Trail Field Demo & Workday – Willis Knob Trail System – April 21, 2012

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This is the first in the series of field demos for April and May.  The field demo days will cover a variety of user trails and their associated problems. We learned how to access the trails, now we learn how to fix them!  All the field demo days after the Willis Knob are posted on the event calender with basic info, when the final details are known they will be posted.

The Willis Knob Trail System workshop will focus on mechanized trail maintenance on pack and saddle trails performing water management, tread re-shaping and hardening techniques using trail machines. Participants will observe trained and proficient trail builders use machines for various trail maintenance tasks and learn how to perform finish work behind trail machines. Specific topics will include: subtleties of good water management structures, compaction of native soils using mechanized equipment to harden tread, movement of additional hardening materials such as crushed stone using narrow tracked equipment, enhancing the ride and more.

SPACE MAY BE LIMITED TO SAFELY ACCOMPLISH THE WORK

REFER TO EVENTS CALENDER FOR SIGN-UP, WHERE TO GO , WHO TO CONTACT, WHAT TO BRING!

Transportation Study Begins on the Chattahoochee National Forest

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The Forest Service wants to hear from you to learn which forest service roads are important to you and why.

The study will identify roads needed for safe and efficient travel and for the protection, management, and use of the national forest.  At the same time, it is an opportunity to identify roads that are no longer needed.

To learn more and provide comments on national forest roads before April 13, 2012 by visiting  Chattahoochee National Forest

 

Bear Creek – Pinhoti Workday Pics

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Expecting 30 volunteers and a lousy weather forecast a week before the Bear Creek/Pinhoti Mega Workday, Walt Bready and I were pleasantly surprised when 75 volunteers showed up on Saturday, March 10, 2012, and you couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. The event was generously hosted by Mulberry Gap Mountain Bike Retreat on Conasauga Rd, meeting at the Mule Barn on top of the hill.

Bear Creek and Pinhoti Trails have proven to be very popular as people came from all over Georgia including Larry Thomas and Ed Lang (Forest Service) to perform the laborious work of cleaning drains, deberming the bottom of rolling grade dips (RGD’s) and lopping brush out of the trail corridors. Bill Hester from Dalton and Ed Lang used the FS mini bulldozer to work on the upper Bear Creek Trail. And, low and behold Adam Mathes the pastor of Gates Chapel Methodist Church and one of his flock joined us also. After a thorough briefing on tasks and tool safety by Walt Bready (our trail expert extraordinaire from SORBA) everyone was ready to hit the trails.

Mike Palmeri from the Cartecay River Bicycle Shop in Ellijay led the rolling work party to get to the more inaccessible switchbacks of Pinhoti 1.

Everyone worked up a healthy appetite for lunch after 3 hours of hard work on the trails. Ginny, Diane and Andrew of Mulberry Gap out did themselves on the food. They served chili (vegetarian and with meat), a fabulous Tortilla Soup, Jalapeno Cheese Bread, and all the trimmings. Members of EMBA and the Gates Chapel Methodist Church provided home made desserts. Not a crumb was left.

But, that’s not all…… Walt Braedy from SORBA gave out all kinds of great schwagg. Afterwards it was time to hit the trails. Mike Palmeri led the intermediate/advanced group and Terry Palmeri headed up the beginner group. A good number of folks stayed for the dinner and bonfire that night and rode again Sunday morning. Could this be the beginning of a Festival? And why not, all work and no play makes for a very dull day.

Photos courtesy of Colin Smith

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More pics after the jump and a link to the entire gallery

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CoTrails General Meeting

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Dear CoTrails Participants,
We look forward to seeing you again at our next CoTrails General Meeting next Tuesday, March 20, 6:00 – 8:00 PM at the USFS-CONF Forest Supervisor’s Office in Gainesville.  The address is 1755 Cleveland Highway, Gainesville, GA 30501.

We have covered a lot of ground since our CoTrails kick-off weekend at Unicoi State Park in January.  Specifically, the Professional Trails Contract Team has already covered the 200+ miles that were selected for in their assessment.  They are now analyzing the data, including the very valuable survey responses they received from CoTrails participants and other forest users and land managers.  We will have a progress report on the trails assessment and expectations for the contractors’ final report later in the Spring.

We will also have updates on the other ongoing objectives of the CoTrails Strategic Plan — Volunteer Engagement & Training and the proposed Interactive Digital Map.

We will also have a report from the Communications Team and we will begin to plan for the execution of Strategic Objectives #4 & 5:   Identification of Unauthorized Trails and Opportunities for New Trails.  

Finally, we will have a short briefing on a Transportation Analysis Process (TAP) announced recently by the USFS (see attached letter) and updates from the principal user groups on their recent and upcoming activities.

We look forward to your participation and involvement.  As you can see we will again have a full agenda.

If you have questions or require additional information, please email CoTailsInitiative@gmail.com or contact John Campbell by email jwcampbell@fs.fed.us or by phone 770-297-3066.

Sincerely,

CoTrails Working Group

TAP Letter to Stakeholders.

Support RTP in the Senate

The Coalition for Recreational Trails is requesting support in the Senate for the Klobuchar amendment, which will grant funding to the Recreational Trails Program (RTP).

Unless the bill is amended, MAP-21 will eliminate the RTP and seriously damage, if not destroy, the balanced system of trails for all users that the RTP has allowed states to develop and maintain over the last 20 years.

The RTP leverages hundreds of millions of dollars of additional support from other sources for trails while encouraging productive cooperation among trail users and facilitating healthy outdoor recreation and economic activity in countless communities.

Without the RTP, organized trail planning and development will vanish in many areas of the country.

Right now, at an annual funding level of $85 million, the RTP receives less than 42% of the federal gas taxes paid every year by America’s nonhighway recreationists. Unless amended, MAP-21 will convert a legitimate user fee into an unfair tax, with recreationists subsidizing commercial and private highway users.

The return of gas taxes to trail users through the RTP is in keeping with the user-pay, user-benefit philosophy of the Highway Trust Fund. Ending dedicated funding for RTP takes these gas taxes away from the people who pay them.

To get your Senator aware of the Klobuchar amendment and to gain their support for RTP, go to www.senate.gov. and there will be a link for their contact information in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

Close to 400 national, regional, state, and local organizations have already signed letters to every single Senator supporting the Klobuchar amendment and you can help support it too.

You know how important the RTP is to your state.

Make sure your Senators know how much RTP means to you.