Trail work starting!

Hey out there Shasta mountain bikers,
A group of 13 met Thursday evening (June 19th) to discuss group rides and trail maintenance. We talked about a number of trails and potential maintenance projects and prioritized two projects. We're getting started right away. First trail maintenance day: this Sunday, June 22nd on the Steam Donkey. We're meeting at 4pm at the bottom of the plantation on Old McCloud Road (just over the rise from the end of the residential area). We'll try to carpool up the the trailhead. We need all the help we can get. So if you've got a few hours free Sunday evening, come on up. Useful equipment to bring: loppers, handsaws, a pick, and/or a pry bar. Come dressed in pants, boots and bring gloves, as we've got a lot of debris to move. If we've got enough folks we'll start with one crew at the top and one at the bottom. It will be great to open up this trail again, as it's had a lot of trees fall on it over the past two winters. If you know you're going to make it, kick me back an email, please.

The second project is a reroute of the fall line section on 8 mile. Jeff and Chad will be looking at a new line, then we'll schedule a day to get started putting in the alternative route. The hope is that this will slow the major rutting and erosion that the fall line section sees. Look for an email regarding a work day on that section. If you've got specific ideas on the reroute, try to talk with Jeff at the Fifth Season (come to group ride to see him).

We finalized the meeting times for group rides:
Monday, 5:30pm for cross country/climbers
Monday, 6:30pm for downhillers/shuttle runs
Thursday, 5:30pm for cross country/climbers
Thursday, 6:30pm for downhillers/shuttle runs
– All group rides will meet at the Mt. Shasta High School gym parking lot.

We also talked about adding a group weekend ride after we've got a few trail maintenance weekends under our belts. Some folks are looking for morning rides during the week, so if you've got time for an early ride, email you're info to me or post it on the blog to get the word out.

We've already got some great info from the community of riders about area trails, and we're always looking for info about abandoned trails in need of maintenance. The word is the the local YCC crew is looking for summer projects, and while they can't build new trail, they can do trail maintenance. I plan on talking with the FS rep a bit more to find out what a YCC crew can do, so we can decide which trails to recommend for the degree of maintenance they are able to do.

I know it's summer, and everybody has fun things to do, but please keep in touch and stay involved - a concerted trail maintenance effort benefits all of us. So come out Sunday evening, and let's get started!

Renee