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Post by dsquaredmsquared on Jan 2, 2014 7:18:04 GMT -5
We were out at FATS yesterday, preparing for the January 11th work party, and the trails are too wet to ride ( ). With more rain today (01.02.14), FATS will not be dry enough to ride until Saturday or Sunday. Please spread the word and stay off the trails at FATS. Thank you for your support.
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Post by Angela on Jan 2, 2014 7:38:30 GMT -5
To add visuals to dsquaredmsquared's post - The underground water table is high and as a result there are a lot of active seeps with many sections of trail that look like this - There was running water down and across the trail in areas were we working to evaluate and mark the trails - AND it has been raining again since early morning so the clock restarts before the trails will dry out enough to ride - Please do not ride, it accelerates the erosion on these trails. Please spread the word to your fellow riders who might not have access to Twitter (FATSUpdate), Facebook (SORBA-CSRA), or a computer so they can access this forum to check on trail conditions before they ride!
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Post by dsquaredmsquared on Jan 5, 2014 18:24:39 GMT -5
More prep work today for upcoming work party; cleared a few drains, sussed two sections of trail, and cleared 12" of dirt and sand off bridge on Skinny.
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Post by Angela on Jan 9, 2014 20:48:44 GMT -5
Unfortunately although we have not had additional rain in the past couple of days the subfreezing temperatures have delayed the drying cycle so the trails are still too wet to ride. Current forecast shows more rain coming in over the weekend. Please do not ride the FATS!
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Post by brianW on Jan 10, 2014 18:24:11 GMT -5
Big Rock, up hill from the cedar bridge there is a tree down head level about 6" in diameter.
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Post by Angela on Jan 12, 2014 9:04:19 GMT -5
A lot of rain fell on FATS on Friday and Saturday and the trails were still wet from the previous system that came through. It is going to take several days for the trails to dry out and the water table to drop (so the seeps will stop). Please do not ride the trails. It can damage and erode them. Thanks!
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Post by Angela on Jan 12, 2014 10:19:40 GMT -5
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Post by dsquaredmsquared on Jan 12, 2014 16:19:23 GMT -5
After the rain on Friday and Saturday, FATS is too wet to ride. For pics of how wet the trails at FATS are, check out the recent post on our FB page (login not required):
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Post by dsquaredmsquared on Jan 15, 2014 13:26:14 GMT -5
FATS Work Party this Saturday (01.18.14). Please RSVP to sorba.csra@gmail.com so we can plan the scale/scope of work for the number of volunteers. We will meet in the south lot at 9:00AM. On Saturday, our todo list includes: repair damage to Big Rock (fire break from last summer), fix the eroded sandy section on Skinny, new drainage on another section of Skinny, drain cleaning on Deep Step, and possibly drainage work on a chronically wet section at the bottom of Deep Step. Normally, we try not to bribe or use prizes to induce our volunteers, but this work party will be in place of a second work party at Hickory Knob State Park. If you volunteered at the June 2013 HKSP work party and you volunteer this Saturday, you will be entered into the drawing for a custom wheelset with I9 hubs, Shimano shoes, gift certificates to LBSs, and all the other sweet, sweet swag you eyeballed in June. If you did not volunteer at the HKSP work party in June, fear not because we will have swag to raffle off to you too. Lastly, the tremendous amount of work we did last summer to repair Lakeview Loop at Hickory Knob State Park (72 volunteers and over 350 volunteer hours) and this Saturday's effort to maintain FATS was generously supported by the sponsors listed below. Please take the opportunity to personally thank our sponsors so they know we appreciate their generosity and support of SORBAcsra.
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Post by Angela on Jan 18, 2014 8:28:48 GMT -5
Reports in that trails are still too wet to ride - we will be out on 3 of the loops today doing trail maintenance and will get a better read!
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Post by dsquaredmsquared on Jan 18, 2014 18:52:31 GMT -5
Wow, it was cold this morning. The car thermometer read 32°F and Weather Channel said the windchill was in the 20s. Despite the cold, we had 39 volunteers out in the woods this morning showing FATS some love with some much needed trail work. As an added bonus, we also raffled off lots of sweet swag from our very generous sponsors. Pictures: SORBAcsra FB page and Angela's FB page.
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Post by brianW on Jan 23, 2014 6:42:12 GMT -5
Tower cw after the 2 mile mark. 24"+ tree down. Can easily get around. Rest is clear.
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Post by beckyl on Jan 29, 2014 17:56:39 GMT -5
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Post by Angela on Feb 6, 2014 7:56:13 GMT -5
The trails at FATS continue to be too wet to ride (the latest rain being yesterday). Please do not ride the trails while they are too wet. It damages the trail tread and can lead to further erosion of the trail. The cooler temperatures and plants/trees being dormant result in water not absorbed quickly after rainfall. Thank you!
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Post by Angela on Feb 9, 2014 13:07:04 GMT -5
Scouting Great Wall yesterday there were still about 6 dozen areas with seep activity. Only about a dozen of those are substantial (20 to 30 foot sections). Will probably be another 3 or 4 days before the water table drops enough for those places to dry up (and we have more rain on the way predicted for Tuesday and into Wednesday). The rest of the trail is in great condition so riding it is not a problem but riders need to stay in the middle of the trail particularly when riding through those wet areas to avoid creating more damage. Great Wall and Skinny continue to be the two trails that have the greatest number of seeps when the water table is high days after any rain. Most of the trail is like this: But there is still some of this (most of the wet are just small one to two foot sections in arbitrary dips): Some places look like we might need to schedule a little additional armoring (there is already some armoring in place).
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Post by Angela on Feb 10, 2014 7:31:45 GMT -5
Scouted Skinny yesterday and there will still about 3 dozen wet or juicy spots along the trail. Most of them were just small seeps but in some areas the water table is still high enough to create a mucky mess. There was only a minimal amount of rain mid week last week (maybe a quarter of an inch). Previously was the bit of snow on the ground which again would have been well less than 1/2 of actual precipitation. Last heavy rain was a month ago. It will take a drop in the water table for the seeps to stop. Stay in the middle of the trail don't widen the trail by riding around the wet spot (much easier to repair a 1 X 1 spot). Along most of the Skinny the trail looked like this: The most serious area was the 4th power line crossing going CCW - this area is probably going to need some additional work at this point:
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Post by azdrawdy on Feb 10, 2014 17:17:28 GMT -5
Hit GW yesterday. Sorry we did. Mucky in so many places. Noticed that in so many areas that armoring was set up to the side, just needing to be placed. Thanks to all those that moved it there, since it obviously doesn't get there by itself. Next step is… On another note, we made sure to ride the armoring that has been set by many, over the past several years. Love the sections that feel like you are on a rail... MD
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Post by Angela on Feb 15, 2014 9:29:49 GMT -5
After all the rain, the ice storm and freezing not only will the trails be far too wet to ride but given the local conditions the trails are likely littered with trees and limbs. We will assess as soon as possible. The trails will be far too wet to ride for several days. Stay tuned for updates about trail conditions and work parties!
In an area that normally only has to worry about the occasional tornado to have a serious ice storm with so much tree damage and then a 4.1 magnitude earthquake about 15 miles away (3 miles underground) before power is even fully restored from the ice storm is highly unusual. We've already had fire (planned and unplanned) and infestation (pine beetles and remember the locusts that were so loud in the woods some riders were complaining about them)!
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Post by tzeaser on Feb 15, 2014 15:48:04 GMT -5
I am looking for the Savannah River to turn into blood any day now.
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Post by Angela on Feb 17, 2014 7:54:13 GMT -5
Went out to FATS yesterday to take a look at trail given the damage that occurred as a result of the ice storm that hit the CSRA last week. Driving out on Hopewell Church Road I knew it was not going to be good seeing the trees, branches and debris they had had to clear from the road. Pulling into the south parking lot there were trees down that will need to be cut (one very large in the 2nd parking lot closest to the road. Although the bathroom, trash cans, and kiosk were not damaged. This is was the first view walking up to the trail. Stepping closer - 3 large trees down in the first 50 feet of trail> Headed down the US Forest Service Road to get to a couple of checkpoints, the roads apparently had a lot of trees down on the road but given there are two private landowners down the road someone had been busy with a saw. View of the first USFS road to the right off the main road> There appeared to be plenty of this kind of debris on the trails (connector between Skinny and Brown Wave)> Taken from the connector looking towards Brown Wave> Taken from the bench at the junction of upper and lower Skinny back towards the trailhead> From the big rocks on Skinny looking back towards the trailhead> The main USFS road just past River Plantation Farm> Managed to get far enough into the USFS road from the north to shoot this pic of the northeast input to Big Rock> The USFS roads will need to be cleared before we can finish assessing the trails and get a work party scheduled (USFS will be contacted this week). The trails are still very wet and appear to be unrideable after the initial assessment. Please spread the word, we will post updates as we have them.
Scouts have been out on some of the other trails and it appears to be a mixed bag. A small crew (David Kozlowski and John Pilcher) did the initial cleanup at Mistletoe on Saturday moving through removing debris and trees that could be taken out with a handsaw. A sawyer will still need to be sent it to remove 7 or 8 large non-riders that are down on that trail before the upcoming EtTR. Preliminary check of the Bartram Trail (along about 5 miles of that trail at a couple of different points) indicates that although the trail is still extremely wet, it does not have the same level of damage as FATS does. The remainder of the trail will need to be scouted. 221 does not have the tree debris along the road that both Hopewell Church and Woodlawn have so that is probably a pretty good indicator as well. A small crew (Becky & Nevin Lambert and Ted Stoddard) out on both Turkey Creek and Wine Creek were able to do debris and tree cleanup with a handsaw (no chainsaw work required)and reported that trail did not sustain extensive damage. The trail is still extremely wet though. We have two events coming up (EtTR and the 49er) so assessing the remainder of our outlying trails remains a priority. Hopefully the USFS can schedule tree removal on the FS roads around FATS so we can fully assess the damage there as well.
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