Our club has a need for someone to volunteer to take over as the trail coordinator for the trail at Colonel Francis J. Beatty Community Park. 

You don't have to be a trail building expert to take on this role. We'll help train anyone that's interested. If someone is interested there's a great opportunity this weekend to learn some of the basics at the IMBA Trail School at Lake Norman State Park. Details of this event are located on our Home page under "Latest News".

We can also provide some one on one training by our more experienced trail coordinators.

The time commitment can vary, but on average requires about 4 to 8 hours a month, and you can recruit helpers that could adopt certain sections of the trail to keep an eye on. 

What the heck would the trail coordinator do? A big part of the role is just keeping an eye on the trail for spots that may hold water and need to worked on, erosion, keeping an eye on any bridges or structures on the trail..i.e., if you feel a bridge getting wobbly when you ride over it, and helping coordinate any trailwork days where you want to have a big push for something.

You don't need to know how to build bridges or structures, although that would be a major plus. If you find a bridge that you think needs some attention as an example, and don't know what to do, we can bring out experienced trail coordinators and trail workers to help out. A lot of the role is just keeping an eye on the trail, and we'll teach you what to look for in regards to things that need to be addressed.

If interested or have questions, please post up a response, or send me a PM. If you've ever wanted to really know how all this stuff works, here's your chance. 

Thanks Gravitythief76!!!!

If we can get a good group willing to volunteer, it makes this so much easier for everyone.

For any newbies that want to try this, great opportunity to learn at the Trail School at Lake Norman State Park this Saturday. 

Who's next? 

That would be a hoot wouldn't it.....If she'd swing a tool with us it might actually help the relationship....

Even though you were being funny, you kinda bring up an interesting point. If anyone knows any active trail runners in the area that would be interested, we can teach a trail runner just as easily as a trail rider.

Gravitythief76 wrote on 11/16/10 at 5:18pm:


David - I'm in a similar position to you (except 1 less kid and 1 more dog).  I cannot commit to being a full-time lead but would be able to help out a few other individuals.   

Personally, I think the leaves should be left alone..but I realize that is a can of worms.

Matt

David - sent you a PM.  One area that def needs help sooner than later is the protruding drainage pipe (black corrugated plastic) on the main trail just after entering back on from the short blue "half-moon."  Some newb is going to wreck hard on that thing.

I noticed someone blocked off a bunch of cut-arounds last week - but I heard many were already un-blocked by the weekend..

Would you two be interested in co-lead trail coordinators, and split the difference?
I don't know if we've ever had co-lead trail coordinators, but myself and Nuker argue with the newly named Trail Ninja like we're triple leads at Fisher Farm sometimes, and it works just fine. Trail Ninja just gets the final say after we gripe and moan

You could just cage fight or something if you can't agree like we do sometimes

Seriously, thanks to both of you for posting up. Any help is appreciated. 

I think we could make it work with co-leads if you're interested. This could actually be a new concept to help us get more trail coordinators, and help those trail coordinators balance the work/life thing.  You're welcome to PM me to get on the phone if you want to talk, but regardless, thank you both for helping in any way you can.

No worries if you're not interested in the co-lead thing...just a thought

Gravitythief76 wrote on 11/19/10 at 2:18am:


Ditto and I will defer to David on what needs to be done first and how it should be done since he's got the know-how..

Beatty's my local trail and I'm available for some work days. Let me know when you want to get started. I'm looking forward to confounding some "corner cutters" and straightening out some "trail wideners".

We ought to notify P&R about the drain pipe. That section is their work. When it was first done, Doug S. pointed out to the park Super some issues with what they did, and he agreed it wasn't done quite right. As expected, further work now needs to be done. In the meantime, perhaps some flagging or a choke to warn riders may be in order?

I'll leave it up to you. If it's a fairly easy fix, then makes sense to do it. But this will probably be a temporary fix as the design of the storage "ponds" above the pipes is causing the washout and I think the problem will persist.

When you going out there?

Up to 8 people now that have stepped forward and offered to help. Keep em coming! The more people with have on the Beatty trailwork email list the more likely we are able to get several people out there working at any given time! Thanks to those who have reached out already and for the rest of you..... Whacha waitin for????