Trail work at Patapsco (Soapstone)

[bluronthetrails]

Thanks guys for a great work day. This was my first time out on the trails, working with you all. Good Job!

Here are some pictures of the group I worked with. We were responsible for moving a section of the trail on the Soapstone Trail (About 200 yds down from its entrance on Rolling Rd.). We moved it so it curved upward into the mountainside and curved near a tree (see pics) so the erosion problem would be taken care of. Previously, the trail was a straight Dh nosedive to the bottom, and the water was making a course straight down as well, eroding the trail as it did so. [My] group basically then moved the trail aside, preventing any more erosion, as well as making a NICE S-curve into the trail...ENJOY the fruits of the awesome trail maintenance people's labor!

[bluronthetrails]

some more pics!

Here we've moved away the majority of the dirt and are trying to decide where we need to move away small 'hills' in the trail to make it a nice, smooth bike path...

As you guys might know, the trail work included actually moving part of the mountainside out and forming a bench of sorts to make sure the trail was rather flat, instead of a slope without leaves. This group did the work of big construction CATS! Its awesome work. I am still amazed at how nice it turned out.

[bluronthetrails]

More pics!

[bluronthetrails]

Dad and his 4 yr-old son on a trail-a-bike. The dad hadn't ever heard of us MORE people so I filled him in...sent him some links including his pic he really wanted to see...Hopefully, if he has time later on, he just might join us for more trail work...
BTW, the dad is running a Noleen fork! Haven't seen one a bike in a looong time.

A guy came by on a Trek cyclocross rig. Sweet! tested out our trail-change too on his bike! He was pretty amazed...and so were we, kind of like, hello sir, umm, are you lost? He says, 'naw just wanted to cross across the park to get to Rolling Rd.'...He knows his routes!

[bluronthetrails]

We found a nasty muddy section where the bike tires were really tearing the trail up and making it all muck. So we decided to divert it by simply moving a log and some branches to cover and ward off any bikers/hikers from going through the muddy section and cleared the leaves away from the naturally occurring sweet S-curve next to it...good stuff, can't wait to check it out!

[riderx]

Big thanks to everyone who showed up on Sunday to help out with the Avalon trail work day! Your volunteer time is much appreciated.

-Joe (gimp-handed trail worker)