in Blue Mound (Moderator: Walt Hougas)

Walter and I made some time today to begin the approved reroute on Serpentine Climb. When finished, the route will bypass a section towards the end which is badly eroded. The end result will be a more sustainable trail that follows the mound contour more, and will also effectively extend the bailout.

The corridor is mostly clear, and Walter started benching in some trail on the far end. There is some weed wrench work to do, some removal of rocks, and the rest will just be bench work and exposing the soil.


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Here's a shot of Gary gearing up to cut the log in the foreground.

It's difficult to describe how it feels to have the official OK to begin to fix some of the problem trail after waiting for 2 years. "Good" would be a start.

Walt

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Great news to hear some progress on cooperation is happening Walt!

Thanks for the work guys

Here's a photomap of the segment of trail we're working on.

The pool parking lot would be just off the lower right of the picture.

Serpentine Climb and Basalty Bail are the red lines to the right side, and Holy Schist starts to the left. The reroutes are blue.

The hacked off red segment is what is getting shut down. The black line with arrow toward the right shows the new way the trail will be ridden. The new climb out will be very challenging and will probably require some additional trail improvements to be useable by most riders.

Walt

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Nice work. When are the trail days?

I believe Walt is planning on doing work there this Saturday at 9am, weather-permitting.  Walt if you're planning on it you should start a separate thread or news or whatever special abilities you have on the forums.  I'm not certain I can make it until the afternoon.

I've been holding off posting because the weather for Saturday is iffy. According to Weather.com, there is a 30% chance of rain on Saturday, with isolated thunderstorms.

If the forecast remains the same, and it isn't raining early, I'll start working by 8:30-9AM. Early rain, later start.

When we get a more definitive forecast, I'll post again.

For anyone who wants to join in, if you post that you're coming we can arrange to meet at the pool lot.

Otherwise the quickest route to the work site is to take the bike trail backwards from the point where Basalty Bail connects with John Minix ski/hike trail, and go straight (left) past the sharp turn on Serpentine Climb. The new trail starts at the Sentinals (where the trail goes between two large trees), just before Basalt and Pepper bail out.

Walt

It now says 50% rain on one website, but who cares? The forecast always says rain and then we get a few drops. All the weather sites usually list the rain percentage as higher than actual knowing that people are more upset when it rains when they said it wouldn't than no rain when they said it would. It's easy to cancel a workday for a good reason like weather. Ask for help! I know you could use some out there. Blue Mounds is great and there are a lot of riders who like that place, and it's exciting to see some of the problem areas getting fixed.

I won't be available Saturday. Post when you plan on working and I'll try to make it out there one of the days.

Sounds like every forecast I've seen have the front coming through later in the day and overnight on Sat. If you're planning on working in the morning and early afternoon you should be alright.

More progress on Saturday:

The corridor clearing work is finished on the longer reroute segment. Gary pulled all the sapling stumps with the Weed Wrench. I started with rock removal. The bigger ones went to building a retaining wall around the bottom of the Two Sentinel trees.

I raked the next ~75 yards of trail, then chopped out the plants. Gary used the Yard Boss to cut the bench while I alternated between carting loads of dirt to fill behind the retaining wall, and chopping out larger stumps.

There is a rock garden coming up at the other end of the reroute, it will be interesting to see how it can be developed.

We're a little under half way done with the first reroute segment, and the whole thing can be ridden now. 

Walt

Thanks for all your hard work!

sent from my Smarterthanme Phone

From the top of Gary's trail repair priority list. On Holy Schist the original trail went between a large rock and tree (rock and a hard place?) and had degenerated into a mess of roots. A "social" reroute had developed around the low side of the tree, but was really sketchy because of the steep side slope. I cut and filled it properly. Sorry, no photos due to computer issues.

Walt

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I walked it today, looks fantastic! I'm sure anyone who has wiped out there will be especially thankful.

The first part of the reroute is done.

Gary and I got after it this morning and had it done by 1PM. It's functional as a bypass around the heavily eroded trail due west of the retention pond, but the climb out to the original Basalty Bail is pretty tough.

We will deal with that next year because I'd rather start in on leaf blowing soon. We have a second backpack blower this fall and I hope to go over parts of the trail twice.

Walt