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.