About the River Rockets

It all started out about 5 years ago, when a group of about 8 people rode mountain bike on some trails that a group from Bicycle World of Brownsville had formed...the Border Bandits, they were called. They would ride trails (actually, most were levees) along the Rio Grand River, where lots of illegal trafficking and drug smuggling occurred. One of the guys from the group, Rayner Cardenas (founder) tried to convince another guy, Mike Heggie (founder & motocrosser), to ride the trails. After repeated attempts to convince ths macho motocrosser, he finally gave in and gave it a try...from that moment on  he was hooked! From there the word continued to spread  and the biking fever began!

There were about 8 people who consistently rode the loops and talked in our garage after the rides and fantasized about forming a club. The Border Bandits died out. We saw the lack of outdoors activities (especially for adults) within our community. So what better way than to unite and form a local club? We met at the Kohutek's house in Los Fresnos and held our first meeting in their living room. Several other people were interested in hosting a local "adventure race" and introduce this wild concept of racing to the public...so, that gave us yet another reason why we needed it & the community needed it...It was a WIN - WIN for everyone. Since no one was looking to get rich & and we wanted to give back to our community,we formed into a non-profit organization. Our club is operated by real people from school teachers, doctors, business owners, engineers, spouses, kids, and the list goes on...

How did we come up with the name? Most of us wannabe mountain bikers had purchased our cool looking Camelbak ROCKETS (the majority of us ended up with yellow ones)...we live along the Rio Grande RIVER...and we're from BROWNSVILLE...(Remember we also wanted to host and adventure race. So, we felt that if we formed into an "adventure club" then we could offer Brownsville more than just biking events).  Hence, the name Brownsville River Rockets Adventure Club, Inc. was created...VOILA!

Some of the original founders that would meet (and still do) in our underground bike cave (my garage) are: Rayner Cardenas (who cut first off-road section of our trails: "Ash" trail...it had been freshly burnt), April & Jerry Kohutek, Meri & Mike Heggie (who's house and garage look like an underground bike shop), Terry Hall (owner of Bicycle World of Brownsville), Joe Aguilar, & Terry Cuellar to name a few. If I forgot someones name, I do apologize (it's now past midnight and am weary)...Let me know if I did.

The River Rockets are a great group of people. Thanks to all that have volunteered countless hours, believed in us by sponsoring our club & events,  donated their $25 bucks for membership, came out to show support, or participated in our events. We hope that we have touched at least one person's life and made a difference by getting you outdoors to stay fit!

"Pedal On!"