Free beer: Patapsco trail work day, Saturday October 20, 2007

[riderx]

Mark your calendars, there's a big trail work day at Avalon (Patapsco) on Saturday October 20th, 2007. Our plan is to cut new trail and reopen the Charcoal trail to bikes. Yep, you heard right, a formerly hiker only trail will be opened back up to us. There is no way we could have something like this happen if it weren't for the huge volunteer hours that MTBers put in at Patapsco year after year.

The SSO Factory Team (http://www.singlespeedoutlaw.com/issue5/team.shtml) will be bringing a keg of excellent micro brew generously donated by our sponsor Clipper City (http://www.clippercitybeer.com/) for post trail work consumption. We'll also be doing a cookout, pot luck style: we'll bring burgers/hotdogs/veggie options and you bring a side dish.

I'll post more once we iron out a few of the details, but save the date and stay tuned.

[escatmore]

We're meeting in the Hilton Area at the end of Hilton Ave off Rolling road, parking back in the campground loop and cooking out near the tire park, 9:00 AM. This is a big project! I need all hands on deck! And bring some tools too! Shovels, Rakes, McLeods, Water, side dish. I'm bringin the girl (tm) too!

And we're working with other volunteers to the park, so be on your best behavior and wear your fanciest outfits!

Whoooooo!!! New Singletrack!!! At Patapsco no less!!!

Eric

[Cable43]

i'm in (who the hell am I you ask) ;)

[old_bashturd]

I'm going to Pittsburg that weekend to visit my youngest. I seem to ALLWAYs have a prior commitment on the TW days. :( If anything changes, I'll be there.
OB

[riderx]

Don't forget, this is tomorrow. Lots of work to do! Bring your favorite tool and a side dish for the cookout.

[escatmore]

Just had a text message about the weather...

It's rain or shine at this point, way too much planning involved to cancel.

Besides the rain should soften the rocks up right?

See you all at 9:00 AM!!!

eric

[riderx]

Rain will only help at this point. The soil is going to be like concrete. I'm bringing the jackhammer...

Besides, no rain forecast for Saturday, it's going to be nice weather to be digging trail.

[escatmore]

Right it'll be over by 3AM!

Now who is this cable guy anyway?

[Cable43]

Right it'll be over by 3AM!

Now who is this cable guy anyway?

I'm the guy who just got home after a few hours working on some good trails, with some great people.
I hope our work is enjoyed... glad I could help!
:cool:

[escatmore]

Ho. Lee. Cow.

I. Love. You. People.

ALL 75 of you!

290 hours in one trail day.

I am without words.

except, thank you.

eric, your humble trail liaison.

[werace424]

Ho. Lee. Cow.

I. Love. You. People.

ALL 75 of you!

290 hours in one trail day.

I am without words.

except, thank you.

eric, your humble trail liaison.

I have always said have beer will travel. I would have much rather have been there, but I guess advocacy has its place too...

But 75 people....daaaaaaaaaaaammmmmm!!!!!! !!!!!!! :eek:

Did you actually have enough work for them? Why did you have to go and bogart the "help"?

290 hours in one day...I think that earns you a "How to get people to trailwork days" class for liaisons during the winter.

Congratulations again MORE for showing the state of MD how much we care about the trails we use in "their" parks.

[riderx]

A BIG thanks to everyone who showed up to dig new trail. We can't get the work done without you. Everyone of those volunteers was put to hard work for many hours, but when it was all said and done there was a huge section of beautiful new singletrack to show for it.

Big thanks to Mrs. Escatmore for doing the shopping and hauling all of the food to the cookout. No easy task for sure.

Many thanks to Clipper City (http://www.clippercitybeer.com/) for the Heavy Seas Beer (http://www.clippercitybeer.com/home/beers_heavyseas.htm).

Thanks to the following bike shops for pitching in $$$ for post work cookout food:
The Bicycle Escape (http://www.thebicycleescape.com/)
Catonsville Bike Shop (http://www.catonsvillebikeshop.com/)
Bike Doctor Linthicum (http://bikedoctorlinthicum.com/index.cfm)
Avalon Cycles (http://www.avaloncycles.com/)
/Germantown Cycles (http://www.germantowncycles.com)
Race Pace Bicycles (http://racepacebicycles.com/)
(if I missed any other shops, someone let me know)

And again, many thanks to the VOLUNTEERS who took time on a beautiful Saturday to help us build new trail. You girls and guys rock!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2149/1670245465_6b7f3b212d.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/singlespeedoutlaw/1670245465/)

[psychonaut]

What is the best way to get to the new trail?

[eddiez]

I could not believe how many of you there were when I got to blast down your virgin work over in Avalon. The trail was real nice. You all did an incredible job. Did not mean to piss anyone off if you were not done. It seemed done to me and I was just having too much fun. Just lettin' ya know that all your hard work was thoroughly appreciated as I am sure many others got to find that out today as well.

Eddie Z

[Mrs. Outlaw]

I could not believe how many of you there were when I got to blast down your virgin work over in Avalon. The trail was real nice. You all did an incredible job. Did not mean to piss anyone off if you were not done. It seemed done to me and I was just having too much fun. Just lettin' ya know that all your hard work was thoroughly appreciated as I am sure many others got to find that out today as well.

Eddie Z

Actually I think it's helpful when people ride through as we're working to figure what works and what doesn't. I can't wait to get out there and fly down the new trail! :D

[eddiez]

well that is good, again, the trail was great!!

[riderx]

What is the best way to get to the new trail?It is over in the Hilton area, near the tire park/campground. You can see the new lines on this map, they are pink, blue, red and green. The blue line has a smoother transition at the fork than the sketch would imply.

So if you are heading from the Hilton section towards the dam (the direction most people ride this trail), you'll take green to blue to red if you want to maximum both fun and distance.


Eddie - you were fine, we were wrapping up the work and the trail was open for use. Trail testers like yourself are good to see while we are finishing up, gives us a sense of how it will be ridden before we hit it ourselves.

[dirtychain]

Had an absolute blast on Saturday. It was a sight indeed. A seemingly endless trail chaingang, swingin' tools, movin' rocks & kickin' up dust :D :D :D

Thanks again to the organizers and those who provided food and beverages. Especially the CC Loose Cannon!

And, thanks to Eric and "The Girl" and her friend. "My Girl", Sophie, had a great time with the two of them.

See ya on the trail, Scott

[escatmore]

Emily, aka the girl and her friend Julia had a wonderful time with Sophie as well. Next time we'll have to see if we can get a little more work out of them though.

I'm going to recreate that map, the lines are a little different at the intersection on the South end.

A full report will hopefully be complete later today...

eric

[liznotter]

A big thank you to escatmore and riderx, and everyone else who helped out at the trailwork day on Saturday.
Did you actually have enough work for them? Why did you have to go and bogart the "help"?

290 hours in one day...I think that earns you a "How to get people to trailwork days" class for liaisons during the winter. They should teach a class... on attracting volunteers and how to run a highly effective trailwork day.

1. They worked closely with their land manager to coordinate volunteers and the work plan.
2. They advertised the workday thru every forum, email list, and organization possible. I spoke with two volunteers who said that they heard about the workday from THREE separate sources.
3. They made it fun with a cookout and beer after the workday, again taking some coordination, as well as contacting sponsors for donations.
4. They planned for a large turnout... too many volunteers can be worse than no volunteers at all. The volunteers were divided into smaller work crews with pre-appointed crew chiefs and sent out to various spots along the work area.

[escatmore]

< I'm sure I'll be adjusting the spelling of people names, changing the numbers a little and such over the next few days, but here's the report >

Saturday, October 20 was a beautiful day. Sunny, a bit crisp in the morning and warm in the noon day sun. It was a perfect day; a good turnout was inevitable for our first attempt at cross-pollinating the MORE contingent with other trail users in the park. We had folks arrive from the nearby Northrop-Grumman campus and park lovers in the form of hikers and mountain bikers from as far as Northern Virginia. All told we had 75 people show. They worked a total of 290 hours in one day!

We rerouted the Charcoal trail changing its course to provide a loop trail around the campground for its user's enjoyment. As a result of this work we recognized an opportunity to address a long suffering section of the Santee Trail at the same time. By moving our alignments a bit this way and that we were able to correct two trails with terrible erosion issues in one volunteer day. We used techniques including full bench cutting, rolling grade dips and contour trail design to complete the challenges of the day. There are still a few details left for the trail crew and MCC to complete but for the most part the reroute is finished.

Following the work day the Single Speed Outlaw Factory Team (http://www.singlespeedoutlaw.com/issue5/team.shtml) organized a celebratory picnic at shelter 223. Clipper City (http://www.clippercitybeer.com/) provided the Heavy Seas Beer (http://www.clippercitybeer.com/home/beers_heavyseas.htm); The Bicycle Escape (http://www.thebicycleescape.com/), Catonsville Bike Shop (http://www.catonsvillebikeshop.com/), Bike Dr. of Linthicum (http://bikedoctorlinthicum.com/index.cfm), Avalon Cycles (http://www.avaloncycles.com/), Germantown Cycles (http://www.germantowncycles.com/) and Race Pace Bicycles (http://racepacebicycles.com/) carried the cost of the supplies and burgers and dogs. Hit these shops! These guys love the park as much as you! Gold Stars are one date away for Mr. Hughes, Mr. Schultz and Mr. Seay for attending every Patapsco trail maintenance day MORE has had this year! Extra thanks go out to trail crew leaders, Kevin, Ken, Jon, Joe, Dave, Jeff, did I miss anyone? There were so many people there...

And as Mr. Whitehair alluded to, extra special thanks to my loverly bride for letting me tramp through the woods while she was making sure we had enough supplies and starting the grills and generally making sure the picnic went off without a hitch.

Anyone care to share their photos of the day?

Here's an updated map (http://www.more-mtb.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1942&stc=1
charcoal.jpg) showing what we did.

Eric S. Crawford
MORE Trail Liaison
Patapsco Valley State Park (http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/central/patapscovalley.html)

[riderx]

I've got a few pictures here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/singlespeedoutlaw/sets/72157602606504536/) and Tony posted a few here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/planethiker/sets/72157602565680198/)

There are two other people that deserve to be called out for thanks:
Amy Lutsko who is a Patapsco State Park employee and is the trail guru out there. She made this reroute possible by writing a grant for this project and getting it approved. No small task. Many of the recent improvements to trails have been because of her work, her grant writing and the MCCC trail crew. If you see her or the trail crew out there say thanks. They have also been working on improving the Patapsco Thru Trail as well, connecting Avalon to McKeldin. So if you've ridden any of that stuff, they are the ones to thank there too.

Mr. Eric Crawford, your MORE trail liaison, deserves an extra round of applause too. He's been working out there for years but just put on the official trail liaison hat this season. Most of you probably have no idea how many extra hours he spends working with Amy, the park and other riders/trail users to make sure MTBers concerns and desires are heard. Organizing a trail day like Saturday's doesn't happen by accident or without a lot of behind the scenes work. Buy this guy a beer next time you see him.

[escatmore]

aw shucks...

[gabe]

Heads up, the new section is still pretty loose. I got a nice trail rash on my right forarm when my front tire washed out unexpectedly on an off-camber section. I'm sure this won't be a problem after a few cycles of rain.

To everyone who worked on it, great work. It's pretty sweet.

[mike a]

Thanks for all the hard work...The new singletrack is going to be sweet once it gets some traffic! That Santee reroute was needed big time!

:D