TM Report: South Pond Trail

Paula benching

Date: 10/21/2012
Report Type: TM Report:
Trail Name: Collis P Huntington SP
Town: Redding
Trail Conditions: Benched
Observations/Information: Paula and I headed out to finish benching one last section of the first the South Pond trail. Granted, this is an active trail now but still needs a few tweaks here and there and this was one of them.

Looking North

Before

After

Just as we finished a big group of riders came through to christen the newly benched section and they were truly appreciative.

Looking South

Before

After

After we were done we headed over to assess the big tree that finally came down and decided on a course of action on where to cut this tree and create a better section of trail.

The last thing we looked at was the technical choke point at the top of the trail. That's going to be another project that we're going to have to plan for because it's going to take a lot of rock work and unfortunately there are no Rock Stores nearby.

Stay Tuned


Trail Ambassador Name: Mark Lurie; Paula Burton
Trail Ambassador E-mail: ctnemba a la gmail dot com
How did you use the trail? Hiking/Walking
Trails Ridden: South Pond
Time of day: Morning
Time/Duration (hours): 3
Approximate Distance (Miles): n/a

TM Report: South Pond Trail

Kyiera Tucker and Dave Francefort benching

Date: May 27th, 2012
TM Report
Location:  Collis P Huntington SP
Town: Redding

Trail Conditions: Nascent

Observations/Information: Labor Day weekend is not the best time to plan on doing trail work if you want to get a lot people to join you. Still, a few folks from FC NEMBA, Paula and myself came out and worked on the South Park Trail.

Paula brought her backpack blower and did the whole first section of the trail, while I was making a further modification to another section of trail.

 

We changed one of the turns on the trail so that it wasn't on so much fall line, granted the pitch wasn't that bad, but the modification makes the trail even better. Have to thank Ryan and Dave for suggesting the modification.

 

We got this section completely done with superb benching and a little rock work, too!

Nothing like a little Dave Francefort rock work to add some fun to the trail!

Trail Ambassador Name: Mark Lurie, Paula Burton

TM Report: Collis P Huntington SP

Chris, Paula & Glenn benching

Date: 05/01/2012
Report Type: TM Report:
Trail Name: Collis P Huntington SP
Town: Bethel

Trail Conditions: Wet, but it's a new trail

Observations/Information:  Please don't ride this trail until it's ready!  

Paula, Glenn, Chris and I met at the Dodgingtown lot at 6 PM and drove out to the South Pond Carriage Road.  Ran into Joe Brautigam walking the trail and it was finally good to put a real face to a facebook page!  He really likes the trail and can't wait for it to be finished.

I was contacted earlier this week about a concern that one of the climbs is too steep with grades exceeding 15%.  We measured the grade and found that it's really only 10%, however, I did find an alternative to this climbing turn, combined with an interesting rock formation, would lessen the grade and increase the flow even more.  

We continued the work started last Tuesday to connect what was benched during the Trail School to the Crib Wall section that was done last Tuesday.

Chris, Glenn, and Paula

The trail has great flow, there are both A and B lines for challenging and less challenging alternatives, but it's far from finished.   If you are that eager for the trail to be built, come out and help build it but please keep your bikes off of it for the time being. There is a lot more rock work that is also needed to get through some soft spots and plenty of benching to be done.  We are making great progress and encourage anyone who wants to help to try and come out to the next Trail Building Tuesday session (May 8th and May 15th) or Sunday, May 27th (lunch will be provided).

Trail Ambassador Name: Mark Lurie, Paula Burton, Glenn Vernes
Trail Ambassador E-mail: ctnemba a la gmail dot com
How did you use the trail?  Rogue Hoes!

TM Report: Collis P Huntington SP

Steve and Chris benching past the new crib wall

Date: 4/24/2012
Report Type: TM Report:
Trail Name: Collis P Huntington SP
Town: Bethel
Trail Conditions:  Looking pretty sweet, but then again it's a new trail

Observations/Information: Had three people show up for today's Trail Building day at Huntington: Paula Burton, Steve McAllister, and Christopher Kirzan.

Paula benching on the A line at the top of the hill

We did some more benching, built some cribbing, tweaked a few lines, found another roller and did some more benching.

Trail Ambassador Name: Mark Lurie, Paula Burton

Finished section with a small rock crib

South Pond Trail Building Schedule

Rather than trying to lead a weekly ride series while there is an unfinished trail that needs work, I am pulling a little bait and switch tactic for anyone looking to ride during the week.  I promise that once this first section of the South Pond Trail is completed the regularly scheduled ride series with start again.

Meet at the Upper Dodgingtown Lot at 5:30 PM

Please email me to let me know 

if you are coming because we will be

driving in from the lot.

May 15th
5:30 PM

22nd, 27th!

TM Report: Collis P Huntington SP

Date: 4/21/2012
Report Type: TM Report:
Trail Name: Collis P Huntington SP
Town: Redding
Trail Conditions: New
Observations/Information: Paula, Chris, and myself drove the tools to the work area off of South Pond Rd (with the Land Manager's permission of course) while the main body of people walked in from the Statues Lot.

Work began on the South Pond Trail (aka South Park) on Saturday after our Trail School at Putnam Park in the morning.

We broke off into three groups, I led one group to clear the trail from our starting point back towards the exit of the Glacial Erratic Trail, Paula led a group to do benching and Dave Francefort did rock work.

I stopped 30 feet from edge of South Pond Road because the section we cleared still needs quite a bit of rock work in order to be rideable. Please do not ride the trail until it's officially opened.

Speaking of opening this trail, the original thought of trying to open the whole trail for the Happening at Huntington (June 3rd) is not going to happen. So we are shooting for just this section to be open by that time.

With approximately 30 people for 3 hours we got a lot done but there is still a lot more to do to open this trail.  The next work day will be this Tuesday, April 24th at 5:30 PM.

A signature Dave Francefort Spineline

Trail Ambassador Name: Mark Lurie, Paula Burton, Dave Francefort, Rich Coffee, Keith Coughlin, Chris Keczkemethy