Frank Harms
By Chris Rogers
For anyone wondering who Frank Harms is, here is a little history on how it all started. Frank started riding in the late 90’s when he was in his late 30’s. In 1999 the Allaire state park superintendent determined that the trails were in dangerous conditions and planned to close Allaire to all trail users. Wally Tunison, who was the owner of The Bicycle Hub of Marlboro NJ held a rally for all trail users to keep the trails open, including cyclists, equestrians, and hikers. Frank attended the rally and later called Wally to see what more he could do to help because wanted to do everything he could to keep the trails open. At the time Frank wasn’t doing any of this for other people. He was doing it because he loved riding at Allaire.
After 6 or so months Frank noticed that they weren’t gaining ground and asked Wally if he could take the lead. Wally was a busy guy running a business in addition to managing other JORBA projects. Things eventually started to move in Frank’s direction because Allaire had just hired a naturalist named Lorraine who was assigned to work with the volunteers to keep the trails open. Frank worked closely with Lorraine during the early trail maintenance sessions and gained her trust, which helped years later when she became superintendent at Belleplain. Lorraine also brought another person along to trail maintenance and his name was Chris Black. Chris still works for Allaire and is ATUG’s lead contact with the park.
Slowly they started with small improvements re-routing trails. The first larger project was the airplane loop. The next was the trail leading up to the bench/monument. Frank slowly worked on connecting the trail system together. Next Frank attended a state volunteer recognition program where he cornered the Allaire superintendent about a new trail proposal, which was immediately turned down, but he continued to explain the benefits of the project. The superintendent agreed as long as it was for all users. That project became Steelman, then later the Steelman Extension was added. Then the Switchback trail was built. Then came the IMBA trail.
Frank and Lorainne met with the IMBA Trail Care Crew and the site for the current IMBA trail was chosen. The IMBA TCC also inspected the newly built Switchback trail and were impressed with Frank’s work considering he didn’t use a clinometer. The IMBA TCC later sent Frank an email saying that they kept comparing other TCC sessions to the Allaire build and how awesome it was to work with such a great group of people and how well Frank managed such a large group. From then on Frank continued to lead ATUG advocating for Allaire. Later on Frank was nominated to be VP of JORBA and then eventually President of JORBA, a tenure that lasted for nearly a decade. So that’s how it all began…
Frank’s History, in his words:
Well first I got involved because Allaire had a plan of closure. Wally held a rally and I was there and called him later that week to see if there was more we could do. I had ridden only a year or so at that point and wasn’t gonna let Allaire close if I could help it.
After 6 or so months I noticed that we weren’t gaining ground and asked Wally if I could lead because he had spread himself too thin. The timing was great as Lorraine came on board and was assigned to us.
This was ~99 as I started with a 98 trek, so yeah 99……closure was all because the trails had fallen to “dangerous conditions “ as per the Superintendent.
During the early years we focused mostly on small improvements, reroutes of really bad areas that used to kick my ass most. Then we did the route around the airplane field, it was our biggest project at the time. But I was able to develop a great working relationship with Lorraine because she saw that I loved the park and wanted to do right by it. That would pay off years later when she became a superintendent at Belleplain.
The next project was the “Harms way” section, part of that long section of trail leading to the bench I usually take a break on. Basically that little climb, and it used to suck.
Each project helped move ATUG/JORBA forward.
Glass trail was actually done by Wally and the superintendent before I took over. I just did some re-routes to fix stuff that Lorraine was unhappy with.
Then I had an idea, one that could tie the trail system together. We had to endure a Sandy trail in order to get from the trail that exited switchbacks and headed out to the trail that has the 3 water bars. I had attended a state volunteer recognition program where I cornered the Superintendent about my new trail proposal, which immediately turned down, but I continued to badger, I mean explain the benefits of the project. He agreed as long as it was for all users. That project became Steelman.
Then it was announced that the IMBA trail care crew were going to share a weekend with Wharton. Now we had just finished a reroute on what I used to call Pine Tree Hill and it was one of our bigger projects that we eventually named The Switchbacks.
Now somewhere in between all of this , I was asked by Wally to attend a JORBA meeting and found out that night that I was the JORBA rep for Allaire. But that’s when Jeff was introduced to the group as well to aid with web stuff and I also met the Whites, Mick, and the Workman’s.
Lorraine was hired by Allaire as the Naturalist for the newly built nature center. Nick Dimicco was the original superintendent I dealt with until he got promoted and Inga Gablicks replaced him. During the early days, Lorraine was part of every trail maintenance and even started to bring a newly hired seasonal worker…..Chris Black. He was great to have along because he was able to introduce power tools to the crew….he was the only one allowed to use it at the time. But I had formed a rather good relationship with both and I was soon allowed to use power tools as well.
So back to the switchbacks and IMBA. We met them the day before the trail session and they had asked Lorraine if she had a preference for a project. She chose the site where Imba now sits, you probably remember how bad that area was. So the couple from Imba came out and scoped the area and then pinflagged it all. Lorraine was happy about this because they also planned regeneration of the old trail….we were a go! So we finished and Lorraine left and I spent some time with the TCC to get to know one another….we hit it off. So I asked them to critique my work on switchbacks. Now I did say my work as I was the leader and if it was fubar it would fall on me. They checked it out and asked if I used a Clinometer to lay it out, I said I didn’t have one, and they said they were impressed. So the next day we built IMBA.
That following New Year’s Eve I got a big compliment…..an email from the IMBA couple that helped us and she said that they were talking about the previous year and how they kept comparing others to the Allaire build. She said the crew was great to work with and they really enjoyed all my usual antics and the fact that I could lead a group that size.
The following Jorba meeting there was a vote for new officers and Mick sat across the table from me and mentioned that we were getting a new VP. I asked who, and he pointed his pencil at me….I was in shock.
Now I had dragged Ken along with me because he had been friendly with Mike Vitti at C.L.I.M.B. on Long Island when Ken was stationed there. He was excited for me and I had already developed a bond with Jeff because I still had that push in me. Well they both had phones with text plans and Cindy and I both had Track phones because we really didn’t see a need for texting at the time, so we got a cheap plan. Well those 2 would text me and I’d yell at them because each text cost me 10 cents. Then they started signing every text with “10c”, a joke that is still a laugh to this day when we text.
So during my vp days we opened membership and our prez was really not there much, so I did all I could which included membership fulfillment as well as anything else I could do….which was blabbing on the forums and working at putting out fires.
Now during that time I had proposed a new trail that the superintendent Dimicco approved, and laid it out with ribbons so Lorraine could approve it. She did, so we planned it for our next session. When trail day came and the ribbons were gone, I could tell where I went because it still looked like a gorilla went through there. We finished in one day because being a blabbermouth and announcing what we were doing ahead of time helped us get bigger and bigger crews.
So before I announced the trail plans with the public I always emailed the ATUG group, and got a reply from Rick Steelman that floored me. He and his young daughter would come to all of our trails for a few years, but he hadn’t been at all that season. So his reply was a note of apology for not attending because his heart condition led to a Quadruple bypass. So he said he would attend the new build day.
As we were heading back to the lot he held a Pulaski up in the air, looked to the sky, and thanked the lord that he was able to do trail maintenance again. Lorraine and I witnessed this and I looked at her and said that we needed to name the trail Steelman, she smiled and agreed wholeheartedly. She even gave me one of those brown trail markers so I could put the name on it. I went to Home Depot and got chrome letters and then put the sign up. Just by accident I was out riding when he and his daughter came to ride and it was the first time he’d been back since the trail build. So they joined me and I suggested we ride the new trail and I stopped just ahead of the sign. It was a special moment when he saw it. Makes me smile to this day.
Well back to JORBA, I was VP for 2 years and I was somewhat frustrated that our current prez was a bit disconnected due to work, etc. I was taking on a lot of other stuff like trying to put out internal fires. One particular one was with Kurt Widmaier and Jay Jones, who was prez and chapter lead at Wharton. Kurt was doing what he could to assist Jay with JORBA duties, but Jay was a part timer when it came to Wharton because he had moved to Cherry Hill and had a new job. When I got Mergs to intervene and talk Jay into handing the reins over to Kurt……I had to push hard on that because Jay was prez and had been written about for his advocacy in an IMBA article. But I didn’t want Kurt to quit and possibly lose a chapter. So the Wookie got his way and I think in the long run I made a good decision there. Jay continues to be a chapter leader to this day in Cherry Hill, as does Kurt in Wharton.
So the rest of my story you should know well enough because you were there!
I still remember that day when I found out Allaire was closing, I was so sad as it was close to home and I had grown to love it. I complained to Cindy about it and she said “well you can sit here and complain about or stand up and do something about it “ I always joked that she probably regretted saying that. But the last 3 years she seems to be proud of me for it. Total support from her the entire time. Time away from her, house chores, and her assistance with the news letters that she said I should send out…..she made them readable.
