IMBA Trail Crew Visit Harbison

[DMSC]

Are any of you planning to be at Harbison for the IMBA TC visit on April 3rd?

[Angela]

We have three members who have signed up and they have saved us another few slots if we have people who still want to attend.

[wooglin]

Harbison is my local trail, about 5 miles from here. But on Saturdays I'm a dad, and 4 year olds don't have very long attention spans. Dang.

[DMSC]

Angela,

That's great. It'll be nice to put some faces and names together.

I'll be there Thursday and Friday, helping them identify the areas that need work (plenty of those) and trying to stay out of their way!

[Angela]

Sometimes grown people doing trail work don't have long attention spans either .

Most of ours will probably be over there for the Saturday session. I've ridden Harbison before and due to its location I suspect it gets a fair amount of abuse and overuse.

[wooglin]

Angela said:

Most of ours will probably be over there for the Saturday session. I've ridden Harbison before and due to its location I suspect it gets a fair amount of abuse and overuse.

It does. Most of it just needs to be rerouted, but then it would just get overused again. You can haul butt on it though.

[Angela]

We really enjoyed the trail but with so many great trails in our area we don't get away from here very often

[wooglin]

For those who didn't get the email:

Columbia, South Carolina
April 1-4

FRIDAY, APRIL 2
6:30 p.m. Around the World with IMBA slideshow
Come mingle with fellow riders and trail users and learn about
IMBA's work around the world. IMBA's Lora Woolner and Mark Schmidt will
present a fun and exciting slideshow about riding and travel adventures in
the U.S., Italy, Wales, Australia, and beyond.

Harbison Environmental Education Center
5500 Broad River Road
Columbia, SC 29210

SATURDAY, APRIL 3
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. IMBA Trailbuilding School
Get your hands dirty and learn how to build sustainable and fun singletrack.
The school includes three hours of classroom instruction followed by
hands-on time in the field learning trailbuilding techniques. Topics include
designing a contour trail, controlling water flow, building effective trail
structures, and routine trail maintenance.

The fieldwork will be hands-on trailbuilding, so come prepared. You'll
probably be most comfortable in long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Wear
sturdy shoes and bring water, snacks, work gloves, sunscreen, and a hat. If
you have any trailbuilding tools--pulaskis, McLeods, rakes, picks, hoes,
shovels--please bring them, too.

Harbison Environmental Education Forest
5500 Broad River Road
Columbia, SC 29210

9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Classroom Session

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Lunch provided by Harbison State Forest

1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Fieldwork

SUNDAY, APRIL 4
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Hit the Trails Day!
The GATES are open all day with free parking at all parking areas on the Forest and no bike permit fees. Hike, run, ride bikes on Harbison State Forest's
18-mile trail system. Be sure and pick up a map/trail guide and follow all
rules (except those pertaining to fees) listed on the back.

9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Ride With IMBA
Bring your bike and hit the trails with International Mountain Bicycling
Association trail experts. This event is designed mainly for expert riders who would like the challenge of riding with other seasoned bicyclists. Meet at the front parking lot.

10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Guided Nature Walk
Hit the trails with Tom Abrahamsen of the University of South Carolina.
Meet at Eagle Trail parking lot.

1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Guided Nature Walk
Hit the trails with Jerry Shrum of the SC Forestry Commission.
Meet at Eagle Trail parking lot.

[seenvic]

How did this go?

[DMSC]

Excellent!

I spent Thursday with the Trail Care crew (Mark & Lora) along with a couple of other folks from our Friends of Harbison State Forest group and HSF Director Russell Hubright, assessing the trails and finding the spots they were going to use for the class on Saturday.

On Friday, we spent the morning getting material to the work sites. We then went for a ride in the afternoon. The weather wasn't the best, but it was a nice 14 mile ride.

We had about 30 people in Saturday's class. Mark & Lora decided to have us work on three sections of Firebreak trail that were in serious need of attention. We re-routed a short section around a spot that was very muddy. We also used granite rocks and crush-n-run to armor two more spots. They also showed us how to use the clinometers to design contour trails.

The Sunday monring ride was way to fast a furious for me to hang with. I tried hard but had to abandon!

We had two of the local TV stations come out and do stories about the events and Harbison in general.

By the time it was all over on Sunday afternoon, I was wo out!

Overall, it was a great learning experience. I learned a ton from just walking around Harbison and having Mark & Lora point things out that needed to be changed or fixed or things that where done correctly. It was really nice spending time with them both. They are top notch in my book!

[seenvic]

Any more movement towards a Columbia SORBA Chapter?