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Post by Angela on Jan 2, 2013 7:20:02 GMT -5
Took a recon ride on Brown Wave yesterday (that loop tends to dry out the quickest of the four southern loops). Top of Skinny was in good shape with some seeps noted mostly along the armored section of the trail. Brown Wave had quite a few seeps in the first mile going counterclockwise but it looks as if riders have been staying in the middle of the trail (imperative to avoid trail widening). The rest of the trail was in really good condition with very infrequent damp or wet places along the trail).
Ran into a rider who had actually ridden all four of the southern loops the day before (as well as Great Wall & DS yesterday) and as suspected Great Wall and Skinny still too wet to ride and Deep Step wetter than Brown Wave. Most of wet areas on Great Wall and Skinny are fed by seeps. Once we have had several days/inches of rain in a short period of time, groundwater levels are higher and feed those seeps. Almost 3 inches of rain in just over a week at this time of year is a lot of rain.
Please do not ride those loops that continue to stay wet the longest (particularly GW & S). Reports are that the outlying trails are all in great condition right now go take a spin on one of those trails. We rode old Bartram on New Year's Eve and the trail was great and report yesterday on the new Bartram was the same (minimum trees, tread great).
Apparently it rained some last night, if we get no more rain the remainder of the week they hopefully should be good to go late this week or by the weekend.
Thanks!
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Post by Angela on Jan 5, 2013 9:09:34 GMT -5
Just a reminder that SC is allowing free (unlicensed) hunting on public lands today. That coupled with the fact that more than likely Great Wall and Skinny are still too sloppy to ride are probably good reasons to come join us at the Boyd Pond EtTR ride today at 1:30 or to hit trails in Georgia to be on the safe side!
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Post by brianW on Jan 6, 2013 7:40:18 GMT -5
Many riders and hikers on Bartram yesterday. Mostly from 'burg to the Dam. Many had shiny new bikes. Did see some friends of ours out there towing their son around on a trail-a-bike. Love to see families out on the trail, let it be by bike or hike.
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Post by Angela on Jan 10, 2013 12:50:55 GMT -5
Did a night ride out at FATS last night. Checking out the Skinny was surprised to see how much seepage there still is after so many days without significant rain. Going clockwise on lower Skinny that first mile had several wet or muddy spots. The three crossings in the middle all had wet/muddy areas. Again it appears that seepage is the issue so will probably continue for a while longer. As a percentage of overall trail, the spots are minimal just be sure to stick to the middle of the trail to avoid widening the trail. There are a few areas that will need some repair work.
Temperatures were great for nightriding! More unseasonably warm weather over the next few days, trails should continue to dry out.
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Post by Angela on Jan 14, 2013 21:34:51 GMT -5
Trails in great shape - sparse wet/damp spots here or there mostly in armored areas. A good way to work on your bike handling skills is to work to stay on the armoring particularly going across the power crossings where there are still some slightly mucky areas. Temperatures out there at night right now are stellar. Looks like a couple more days of it and then the cold front will move through!
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Post by Angela on Jan 16, 2013 7:33:02 GMT -5
Great Wall in great condition as of last night, sparse soft or wet spots, remainder of the tread great.
There are two trees down one between 1/2 and 1 mile markers (just past the tight switchback area if going CCW) and the other very close to the 6 mile marker (this one is chest high).
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Post by Angela on Jan 17, 2013 7:41:46 GMT -5
It rained off and on all during the night, some of it heavy, looks like more rain predicted for today (weather guy said could be another 1/2 inch). Our temps look good for the coming weekend but please ride the outlying trails early in the weekend, FATS will be too wet. Sunday might still be too wet but if you do a test run, pay close attention to the trail tread, and if by nature you aren't willing to turn back if the trails are still too wet, please stick to the outlying trails all weekend long. Ride Responsibly......thank you!
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Post by Angela on Jan 19, 2013 12:47:34 GMT -5
Heading out in a few minutes to remove the two trees that are down on Great Wall. Will take a look at trail conditions while we are there!
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Post by Angela on Jan 19, 2013 19:09:42 GMT -5
Just home, we removed two trees on Great Wall and ended up walking about 1/4 of the trail - tread in great condition 95% of portion we walked. Talked to other riders out on the trail (and looked at their bikes) - all the loops should be good to go as long as riders will stay in the middle of the trail when they come to the wet/juicy spots! When you are walking along the trail, it is amazing what you notice off in the woods that you might not notice when you are zipping by on your bike. [a href=" "] [/a]
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Post by Angela on Jan 20, 2013 20:28:39 GMT -5
We rode Brown Wave and Skinny today and as expected Brown Wave was the driest of the trails at FATS. Ran into a friend and she rode all 6 loops today and her report agreed with what we usually observe, the order of driest to wettest on these trails were: Brown Wave Big Rock/Tower/Deep Step Skinny/Great Wall Lower Skinny had about 140 feet of juicier areas (not counting the areas that are actually armored due to recurrent wet conditions in those areas). So well under 1% of the trail (lower Skinny has nearly 250,000 feet of trail. Still not ideal but if riders will be responsible under these conditions, trail damage can be kept to a minimum. Had a conversation with some riders in the parking lot, these are experienced riders who have been mountain biking for many years. Some of them admitted that their initial reaction is to ride around the wet/muddy spots so not to leave more ruts in those wet spots. Honestly that is not the best choice for several reasons: - If the trail is 20" to 24" wide and riders begin riding around a wet spot in the trail that "fix" once the trail dries out can now be a 36" wide area that needs to be repaired.
- If riders slow down and go straight through the center when the trail does dry sometimes what is left are a few peaked ruts in the middle of the trail and people riding later, when it is dry, frequently "repair" the trail naturally and no additional work need be done - sometimes cleaning the drains/dips takes care of the issue but there are some places that simply don't have the needed grade due to flatness of the terrain and will continue to be an issue.
- Riding around the juicy spot can cause or contribute to trail erosion
- Once the alternate lines are created, riders coming along behind are left to make last minute decisions about the line of the real trail and this contributes greatly to trail widening.
The wet spots often move, we have armored spots in the past that have been dry since then and then other seeps develop several feet down the trail. If a spot remains persistently juicy over a period of time it will be considered for armoring but we aren't trying to create a yellow brick road through the woods. To me it looks like more riders are staying in the center of the trails when there are wet spots but we need everyone to do that when they encounter the occasional wet/muddy area. Please do your part to keep the singletrack single!
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Post by seenvic on Jan 21, 2013 9:34:14 GMT -5
Skinny is 25,000 linear feet. Still less than 1%. Good point.
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Post by Angela on Jan 21, 2013 11:51:32 GMT -5
Thanks for the correction - guess we'd all dream about a trail nearly 50 miles long (one too many zeros)!
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Post by Angela on Jan 21, 2013 20:05:25 GMT -5
Good ride tonight on Great Wall - happy that the days are steadily getting longer and we didn't have to turn our lights on until 6:15.
Interesting to note that on Great Wall there is about 230 feet of trail still juicy (at 8+ miles that is over 42,000 linear feet of trail), again not counting purposely armored areas. 2/3 of those juicy spots are before the bridge near the halfway point if you are riding CCW. Still looking at far less than 1% of the total trail. Most of the juicy spots are being fueled by seeps which is why most of the dips and low spots are dry.
A few of the spots will need some repair but if riders are careful it will be just a few. If riders are careless and we did have to repair all 58 of the spots, we would probably be looking at an average of 2 hours per spot since the volunteer has to hike in to get to the spot (or over 100 volunteer hours) and that is if no true material armoring is required.
Think about the fact that of the 1,000+ hours our volunteers worked on trails in 2012, there were just over 80 people working on the trails and just over 50 of them were SORBAcsra members. That is less than the number of people who show up in the FATS parking lot to ride on a good weekend!
Only point I'm making here is there are a lot more people riding the trails than working on the trails so at the very least can you do your part by riding carefully and passing the word along (don't just assume your riding buddy is irresponsible let him/her know if he/she is damaging the trail)?
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Post by brianW on Jan 22, 2013 8:44:43 GMT -5
Is there a way to post work days at the trail head? I know many people do not check the boards or know about them.
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Post by dsquaredmsquared on Jan 22, 2013 9:44:09 GMT -5
Sure, we can do a better job advertising major work parties. We will post to Facebook, the SORBAcsra.org homepage, and forums.
As for advertising at the trailhead, are you willing to volunteer and post, as well as remove, notices from the trailhead kiosks? If so, I can arrange to send you notices of upcoming work parties.
Thank you for the suggestion.
-D²
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Post by tzeaser on Jan 22, 2013 11:15:44 GMT -5
I don't know if its been reported already, but on Sunday there was a pile of dead animals (beaver and fox) in the north parking lot. I don't mind picking up trash but... Anyway, I don't know if the park service would take care of this or what.
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Post by dsquaredmsquared on Jan 22, 2013 12:12:39 GMT -5
I don't know if its been reported already, but on Sunday there was a pile of dead animals (beaver and fox) in the north parking lot. I don't mind picking up trash but... Anyway, I don't know if the park service would take care of this or what. Thanks for the heads up. I'll see that the proper folks are notified.
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Post by Angela on Jan 22, 2013 12:54:24 GMT -5
I verified that the Forest Service does not handle this type of dead animal removal. It is left to scavengers and normal decomposition. If they actually catch someone dumping dead animals anywhere on USFS land it will fall under the no dumping laws and they can be fined/prosecuted. Hopefully the vultures/coyotes/possums will do their jobs quickly!
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Post by Angela on Jan 25, 2013 7:19:01 GMT -5
If the predictions hold true, riding should be great this weekend. The tip of that winter front will slid by bringing highs of mid-40s today but the temps this weekend predicted in the 55 to 60 range.
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Post by quickag on Jan 25, 2013 15:16:48 GMT -5
please don't mess up my dead animal carcass bed.
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