Hello everyone!

As most of you are aware, there has been some collaboration on Cherokee/Seneca trail maintenance, re-routing, etc. between KyMBA and Olmsted Parks Conservancy in the past couple of years. Ray Smith and I met with Major and Matt of Olmsted at Cherokee most recently in regard to the “No-Net Trail” which many regard as the most challenging section of trail in Cherokee.

If you are not familiar with this trail, it’s located just after the descent from Chauffer’s Rest or intersection of Barrett Hill Rd., Cherokee Park Road and Beargrass Road. From this Entrance to the exit at the intersection of Park Boundary Road and Beargrass Road is some of the toughest, but also most washed out, rooty trail we have.

After much discussion, we have come up with several projects which will include rockwork, some rerouting, and trail lengthening when all is said and done. Both the entrances and exits will be altered to move them out of the grassy areas by moving them in the woods!

On Saturdays January 30^th and February 6^th (both from 12-3:30) we will be doing the following:

- Deberming of some mushy areas just past current woodland entrance.

- Armoring with stone and fill where the trail goes over the large hackberry tree root.

- The “rocky point” which makes a drop-off to the cribbed wall bench-cut before the second waterfall will be armored just below the point with a large stone and gravel/rock/dirt fill uphill creating a more gentle transition and creating less braking bumps just before it. The bench-cut section just beyond the rocky point will be widened slightly especially at the end. The fallen tree will be removed in order to enhance water flow downhill vs. down the tread path.

- Just before the last creek crossing, similar large stone and adjacent gravel/dirt amendment will be placed in the beech tree roots.

Subsequent trail crews will include re-doing the last two waterfall crossings, routing the trail uphill over the root tangle and the entrance/exit re-routes as noted.

Frankly, it will take quite a bit of work, but the end result will be much better than we what have now.

Another thing Ray and I have been doing is seeking support for trail building/maintenance from our local bike shops. Honestly, I give Mountain Bike Depot props for the original idea by stepping up to the plate and offering 25% off any one item (excluding bikes and electronics) for every six hours of KyMBA/Olmsted led trail maintenance. I have confirmed they will continue this for the foreseeable future.

Cycler’s Café has offered one BBQ Sandwich for four hours worked at official Cherokee/Seneca ParkTrail Days (Limit one per person per month).

We have some feelers out and awaiting feedback from some other LBS’s. If you work at one and would like to contribute, feel free to double back with me.

We would like to have a great turn-out for these trail crews. Even if you can’t make it at those dates and times, please forward this post to whomever you feel would be interested. Future trail crew dates will likely include Saturday mornings and possibly Sunday mornings as well.

Chuck

I will plan on coming out for those trail days.  No Net with its more technical feel (for Cherokee) is a great section.  I hope we can improve the erosion problems while keeping the technical elements of the trail.

-Billy

Billy:

Thanks for you support! Yes, we will do everything to maintain or even enhance the technicality of the trail! For instance, the entrance and exit will flow through woods instead of grassy areas. We will be armoring two different root sections instead of plowing a Waverly-esque path around them.

However, those nasty root tangles on that quick descent will be history in the end. There simply is no good way to make it sustainable without a dump truck full or boulders. Frankly, I don't find it difficult. I just find that part annoying and really kills the flow.

There are 3 waterfall crossings on that trail (during rainstorms anyway). The first one is where the last re-route occurred and will stay untouched. The last one will have either a rock armored entrance, a slightly altered line toward the wall (requiring some skills to navigate) or both. The exit will go through the woods straight toward big rock in essence. The middle waterfall is where the most erosion has occurred after a lot of honeysuckle was pulled off that hillside. This left nothing for the soil to hold onto. The change in this crossing will be the most dramatic and the coolest of anything we will do. I'm pretty excited about it!

Sorry for the delay. We had to really see what the latest weather forecasts were shaping up as the initial ones were not good.

I also had to coordinate with Olmsted who we are partnering with on this trail crew. Matt Spalding sums it up pretty well when he replied:

"I’ve been stockpiling aggregate, clay mineral soil and larger limestone rocks on the roadside of Park Boundary Rd. for Saturday, but I’m afraid we’ll just have to play it by ear – if we have 1-2 inches of snow on the ground we can probably proceed, any more accumulation than that and we might have to cancel. Let’s just hope for the best. At least there’s another trail day next week on Feb 6^th. As far as a Plan B (referring to my question of what to do if the ground is utterly frozen), if we can’t do actual trailwork, we could at least move more limestone over to the site in our mini-dump truck."

So, I think that is an excellent plan. In general, when it's crappy riding weather, it's the best time to do some trail building/maintenance and get in some "cross training."

Even if we get dumped on, I will probably grab the Jeep and head over there anyway.

Matt from Olmsted has canceled trail building today. Snowy roads, frozen ground and 2+ inches of snow wouldn't have allowed much anyway. I will be at the trailhead from 11:45-12:30-ish if anyone would like a tour of the planned changes for the trail. Please get the word about the trail crew next Saturday!

Mother Nature is not exactly making it easy on us. It's forecast to rain Friday which will turn into snow. Accumulation is forecast to be pretty light and it will be warm. For now, we will plan for the best and cancel if things look ugly. So, trail crew is still planned for no-net this Saturday at 12:00 noon in the parking lot at the No-Net trailhead. More info in the beginning of this thread if you are late to the party.

Looks like it will a great day for trailbuilding! No-Net trailhead (look back further in this thread) this Saturday March 6th from 10-2. Bring gloves. Olmsted providing tools if you don't have any and guidance. If you missed this thread beforehand, we had to cancel due to two consecutive snow storms.

Now posted on kymba.org

Chuck

It's my son's last basketball game at 11:00 on Saturday.  I will miss this one.

Things haven't worked out for me, my wife is tied up tonight and tomorrow and her Mom is in Florida so I'll have the kids.

I guess I could strap backpacks on them for hauling rocks?

@Chuck: You might want to start a new thread and date it in the heading just to create more awareness.. Where are you meeting up at the start?

@Sean: kymba.org is really taking shape and looking good man. Thanks for the hard work!!

Posted By Steve Bland on 05 Mar 2010 10:41 AM

@Chuck: You might want to start a new thread and date it in the heading just to create more awareness.. Where are you meeting up at the start?

 

 Steve: That's a good idea. I added to the thread because the beginning of it includes all the detail of what we plan to accomplish as well as the meet-up location. In short, we are meeting at the beginning of the Wilderness Loop at the parking lot. This the little pull-off after you have descended the hill where the Cherokee Tennis courts are or (Chauffeur's rest).

I'm a probably maybe right now..

I believe about eight mountain bikers showed up for the trail crew today. Thanks to all that showed! We got most of the items earmarked for the first stage done.

Alot of deberming was done at the beginning of the No-Net Trail. There is still a small bit to do, but I think it will drain much better in that area.

The hackberry root (located on the climb after the old No-Net rock drop) has been armored. There are two lines. Close to the tree is the hard line requiring crawling up over a rock and then the face of the root while the more uphill line is much easier to roll. Please do not remove the logs uphill from there that serve as choke points.

The "rocky point" (which requires you to either drop off said point or to run the gully between the rocks) has been armored up with large stone. We are going to wait and see (rain, riders, etc.) how it holds up before further armoring it with gravel.

There is also a large stone as a transition step on the last waterfall. Some people might think this as making it easier, but it will essentially serve to keep people from locking up and sliding down the hill. Both it and the rocky point armoring will also make the trail more doable in both directions vs. one.

Next trail crew here will be in a month. I'm hoping we can get some re-routing flagged out where we can get rid of that rooty descent at the next crew.

The current thought about the second waterfall crossing (which is a nasty mud pit right now) is to possibly put a fiberglass bridge there instead of the monster bench cutting and rock work for the project I proposed earlier.