Thanks to Chris, Wes Lauper, Mike Meccia, Gary Schweithal, and William Lorman for coming out to work on the nice day for this weekend.
The trail repair we did today is often called "turnpiking". We dug through the top soil and filled back with gravel, then added more to build the trail above the surrounding dirt. It's a way to deal with very flat, boggy ground like parts of the beginner section. Bench cuts don't work if there isn't much side slope, and the trail is sinking into the dirt.
I want to spend the remaining work day for this spring in the same area, fixing similar stuff. The trail between the trail head and the first gravel road crossing has been a mess every spring since I started riding at Blue Mound. I think turnpiking is the way to fix it. We will know more surely as our initial effort gets ridden.
We used all our gravel in about an hour, so we fixed a water bar in the same area, then re-set the rock in the two worst streambed crossings in Pokerville.
I'm very pleased with the quality of the work today. The fixes look solid. Hope your day was as good as mine!
Walt