Seasonal Loops Complete

Having two weeks off of work is giving me plenty of time to get things done. Since the weather has been nice I’ve put off things around the house and set to work on the trails at River Bends, including a small trail day on Saturday, riding it on Sunday, and doing some work (both with Danielle and alone) yesterday and today. After all of this Phase 3 of the trail project at River Bends is complete. There is now 4.9 miles of ridable, maintained, and park-approved dirt trails in the park with 3.2 miles of that being proper single track. A year ago there was only 1.7 miles of two track and a handful of scattered, deadfall-strewn bandit single track.

I’ve completed the changes to the second version of the River Bends map (previous version) which shows the seasonal loops as three discreet loops and illustrates how they can be ridden consecutively. Based on Sunday’s ride I also added a second entrance to the single track which makes it more accessible when the two track is used as a return trail. Now one won’t have to partially descend a steep, gravely hill and make a 100° left turn into the hill-climbing switchbacks at the start of the single track; they can instead descend a short hill and enter the single track a hundred feet or so uphill.

While permanent trail signage is being handled as part of an Eagle Scout project, I’m hoping to get some temporary signs in place which will mark the general trail route. I stopped by a local sign shop today and arranged for 50 signs made of corrugated yellow plastic with a black bicycle and space for an positionable arrow decal. These signs, along with the positionable arrows cost $1/ea and should be available tomorrow. As long as the park approves it, I hope to nail these to trees or existing signposts along the route from the parking lot through the single track and back. Hopefully I’ll get the signs tomorrow and approval soon so I can place them, wrapping up everything I wanted to accomplish before the snow flies.