The leaves are starting to come down. We could use some help with leaf blowing.
Sorry the trails have been closed so many days this year. We had approved plans to deal with the problems in the beginner section, but the issue with the boundary adjustment in Holy Schist came to a head in the spring, and work on the beginner section had to be put on hold until we got a useable reroute in Holy Schist. Unfortunately this was the wettest spring and summer since I started riding the trails at Blue Mound in 2003.
The good thing that resulted from the delay is that Gary came up with an excellent way to reroute around the entire problem area in the beginner section. If approved, it will not only be a lot less work than turnpiking the existing trail, but it will also let us fix a fall-line section of trail on the north side of Pleasure Valley ski trail (after the first gravel road crossing). We rough flagged it last weekend, and I have emailed a request to Kevin for his review of the proposal.
The quality of the dirt in the proposed reroute area is generally better. There is a lot less of the black silt that plagues the current trail. We give up one big rock feature, but gain an even bigger one. We lose four (five?) streambed crossings, including a couple of very muddy ones, in exchange for two that will be built much better.
While we're waiting for the approval to start the beginner section reroute, I'd like to start work on fixing the first ravine crossing in Over Lode, about 1/4 mile in from the start of the singletrack. It's gone from challenging to not-fun-anymore. Really hoping I'm not going to wreck someone's favorite feature, but it just seems nasty at this point.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to helping Gary and me at Blue Mound (and CORP's other trail systems), either with their time or their money. It's an enormous amount of work, and the trails would not be as good as they are without the help of everyone who pitches in. We can't do it without your support.
Walt
