August 23rd: Trail Building and Ride

Meet at the Echo Valley Lot in the forest.

Please try to arrive between 7:30 and 7:45 so that we can leave promptly for the trek into the woods.

Directions:

From Exit 10 I-84
Turn Left if coming from the south/Turn right if coming from the north.Head west on US-6 [Church Hill Rd], for approximately 0.6 mi. You will pass under a railroad bridge and when you see Starbucks on your left there will be a right turn onto the Boulevard.

Turn right onto the Boulevard and stay on this road for 1.3 mi. When the road crosses under a highway bridge, it becomes Hanover Rd. Take Hanover Rd for a half mile and Echo Valley Rd will be the first road on your right. Turn onto Echo Valley Road and follow for 0.9 miles.
You will come up to a fork in the road and stay to the left. Continue for a few yards until the asphalt ends and a dirt road begins. Do not turn left onto Sanford Road, there is a blue sign that says scenic road - that is the wrong direction.

Continue up the dirt road, passing a yellow house on your left and then a red barn and then you will come to the parking lot.

Please ensure that you dress appropriately and wear boots or heavy duty shoes. Please bring work gloves, water and bug repellent.

A ride will follow.

If you come late, take the blue trail to the ROW (right of way - old road lined with stone walls) and follow the Gussy Trail till you find us. I want to do benching on the re-routed section, so we'll be half way up the trail.

Frame of reference: After the third stream crossing, the long climb up the side of the hill.

What's wrong with this picture?

It just dawned on me that there is something missing from this picture. Can you guess what it is?

How are the horses going to get around this obstacle? Not only that, given that this was installed within the last month it tells me that there haven't been any horses using the trail, as well. It appears there is another task for August 23rd: Cutting a path for the horses to get around this obstacle.

Also, think there is the potential for another stunt here. On the right, that rock could either be dropped or rolled. Have to take a closer look at it next weekend.

Trail Gnomes!

First time on the Gussy Trail in a month and I it looks like it's really getting some use, from Mountain Bikers from what I can tell. Lots of improvement to the up and overs, too! Big Thank you to who ever is doing this!

Looks like on this one particular up and over some riders still haven't realized that their outer front chain ring is useless and should be replaced with a good bash guard! It appears that some work was done here making the other side a little more stable.

Twenty yards south of the up-and-over above is this little one that needed a little more attention. I made a few changes and I think they came out really nice!


The ride over this one is much smoother. Not sure if this was the one that Rob told me about earlier this week, however, at this point all the up-and-overs are pretty solid.

This last up-and-over was a complete surprise. It looks like an old, dead tree might have fallen across the trail and the trail gnomes took it upon themselves to build up nice ramps on both sides of the tree.
As you can see, the south side only had one rock and if you were riding up the Gussy, the rock creating the ramp on this side would be very difficult to climb up.

I spent a little time adding a better tranny and widening the ramp with some more rocks.

I really need to get out and finish the benching in a few places, now. Right now I am planning on a TM and Ride day for August 23rd.

Wash Out

Hope no one showed up this morning. I was at Echo Valley at 7:30 until 8:00 AM and it was raining pretty steadily. I will schedule something for next month.