Trails under the wheels, trails under the shovels...

What a week was the last week!

Started off with two consecutive days of riding, on Monday and Tuesday. Had to take Wednesday off. But rode with a fun group on Thursday. I really like those Thursday rides. The pace isn't killer, so it is very nice to enjoy the park and trails without trying to keep my lunch down at the tops of the climbs!
Met a new member of PMBA club. He is new to the area and has been exploring the park on his own. We rode most of the trails, until his light ran out of the battery and we had to find the closes bail point riding by my light alone! Then my battery ran out of juice too about 1/4 mile from the parking lot. Good thing by then I was on the main well lit path. And my legs were just as done as my light!!! I could barely turn the cranks on the flat smooth path! That's good week of riding in my book!

And on Saturday we had a great group of dedicated volunteers come out to work on a badly eroded section of the trail. It rained and drizzled on and off thru the night and in the morning. However, a little drizzle and 37 degrees temps in the morning did not deter the spirits and more than 35 people came out to work!!! I'm impressed by the generosity and dedication of our volunteers. Their spirit for giving does not seize to impressed me!
The planning for this project started a month ago, but last scheduled date, two weeks ago, got rained out. So it was rescheduled for this weekend.
There was a bad mud hole which we wanted to fix. Then we looked at the trail leading to the mud hole, and it was getting eroded badly, all loose and just plain ugly. Before we knew it, we had a plan for a section of the trail to be re-routed, and another part of it stabilized and made more erosion resistant.
By the end of the day, we had re-routed and/or revamped 320 feet of trail, in addition of building an enormous (aprox. 10'X12' and 4-5' deep) "french drain" with a beautiful stone "bridge" over it.
Check out the pictures!!!
I believe everyone was as happy and proud of the results as they were sore from all the work we did. I know I was!
It is incredible how much a relatively small group of hard working people can do in one day!

But the week was not over yet. On Sunday we went for a ride at White Clay, and fun park down in DE. The trails are maintained there by the group called Delaware Trail Spinners, and let me tell you, they know what they are doing!!! It was a beautiful late fall day, the air was cool and crisp, the colors were astonishing, the group was friendly, and the ride great! Perfect fun, recovery ride after a fantastic week!

Over and out.