For Immediate Release:  12/16/2009

Anne Mader

Mid-Atlantic Off Road Enthusiasts, Inc. (MORE) receives $10,000 from Bikes Belong for the Fountainhead Project,  (Fairfax County, VA)

This $10,000 grant award will help MORE to implement phase I of the Fountainhead Project.  This rehabilitation project will reroute and construct three sections of machine-built trail in Fountainhead Regional Park.  The work will be reestablishing eroding, unsustainable trails and improving the riding experience. The new segments of trail—phase one of four planned for this park in the D.C. Metro area—will be the first step in completing a safe, sustainable stacked-loop system for mountain bikers of varying abilities.  

Over the last year, The Fountainhead Project has received funding from  IMBA Trek funds, REI, and many individual donations. The combined funds will be used to contract IMBA Trail Solutions to complete the mechanized trail building portion of phase I. The remainder of the project will be completed by volunteer labor through MORE.  

Bikes Belong Coalition is the U.S. bicycle industry organization dedicated to putting more people on bicycles more often. The Coalition works to increase federal bike funding, award grants to support innovative bike projects, promote bicycling and its benefits, and backs crucial national efforts such as Safe Routes to School, Bicycle Friendly Communities, and the National Bike Summit. The affiliated Bikes Belong Foundation focuses on improving bicycle safety and enhancing bike programs for children.

Since the Bikes Belong Grants Program began in 1999, it has awarded 196 grants in 48 states and the District of Columbia, awarding nearly $1.6 million in cash and leveraging close to $550 million in federal, state, and private funding. The facilities grants alone have helped finance more than 1,630 miles of bike paths and trails that link almost 7,500 miles of bike facilities.

MORE is excited to be the recipient of the Bikes Belong grant.  The phase I portion of the Fountainhead Project is scheduled to begin in early spring 2010.

For more information please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   

KBR Contributes $10,000 to the Fountainhead Project!

A big THANK YOU to KBR for donating to the Fountainhead Project!  Jim Kiminsky, fellow MORE member and employee of KBR, led the effort to request a contribution from KBR to the Fountainhead Project and as a result MORE received a $10,000 check!  This donation will significantly help move the Fountainhead Project along and allow MORE to begin work on Phase I in the spring.   KBR has a long history of supporting efforts that focus on education, environment, and health.  KBR’s Government and Infrastructure Business Group is headquartered in Crystal City and this project provides an opportunity for KBR to give back to its local community.   Along with the donation KBR employees are looking forward to volunteering for trail projects and of course, riding the trails! 

KBR is headquartered in Houston, Texas, also known as the energy capital of the world. The Company employs over 50,000 people worldwide in locations that include Australia, Africa, the U.K., Asia and the Middle East. KBR delivers a wide range of services through its Upstream, Downstream, Technology, Services, Government and Infrastructure, and Ventures business segments, and differentiates itself as a technology-driven engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company.

KBR has built a proud history and a leading market position in the government and infrastructure sectors by being a low-cost, high-efficiency and absolutely reliable service provider. Not only is KBR the largest contractor for the United States Army and a top-ten contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense, it is currently the world's largest defense services provider.  

A combination of grants, individual donations and corporate donations has let MORE realize the first Fountainhead Project goal of $30,000. This goal money will be allocated for the first phase of the Fountainhead redesign construction projects, which is scheduled to kick-off in March of 2010. At the time of this article, the Fountainhead Project has raised $33,670.  To recap; REI awarded MORE a grant of $7000, Tom O’Sullivan and his family donated $7,000 and MORE challenged and encouraged the local mountain bike community to donate by pledging to match any donation up to a combined total of $7,000. So far, $5,840 in eligible matching donations has been received through the FountainheadProject.org website with total individual donations reaching just under $9200.  And last but not least; Joe Foley, Matthew Donahue, and Evan Ellicott raised $4,650 by racing the Massunutten Hoo-Ha with Team IMBA-MORE.

We also can’t forget that this project was kicked off with initial grants from the Trail Conservation Fund and support from TREK Bicycles. 

Phase 1 Plans

Project 1A is the redesign of Jack Rabbit Run (JRR).  JRR is currently a long ridge-top downhill trail that doesn’t take advantage of the surrounding side slope. The redesigned and enhanced trail will shift the existing tread from the fall line to the sloped hillsides.  The new trail will also include banked turns and whoops for a fast and swoopy ride experience.

Project 2A is a reroute of the Woodpecker Hill uphill, a very steep uphill fall-line trail.  This project will exchange the current 500 feet of trail with 4,695 feet of fast, flowing technical and contour single track.

Project 3A is the reconstruction of the alternate to the Shock-O-Billy trail (SOB). The current Shock-O-Billy alternate was an attempt by MORE to provide an easier descent for users not wishing to tackle SOB. In its current condition, the alternate line is actually harder than the main SOB line. This project would create a new alternate trail while leaving the original SOB descent intact.  The new alternate would branch at the first SOB grade-break and would follow the contour of the hillside to where the existing alternative starts to descend. The new construction will include multiple descending ledges (drops) and two berms.

Work is slated to start the in March of next year. Currently the club is working the final details of the project with the park and the designers and researching what we can be done to keep costs in line.  This includes finding donations of stone and exploring lower cost options for transporting material to the work sites. If you are interested in helping with any of these tasks, please send an E-Mail to:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Team IMBA **UPDATE** 

On June 6th, three MORE members rode the Massenutten Hoo-Ha as part of the Team IMBA program.  Together, Team IMBA-MORE raised $4650.50 for MORE that will be earmarked for Phase I of the Fountainhead Project -- fountainheadproject.org -- and more than $1500 for IMBA. 

The three Team IMBA-MORE riders -- Matt Donahue, Evan Ellicott, and Joe Foley raised $3301.00 in direct donations from friends, family, and concerned mountain bikers and qualified for $3000 in matching grants from SRAM.  The direct donations were split 50/50 between IMBA and MORE, and the matching grants from SRAM all went to MORE.

Teams from SVBC (Shenadoah Valley Bicycle Coalition), CAMBC, and EVMA also participated in the Team IMBA program at the Hoo-Ha and all of the teams combined raised almost $19,000 before the SRAM grants.

The Team IMBA program was organized by IMBA and sponsored by SRAM to give riders the opportunity to turn their races into fundraising events for both IMBA their local club mountain bike clubs.  Riders earned SRAM matching grants of $500 or $1000 by averaging $500 or $1000 of donations per rider on the team respectively.