biking presence at HHSP has been the Park Ave Bike team, which maintains a 7-mile loop used in their annual race. There apparently is a Livingston Bike Club, represented at the meeting, but it is unknown if they have done anything significant there.
• Known to anyone who has ridden there, HHSP has tremendous untapped potential as a riding venue year round , if one considers fat tire bikes in the winter, too. There are no active opposition groups and manager, Arthur Briley seems to be welcoming our activity with open arms.

The biggest limitations on development of more trails there are:

1. The distance from a large pool of riders and therefore, of potential trail building and maintenance mountain bikers.
2. The strain that GROC is currently under to properly develop and maintain as stewards of our existing venues.
3. The expressed desire of many of our members for more riding closer to home in Monroe County.

• If this park were to be developed to its maximum potential, it would take one or more dedicated persons to lead the effort.  Someone willing to work closely with the land manager to develop a plan, recruit volunteers and stay dedicated for the long term. The role of GROC in this is uncertain and highly dependent on our available resources (volunteers-YOU).  GROC leaders could certainly make ourselves available to guide based on our collective knowledge and experience in building sustainable trails and creating signage and mapping, if this person or persons desired. If the interested parties are going to be part of GROC, they also could use our Trail Crew Meetup page to post work parties, too. 
• No matter whether more comes of this opportunity, it certainly is refreshing to see that there are places where mountain biking is treated as a legitimate trail activity from the get go, with no opposing groups trying to obstruct the process with lies, fear-mongering and loathing.

Sincerely,
Mark Rosenzweig, Advocacy Chairperson

It’s time to RENEW your Membership 

Support local trails by renewing or becoming a member of GROC.

Join Or Renew Today

Being a Member of GROC is an important part of how we advocate, organize and manage the trails we have in our area. Without your support we could not have accomplished many of the great things we have over the last few years.

So What Do You Get Out Of It?

• Discounts at local bike shops - (See list of GROC Shops)
• Well maintained and managed trails
• A single voice that has and will open more legal trails

Thank you all for your continued support !

We have had some great work done by volunteers over the last month. The 4th Annual Pick Up The Parks saw over 600 volunteers in our parks, collecting over 16,000 pounds of junk and trash that was hauled out ofseveral Monroe County parks. GROC was the site host for Tryon Park and although Tryon is kept very clean, we had 33 volunteers join in to pick up garbage. We had a group working along the highway which always has a lot of trash, another group went down to remove a make shift camp along Irondequoit Creek whose visitors were a nuisance to kayakers and paddlers in the creek. I guess these guys were swimming in the creek and being rather unsavory. Another group did some much needed graffiti removal in Tryon parking lot. Dave really liked his name because he had spray painted it all over everything. Special thanks to Mark Dunn for trying to sand and then decision to paint the wooden guard rails. Tryon is looking good and the effort of the community has all our parks looking good.

On a side note : Ellison Park was under water at the time of the event for Pick up the Parks. Full Moon Vista took it upon themselves to go out with there workers and friends and pick up in Ellison after the water subsided. They gathered 240 lbs of trash. An interesting tidbit- from their collection over by the dog park, they picked up 60 empty fifth bottles of "Canadian Leaf" whisky.

West Bay, Tryon, and Dryer Road Park have all had Trail Crew work parties over the last month as well. Some great projects were tackled, like repairing the bridge in West Bay located on the Green trail, the Epping Forrest reroute at Dryer Road and dealing with some big tree issues in Tryon Park. Their will be many more opportunities for those who want to hep out on the trails. Just join onto the GROC Trail Crew meetup group (it's free) and you can keep up to date on the work being done at Dryer Road, Tryon, West Bay, and in Ontario County Park.

Thanks again to all the volunteers!!!