Big Work Day: Saturday, April 14th at 9:00AM

[Paul_Arlinghaus]

This winter's volunteer work days and the Park's Americorp Crew have made tremendous progress on the Fire Tower Trail.  We are now on the home stretch to connect the Fire Tower Trail to the Group Camp.

Let's rally the troops for a big work session on Saturday April 14th, with a camp out Saturday night and riding on Sunday.  We will have bench cutting work as well as a large rock work project lined up for the work day.

We will meet at parking area on the left, just in side the park gate. 

We will have camping on Saturday night and a ride on Sunday Morning, starting at 10:00AM.

The rock work will be in a large ravine, and will be a show piece section of the trail. 

[rpmarheine]

I rode and hiked the entire new trail today. I was surprised by how much of the new trail has been cut in by the park's crew
 (i'm assuming).
In red are the sections that still need to be built. The northern most is the big rock work project, the southern is a switchback area that needs a lot of clearing.
Dashed orange is a section that has been cut in but needs many large trees cleared and some trail refining.
In yellow is a section that needs some work to create some more rideable and flowing lines. Also there are some areas that need be benched a little deeper an proper drainage promoted.



Over all not much work for a decent crew to finish in one day. I am eagerly anticipating the compleation of this trail and looking forward to moving on to the next project.

 

[Paul_Arlinghaus]

Almost too tired to drink beer right now.  Great weekend. 

On Saturday, we worked on the ravine crossing on the new section of the Fire Tower trail (You can see the before picture in a previous post).  6 mountain bikers, 2 Americorp crew members, the Assistant Park Manager and his friend all worked on the project.


The first step was to pull out the rocks from the ravine and dig down to provide a nice bed for the crossing rocks.


Meanwhile others worked on the approach, building a nice crib wall.



Once we got the center rock placed, we had teams working each direction laying big (in some case 3 pry bar rocks) into place.







Stan, O'Bannon Woods State Park Assistant Manager (on the left) and the Americorp Crew.



1st Female Rider to dare ride the Fire Tower to Group Camp extension.

Richard, local rider and trail worker did drainage work on Rocky Ridge and then joined me on Saturday morning for chainsaw work.  With the downed trees cleared. it is now possible to ride from the Fire Tower to the Group Camp.  The trail isn't complete and there are still some rough sections, so ride with caution. 

Do not be fooled by the fairly easy start, this trail is tough.  It is harder than Walnut at BCSP and has 250 ft of elevation. 

I did ride up the trail as well as down. It actually rides very nicely up hill.  It seems less technical when climbing.  Just pace yourself as the total amount of climbing, combined with rocks will take its toll.

We will have a large local volunteer group to support us next month and will complete this trail segment.  Please try to attend as we may have a grand opening for the trail.

More photos at  http://indytrekracer.smugmug.com/Sports/OBannan-4-14-12/22466017_HZqZ93#!i=1796142666&k=qvNX8kT