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Post by azdrawdy on Mar 13, 2013 20:20:47 GMT -5
I agree with Dustin. FATS is maintained for a rider with absolutely no ability to ride a trail that is not maintained to this level. Anything remotely challenging is ridden around by most riders and eventually moved so it doesn't have to be ridden around any more. Riders like this won't ride anywhere except FATS because they don't have the ability to and do not enjoy riding trails that aren't like FATS. I say this because I have been told this by several people when I asked if they ever ride any but FATS. It is my personal opinion that the folks doing the volunteering like it this way. Or they would't do it this way. Other areas of the country have trails as popular if not more poular than FATS. But the locals there take a different approach. I think this is an example of such efforts. sorbacsra.proboards.com/thread/3409/signsFATS is a product of the local riding community. And the local community is lead by those who show up. And the ones showing up have chain saws and the right to use them. Unless a different set of volunteers "show up" without chain saws and with educational signs, it won't change. And it shouldn't change. This is a lead, follow or get out of the way scenario. FATS was not built to be a technical trail. It has never been a technical trail. It was machine-built, with a wide corridor. The local non-paid individuals that put 40-120 hours a year keep this place viable. It was not built as a sustainable trail from month one. If it were not for HUNDREDS of volunteer hours, this place would not be desirable. A few downed trees do not make a challenging, technical trail. The opportunity was missed to build true trail features as part of the original design. MD
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Post by azdrawdy on Mar 13, 2013 20:25:31 GMT -5
And why did Mark's comment/question go un-answered? Because you could not, or because you thought he was under your sole? MD
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Post by Ted S. on Mar 14, 2013 10:18:14 GMT -5
Todd thank you for all your hard work out there it is greatly appreciated.
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Post by Angela on Mar 14, 2013 16:43:51 GMT -5
PS There are also trees on BR and Tower that could use removing. If there is a person available to remove trees that was deemed worthy enough to have received a chainsaw certification, then that would be greatly appreciated. We have a sawyer that will be out there to take care of the appropriate trees on Monday - thank you!
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Post by Angela on Mar 17, 2013 18:01:13 GMT -5
The trees on BR and Tower that needed to be removed were removed today.
There is a tree down on GW approximately a mile or so in at the switchback after the first power line crossing. It is only a partial tree but it is rather large and juts out into the trail right in the curve of the switchback.
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Post by clydesdale on Mar 18, 2013 22:12:31 GMT -5
Some of the later posts were prompted by Angela and I deciding to cut a small tree off of the trail. My call. I am one of the chainsaw toting trail ruiners (yes sarcasm intended). 9 of us took an entire beautiful Saturday to be trained by the Forest Service to safely remove fallen trees from the trail. Any trail we have would die in a short time without the saws. When I took a lead as Trails Coordinator, I drafted a proposal for FATS and Bartram. Keep the 3 Southern loops and Bartram East relatively free of fallen trees. Plan to leave some on DS, BR, Tower and Bartram West. Outer trails depends on input from the trail champion or whoever is interested. I solicited input, but no real changes were proposed. I have travelled around and seen many different style trails and trail features. Plenty of them I would never attempt, but I liked them a lot. The biggest longest feeling of "I'm gonna die" was an extremely straight smooth section of trail in Colorado with no logs or anything. MD thanks for your years of keeping our local trails a notch above. BV, I'm sorry FATS didn't live up to your dream. As you predicted, they would come from everywhere to ride it. Thanks, because I enjoy being out of town and telling someone I'm from Augusta, then see their face light up when I say FATS. Get off your 29er and get a 12" unicycle and FATS will become technical wonderland. DG, I am glad you're enjoying the racing at out of town trails. But, as BV indicated, you want something different you gotta put in the time. As for me, I put in a bunch of hours on the trail digging, mowing, supporting rides/ races and yes cutting trees. My rewards come from being able to go out and ride when I can, but the best is hearing a kid ask "when can we ride again dad" or yes BV the smile on your face as you round the corner heading up the section 5 hill during Baker's Dozen. I can assure you I will not be seeking additional trail features, but would be glad to support new features/ideas. BV&DG come over and ride my backyard, I have plenty of large sticks you can ride over, because I'll be out on the trail riding or working.
Anybody, please feel free to contact me with any problems on the trails, I'm always looking for the next workparty. Daniel.angela.allen@gmail.com
Later, Clydesdale (Daniel Allen, Trail Coordinator)
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Post by Angela on Mar 19, 2013 21:44:08 GMT -5
Rain gauge reporter indicated .63 inches on the ground from last night through this morning. Went out tonight to take out the broken tree out of the tight switchback about a mile down GW if you are heading CCW. Spot checks of the trail there and also down BW, the trails look pretty good tonight so should be good for riding tomorrow. These were spot checks so some parts of the trail could still be wetter than others.
This isn't an exact science but between the temps, the wind and the fact that the foliage is beginning to absorb water better, we should be entering the time of year when the trails are normally good after 24 hours (as long as there has not been a lot of rain or rain over several days.
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Post by Angela on Mar 21, 2013 6:25:22 GMT -5
Reports last night of trees down on Brown Wave, a couple of partial trees removed from Skinny but one small tree (a few inches above the trail) still down at the bottom of Insulator Hill going CCW - good line of site to the tree but use caution. Skinny in good condition - previously wet areas a little wetter than before the rain. Report on Tower and Big Rock - trails in good condition but apparently the vandals have been at work, damage to signs on the kiosk from a shotgun blast - Looks like a front located in the West will bring rain for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
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Post by brianW on Mar 21, 2013 18:47:45 GMT -5
I just got back from BW and did not notice any tree hazards. A rider did mention in the lot that there was one floating about 2 ft off the trail on GW but no location given. Tree on Skinny (insulator hill?) is right on the fast downhill section. Come up pretty quick also. Is a floater.
Note: the tree on Skinny may be the tree hat was mentioned to me on GW since it was the description given to me.
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Post by Angela on Mar 24, 2013 17:56:11 GMT -5
Rain gauge reporter reports 2.24 inches earlier today - the continuing drizzle/mist delays the drying process. Monday will be sunny with wind up to 24mph. The sun plus wind will help dry out the trails so may be good to go on all loops but GW and Skinny by Tuesday afternoon. Some notes about trail conditions after the rain: - during the Summer months 24 hours after rain is generally good enough (and when it is hot and dry sometime after a shower in the morning the trails are good by afternoon),
- during the Winter with cooler temps and foliage not absorbing as much of the water, it generally takes 48 hours
- during Spring and Fall there is a transitional period when a shift is taking place, if riders will be conscious of the trail conditions and refrain from riding trails that are too wet and report back on trail conditions when they do venture out, it is very helpful
- other factors like frequency and number of inches of rain also factor into the above at any time of the year
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Post by Angela on Mar 26, 2013 5:48:03 GMT -5
Went out last night to take a look at the trails in a couple of places. Was surprised by just how wet things still were but could see that riders had been out on the trail. Entrance is now taped, things are going to need to dry out for a couple more days. The junction of Skinny and the trail to Brown Wave (near the bench) was wetter than I've ever seen it. Other points were similar - don't ride the trails wet, things should be dried out in a few days and it looks like a great weekend of riding ahead!
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Post by Angela on Mar 28, 2013 11:34:52 GMT -5
Our trail scopers were out yesterday afternoon to check on some parts of the trails from the north and south trailheads, the trails are still too wet but of course each day that passes should dry them up that much more. They should be okay to ride by this weekend but will still have some active seeps. Again please stay in the center of the trail particularly in the areas that have active seeps or mud/muck. Looks like rain predicted for Easter Sunday but Saturday predicted to be sunny and 68!
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Post by Angela on Mar 29, 2013 17:10:15 GMT -5
Tape removed and all trails good to go ....be aware of the wet spots. Thanks to everyone who refrained from riding to let the trails dry out, it truly minimizes the damage!
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Post by Angela on Apr 7, 2013 12:31:04 GMT -5
This will be old news if you follow our tweets but to keep everyone up to date. Went out this morning to do a spot check on the trails to see if we could get them untaped. Encountered a rider (from out of the area) who had bypassed the tape but did realize quickly that Skinny was far too wet to ride and backtracked and was on the gravel road riding. Looked like Brown Wave and that means Deep Step too usually might be okay to open up so sent some scouts into the trails to get a read. Just got the read back that these trails (Brown Wave and Deep Step) should be good to go (again, there are seeps and juicy areas still along the trail, stay to the center to minimize damage in those areas) so someone has probably already taken the tape down at the trailhead. There is another scout going out on Big Rock and Tower so we should have a read on those two trails soon. I did have a disappointing encounter while I was taping lower Skinny at the intersection of Skinny and the trail to Brown Wave. He was from out of town (I believe Charlotte) and said he didn't care if we taped the trails or not he was going to ride anyway. We had a brief conversation and while his friend headed on down to Brown Wave I have no doubt they'll ride all the loops. Following is one of the issues and we'll post more about this later and also in the upcoming newsletter. SORBA has a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Southern Region of US Forest Service (there is an IMBA MOU also in place that goes even further back with USFS nationwide). This agreement lays out specific points on what they will do and what we will do in terms of the trails and part of the agreement involves our maintenance of these trails on USFS land. Folks, we maintain 150 miles of trail in this area the best that we can. Our membership tends to hover between 175 and 180 members and we are lucky if we have 10 to 20% of the members out volunteering on the trails. You can already see the dilemma. A core group of AT BEST 30 individuals on a good day willing to come out and help. Now take people that will ride the trails wet or not adding to the burden of trail repair and you can see the dilemma. The burden to hold up our end of the MOU can become compromised very quickly. Add to that the challenge agreement that we have with the Department of the Army (COE) which is very similar to the MOU (and that agreement is specifically between the COE and SORBAcsra) and we have our work cut out for us. There are so many ways to help - , In a perfect world we'd like everyone to opt for #1 of course but we live in a realistic world so any help at all would be greatly appreciated!
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Post by Angela on Apr 7, 2013 19:35:27 GMT -5
I did have a disappointing encounter while I was taping lower Skinny at the intersection of Skinny and the trail to Brown Wave. He was from out of town (I believe Charlotte) and said he didn't care if we taped the trails or not he was going to ride anyway. We had a brief conversation and while his friend headed on down to Brown Wave I have no doubt they'll ride all the loops. In a weird quirk of fate, Daniel and I headed back out to FATS to ride Brown Wave after 3pm this afternoon. As we were getting ready my eye caught a couple of guys coming off the trail with an awful lot of mud on them and their bikes, they headed immediately over to the pump and spent about 10 minutes getting washed off. Turned out it was Defiant Dude and his buddy. Guess that answered any lingering doubt as to whether they would respect the taped off trails GW and Skinny or not.
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Post by Mark Y. on Apr 8, 2013 13:24:12 GMT -5
I did have a disappointing encounter while I was taping lower Skinny at the intersection of Skinny and the trail to Brown Wave. He was from out of town (I believe Charlotte) and said he didn't care if we taped the trails or not he was going to ride anyway. We had a brief conversation and while his friend headed on down to Brown Wave I have no doubt they'll ride all the loops. In a weird quirk of fate, Daniel and I headed back out to FATS to ride Brown Wave after 3pm this afternoon. As we were getting ready my eye caught a couple of guys coming off the trail with an awful lot of mud on them and their bikes, they headed immediately over to the pump and spent about 10 minutes getting washed off. Turned out it was Defiant Dude and his buddy. Guess that answered any lingering doubt as to whether they would respect the taped off trails GW and Skinny or not. Probaly just as well I wasn't the one who encountered them. I would not have been a good ambasssador for SORBA.
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Post by Cadillac on Apr 8, 2013 16:34:24 GMT -5
Annual Augusta pilgrimage this week. No! Not for golf!
Trails in any shape? Looks like rain maybe Thursday?
~Cadillac
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Post by Angela on Apr 8, 2013 17:29:31 GMT -5
Four of the 6 trails at FATS are open right now (Tower, Big Rock, Brown Wave and Deep Step). Hoping by Wednesday the other two will be as well. There does look like rain later in the week but the chance of rain which was very high has dropped back now to 40% so hopefully we'll get lucky. Will be beautiful riding weather this week.
The trees are greening up now and will help the trails dry faster after rain.
If you branch out from FATS there is more than 100 miles of great singletrack to enjoy as well and although there will probably be a seep or two here or there on all of them, the tread is probably perfect right now!
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Post by azdrawdy on Apr 8, 2013 17:45:03 GMT -5
[/quote]Probaly just as well I wasn't the one who encountered them. I would not have been a good ambasssador for SORBA. [/quote]
Agree MY. I wasn't going to say much on this one. Trying to stay way under the radar. Never have been a great ambassador, but I don't usually have a problem speaking my mind. Sounds like this JA deserved a comment or two, to his face. Then again, a couple of rides in conditions such as this results in mucho dinero spent on drivetrain repairs. That will stop you in your tracks.
MD
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Post by Cadillac on Apr 8, 2013 17:48:37 GMT -5
Flonase packed. Check! New car is sporting the sticker with Cobb plates.
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