teen serve cleaning adams park

Yesterday, took six volunteers from Teen Serve to help pick up trash in the trees along the trail and the rest of the upper tree terrace to the west of the community center where the trail currently turns around. We cleaned this terrace all the way to the playground and started into the lower terrace.

We got 12 bags of trash, 2 tires, and a dog kennel in 21 work hours.

Trail is walkable, rideable, though leaves have piled up and need to be raked off the trail in the first couple of tree sections.

Trail Conditions

Over the last couple days there have been trail condition updates on Facebook. Here's what has been reported:

Tranquility: Open
Swanson: Open
Lewis & Clark: Open
Lake Manawa: Open
Platte River: Too soft/muddy

Tread lightly. There may be soft spots in the trails. Rain is forecast for this evening - get your dirt fix in today!

tranquility is open for riding!

Checked a couple spots on the trail this morning. Still has some wet areas but with the warmth and wind, it is time to open the gates and ride!

Please stay on the the tread through the wet areas as this will dry them out more quickly. Also the tread feels soft from the frost breaking it up. Riding the tread will help pack it down and minimize erosion from the thunderstorms.

So ride Tranquility to do your part to pack the tread!

PS. This does not mean the other trails are also rideable.

Tranquility Update

No good news yet. Trails remain too muddy to ride. With the race season rapidly approaching, many are itching to ride some dirt. Please be patient and let the trails full dry out before riding. We will keep checking the trails and give the all clear when they are ready to ride.
Thanks!

Represent THOR before a legislative committee in Lincoln

Is anyone able to testify on behald of THOR before a legislative committe in Lincoln on 3/3/11 at 1:30? There is a bill (LB 656) proposing to cut the amount of NRD money that goes to recreational purposes. I can prep you on the proposed bill and how to testify. 

Please contact Susan Reff (new co-VP of THOR) at susanreff at hotmail dot com.

THOR Annual Membership Meeting

THOR Annual Membership Meeting
Saturday, February 26 · 2:00pm - 4:00pm

National Park Service
601 River Front Drive
Omaha, NE


The annual meeting agenda will include an overview of the 2010 goals and what was achieved as a club and at each trail system. New goals for 2011 will be discussed. Voting for chair positions will take place. As it was declared at last year's meeting, Kent McNeil will be stepping down as president and we're looking for a new visionary. 1 year term is all that is expected, so think about if you or someone you know would like to take the reigns for 2011. More info as well as meeting agenda outline to follow via email and on our website.

tranquility north fort st trail is beta

Thanks to Aaron, Chris, Dale, Greg, and Paul, the out and back trail corridor along the Big Papio is cleared. Little tread work - though rideable, it's not necessarily enjoyable - consider it a beta release. Sod cutting the tread will wait for another workday, probably next Spring.

 
The trail circled in pink is what we worked on yesterday and today - about 20 hrs. About 20 hrs were spent on the ground walking, envisioning, and flagging prior to this weekend.
 
The trail circled in blue at the top is a double track going around a built wetlands in order to mitigate wetlands lost from the soccer fields south of Fort St and the new cement trail around Standing Bear Lake.
 
The trail on the west boundary will be worked on over the winter, weather permitting. This entails clearing deadfall and dead undercanopy in the trail corridor.
 
Greg brought out his stihl saw with color coordinated stihl chaps -- very professional, should have snapped a pic!
 
Chris putted around with his walk behind weedeater to clear parts of the tread along the trees down to the dirt.
 
I ended up putting about 8 hrs on Tigger. She worked hard making a preliminary pass through at 5" and a follow up cut at 3.5". The air cooling screen was plugged several times from all the cut grass thrown upwind. Though she has some minor groundings with the blades, the worst was running up over an unseen railroad tie when finishing up in the dark about 6 pm. Stopped the blades and stalled the engine - ouch! In 1 hour, Tigger does what use to take us about 4 hrs to push. Thus those 8 hrs this weekend saved us at least another 24 hours of mowing by hand.
 
Besides weedeating, clearing branches, and some hoe work, Aaron and Paul set bridges in place over the Fort St bridge erosion ruts.
 
I found out Friday at 1830 that Melinda, director of Omaha Parks, and Dennis, Park Planner had given us the "Notice to Proceed" with construction of the proposed trail. This time of year, there are few weekends amicable for trailwork.
 
I thank God for moving Melinda and Dennis to ok the proposal, for providing Chris, Paul, Greg, and Aaron to interact with the design and construction, and I'm grateful to God for giving me the desire, eyes, and hands to help paint a mtb trail on his canvas.