Hoes in the House!

THOR's new hoes have arrived....Rogue Hoes especially designed for trail building arrived today. (Authors snivel, Only three days late!). Boy we could have used these at L&C on Saturday but with the stellar performance by all we made due just fine.

4 of these are designated for THOR collectively and three are personal buys which I'll be delivering in the next week or two. Who ever needs to borrow them drop me an email or give me a call and we'll coordinate a hand off. I'll maintain long term accountability for a while.

Exercise extreme safety these things are sharp. USE ONLY ON THINGS YOU WANT TO DESTROY.

Trail day anyone....anyone?

New Trail Entrance @ Lewis & Clark

In spite of the early morning shower in N Council Bluffs, the ground was in good shape for trail work. There were 8-10 that showed up to complete the new route replacing Neverrest.

The trail crew got the rhythm - a production line down the trail.

The goal was complete the trail tread in areas that needed benching - on the downhill trail. The downhill trail provides an entrance to replace the chute the was to the right of the Monument.

When done, the crew moved over to the uphill replacing Neverrest. The new uphill trail was named "Super Model" for the curves that replace the straight shot up the hill.

At about noon - right on schedule - the crew headed back to the parking lot.

Last task was to cut open the new entrance of the trail. After that, the crew relaxed over "adult refreshments" and smoked meat.

Now, both of the trail entrance and exit are near the gate to the Monument. Entrance (downhill) is on the left -- Exit (uphill) is on the right.

teen serve at L&C greatly appreciated

Teen Serve, a local homeschool service group, came out a second month to work on the Neverrest reroute.





25 teens and 5 adults put in 50 hrs clearing the trail corridor the rest of the way on the downroute and uproute. All but 75' of the downroute is benched, plus about 10' at the beginning. The 75' benching is on a steep slope and will probably need 1' dug out of the high side for a 2' wide tread. The uproute needs benching but much of that is just clearing off vegetation on contours and 20-30% uphill sweeping 180's.

I plan to have both routes open at the end of tomorrow's trailday. The quality of the uproute will depend on the number of workhours (volunteers) put into it.

Saturday, May 22
09:00-noon

Bring a bike for a celebration lap.
Heard there will be smoked meat afterwards.
Bring your favorite beverage.

Adams Park I.2

THOR and Activate Omaha held a Trail Day Saturday. Nearly 20 attended to work on the new singletrack at Adams Park in North Omaha.

Kent and Steve were there early. Renting a sod cutter was an awesome idea. Made shorter work on the normal back-breaking work of stripping the sod. (The sod cutting effort was helped by Dale cutting the grass before stripping the sod).


When Tom arrived, Kent and Steve were playing football with some of the neighborhood kids. A couple hours we would have them riding bikes on the new trail.

Once the sod cutter was through, the crew started rolling the sod and hauling it up to the walk. (Parks crews will move it later - they have a spot to use the sod. Don't you love it when a plan comes together!)

The new trail turns around in the woods. The rough corridor was cut. It will take another trail day to complete that section of the trail.

Photos of Adams Park I.2 Trail Day are on Tom's photo site.

At the end of the trail day, local kids and THOR members were riding the new trail which clocks in at about 0.4 mile.

ADAM'S PARK - PHASE I.2

ALL HANDS ON DECK
SATURDAY 10-12
BRING LOPPERS, SHOVELS AND RAKES, SUN SCREEN.
WATER PROVIDED.

ADAMS PARK
30TH AND BEDFORD

today's manawa trailwork cancelled

Manawa work day tonight, May 12, 2010 Cancelled due to weather and muddy trails.

A BIG thank you to the two adults and a little boy that helped mow and remove the few branches across the trail.

Please make your plans to attend Adams Park trailday this weekend, 10:00-noon.

Steve D.

Platte River State Park

Just a reminder to all, Platte River State park is now running the Horse Rides. That means refrain from riding anything past Owen's crossing bridge and the trails over in the horse area from 9am-4pm daily. Bikes tend to scare the horses and we don't need access stopped completely. This will continue throughout the summer. It will give you a chance to ride the other main trails in the park.
Platte Trail Crew.

L&C trailwork fri may 21, sat may 22

I will be taking 25 or so teens from Teen Serve to work on Lewis & Clark Monument mtb trail additions on neverrest, from 09:00-11:30 Friday, May 21.

Will hopefully have separate entrance and exit routes functioning after Saturday's trailwork, from 09:00 - 12:00. If you ride L&C, please put in a couple hours of trailwork on Friday or Saturday to get this old girl's loop up and ridable again.

manawa traildays tu/wed may 11 and 12

May 11, 2010
Mowing the trails. 430p.m. till dark. Need at least one more person to help with the mower in case we get stuck and help put the machine away. This job takes most of the night. You don't have to work you can just ride around the trails and be on call if needed, or bring your fishing pole and fish in the river.
6 p.m. till 8p.m. come down and help trim the trails and move storm damage out of the way this will be a smaller group, meet in the parking lot.

May 12, 2010
Meet by the red truck in the parking lot at 6p.m. Trim what we couldn't get with the mower. Move flood damage objects out of the way in wood chooper and other needed areas. Bench the section before the camel humps. Done by 8 p.m. and ride.

Tools to bring. We have two trimmers (just need someone to run them). We will have two sets of lopper (just need someone to use them). Shovels bring yours. Rakes we have you covered. Also need someone to wear the backpack blower to blow wood chooper. Bring your bug spray. Like always THOR will provide gatorade.

Please plan to attend at least one of these days. THOR needs your help at Manawa.

TNR. May 13, 2010, enjoy YOUR hard work and ride the groomed trails.

Steve D.

Pre-race Trail Day at Platte

Last minute notice but if you have some time Wednesday head on down to Platte River State Park and give Paul and crew a hand.

Paul will be out there at 11 but other folks will show up at about 3pm.

The trail is in good shape but could use some light touching up with weed wackers, a few eye pokers trimmed back and a couple preventive strikes on a few trees about ready to drop on the trail.

Get out and ride it afterwards!!!!!

IMBA and the Great Outdoors Initiative

Click here to read IMBA Executive Director Mike Van Abel joined President Obama for the signing of the "America’s Great Outdoors" initiative at a conference in Washington, DC

Lake Manawa Clean-up Day

THOR members were among the over 400 folks that spend a couple hours of their Sunday to clean up Lake Manawa State Park. The THOR crew spend the time cleaning trash around the mountain bike trails.

Forgive me if I missed someone, but we did have our Trail leader Steve, former President Mike, member Mike, Webmaster Tom, and the Matheson family in attendance.

In the lower photo, THOR members take a look at the trash picked up in the mountain bike area.

Following transferring the trash to a dumpster, some lucky participants brought home prizes from the raffle. Weather turned raining just as the festivities were wrapping up. The rain and colder temperature dampened desires to ride a lap at Manawa.