Board of Directors
Tim and his wife, Erin, began mountain biking together in 2013 as a way to continue their journey to better health. The journey led to many new and valuable relationships as well. Tim has served on the Friends of Glacial Hills board since 2015 and has been part of the NMMBA board since 2016. He has helped with trail maintenance and winter trail grooming, worked many events, and has helped organize many board records to ensure smooth communication among NMMBA volunteers present and future. Contact Tim at tim.reicha@nmmba.net.
Steve joined the NMMBA board in 2015. As Secretary, he translates the incredible energy from meetings into a written document and helps keep members up to date on current projects. Steve was introduced to mountain biking by a friend in the mid 90’s. He had an old Huffy mountain bike and decided to try out the Boyne Mountain Challenge in 1999. Later that same year, he participated in his first Iceman Cometh. To date, Steve has completed 20 Iceman’s and is also a member of the McLain’s Race Team. He also serves as a board member for McLain’s. Contact Steve at steve.mentzer@nmmba.net.
Kim joined NMMBA in 2013 as a general board member and was elected treasurer in 2014. Besides NMMBA, she currently holds a board position at the state level Michigan Mountain Biking Association (MMBA), and The Festival Foundation (which operates the National Cherry Festival and Iceman, among other events). Previously she has been a member of the Iceman "staff" as the Awards Director; Cherry Capital Cycling Club president and social director; and Cherry Roubaix as the awards "director". She's an accountant and owner of Cherryland Accounting and Tax Services (since 1997), and married to David (aka Super Dave) Bucholtz who races for Hagerty Cycling. Mostly you'll find her commuting to work, however, when she does ride it's either from home on Old Mission Peninsula, hitting the VST on her beloved mountain bike, or heading to Stone Hound for some delicious cider on the TART Trail. For her advocacy work in the cycling community, Kim was inducted to the Michigan Mountain Bike Hall of Fame November 4, 2017. Contact Kim at kim.white@nmmba.net.
While teaching his son Maximus to ride a bike, Chad asked his dad what it was like to teach himto ride a bike, to which his dad replied, “What do you mean, I put you on the bike and you rode away.” Since then, Chad has enjoyed life on two wheels. He grew up chasing BMX races all over Florida and the Southeastern U.S. in the family VW bus. Upon returning to Michigan, Chad picked up road racing until a teammate pulled a bike out of a van and said, “this is a mountain bike.” After one ride, he traded in his road bike, bought a mountain bike and never looked back. Shortly after the birth of his son, he and his wife Heather got inspired while attending an Iceman race to double down on their health and fitness. They hit every race in the MMBA CPS race series the next year and had “date night” every Friday at the Vasa Single Track. Noticing fresh
chainsaw chips (Gnome glitter) on a Friday ride, he realized that people actually actively maintain and care for the trail, and they are called Trail Gnomes. Wanting to be part of the trail stewardship he joined the NMMBA family in 2016. Contact Chad at chad.jordan@nmmba.net.
Brian joined the NMMBA Board in 2022. In 2016, Brian and his wife Cathy moved from downstate to their cottage on Duck Lake in Interlochen after retiring from an automotive engineering career at General Motors. If he isn’t in his workshop woodworking or brewing some beer, Brian can be found in the wood’s mountain biking on single track. Brian is excited to help develop the required infrastructure that will enable many others to share his passion for mountain biking. Contact Brian at brian.pugh@nmmba.net
What began as exploring by mountain biking in his backyard trails for fun has turned into a year round passion for riding, developing, building and maintaining the NMMBA trails. Mike joined NMMBA as a member in 2012, joining a few spring trail bee’s. Soon after, Mike was part of the team that laid out, cut and groomed the first fat bike WST loop in 2014 and has been on the grooming team ever since. In 2016, Mike joined the NMMBA board and helped train and lead work teams to rebuild the VST and adjoining trails to improve the quality and quantity of trails with sustainable designs. Contact Mike at mike.walters@nmmba.net.
Tom joined the NMMBA board in 2014. In 1978, Tom built one of the first BMX tracks in the area and has since designed and build over 200 miles of single track in the Traverse City area. In 1996, he was invited to design the first olympic MTB event course and was inducted into the Michigan Mountain Biking Hall of Fame for his trail building work in 2018. Contact Tom at tom.white@nmmba.net.
Kate joined the NMMBA board in 2021. She is involved in the Supply Road trailhead project, grant writing, member communications and grooming badge sales. Kate is a mom, scientist and a native to Traverse City. She loves being in the woods and literally has a bicycle for every day of the week. Contact Kate at kate.white@nmmba.net.
Heath, his wife Clarissa and their 4 kids moved to Traverse City in 2016. After retiring from the U.S. Coast Guard in 2021, his family decided that TC would be “home”. Heath has been a volunteer NMMBA fat bike trail groomer since 2017 and a Norte Varsity team coach. With the growth of the area, and an ever increasing mountain biking community the need for increased trail stewardship is growing. Contact Heath at heath.day@nmmba.net.
In 1988, Chad received his first mountain bike and it was love at first sight. That was the start of adventure for Chad in Vasaland long before the system of trails were established and maintained. During those years exploring Vasaland and racing mountain bikes, Chad became a member of a newly formed Michigan Mountain Biking Association. Every year Chad and his grandfather would travel to the annual meeting in Lansing to receive the latest Championship Point Series awards, browse the bike swap and take notes about local chapter news. Over the years, Chad has witnessed the growth of the MMBA into strong local chapters like NMMBA. Now that Chad has raised his family and established a career, it is time to serve the members of NMMBA. Chad looks forward to serving the organization and its members! Chad joined the NMMBA board in 2022. Contact Chad at chad.schut@nmmba.net.
Michele joined the NMMBA Board in 2016. She along with others put on the first mountain bike race on the Cadillac Pathway called the Bear Claw Epic in 2015 and the following 6 years. They donated 100% of their time and all profits have gone back into the pathway. With those profits and grants they have expanded the parking lot, built a pavilion, stone fireplace, new outhouse, installed solar lighting for the parking lot, bought a snowmobile, grooming equipment for both XC and Fat Bike Trail, worked with the DNR to put in a temporary trail system to groom for fat biking in the winter and successfully wrote a trail proposal to the DNR to build an additional 11 miles of permanent single-track. In Michele’s spare time she works tax season for Plante and Moran, loves mountain biking and cycle touring with her husband. They recently just completed the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route which is the worlds longest mapped off pavement cycling route established in 1974. Contact Michele at michele.andrews@nmmba.net
Tim grew up in Northern Michigan and bikes were always a big part of his life, from racing BMX bikes as a kid to riding and racing road, mountain and cyclocross bikes as a "grown up". Tim lives in Williamsburg with his wife Amy and their 2 daughters, riding bikes and being involved in the cycling community has been a big part of their everyday family life. Coaching a junior development team for Hagerty Cycling helped Tim realize that our community needed more trails geared towards kids and developing riding skills. Joining NMMBA in 2018 was a big part of working towards that goal. Contact Tim at tim.jenema@nmmba.net.