BYOK MTB DAY 10/8

To celebrate National Bring a Kid Mountain Biking Day, THOR is hosting an event at Swanson Park on October 8. Bring your kids, their bikes and helmets and plan a few hours to play outdoors. FREE for everyone. No need to register. Just show up and have fun! (Parents will need to sign a waiver for kids under 18 years of age).

Then head over to the Bellevue Berry Farm where Lucky Bucket is throwing a fund raiser event for THOR and Activate Omaha. The LB Ride is a fund raiser and has a cover charge for adults. 

Here is the flyer for BYOK.

Heads up at tranquility

Heads up at tranquility

The inner loop climb got hammered pretty hard by the last storm. Deep ruts and washouts are pretty bad on the top 1/2 of the climb and the descent is rutted as well. I'm going to work on re-routing some of the problem areas in the near future. I'll get the descent fixed asap. Be careful rolling thru this section. I guess this is one of mother natures TTF's...

Blue line at tranq is open for business!

Join us at 6 at the fort st trailhead for an evaluation ride of the revamped blue line at tranquility. If all flows well, the section will remain open as work continues. Thanks for all that stayed off the section during it rebuild.

I'd recommend taking it easy the first time thru. The water bars were overbuilt to see how the newer design would hold up and flow.

Hope to see ya there...


**Section is going to remain open. Turned out very well imo. Go ride it and give us some suggestions to name the section.

THOR to sponsor Fun Run

To get to know our ever-increasing two-legged trail users, THOR is sponsoring a fun run/walk on Thursday, Sept 8, at Tranquilty Park.

Start time is 6 p.m.

We'll have different level leaders depending on the level of participants.

Expect to run/walk 30-45 minutes and then gather in the trail head parking lot next to the soccer fields off of Fort Street for eats and drinks, cuz that's how we roll. Directions here.

Dogs welcome.

Tranquility -blue section on north descent still closed

Just a reminder...The blue section on the north hill descent at Tranquility is still CLOSED! Even if the debris blocking the trail is gone, the section is NOT OPEN for riding. If you ride by this section and the branches are moved, i'd appreciate you putting them back. If you catch the individual who keeps opening the trail back up, please tell them to stop. I wasted another 1:30 rebuilding destroyed berms tonight. This is time that should have been spent finishing the last berm.
Thanks!

Tranquility - Temp closed blue section on north descent

I closed the blue section on the north hill descent today to continue working on it. If things go well, i'm hoping to have it open again by mid August. Had a chat with a designer on the berms and i am going to give his ideas a shot...



The berms that a roughed in are not fully packed and cut in yet, so please do not ride them. This will destroy the berms and lengthen the time the section is closed...




Trying to finish my original vision for the section. Should be sweet when done!

calvin crest reroute and signage

This was the reason for the reroute.

Besides saving all that sawing, the reroute stays on higher ground at the bottom of the bluff, skipping the muddy areas and the higher plant growth. Had a mtb camp out there for middle schoolers last week and one of the sessions was putting in the reroute.

Also added some more orange tape at beginning kiosk and in the cedar trail where 3D archery has atv trails (wider, and fall line). Stay with the orange flags and the occassional arrows before and after intersections.

The knot of the orange tape is the side of the tree where the trail is.

Tranquility Trail Day July 2nd 8-10am

Hey Folks,

We are having another trail day at Tranquility to finish up the tread work that didn't make it last Sunday. Meet at the Fort Street trailhead, we will work the south hill climb and the prairie from 8 till 10am to beat the heat of the day. We will have some equipment on site. Bring your water, bug spray, shovels, hoes and your coffee. I'll bring the doughnuts!

rsvp here or facebook.

Thanks!

Great Trail Day at Tranquility

Had a group of 15 out to Tranquility today to get the trail ready to race. Around 30 hours for the group and another 8 hours for Dale and Tigger. The trail is all clear of downed trees, the canopy was raised and the re-routes are fully cut in and ready. Had a couple of groups out with trimmers cleaning up the north tree loop and the ridgeline/wall rides.



Good group out racing the storms rolling in...



Thanks to Frank, Eric, Martin and Dickie for the extra equipment need to complete the job...



good food, good people...



Thanks to Paul for grilling up the Grub!



We still have some tread work to do before race day. We may be looking at doing another trail day next weekend. Watch the blog and facebook for further updates.

Tranquility trail day this sunday!

Trail Day!
Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 1:00pm
Tranquility Park
Meet at Fort St trail head

Looks like we have some trees down on the fort St loop, so we are going to need a few lumberjacks to handle those.

We are planing on doing treadwork, trimming back limbs across the trail and mowing/weedeating the sections tigger can't reach. Bring bug spray, water and shovels if you can. Thor will have some tools on hand for you to use as well.

Please rsvp either on the facebook page (thor trails) or here on the blog.
Hope to see everyone there!

South side of Tranquility open again/Trail Day

Tranquility is now a full loop again with the installation of a temporary re-route till the city finishes its project. We are not going to invest much maintenance to this re-route because it could be gone at any time.

Due to the dirt piles, the berm after the last camel hump will no longer be used.
There is a link at the top of the south hill to get on the camel humps. We will be riding the camel humps backwards for the time being.

If the city is working in the area, please stay clear.

Trail Day!
Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 1:00pm
Tranquility Park
Meet at Fort St trail head
Please join us for the final prep for the Psycowpath race!

Thanks!

South section closed at tranquility

The city is working on a dirt moving project and is very busy in the area. We are temporarily closing the south section to give them room to work and to evaluate trail impact. Please avoid the area until further announcements.

thanks,
Tranquility Trail Crew

National Trails Day A Success for THOR

Twenty one people participated in our National Trails Day event at Swanson Park.

Frank Olson and Martin Bixby headed up the charge for the day: finish the new exit trail, move the kiosk next to the parking lot, take out some big downed trees and fix some of the ruts on the north side of the fire station. I don't want to give it all away. There are some new features. You'll just have to go check it out for yourself.

Volunteers were rewarded with the scrumptious beef brisket, slaw and watermelon.

We set up our THOR display and wouldn't you have it, two riders saw it and decided to help rather than ride. So awesome.

Thanks for everyone who helped. It was a great day!

3 men and a mower

Got a flat tire about 7:30 Saturday night at Tranquility. Had to leave Tigger on the trail overnight till we could get a tube Sunday.

Between Paul's floor jack and Dan's van jack, we wrestled with keeping Tigger from rolling down the hill. After the third time of rejacking, success. Thanks to these guys taking time out of their holiday weekend to help maintain trail and equipment.

Just like the rite of passage fixing a bike flat out riding, so with Tigger. Learned to check the tire pressure more often; not to drive on the flat tire; metal bike tire levers will take a mower tire off the rim; block wheels when jacking; don't slime a tubeless tire, tire patches won't stick afterwords.

Finished the Inner Loop and mowed finish area for STXC. Guys out riding had to push their bikes because so muddy in flats. Monday mowed Meadows, Southhill Descent, and Southcreek Flats. Paul wacked through the trees along the creek Sunday. Will need to increase the frequency of mowing with the rain and heat.

teen serve working tranquility

Want to thank Teen Serve for helping with trailwork at Tranquility last Friday. The soaking rain the night before changed the tread work agenda to branch trimming and trash pickup in the Fort St Loop.

The trail corridor width is now from tree trunk to tree trunk.

Each of the workers got a THOR business card for working the trail and finding other trails.

Phyllis, the Teen Serve coordinator, appreciates the opportunity THOR provides for the teens to work on trails. She hopes we have work for them in the Fall too.

First THORsday Night Ride a Success

Thanks to the awesome THOR Social Committee the first THORsday Night Ride was a success.

About a dozen riders rode the primo trails (thank you Paul and Co) and celebrated under a fingernail sliver moon with a coronas, 5-gallon jug of margaritas and a roaster of fajita meat. Folks did a great job of finishing off most of it!

 Join us for the next THORsday Night Ride on June 16. Place TBD.

Lake Manawa Clean-up

Last Sunday was Lake Manawa clean-up day. Steve and I attended for THOR. The turn-out was lower than previous years.

As normal, we concentrated on the river boat ramp/mountain bike trail area. We had a crew of about 7. The crew (plus 2 that left early) is shown in the photo. We picked up a truckload of trash.

Platte River Trail Days (2X)

Hey all,

Couple days delayed on getting this out. Paul the Trail Leader down at Platte River State Park is having two trail days to get the course ready to race 7 May. Psycowpath is back in town.

Trail days are 3&4 May starting at 4pm

See the map

Missouri River Flooding

Once again, the Missouri River is at or above flood stage through Omaha/Council Bluffs. That means that section of the trails at Lake Manawa are under water (see photo).

pipe bridges for north tp gullies

Eric donated 10" pvc pipe from his farm. We used 95' for two gully crossings.

Paul and Mike cutting the 5' lengths for the return route.

Chris and Eric working on the upper level.

Eric, Chris, Paul, and Mike on the finished product.

No endos and quick drying for this crossing now.

Dave brought his wheelbarrow to bring some drier dirt over the outbound gully pipe. I expect big rains to overflow these four pipes so take a peak after a heavy rain before bombing through this - the pipes may be bare.

Looking the way you cross outbound.

Fortunate to have a great work crew that lives within a few miles of the trail.Things went pretty quickly - about 10 hours of labor to install.

edit:
Mike is really quick at posting his pics and quips:
http://bikingfools.blogspot.com/2011/04/playing-in-mud.html

teen serve at swanson apr 15

Brought out 5 teens from the homeschool service organization "Teen Serve" to work in the cold 43 degree rain last Friday. Found ponchos for four of them, but most pants, shoes, and gloves were soaked after 2 hours in the steady rain.

We started clearing the whole trail corridor for getting back to the singletrack, but norrowed down to clearing the tread of brush and digging out the roots.

Thanks guys, for working in such conditions without complaining. You were honoring to the Lord that day.

Manawa Clean Up

Manawa Clean up day is 1 May 2011.

Meet at shelter 6 at just before 1 pm. The clean up effort is expect to last approximately 2 hours. THe parks department will provide the trash bags.

Raffle and food to follow at 3pm.

Wear your THOR shirts if you have them!

treadwork done on north tp expansion

Nice cool day to finish the treadwork on the north Fort St expansion. We had 11 people plus Cody working 1.5 hrs for 16.5 total work hours. Thanks Mark, Dave, Chris, Bill, Paul, Brian, Greg + 2, and Steve.

We used Steve's blower to dress up the tread inside the trees. The first pic is just after the 180 at the southend of the treeline.

The next pic is the short grassland around a storm sewer drain in the middle of the treeline.

The final pic is in the grassland just before connecting to the wetland doubletrack.

This marks the end of construction. We still need to sign a couple places and install some pipe in the gulley for quick drying when we finally get rain. To get the entire doubletrack, ride to the right around the electrical tower just after the gulley north of the last ball diamond.

The doubletrack around the artificial wetland lakes was already there by illegal use of motorized vehicles, mostly 4x4s, quads, and motorcycles. Its a nice section to ride two or three abreast and talk. Watch for walkers and dogs too.

Thanks again to Melinda and Dennis at Omaha Parks for working with THOR and authorizing the expansion; and thanks to all the volunteers over last Fall and this Spring taking pride where they ride to help maintain and expand. Unfortunately, I didn't record all the non trailday hours put in by a few. I'm guessing about 125 hrs, Chris thought closer to 200, for the 3+ mile expansion. The use of Tigger (zero turn mower), Little Blue (sod cutter), and the established doubletrack made this possible in so few hours.

Enjoy the ride!

What is going on at Swanson

You will see quite a number of new flags vicinity of the east side of the Swanson parking lot. The Bellevue Parks Department has asked THOR to create a new trail from the parking lot back to the existing trail head. This has started from the existing trail working our way to the front, we still have to work a few details with the City where the entrance and exits are going to be.

We will be soliciting volunteers for additional trail days to get this opened sometime this summer, keep your ears and eyes open for the announcement. If you have some time you would like to put in at your leisure please feel free to get in there and help open the new corridors where the flags are in the ground. Clip clip clip!

tranquility sod cutting sunday apr 10

Work to be done: cutting in the tread from the wetlands doubletrack to the west treeline, halfway meadow, and return to the doubletrack. This should finish the sod cutting on the north Fort St. expansion. Only thing left is drainage pipe in the gulleys between wetland doubletrack and Big Papio loop. Finishing expansion just in time to move into maintenance mode, i.e. mowing.

Date: Sunday, April 10
Location: Kansas Ave and 126th Ave.
Time: 13:00

Some grilled meat from the last trailwork cutting in the tread up to Fort St. and back. Thanks, Paul!

Trail crew. Greg's girls enjoyed working on the trail, raising up kids in the way they should go. Good job, Greg! The youngest was the trail boss and she cracked the whip on us. Thanks Eric, Paul, Chris, Greg and family.

Adams Park

Going to do a little trail work on Monday April 11 at about 6:30. Only need to weed eat or hoe a little bit of grass off the trail & rake the tree area.
Preparing for the Bike Rodeo on April 16th. Also Omaha Devo mountain bike practice will be that day and we want them to have a great trail. There is a short meeting at 6:00 about the rodeo that you are welcome to attend. Start as early as you like.

Any questions to poloscab@yahoo.com

Thanks
Dan

Race Weekend Update

Both race venues are good to go. The season opener is on!

Swanson Update

Walked Swanson last night cutting nicks in areas that hold water so they will drain...hopefully. Yesterdays light rains should absorb shortly with all the wind and sun forecasted for today! Should be rideable this evening. Don't forget Swanson Trail building 9 April starting at 8:30 am.

Thanks to the Volunteers at Manawa

Trail Leader Steve sends... Thanks to all that came out to support 5hrs worth of work at Manawa today! Lots of sticks, limbs and trees moved out of the way. Probably rideable this weekend if it continues to dry out.

THOR to be at UP's Earth Day Event

THOR will have a booth at this year's UP Earth Day event.

On April 13, Union Pacific will be hosting an Earth Day education event inside their headquarters at 14th and Dodge. THOR volunteers are needed to man the booth in one hour shifts from 10 am to 2pm. We will hand out brochures, maybe hold a raffle to win a prize, but mainly we want to educate the public about who we are and hopefully acquire new members.

If you have ideas or can volunteer contact Roxy at roxzanne dot abbott @ gmail dot com

Swanson Trail Building Day 9 April

Hey All,

New trail building at Swanson on 9 April, 8:30am start time in the parking lot.

The city has asked us to reroute the entrance to the trails starting at the parking lot going all the way back. We will put in a new trail adjacent to the pavillion going all the way back to the single track.

Bring clippers, rakes, and other dirt working tools...and some gloves.

Probably some Smoked Meat following.

Contact Frank for details. Frank.Olson@cox.net

Manawa Trail Day

29 March at 3:30pm.

Please meet at the red truck in the Manawa trails parking lot.

Goal is several trees need to be removed and some stick removal in Tony's Playground and the Wood Chopper areas.

Kids Rodeo April 16

THOR is heading up a kids rodeo event at Adam's Park. This is the same park where THOR built new single track last spring along with IMBA.

Several booths will be set up for kids to bring bikes for simple maintenance, safety talks, and trail education. 

Other organizations have joined in the fun: Activate Omaha, the Community Bike Shop and the YMCA are all participating to offer the kids a fun-filled day. Please join! 

If you'd like to volunteer, please contact Dan Christenson at poloscab@yahoo.com

tp north starting to take shape

Great turnout for less than 24hrs notice. Thank you guys and gal for changing your plans so quickly to help bring the trail in north Tranquility Park closer to reality: Eric, Susan, Mike, Dave M., Dave N., Paul, Michael, Todd, Brian, and Chris.

I was with the sod cutting crew working the out and back trail along the Big Papio Creek between Fort St. and the the wetland doubletrack north of the baseball diamonds. Eric called in some markers for access to a great 16" sod cutter.

With 6 people in about 20 work hours, we cut a mile of sod and pulled it off to create the tread! I, for one, am still sore the next day.

On the westside, Paul took these pics clearing the dead branches in order to create the trail corridor. Those 5 got in about 15 work hours along with assorted scratches and at least one puncture.

For those who need more advanced planning, this Sunday, 03.27, starting at 13:00 will be another trailday at north Tranquility. This will involved finishing the westside trail corridor and raking the multiple inches of leaves off the tread.

trailwork at tranquility tomorrow (Sunday 3.20) at 13:00

We have access to a sod cutter and plan to cut sod on the north side of Fort St. Will meet in the far north baseball parking lot at the NE corner.

Will have 3 or 4 people, one to run the cutter, and two or three to throw the sod out of the trail corridor.

We also have work on the west side, cutting dead limbs and clearing fallen limbs, brush piles through the evergreen trees.

Please bring hand saws, mcleods, no power equipment. We don't want to upset the homeowners with lots of noise.

Any questions, email or call Dale.