Jewell Park Update

Trail Leader Steve and crew have been busy at Jewell the last couple of months.

He installed a new entrance trail from the new parking lot that goes parallel to the hill two where the original trail starts on the gravel road...mega benching required and some pretty cool earthwork switchbacks. New trail markers installed too.

Keep your eyes open for some reroutes too because with the leaves down thick in areas.

Great conditions

Tranquility is Rocking

Frozen hard last night and fun.

New section on the north hill down hill is going to be great when its broken in. Great work guys.

Suicidal rabbits and luckily zero skunk sightings.

Swanson Status

Trails in great shape. Couple small slimey spots up on Tetanous Hill so watch out, one is in a turn.

slimmy and not satisfying

Was at Tranquility with Chris tweaking the reroute Sunday afternoon. Surprised that the tread was slimmy, even though we haven't had rain for 2 or 3 days. I saw ice on SBL Sunday morning. With the constant mid 20's every night, I'm thinking frost is starting to show in the tread, with the slow, low daytime warm up keeping the trail slimmy well into the afternoon.



Though the slime is only 5mm thick and no half pipe, these trail conditions shouldn't be ridden, imo. Tires are loaded up beyond the knobs and mud is deposited on the bike. I think it's time for seasonal frost warnings and reminders to say no to mud. To beat the frost slime, one needs to ride singletrack only when temps are below freezing, or late in the afternoon if the warmer temp has dried out the tread sufficiently.

look what i found on my porch

A pod of mcleods!

New Reroute at Tranquility

Today the Tranquility council members met at the North hill descent to plan out a new route. The current route is starting to erode so we wanted to nip this in the bud. We came up with a new reroute on the North hill that looks promising. We got her cut in and it is ready for riding.

tranquility transition

We are trying a different leadership model at Tranquility, a trail council composed of 5 people: Greg (leader, point of contact), Chris, Dale, Dave, and Paul. We figured it would take about 5 people to put in as many hours as Doug did. 8-) We hope that getting multiple perspectives and spreading the trail leader workload will have more people understanding trail leadership, improve the user experience, and not burn out trail leaders.

Our first TC meeting was a ride inspecting the trail where we came up with a worklist for a trailday in the near future.

A 100 yd long technical section has been added at the top of the south hill. Chris saw the potential and brought it to fruition. The tread was left rough with short dips to keep the difficulty higher. There are some steep climb/descents and a narrow ridge. Balance and momentum skills are tested. It is only the second blue section at Tranquility. Chris is working on some more fun stuff to be announced after we receive permission from Omaha Parks.

Finally, we decided to assign 11 names to different sections of the trail. We chose fairly intuitive names for ease of memory and to help emergency crews. Paul broke out his crayons and put this map together.

11 October Swanson Trail Day

Hey Folks,

On behave of Frank the Trail Leader there will be Swanson Trail Day next Saturday starting at 8:30 from the parking lot.

Planned goals for the day:

1. A new trail leading up to the last installed bridge needs to be cut and the straighten leading into the bridge

2. Trail tree root maintenance needs to performed

3. Sections of the trail have grooved to a level where the sides need to be cut down and the dirt packed down into the middle and settle over the winter

4. A bridge needs to be moved from the back of Swanson to replace one of the Red clay pipe crossings up on the hill

5. The trail dip just before starting the downhill needs to be armored

6. Dirt needs to be added to the various tree jumps/log crossings

7. A couple of sign posts need to be replace and marked

8. A clear thick lacquer needs to be painted of the trial markers

Folks need to bring digging tools to this event to help with armoring some of the water crossing areas, bridge movement and repositioning and knocking the evil peddle catchin edges off some of the rutted areas.

Manawa Trail Day Sunday 9-21

Meet at the parking lot at 1:00. Work until 4:00, or as long as you can.
Bring loppers, weedeaters and shovels. THANK YOU.

Manawa Trim

Steve will be doing some trimming at Manawa Monday 09-15.At 5:30
It is short notice. With the Lincoln reschedule, He needs to sneak some work in.
Bring Weedeaters,loppers and maybe a shovel.
Meet at the parking lot. THANKS

grader/dozer at tranquility

Tranquility is where the city sends it's heavy equipment operators to practice. Joe, the park caretaker, mentioned they would be grading near the trail exit from the south side of the creek, where the kid's bypass was.

I've read they graded across some of the singletrack. Be careful out there (once it dries up). Ride across or around the grading till you can hook up with the trail again.

They also dump woodchips, pavement, move dirt from the tennis area, etc. A lot of traffic. They don't want an accident and neither do we. Give them plenty of room and a friendly wave. We are flexible and ride around their needs.

Trail maintenance day at Branched Oak Area #7

When: Saturday, August 30th starting at 8 am until ???

Why: To prepare the course for the upcoming Psycowpath race on September 13th

What to bring: Tree pruners, weed whackers (manual and powered), McCloud tools, shovels, rakes, etc.

Directions: Branched Oak Lake, Lieber’s Point near Raymond, NE From I-80, take Exit 401B to Hwy 34. Head west on Hwy 34 to NW 112th to W Raymond Road. Turn left on W Raymond Road and proceed west to NW 140th Street. Turn right on NW 140th Street and head north to Branched Oak Road. Turn right and proceed to the park gate/booth. Turn left (north) on the gravel road at the park gate/booth. Follow this road about a half mile. The road will then fork out. Turn right at the fork and continue about a quarter of a mile northeast. (Area 7)

Manawa Volunteers - A Mighty Big Thank You!!!!

Steve D. sends....

After numerous evenings of bug infested, poison ivy/summac, and high humidity heavy duty cutting, clearing and cleaning the Manawa MTB trails are back. Steve is tremendously appreciative of all the folks that helped out for the last month and a half plus clearing out all the water and wind damage to the trails. He couldn't have done it without you and he passes on his sincere thanks to all of you that helped out.

Over the last several years the black/technical trails with many of the log crossings and technical features have been ground down so the trails were not so difficult anymore. Many large trees and logs were trimmed up and left in place to replace those features in the technical trail areas. The "No Second Chance" trail has the largest logs that require "trials" skills as Dale pointed out in the previous blog post. These are still work in progress and will be built up a bit in the next couple of months.

Break.

And from the rest of us trail users a mighty big thanks to Steve, Blaine, and Tom for having the perseverance and tenancity spearheading this monumental clean up effort by hitting the damage each and every week for the last month and a half plus.

There are a countless number of other folks unrecognized that gave so much time and effort I wish we could spotlight all of you but on behalf of all the users a big thank you just the same. This was definitely a community effort to accomplish.

some new ttfs at manawa

Forgot the one with Tom, Martin, and I checking over the trail after completion.

These pics are from Saturday's work in Tony's Playground.

Martin is checking ring clearance on a new log crossing. Better technical riders can clear it where Martin is standing without the stepup and down help.

Ginger was a great traildog, though she was sore and limping today. This log was dropped straight down but would roll. I don't like moving logs so I sunk it in the ground a couple inches. Still hits your ring when attempted w/o technique.

Martin made some great stakes to secure logs from moving.

No 2nd Chance has several new logs that are difficult to climb over, let alone ride. This brought back memories of how difficult Manawa was early on. Slowly, the ttfs have worn down or given easy bypasses. No 2nd Chance is for the people who like grinding up logs and other trials type riding. Check it out!

Save Manawa!

Okay, so I'm being a little dramatic with the title of this post, but this weekend is THE weekend THOR is hoping to wrap up the major clean up at Lake Manawa.

Trail Leader Dickey is asking for double duty. Here are the details:

Day 1
Friday, August 22
Meet at 5:45 at Trail Head
Work from 6-8pm
Goal: We need to clear a lot of trees and cut them up for future trail features.
Bring: loppers, hand saws and a strong back (those of you who have been approved to use a chain saw, bring it).

Day 2
Saturday, August 23
Meet at 8:30 at Trail Head (grab a bagel and a beverage)
Work from 9-2
Goal: Bench the trail after the rock climb and finish tree removal, pick up any remaining branches
Bring: loppers, hand saws, chain saws, shovels, Mcleods, hoes
NO GRASS WILL BE CUT AT THIS TIME SO DON'T BRING WEED WACKERS OR TRIMMERS

If you can only make it for a couple hours, please do so. Most of the work is being done towards the back of the long loop. The warm up loop is all done. So if you arrive later in the morning, take the levy as a means to get you to the east side of the trail quicker or walk the trail backwards. The benching area is towards the beginning of the long loop.

Wear long sleeves and pants. Bug spray is a must. Bring plenty of water but we'll have some on sight as well as gatorade.

Bring your bike.

calvin crest sunday 8.17

CC has a college age group working from 13:30 - 15:30 this Sunday. I'll be leaving around 12:00 from my place if anyone wants to go with.

I hope to cut a downed tree into bridge gurders to cross a creek. This will require chainsaws and ropes to pull into place. Another trail crew will continue clearing the trail through cedars.

Loppers, handsaws, chainsaws

edit: here are a couple pics




We cleared a couple hundred yards of trail in the short time. Only another couple hundred to clear, then a lot of tread work and a handful of bridges to put in. Looks like the next group of volunteers may be available in Oct. for several days.

Manawa Trail Work

This week we are trying Thursday evening for trail work. How about giving up your Thursday Night Ride time to help open more trail at Manawa.

Meet at the river boat ramp at 6pm. We will work for about 2 hours. Bring the usual tools -- loppers, hand saws, long pants, bug spray, gloves, etc.

Trail Leader Steve thanks those that have helped clearing the Lake Manawa trails. We are planning to schedule trail work one evening each week.

Thanks from Tranquility

I'd like to thank everyone who braved the heat and came out Saturday morning to help with tread work at Tranquility. Because of your hard work we more than met our goals and the Tranquility Tire Tantrum race in 2 weeks will be better for it. Volunteers like you sure make THOR an effective tool in trail maintenance and we are lucky to have you in our community. Thanks again.

Doug

Manawa Needs Your Help

This evening we will be again doing trail work at Lake Manawa. This photo is of the trail crew that on Tuesday helped Trail Leader Steve.

We have lots to do before the trails at Manawa are in any ridable condition. This evening we are planning to mow some of the trails, raking and picking up debris, lopping, moving cut logs, and perhaps cut some more fallen trees.

Try to come out this evening to help. We will start at the river boat ramp at 6pm and work until 8pm. Brings bug spray, long pants, water, loppers, racks, hand saws, gloves... etc.

See you there.

Manawa Work Schedule

Anyone that has been over to Lake Manawa trails knows there is still a lot of clean-up needed. Steve (Trail Leader) is working with the DNR. As long as he gets approval, we will work every Tuesday and Friday evening at 6pm.

Please bring lots of bug spray for yourself. Tools to have, loppers, rakes, hand saws and some shovels.

Tranquility Trail day this Saturday

Just a reminder to anyone interested that we will have a short trail day this Saturday at 9:00 a.m. meeting in the North parking lot at Tranquility. The trail is in pretty good shape except we want to knock the sharp edges off of some gullies in the older sections. Therefore, mcleods, shovels and your bikes are all that is needed. No need for rakes, mowers, loppers or weed wackers as previously stated. It is our goal to keep volunteer work efforts to a minimum at Tranquility so we can put our THOR emphasis on getting the Manawa trail system back to it's beloved riding shape and ready for this Falls race. Thanks.

Doug

Manawa Trails Day

This Tuesday the 22nd and Friday the 25th meet at the boat ramp at 6pm. Please bring lots of bug spray for yourself. Tools to have, loppers, rakes, hand saws and some shovels.

We will work from 6pm until 8pm.

See you there.

Lewis and Clark Trail Day, Sunday July 27th

Whether you’ve loved or hated it, Mt. Neverest will be no more after this Sunday’s trail day.

This reroute needs your help. I will start the day at 8am. I know this is a Sunday and it’s early but the temperature and humidity will be better in the earlier hours of the day.

If the alarm clock doesn’t go off, if you’re coffee hasn’t kicked in, or what have ya and you would rather start a little later please do come over and lend a hand. You don’t have to travel far from the parking lot as all work will be on Mt. Neverest. Mt. Neverest is just to the south of the gate at the main entrance. So if you get there after 8am, park your car and walk to the entrance and the trailhead is on the right side of the road.

What is needed,
Shovels
Rakes
Mcleods
Loppers
Pulaskies
Gloves
Water
Bug spray if you wish, they haven’t been too bad in the mornings.

Thanks,
Josh
LewisClark@TrailsHaveOurRespect.org

TRANQUILITY PRE-RACE TRAIL DAY

There will be a trail work day at Tranquility, Saturday August 2nd at 9:00 a.m. Hopefully the early start will help us beat some of the heat and we should be able to finish up in a couple hours. Right now the course is in pretty good shape and we are just going to knock off some sharp top edges of the rutted areas caused by all the heavy rains and prime the course in advance of the Tranquility Tire Tantrum Race August 16. Tools needed will be Mcleod fire rakes, hoes, and shovels. I will have trash bags on site for a light litter pick up and a couple of rakes to clear pine cones from the trail in a few of the wooded sections. If you would like to bring a weed eater or pruning shears I'm sure they will also be helpful. Bring your bikes and get a few laps in afterwards. Please meet in the Fort Street parking lot at 9:00. Everyone is welcome and any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much,
Doug

Trail day at Manawa

This Tuesday the 15th and Friday the 18th meet at the boat ramp at 6pm. Please bring lots of bug spray for yourself. Tools to have, loppers, rakes, hand saws and some shovels.

We will work from 6pm until 8pm.

See you there!!

Platte River State Park Trail Day (13 July)

Jesse Peterson and the Lincoln crew send:

Meet at the wild turkey parking lot @ 6:45ish Sunday morning.

The group will be working on the horse trails (race loop) removing the overgrowth/weeds.

Breakfast buffet afterwards.

Tools needed: weed whackers, lopers, pruners, flame thrower

Gloves, water, bug spray and pants recommended

Lewis and Clark Trail Day

Sunday, July 27th @ 11:00am

We will need McLeod’s, shovels, rakes, loppers, and you.

If you are free and would like to put back into a great trail come over to L&C to lend a hand and see the reroutes first hand.

I will be over there at 8am, if you’re willing and able to meet that early I will be starting on the trailhead to the south, by the gate at the entrance to the monument. Otherwise I’ll see you in the parking lot at 11:00.

If you have questions, drop me an e-mail.
LewisClark@TrailsHaveOurRespect.org

Jewell Update (7 July)

Big Thanks to Kory for bringing out his saw this morning.

All fallen trees discovered this weekend have been cleared so you can ride uninterupted. One low hanging tree marked with orange tape, tall riders need to duck pretty good.

All the creek crossings are rideable once again.

Recommend you wear your favorite flavor of bug juice because if you stop the mosquitos will hunt you down.

more trailwork at calvin creset

Had a group of about 18 Sr High and college Freshmen to work with at Calvin Crest on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Fortunately, Martin was able to lead a crew on Tuesday that put in a really nice full bench and treadwork. I worked with a crew of women on another benching project, and Bob the maintenance man led another crew trimming the trail corridor through the cedars. Wednesday, I combined benching crews to finish the chapel trail from the outdoor chapel, down the bluff, connecting with the River Trail and putting in a bench to the suspension bridge. Friday, the cedar crew worked on roofing an A frame cabin, the trail crew benched to the Tuesday work, and then went and cleared about 300' + of trail corridor on the other end of the Cedar Trail. 140 hours of trailwork were put in.

I had a core group of 6 women all three days working McCleods and Pulaskis. We sang songs while grubbing the tread into existance. They learned about sustainable and flowing trail building, and caught a vision for surfing hills on mtb's. Several want to ride the trail when it is finished, and these are people who don't ride bikes.

Below is a pic of the group of volunteers I worked with earlier in June.

Jewell Update (5 July)

Jewell has a fair share of trees down that interupting the flow of things. The Trail Leader is probably still out of country for a while so if anyone wants to help out post or add a comment with contact info.

Besides a couple dismounts to go over some large logs or ride around them the trail is in great shape. Weeds are in check.

A few folks have been riding there this week doing some excessive skidding going into just about every downhill corner. Definitely a few corners its nearly impossible not to skid but we need to encourage folks not to do it all the time if possible.

Its a fun ride.

Manawa Clean-up Started

Clean-up has started on the Lake Manawa mountain bike trails. It will take many hours of work. Initial work was done yesterday, from the kiosk to the entrance of River Front Estates.

Scheduled trail work will be continuing. Watch for information on this blog.

Check out the T.H.O.R. Web Site for some photos or the clean-up effort.

Manawa Trail Work

Slowly, the Lake Manawa MTB trails are drying. Before the trails can be ridden, there is a lot of clean-up from the storms.

Thursday evening, meet to work clearing dead falls. We have all of the chain saws we need. What needed are bow saws, loppers, hand saws, and bodies to help move the wood. The Mosquitoes are nasty, so bring bug spray. Long pants are recommended

Meet at the Trailhead 6 pm. We'll work until 8 pm.

Tranquility Back on Line

Tranquility is now completely open again and cleared of all downed trees and branches. The trail took a battering Friday and we lost more creek embankment to washout but hey we are back riding and happy. Big thanks to Greg Gibson, D-mars, and Mark Kuntz for a fast and furious chain saw party Monday afternoon. We were able to get the inner creek section cleared in 2 hours... ( and no one lost any digits ). Thanks guys!

Doug

tp inner north creek trail

Going backwards along the creek from Fort St parking lot, the logs for the ramp have been washed away.

Loosing more of the bank.

The creek was overflowing its banks and running down the trail.

The biggest damage, turn into double dip.

Double dip to the creek.

At the creek.

Further on, we have another two places where large limbs twisted about 15' up and are hanging down onto the trail.

As Doug mentioned, the rest of the trail has been cleared of downed trees. Leaves and broken twigs on the tread so don't be surprised if it's a little slippery in places.

!!!Forgot to mention, please be extra cautious around Tranquility anytime you cross the service road because county dump trucks are busy hauling downed trees on it!!!

tranquility devastated

Just got a call from Doug, took him an hour to ride one lap with so many trees down, creek section is really bad. Doug is buying a chainsaw and heading down to the creek. If you have a few hours of energy left Sunday afternoon after clearing your yard or your neighbors, we can use your help.

trail crew leaders for calvin crest

CC has about 20 volunteers available this week to work on the trail from 09:00-12:00 on Tu, W, F. I will be out there but could use 1 or 2 more trail crew leaders. If you are interested, email me at tpmbt@cox.net.

Platte Update

The trails are sweet and the bacon is crispy!

Platte is a little shaggy on the weeds and grass side but very rideable. The nettles are not stinging you for some reason in the few areas where they do reach out to touch you...nothing but good.

The trail is flowing smooth and fast just about everywhere. Didn't go down the gully, took the bypass out by the fenceline.

One tree obstacle in the Yun 2 area that requires a dismount. Trail leader notified and developing a removal plan.

There is discussion about a week night trimming party in the next couple of weeks...Stay Tuned. One good trimming will probably carry it till the fall with any luck.

Wilderness Park Trail Days

We are needing some serious help here in Lincoln at Wilderness Park. Mother Nature took a dump, the creek washed a lot of dead wood into the trail and then there are the blow downs.

Trail Work Days - Sat. June 28th and Sun June 29th - 10am-3pm
Meet: Old Cheney Trail Head at Old Cheney Road east of 1st street, west of the railroad tracks.
What to Bring: Chain Saw, Ax (to get the chain saw unstuck), Loppers, hand saws, Chaps, Gloves, fuel bottles and an extra bar, Long Pants for sure. I will bring 5 gal water jug and some brownies, nuts etc. BRING BUG JUICE!!
Work to be done: Clear trail of the debris Mother Nature left behind.

Help when you can - for a few hours, a day, or both days. Your work is appreciated.

Please contact "rose at dakota-st dot com" for more information.

Posted on behalf of Rosina Paolini

Tranquility finally gets a Kiosk!

Thanks to the skill and labor of Mark Kuntz, there is now a beautiful new Kiosk installed at the trail head at Tranquility Park. Mark built the Kiosk all by himself and we finally got permission from the city to plant it in the ground this weekend. Dale has posted trail instructions along with a temporary trail map and also a map of the beginner race course that will be used for the Tranquility Tire Tantrum race in August.

Eventually we will install a larger easier to read trail map in the Kiosk. Please note that Tranquility trail is to be ridden in one direction ( counter clockwise ). This is for everyone's safety due to line of sight restrictions caused by the tall vegetation growth in many areas. I also want to thank Dale and Paul Nueberger for helping install the Kiosk, great work guys.

Doug

Platte Update 15 June 08

Platte was in great shape this morning before the storm hit and I was forced to seek refuge in the resturant with a big plate of Bacon!

Avoid the gully for a little while, there is still running water the farther you go down. Take the blue trail left which brings you up to the fence line trail just before you finally commit to the bottom of the gully. Its a trail not normally used by folks that ride the gully all the time. It takes you up thru some trees to a fence line and some single track that turns into double track, really fast down hill to the trail head marker.

Platte definitely weathered all the storms really well.

Thanks Jesse and crew.

Jewell's Looking Good

Saturday evening I did a full walk-thru down at Jewell for the first time in quite a while, and she's ripe'n ready for action. I came there expecting a good 4 hours worth of work, and wasn't disappointed. I rebuilt the log bridge again, cleared away 4 downed trees(and built up one trunk that wouldn't budge) macheted some weeds with my hand saw, chopped a bunch of overhangs, and tossed a plethora of branches and assorted crap.

I built a couple more debris dams like the one pictured below to keep tree turds from constantly flowing onto the trail. This involves laying some tree limbs above the trail, usually anchored by trees, at a spot where lots of debris is moving down the hill onto and over the trail. If this is some kind of trailbuilding no-no, just tell me and I'll stop. I haven't noticed that it causes any problems, and it cuts down on my workload quite a bit. Branches get caught in the dam, while water and leaves flow through it.

I also got growled at by a cute young raccoon, and eyed suspiciously by some protective momma deer.

As of this writing, all of the downed trees at Jewell have been dealt with. The trail is clean and the dirt is nice and tacky and 99% rideable. There is one spot at the entrance to the lowlands that is muddy and should be walked for a couple days. The weeds are just starting to get annoying. One thing that is causing me concern is the north side gravel road climb, which is almost too eroded to ride across. The new parking lot is ready but it's still blocked off for some reason.

"Debris dam" above the trail shrinks the workload:

Creek Bank Cave In at Tranquility

Please be aware that heavy rains have caused a delayed embankment collapse on the North side of the creek at Tranquility running right up to the trail. The affected area is at about mile 5.8 as you re-enter the north side of the creek trail coming off the curved gravel road. The danger area is flagged and riders simply need to stay inside the flags for a short distance. I will be shifting the trail over a few yards soon to keep the trail on stable ground. Thank you and happy riding.

Doug

more work on interior climb

Been a couple weeks with lots of rain since grade reversals were put in the interior climb at tp. Happy to report that they have worked well. Cleaned out the sedimentation and took the edge off the tread and cleared out more of the tread sod.

Put in three more grade reversal/nicks just below the downhill drop to the mcleod.

Chris' alternative line over barbwire pump can be seen to the left and the approach below.
Doug reports as of last night (Friday), 98% of tp was dry and very fast (till the next rain).

Tree Down at Swanson

Large tree down blocking the way to the long staight away and last little rooty climb. Easily bypassed by making a right towards the creek crossing (and the new bridge) instead of going the normal route left.

Several other low hanging branches or trees squeezing the trail but overall rideable and getting better. Sticks galore all over the trail in some parts.

Trail Leader notified and has a plan to remove it within a day or two.

THE WORD IS OUT

The city of Omaha has linked our website to theirs! How cool is that? Look at the "What's New" section to the right. Now the public will know more about the trails and the trail knomes who take care of them. More exposure could possibly bring more support outside of our community. I'm hoping that with people staying closer to home this summer, they'll learn about all of our wonderful trails and use them. We'll see.

2nd trail crew @ calvin crest

A college age group of 14 or so spent several days working around CC getting it ready for 4th-6th graders this week. I work with them Saturday building new trail. The first task was armoring a descent to the eastern creek.

We spent the rest of the day working on the trail from the top of the bluff down to the Platte River.

We finished about 1100' like above, roughed out the tread another 100', and weed wacked the remaining 500' to the river. Around 60 work hours for the day. I will be working with a group of senior adults in a couple weeks to finish the treadwork to the river.

Here is a pic of the trail cut through cedar trees the previous Saturday.

Dry at Tranquility

I just got back from weed wacking the creek sections Friday night and the course is very ridable for anyone looking for a dry spot to ride this weekend. Several of us mowed this past week and even though things are growing like crazy conditions should be good.

chainsaw trail day at Calvin Crest

Packed up bob with tools and supplies and headed out to Calvin Crest Saturday. Great ride out and back.

We had five chainsaws in action with the Wolfe clan volunteers - a very nice family. I was included to feel like one of the family. This was the first work done on the trail beyond marking. Put in 40 work hrs and knocked out over half the heavy cutting in the cedars. Guessing a little less than half a mile.

For several reasons, this trail will progress more slowly than expected. I think there will be less than 3 miles completed by the end of 08. Hopefully, 09 will have enough mtb trail to make it worth the trip. The trail will be used by campers, hunters, 3D archery, etc. in the mean time.

The rivers are way up. Here is the Platte at hwy 77 around 09:00.

And high water on the Elkhorn at hwy 36 around 18:00.

30 May Manawa Update (Very Wet)

Lake Manawa Trails are super saturated right now to say the least. 2.5 inches of rain last night and early this morning.

Please don't try to ride there for several days. The race promoters are in rescheduling discussions with the Psycowpath Director as I type. Watch the Nebraska Cycling site for news.

One puddle on your way out of the south long section is atleast 15ft wide right now, probably 2 feet deep in the middle of the dip. (Where the black pipe is sitting)

Both sides of the trail where you cross the road are covered with water for 35 feet or more each side. Picture attached doesn't really do it justice.

tp interior climb treadwork

Glad to hear there was a good turnout for the Manawa Trailwork yesterday. I intended to ride out but after a couple hours at Tranquility, decided to continue there and ended up with about 5.5 hrs and 130+ yds of tread widening and about half a dozen nick/grade reversals shored up or installed on the southhill interior climb.

Many were skipping this climb b/c of the ruts/sod clumps in the tread. Though more work could be done, this is worth the effort to climb, especially with Chris widening the tread for the sweeping downhill just before the cement water runoff crossing.

Looking back at the second switchback.



Looking up from the fourth switchback. This is the hard part of the climb where the gearies drop a gear and the ss'rs stand and pass them. 8-)


Rerouted after the fifth and sixth switchbacks for natural grade reversals. This section traverses a larger water route that remains stable b/c of the grass. This section will probably require those who sit and spin to stand b/c entrance and exit ledges were left steep for that purpose.

Found out later that Doug was working on the other side of the hill benching the switchback at the start of the iceplex loop.

Manawa Trail Day Rescheduled

Trail day for Manawa has been moved to tomorrow night, Wednesday.

Due to the recent wind storms, a lot of branches are down. We'll need at least one or two people with chain saws. If you have trimmer, bring it. Loppers and rakes too. Bring your boots. It could be muddy.

Meet at 5:45 at the trail head.

Stay tuned to the blog if weather continues to not cooperate.

Tranquility course update

The entire south side and the majority of the north sections of tranquility have just been freshly mowed and are in good riding condition. Mowing will now continue every 2 to 3 weeks as needed throughout the growing season. There are also a couple slight alterations on the south interior climb that will be installed soon to address channel erosion. No major changes though.

For fun check out the brush fire damage that took place last Sunday afternoon at the top of the big hill above the tennis courts. 2 fires trucks came out to put out the blaze that was probably started by kids. The fire did make its way to the trail in 2 spots but did not cross. Our trail became a fire break.

Have fun riding.
Doug

Volunteers Needed: Manawa

Volunteers are needed to prepare the race course for the 4th Psycowpath Mountain Bike race at Manawa State Park.

When: Tuesday, May 27

Time: Meet in trail head parking lot at 5:45, head out at 6. Plan on a couple hours.

Bring: loppers, rakes, McLouds, shovels.

To Do List: Dickey will be on the tractor mower, so we'll need people to rake up behind him as well as behind those trimming the single track. The utility road straight-away at the start of the long section needs smoothing out. The log pile before you pop out onto the gravel double track needs some attention. Need to cut down any hanging branches or overgrown weeds.

Also, Steve has asked for two people to stay until the end to make sure he doesn't have any trouble with the mower (it's happened before).

Gatorade will be on hand.

Also, this is a good opportunity to come out and renew your membership and get a shirt for $5! Offer ends 5/31!

tranquility race layout

Received an email about the Aug 16 Tranquility Tire Tantrum. A couple guys are training for the race and want to know how many laps. Since Beginner Men are currently taking about 40 minutes to complete one full lap, we decided to cut out a couple climbs to bring the mid-pack lap time down to 30 and have the Beginner Men do 2 laps. Beginner Women, Juniors, and 1st Timers will do 1 lap.

I just finished cutting in a bypass of the iceplex loop.

The right goes down towards the iceplex and the left stays on top of the southhill. We will be moving the 3 mile marker about 50 yds to here to sign the bypass.

The climb after riding along the south side of the creek is also removed. Click here for a map.

Yellow = trail
Red = finish line
Blue = parked cars and race only access
Black = bypasses for Junior/Beginner race

Current thoughts are Sport will race 2 or 3 laps and Expert 4 laps.

Jewell Update

I took a ride at Jewell yesterday, and tossed a lot of tree turds along the way. The new parking lot was being poured as I rode. I don't think it'll be done for a few days, because they were just getting started on the curbs. The dirt was nice-tacky but not soft, with only one greasy spot. There's a big ugly treefall blocking the trail in the area just west of the cemetery. I pulled off some branches to crawl around it, but saws will be needed. Also, it looks like someone jacked with the new bridge. It's been moved out of the spot where it was dug in.

Reminder

The race course at Platte River will be closed from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday, May 17th for the horse rides.
Race registration opens 8:30 a.m. Sunday.

impromptu tp work 07-May

Took a couple pics of trailworkers Wednesday night at Tranquility - Dave and Greg spent a couple hours on the first mowing of the year.

If you have a mower and want to spend an hour or so mowing, please let Doug know at Tranquility@TrailsHaveOurRespect.org.

I took the edge off some older trail, then rode some with bob and tools fixing some nuisances. And Chris, Doug, and Paul spent 7 hours on some benching on the north hill.

TRANQUILITY PARK CITY CONSTRUCTION CAUTION

The city parks department has asked me to notify riders to please use caution when traversing the maintenance roads at Tranquility. Apparently there have been a few complaints from city workers operating trucks on access roads in the park that they have had mountain bikes come flying by them while backing up or moving dirt. Most of these instances have taken place during the week days. I'm sure 99.9% of riders do a good job of staying out of construction equipments way so I am just reminding everyone that a driver in a large truck doesn't expect to see a mountain bike riding across the road. Therefore, please use special care when crossing the maintenance roads especially on the South side of the course.

Thank you,
Doug Larson
Tranquility Trail Leader

Membership Drive Report

Results from last weekend's kickoff of the 2008 THOR Membership Drive are in and once again support for what we do was reaffirmed by many generous people.

We had a total of 19 new or renewed memberships. On top of that, many bought food from our grill masters as well as delicious cookies from the very talented Khamail Wilderman.

If you missed us last weekend, don't you worry. We will be at all the Psycowpath races but if you want to score a shirt for $5, the offer is good only through the month of May.

Props to members Tim Wieland, Doug Larson, Martin Bixby and Dan Christenson for making it all happen! And thanks to everyone for your continued support of single track in Nebraska and Iowa.

Platte River SP (6 May 08)

Conditions are superb for riding at Platte.

The trails will dry quickly due to all the hard work the trail crew put in several weeks ago, they cleaned all the small sticks and logs away from the edges to allow water to drain off and make it easier to run weed eaters.

Several new reroutes or line improvements also took place so don't be surprised when you spot some new sections. Heads up for the new black jump just past the rock garden area, easily bypassed to the left (marked) if your not into big big air.

You will see yellow ropes across several of the trail entrances, these are meant to keep the horses out of the single track areas not hikers or MTBers.

Get your Marathon legs going!

Jewell Update

Jewell's in wicked decent shape right now. Being ever the antisocial one, I snuck out there during the race on Sunday for a couple laps, including a clean-up lap. It's super clean now and the dirt is perfect. Someone ran off with the section of concrete pipe I was using as a mini-bridge/jump. The logs are still there and they look pretty stable. They still make a nice little jump.

Tranquility treading work

The rain sucks for Swanson's race today but I am going to be trying to make the most of a wet situation by benching tread on the new meadow section on the North side of Tranquility today. Anyone with an available Mcleod is sure welcome to help. At the Swanson race I will be borrowing a couple more Mcleods so we will probably call for an improv Trail Tread day after another good rain in the near future. Good luck to all the Swanson racers and on Sunday.

Thanks, Doug

Hazardous Log Crossing at L&C

Folks,

One of our Trail Leaders reports that the big log crossing at the bottom of the hill at L&C is in a dangerous condition.

The logs are missing or messed up on the far side of the big log crossing so you won't see it till your commited to going over. He rates it very very difficult to dangerous.

L&C Trail Leader has been informed.

Please exercise caution when approaching and crossing this obstacle until it is investigated and remedied. Look before you leap.

2008 THOR Membership Drive

If you haven't had the opportunity to renew your THOR membership or signup as a new member, stop by the THOR booth at the Psycowpath race at Swanson Park this Saturday! Memberships are $20 for individual, $30 family.

We've got some cool new T-shirts available - get one for only $5 with your paid membership through the month of May.
For those who have already renewed membership, this offer is retroactive ... stop by this Saturday or at any Psycowpath event during the month of May to get your shirt!