in Blue Mound (Moderator: Walt Hougas)

The park staff decided to reopen the trails on their own even though the conditions were not perfect. I checked the trail between the trail head at the pool lot and the 1st gravel road crossing about 8AM on Saturday. It was wet on the surface with a couple of very short parts with squishy mud. I walked back to the trail head to drive back to the office, and the gate was already open. Way to go park staff!

The garage was open and I was able to borrow the park's power hedge trimmer. I started at the end of the single track and cut my way back on Home Stretch until I ran out of gas at about 1:30. Lunch was at the Blue Mounds Grocery. I parked at an open camp site near the far end of the campground (bad idea) and walked in from the Flint Rock Trail crossing and cut until about 4:30 when a park employee popped up and told me I had to move my car immediately so the people who had just paid for the camp site my car was in could set up. The park keeps some sites non-reserveable. Just because there isn't a reservation ticket on a camp site doesn't mean it can be used for parking a car. Lesson learned! At any rate, Home Stretch is 99% weed trimmed and ready to ride.

In the meantime, Gary walked the chain saw through Pokerville and cut all the down trees. It's still overgrown with weeds and not a lot of fun to ride, but if you are filled with the pioneer spirit any wheels on it will help. I will be going after the weeds ASAP.

Gary and I ran into Willi Van Haren (apologies for any misspelling of his name) from the Friends of Blue Mound State Park and bent his ear for a while about the bike trails. Willi is the main guy behind the trail footrace, is the main guy who grooms the ski trails, helps run the Horribly Hilly race, and was heavily involved with the most excellent new building now located at the end of the parking lot. He is a friend of the bike trails and has voted in favor of several pleas for financial help from yours truly. He is one of the people you may not know, but someone who is instrumental in making Blue Mound State Park the fine place that it is.

Walt

Thanks for the update Walt!

You should stop for pizza next time!!

Just got back from Blue Mounds, by far my favorite singletrack system in southern Wisconsin! I appreciate all the work you guys do to keep these trails open and clear, although with my work schedule I have not been able to help with any of the trail clean up or building efforts. I will be joining the first time my schedule meshes right though! Today I rode most of the trails Overload, Chirt Dip, Serpentine Climb, Holy Schist and finished with Pokerville. Like Walt said, the trail was a little soft from the pool to the first gravel, but after that, it was dry flying except a couple spots in the bottoms of Holy Schist. This was the first time I've rode Pokerville, and I think this is gonna be an awesome trail when complete. I like how it rides along the mound rather than up and down, it has some flatish technical stuff with some flowing sections, the potential is there. It definitely needs some love though, I got ripped up in "Rasberry Fields Forever II" and there is a tree down in the first guarter of the trail. Beggers can't be chooser's though and I had a great time riding Blue Mounds as usual. A big THANKS to Walt and all the others that bust ass to keep it and all the other CORP trails what they are!

...This was the first time I've rode Pokerville, and I think this is gonna be an awesome trail when complete. I like how it rides along the mound rather than up and down, it has some flatish technical stuff with some flowing sections, the potential is there. It definitely needs some love though, I got ripped up in "Rasberry Fields Forever II" and there is a tree down in the first guarter of the trail...

Hoping to start weed control on Pokerville this week. Thanks, DD for putting your wheels on it under less-than-ideal conditions, it helps a lot to have traffic on it.

The design intent was definitely different on Pokerville. William Lorman gave me a stern talking to about the need to flatten the trail slope out. The downhill at the (current) far end of the trail will be close to 1/2 mile when it's complete. The best part is that the climb back out will not be particularly difficult.

Walt