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Post by Angela on Jun 7, 2013 20:27:09 GMT -5
FATS gauge report brings the rain in at over 2 1/2 inches and it is raining again right now. We went by FATS for a trail check and were stunned by the little rivers running down the trails in several places. There was a spot on down the connector to Brown Wave that I don't remember ever seeing a "stream" that has one! The trailhead has been taped off please don't ride or run on the trail until it dries out!! Standard checkpoint looking back toward the bench on the Skinny - On the connector to Brown Wave - Quick walk down lower Skinny -
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Post by Angela on Jun 9, 2013 10:34:07 GMT -5
We've had additional rain this morning over parts of FATS and more rain is supposed to be heading this way, please stay off these loops and let them dry out - there are other places to exercise in the interim and some of our outlying trails should be okay today if you are able to dodge the rain.
Riding the trails while it is raining (and sometimes that is not avoidable - most of us have been caught unaware by a stray pop-up shower) might not always leave ruts in the trail but it can contribute to the trail's erosion. For the seriously rocky trails this is not usually an issue but we don't have those kinds of trails in this area.
If the soil is disturbed by the bike tire and then the rain washes it away and that will definitely contribute to root exposure, etc. I know some riders like very rooty trails but I think that most of us do not. We rode a trail over Memorial Day weekend that had the larger Anaconda like roots exposed and for large portions of it you weren't enjoying a fun mountain bike ride you were simply working on your mountain bike skills (which is great in smaller quantities, not fun for long stretches of trail).
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Post by Angela on Jun 10, 2013 17:14:54 GMT -5
Rain off and on all day today, I suspect we picked up another inch. Please do not ride/run on this trail until we have pulled the tape off.
Looks like the predictions are for good weather leading up to and including the weekend. The 96 degrees predicted for Wed/Thursday will surely finish up the drying out process on these trails. Please pass the word along, education goes a long way to protecting this great trail system.
Our outlying trails will be ready to ride sooner than FATS will, head out and get some riding in once the rain stops and things dry out a little!
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Post by Angela on Jun 12, 2013 20:34:51 GMT -5
Things aren't perfect but drying out nicely due to the hot temps and foliage sucking the water up (speaking of that - the briars are very healthy and encroaching the trail already) - still some wet spots but we have removed the tape from the trailhead since it looks like things will be good by tomorrow afternoon for mountain biking (foot traffic okay today). We did have scouts out on Great Wall and as usual the first half going CCW was the wettest - a lot of the trail was okay but there were a couple of "streams" and some wet spots in that first half of the trail, there was also some trees down here and there, they removed what they could. Best to wait until Friday afternoon on Skinny and Great Wall. Unnamed stream GW - Another unnamed stream GW - Debris, limbs, etc down on the trail -
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Post by Angela on Jun 13, 2013 21:43:36 GMT -5
Did an evening ride on Skinny just to check out trail conditions only about 1% of the trail on the lower Skinny had standing water or muddy areas that hold tire tracks. Here is some water erosion on the 4th crossing going CCW - that "hole" in the trail was several inches deep! Here is an uprooted tree on lower Skinny - it is not in an unsafe area but it will need to be removed soon (riders will ride around widening the trail and while it is correct that on a machine built trail, the original corridor is typically about 4 feet wide, I think most of us long term FATS riders (heck mountain bikers period) agree that we don't want unpaved Greeneway width trails through the woods so this needs to go pretty quickly. This is my bike right after the ride and yes I did ride straight through the middle of muddy or wet areas - very little debris kicked up onto our bikes. This will be hard to see but it appears that FATS was spared - FATS is mostly located within the third band of green from the left side of the screen, if the radar was correct (and we watched it from the time it moved into the area until now and none of the yellow or red came near FATS and although green is showing all over the area, there is no rain at my house. We'll get a report from the rain gauge tomorrow but I'm expecting to hear there was minimal rain!
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Post by dsquaredmsquared on Jun 16, 2013 12:33:34 GMT -5
Lots of do-gooders on the lower loops today (JP3, JT, BM, etc.). Great Wall, Skinny, and Brown Wave cleared of most debris and fallen trees that needed to be cut. Also, lopped and/or trimmed some of the worst offending face slappers and greenery that created blind corners. Fixed an uprooted tree root and made a little stone bridge over a new spring/seep on Skinny.
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Post by Angela on Jun 19, 2013 17:20:03 GMT -5
FATS has been spared from a lot of the heavy rain that has hit south of I-20 this week. It did rain yesterday early evening and a report from a runner on Deep Step indicated he was caught in a bit of a downpour at the end of his run (but since the trails were not saturated going into that rain and it was a fairly short downpour I would expect the trails to be okay). Looking at radar it looks like they had a bit of heavier rain for 15 or 20 minutes yesterday, today looked like little if any.
Will be doing a trail check to see what certain points look like today although that isn't a perfect science either.
When these unstable pop-ups start up (common this time of year), I have seen it raining on one side of the road and not the other. Best defense is responsible riding, FATS could have had heavy rain on the northern trails and the southern be okay and vice-versa. If you ride a trail this time of year and discover that as you are getting deeper into the trail that it is too wet and you are doing damage, for goodness sake please turn back. We will keep reporting the best we can, our FATS gauge is not that far from FATS as the crow flies but with the nature of pop-ups it won't always be 100% accurate.
If you are a rider or a runner and have information about the loops that will be useful, please share! sorba.csra@gmail.com
For more timely updates follow us on Twitter at FATSUpdate or check out the homepage for the Twitter feed.
Did a spot check on the trails and spoke to some runners in the FATS parking lot. The trail is the perfect kind of tacky in the places I checked. There was minimal water (confirmed by the runners) on Skinny which is one that tends to hold water. Fingers crossed that we can get through the rest of the week with no significant rain over FATS! Trail conditions good right now!
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Post by Angela on Jun 21, 2013 12:36:45 GMT -5
Looks like we'll make it through Friday without additional rain (but no promises though, this time of year we can have some unstable afternoon conditions ; ) and the trails are great. Saturday looks good too through early evening although picks up the chance of rain late evening and into early morning Sunday. Temps in the low to mid 80s!
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Post by Angela on Jun 22, 2013 7:05:47 GMT -5
Temps in the 70s right now, trails in good condition right now, popup potent increasing after 2 this afternoon hmmmm ...............
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Post by Angela on Jun 22, 2013 22:56:54 GMT -5
It poured down on FATS tonight from 8 until after 11 - we are talking heavy rain! The good news is our other trails were not affected by this pop-up that developed then sat on top of the trail and surrounding area for nearly 3 hours so plenty of places to ride just not at FATS!
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Post by brianW on Jun 23, 2013 6:09:42 GMT -5
I had 2/10th of an inch.
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Post by Angela on Jun 23, 2013 8:00:37 GMT -5
Wish I could report the same for FATS unfortunately Lake FATS (there in the parking lot) is at full pool and a check of the trails indicates they were hit by that popup. Need to wait 24 hours before riding out there but it looks like most of our other trails that are located north of FATS should be okay. Thanks!
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Post by Angela on Jun 23, 2013 11:35:32 GMT -5
Word out from some runners who were on the trail early, tree(s) down on Skinny, Brown Wave and Great Wall from the thunderstorm that blew through last night!
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Post by Angela on Jun 24, 2013 22:20:22 GMT -5
FATS picked up about another hour of rain this afternoon - the trails are too wet to ride between that rain and Saturday nights heavy rain! The trails to the north Turkey, Wine, Modoc, etc should all be good to go - venture out!!
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Post by Angela on Jun 25, 2013 17:01:31 GMT -5
FATS picked up more rain today compliments of the pop-ups - about an hour just after noon and then another round between about 4 and 5 - it did not appear to get the heavier rain (yellow/reds) that Evans, Martinez and Augusta saw but the trails will remain to wet to ride! Thank you - and again, it looks like our trails to the north are looking good so if you get the urge to mountain bike there are plenty of miles of singletrack other than FATS to ride!
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Post by Angela on Jun 27, 2013 6:52:40 GMT -5
It has rained on FATS (varying amounts) every day this week. Rain is not only predicted for today but for the next week or so as well - the popups seem to be concentrated from FATS southward for the most part. Will scout the trail before the weekend just in case............
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Post by Angela on Jun 27, 2013 19:51:37 GMT -5
No rain at FATS today - scouted things out this evening - FATS Lake was nearly dry, a spot check of the usual spots and a ride into the lower Skinny revealed some wet spots but the tread is firm otherwise. Get out there as soon as you can, there is an 80% chance of rain predicted for Saturday (60% on Sunday)!
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Post by Angela on Jul 1, 2013 6:29:42 GMT -5
The system that came through early evening dumped about 3.6 inches according to the FATS gauge and last night just before and after midnight had another couple+ hours of steady rain. FATS is too wet to ride and our others trails will need to dry out as well. We are having flood watches in the area. The week leading up to the 4th of July doesn't look promising if the predictions are correct.
Work on your alternate plan - riding the road, riding the gravel roads, running, swimming (that lake sure is full), going to the gym, etc. We will already have a rather daunting work party ahead (if we can squeeze it in between all these trees that keep coming down) just lopping this trail with all this rain - don't add to the maintenance by riding irresponsibly, we don't want this trail to end up damaged and closed because it gets "loved" to death. Thank you!
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Post by Angela on Jul 2, 2013 11:32:28 GMT -5
Okay and it just keeps coming!!! More rain today (sliding over FATS) between 9 and 11 - was not a torrential downpour but with the rain on Sunday, more on Monday and then more today we just can't catch a break. More is expected today (the high is projected to be 77....crazy for July in Augusta) and tomorrow!
It's hard to believe that a normal June we'd record around 4 inches of rain but this June (at the point they record for the area) they recorded 14 inches!! I heard that is the wettest June in Augusta history but not sure where I heard that so don't quote me.
Please don't ride the trails - we have enough work to do coming up just cutting back the briers, etc that are growing by leaps and bounds, we don't need to have to repair the trail due to irresponsible riding. Thank you, it's tough on all of us!
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Post by Angela on Jul 3, 2013 9:28:22 GMT -5
Did a spot check on the trails - there is water seeping down the trail and puddles in the spots we checked. The trails have been taped off. If we can get 48 hours without rain there is a chance ........
Just a note - if you are driving out to FATS and the road is wet and Lake Fats has a substantial amount of water in it.........the trails will be too wet to ride - pass that tidbit on!
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