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Post by seenvic on Oct 16, 2005 16:03:21 GMT -5
I was blown away by the number of people that came out to work today...at least 22, maybe 25. Marco has the official numbers.
We put all but 4 volunteers on the tread work, clipping roots and cleaning drains. The other 4 volunteers continued the tight flagging of the next loop. It was a wonderful day to be in the woods. They came from Augusta, Evans, Aiken and Martinez. Some folks that I've known for 10+ years and some folks I have never laid eyes on before. Some were high schoolers looking for communty service credit for college and some were guys in their 50's looking to help build a place to ride.
To date the volunteer effort has been nothing short of amazing. The 10 year effort to bring the trails to this area of Sumter National Forest was started and supported by a core group of riders that met often to ride the old Tower Trail. Back in the day, I did at least 50-60% of my riding at the Tower. It hurt to lose it about 5 years ago - but we learned what happens to trails that are not approved by the land manager and set out to change that. In 1999, this group along with 10 or so other people started SORBA-CSRA with the goal of putting legal trails at the old Tower. Several of these riders have stepped up - Shawn Smith, Troy Willard, Robert Fields,Shawn Brigdon, Jimmy Culpeper and Eric Stapleton are old school Tower riders that have maintained their committment to these trails - and I appreciate it. But the main force of volunteers is from folks that I don't EVER remember seeing ride the old Tower. We couldn't do this without having formed this SORBA Chapter and gotten a broad based off-road community to help.
1500 hours is huge volunteer committment. We are almost 1/3 of the way there. The crew is traveling back here on Monday and should put the Sweco blade back in the ground on Tuesday. If all goes well, there will be another mile on the ground by this time next week.
We are gonna see how things shake out and look to schedule another volunteer day based on the progress the crew makes this week and next.
I can't thank the people that have given their time to this project enough. Some of you are old friends that have maintained you committment to this dream and it means the world to me to have your support. The folks that are the core members of SORBA -CSRA didn't really ride the Tower much (at least not with me) and I can't wait for you guys to ride the new version called FATS.
It is not easy building 17 miles of trail. But we are doing it right here, on the ground that we coveted for a decade. What is happening here is on the cutting edge of mountain bike advocacy in this country. Nothing can stop us from putting these three loops on the ground. And I plan to keep the fire burning and put the other three loops on the ground as well. We are going to have almost 40 miles of singletrack at the FATS - and that's all there is to it.
Thanks again,
Bill Victor
SC IMBA Rep
Long Cane Trails, LLC
We put all but 4 volunteers on the tread work, clipping roots and cleaning drains. The other 4 volunteers continued the tight flagging of the next loop. It was a wonderful day to be in the woods. They came from Augusta, Evans, Aiken and Martinez. Some folks that I've known for 10+ years and some folks I have never laid eyes on before. Some were high schoolers looking for communty service credit for college and some were guys in their 50's looking to help build a place to ride.
To date the volunteer effort has been nothing short of amazing. The 10 year effort to bring the trails to this area of Sumter National Forest was started and supported by a core group of riders that met often to ride the old Tower Trail. Back in the day, I did at least 50-60% of my riding at the Tower. It hurt to lose it about 5 years ago - but we learned what happens to trails that are not approved by the land manager and set out to change that. In 1999, this group along with 10 or so other people started SORBA-CSRA with the goal of putting legal trails at the old Tower. Several of these riders have stepped up - Shawn Smith, Troy Willard, Robert Fields,Shawn Brigdon, Jimmy Culpeper and Eric Stapleton are old school Tower riders that have maintained their committment to these trails - and I appreciate it. But the main force of volunteers is from folks that I don't EVER remember seeing ride the old Tower. We couldn't do this without having formed this SORBA Chapter and gotten a broad based off-road community to help.
1500 hours is huge volunteer committment. We are almost 1/3 of the way there. The crew is traveling back here on Monday and should put the Sweco blade back in the ground on Tuesday. If all goes well, there will be another mile on the ground by this time next week.
We are gonna see how things shake out and look to schedule another volunteer day based on the progress the crew makes this week and next.
I can't thank the people that have given their time to this project enough. Some of you are old friends that have maintained you committment to this dream and it means the world to me to have your support. The folks that are the core members of SORBA -CSRA didn't really ride the Tower much (at least not with me) and I can't wait for you guys to ride the new version called FATS.
It is not easy building 17 miles of trail. But we are doing it right here, on the ground that we coveted for a decade. What is happening here is on the cutting edge of mountain bike advocacy in this country. Nothing can stop us from putting these three loops on the ground. And I plan to keep the fire burning and put the other three loops on the ground as well. We are going to have almost 40 miles of singletrack at the FATS - and that's all there is to it.
Thanks again,
Bill Victor
SC IMBA Rep
Long Cane Trails, LLC