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Saturday, December 27, 2008

ATV Damage

The gate to the Forest Road was wide open the other day. I called the DEP police and they relocked the gate some time between last night and this morning but the damage was already done. Granted, the ATV arsehole already wreaked havoc on the trail by destroying the up and over at the big pine tree.

I think I will have to step up the efforts in creating blocks in the trail to discourage the ATVs as much as possible.

What gets me is that they purposefully destroyed the up-and-over so that they could through in the future knowing full well that what they are doing is illegal.

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Sunday, December 14, 2008

The Wet Spot was wet!

Last Sunday there was an inch of snow in the forest and a week later the snow was gone yet everything was frozen. We must have got somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 to 6 inches of rain all day Thursday and Friday morning and the deluge certainly had some interesting effects on the Gussy Trail that may require some more tweaking. There were certainly some surprises.

It looks like some more stream armoring may be necessary where the trail comes down from the funnel and cuts across the little vale over to the Log Ride Short. This wasn't really a surprise and it will be an easy fix because there are plenty of flat rocks on the side of the vale. In fact it could turn into a neat stunt - a rock skinny.

Surprisingly, there was a pool of water near the Three Sisters Roller that is completely blocking the trail. I ended up cutting around to the west. While that is doable if you roll the Sisters but I think I will create a bypass more to the south encompassing a rock outcropping that might have some drops and additional rollers to ride.

Via Roma is holding it's own especially with the increase in water flow. I would have liked to have gotten more footage but I was running short of time.



No surprise here, nor at the other stream crossings. Just more water than usual flowing. All three crossings are holding up nicely.

Makes me thirsty just looking at it.

The Wet Spot, after 9 months of being bone dry was actually pretty wet. Which means more armoring will be required.


And finally, the DEP put up a no motor vehicles sign at the trail head off of Sanford Road. Hopefully, some of the ATV riders will have enough of a conscious to head this sign.



Sunday, December 7, 2008

First Snow on the Gussy

Here are a few shots from this morning's ride, part of which included the Gussy. I was surprised to find that despite the snow most of the up and overs were really rideable. If you want to see more of what the forest looked like with it's first blanket of light snow take a look at this post on Cycle Snack.

These two pix are on the existing feeder trail off of the Forest Road on the north side of the forest. Above looking south where I haven't been, below looking north where I rode.



The snow really helps visualize where the trail goes and where it should go. Last ride on the Gussy in which I rode north I realized there was the potential for another re-route, nothing major, but I think makes the trail flow alot better. Below is a map depicting this re-routed section. It's after the third stream crossing.

After making that crossing the trail heads south winding in and out of big trees and then abruptly turns to the right (west) and hooks up with the bench climb CTNEMBA created during the summer. This re-route extends the curve farther south around a little hummock/rock outcropping where there is some drop and roller potential. The added benefit of this re-route is if you are coming the from the other direction the turn north is not as abrupt and thus flows better.