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Today I decided to head out to Stony Creek and do some more bike riding, but also take along my pruning shears so I could cut back some of the vine / bramble overgrowth on the single track which catches on clothing and slaps people in the face. Two or three hours were spend riding around, stopping, cutting, then moving on to the next bit.
There’s a particular part right near the top of The Snake, a winding generally uphill climb where one has to go next to / under a very large shrub which is overgrown enough that I had to lean far forward in order to keep from hitting / scraping my head on the woody growth and its occasional, large thorns. I cleared a nice passageway through this, and on a test ride back through the area I didn’t notice the area I’d trimmed, but I did notice that I no longer risked hitting my head.
I didn’t do any trimming in the last half (aka back nine / final third) of The Rollercoaster because I normally find that area too fast to easily stop on my bike and go back to cut things, so I think I’ll try and head out there another day on foot to trim it.
Other than the cutting it was a long (18.4 miles), but uneventful ride. I came across quite a few people going the wrong way on single track without helmets, friendly hikers, and someone who shouted at me for going the wrong way because I’d parked my bike facing up the trail (although off to the side) while trimming an area in The Pines.
Oh, I also need to remember to lubricate those shears. The whole time I was cutting they were making an awful squweeCHIRP sound. That’ll happen after a shower and before I do the electronics work discussed yesterday. I’m stinky enough that it’ll likely corrode the solder.
Here’s the photos I took today. Unfortunately I didn’t think to take a before / after of some of the more overgrown areas which were cut back:
· The cheap Fiskars pruning shears which I used to trim back a bunch of growth on the single track at Stony Creek.
· Grown crystals of salt (and other things) on my CamelBak.
· A sign indicating that the skills park at Stony Creek is closed. Its grand opening is tomorrow, 17-Aug-2008.
· The stone table in an Asian style in with the Sheldon Estate in Stony Creek Metropark.
· The Sheldon’s old tennis court, now filled in with plants. This is right behind the stone alter.
· In Stony Creek, looking through the rows of trees at the stone alter near where the Sheldon Estate was.
