The Cycle Path wrote on 10/23/14 at 3:32pm:
I sure hope you put as much time and energy into helping rebuild the board walks out there later this Fall as you do making a fuss about 6 trees being cut out. The club would rather have your help with the trail than your divisiveness. Same goes for the rest of the shop guys.
Sure will. Apologies in advance for my light sarcasm.
I've spent more time than I care to think about, out there a-weed-whackin this year over several days. With my weed whacker, my gas, my pickup, and no requests for repayment (although Evan did offer). Including a trip to urgent care for poison ivy shots... twice. I've asked several times to see some kind of work days organized and always get crickets. Frankly I'm happy to see at least a skeleton of a plan to rebuild the bridges this fall. I've made suggestions (although somewhat sarcastic) that the re-routes should have at least a piece of paper tacked to a tree, so I don't go blasting down trail that's been the same since before I was born to encounter railroad ties that send me over the bars, and other things... but generally am ignored. I like to be low-key and ignored... most of the time.
I will stand by my opinion that removing the trees from the trail, did not improve the trail, rather the trail was sanitized to be closer to the "lowest common denominator" skill set. And there are much more dangerous features at SH, which are NOT bypassable, than the trees that were removed (high bridges by the big creek, the skinny bridge across the small creek before the stump ride, the jump on the downhill into Circuit City, to name three).
I still can't clear the "qualifier" at Fisher for the new advanced section, but I doubt you're interested in removing that feature. However I can ride everything in that section after humbly dismounting and walking over the log pile. I've also heard tales about trees being re-barred back together at other trails, and I've seen threads go on for pages about roots being cut at Fisher also.
Back to being big boys, and trying to be constructive... maybe just make a thread in the trail work forum when you plan to have SH workdays, and I'll be there if I'm not working. I ride there a lot and am happy to help, and would like to see the trail improve. But I'm not interested in doing it alone anymore, and not interested in working on a trail that's going to be sanitized to the level of the least skilled riders. There are greenways for that (even one right in Statesville! off Radio Road behind the baseball fields).
The pump track is great and I really do hope it brings more people to ride bikes, be healthy, and explore and expand their own personal horizons. Bikes changed my life (for the second time) about three years ago. Pumpin' isn't my thing though, so I leave it alone. Singletrack is my thing, and goin' fast and trying to not hit anything while I do it.
Now that I've wasted most of my lunch hour on this rant... I'll close by saying that it was 10 trees removed, possibly 11, but definitely not 6.
If you want to talk, send me a PM and we can talk.
Respectfully,
Drew Kessler
DrewK wrote on 09/26/14 at 3:07pm:
plenty of people are willing to help work on the trail, just none of us are really trained... need someone to lead it... plenty of worker bees that need a queen
I feel sufficiently competent to run a weedwacker and I'll probably go out and give her a Brazilian again this weekend, but the bridges need attention.. maybe rob material from the bridge to nowhere and put it on the bridges that get used
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) DrewK wrote on Aug 5th, 2014 at 10:20pm:
Always happy to help at trail work days at SH, but never see anything advertised in forum.
Ride on. Rant off. Cheers to those that maintain trails. Let's work together and make them better.
DrewK wrote on May 12th, 2014 at 9:19pm:
Soooo... who's in charge of the greatest single track technical paradise in Statesville? Might need a mani/pedi soon, gonna be unrideable in a week or so if we don't clean it up. Who's in charge? I'd be happy to help at a trail work day. Before I go out there and start tinkering myself... does anybody have anything scheduled?
Ciao... and don't tell me to get on Facebook and look there. I hate Facebook. And warm beer.
DrewK wrote on May 14th, 2014 at 2:19pm:
Enoch,
Thanks for pointing to that thread. I did find it before I made my post. You will notice that there is no trail coordinator listed for Signal Hill. Also, I do remember reading somewhere that Jeff Archer is no longer coordinator for the State Park. Seems like that is BigBikeMike now. Although, Mark @ the Cycle Path was kind enough to send me Evan (?)'s phone number, in reference to Signal Hill. I was more interested in knowing if there was some kind of coordinated effort, you know, so I wasn't trimming, spraying, and blowing off 5 miles of trail by myself. I did mention in my post that I was willing to help out, and if it comes down to it, I'll go do it myself because I do like to ride there, it's close to home, there are no f)(*$&*^ing pine needles like the State Park, and I know the people I ride with will appreciate it and give me free, cold beer, with no Facebook strings attached. Signal Hill, to me, is like a girl that might not look that good, but is really great in the sack. Once you dive in and figure it out, it's a great time. I'm still finding new ways to challenge myself there. I don't know if there is a secret bro-code to get work day info or what, but I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't stepping on anyone's toes and/or doing duplicate work. In fairness, I haven't talked to Evan yet, so maybe that will answer my questions.
So Evan is the trail coordinator at Signal Hill now? I did a trail work day there last year, I think a guy named Scott (?) was in charge - goes by 'Marin Man' on the forum.
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) and
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) Some of the bridges need some help also. Boards are starting to break. Again, I'm willing to donate time... but hopefully won't be working alone, hopefully can learn from somebody that knows what they're doing, and hopefully not paying for tools or materials or fuel myself. I don't have the time to be a trail coordinator, nor do I have the skills, but I can pick up heavy things from one place and move them to another place, and put them down. And I do really appreciate all of the volunteer work that everybody does.
If there is a secret bro-code, and someone who knows the code could start a thread here when there are work days, maybe that solves my problem. Otherwise, I'll have at it as I get time, and maybe pick the lock to the gate so I can drive my truck back in with string trimmer and leaf blower and plenty of poison ivy killer. Somebody is doing a heck of a lot of work on the pump track, it's pretty clean all the time.
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