Rode all the trails in the park today (except Laurel where they are doing burns), and the work on Wildlife Loop looks great! Just enough needle blowing to clean up the trail without making it look denuded, and the stones in those spongy spots are awesome!
I'm sure you're aware of the two primary soft spots on Wildlife, and we will be getting to them in one of the other weekends. Neither is big deal since both can easily be ridden around, but they stay soft even in the summer, so it is best to deal with them now.
Then of course, we have this monster, which in my opinion is the worst spot in all three south loops. Try to ride through this and you'll be at least 6" into the muck and water:
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) It's that nasty dip on the connector between Wildlife and Fox (using this year's direction of travel). I actually stop and walk around it because I don't want to make it worse. There are three in a row that are all bad as you climb that stretch... but the first is by far the worst. The other two were just soft right now, without standing water.
On Fox there was a new tree down, but I was able to man-handle it off the trail using one arm
Less than a quarter mile past this spot is the December tree - which is still there and I can't do anything about it because it is too long and wedged among other trees. However taking a second look it will be easy for someone with a bow saw to deal with it.
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) I personally don't think Fallstown needs to be touched. Smooth and flowy with no water damage or wet spots. It's a pretty dry trail even immediately after a rain. There is one spongy spot I know of that is currently dry as a bone... but it does get slick when wet. Otherwise I think other areas in the south loops are higher priority.
A little off topic... but someone continues to work Monbo trail, and in my opinion it is being overworked. They cut three separate drain lines into the big hill on the rear of the loop - in an area that has never shown water problems. Because it is now dry, in my opinion they are just creating erosion problems for the future that will need to be dealt with. The new work was done with loose and crumbly dry soil that won't stand the next rain. And what's with the blowing needles 15' off the trail? Some of us enjoy flowy single track and don't need to feel like we're on a truck trail
Needles off the trail protect the soil... we want them there.