Last updated on August 12, 2011
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After one of the recent windy days another dead tree fell on the trails at River Bends, and thankfully I was able to remove this one with just a hand saw and a bit of creative thinking. The tree was partially rotted, so there was only a solid core to saw through. Fifteen minutes of actual work and it was gone.
Once the tree was cleared I spent some time wandering around some undeveloped parts of the park, and from what I can tell there’s a really great opportunity to build some more single track heading generally north from the end of the current loop. this needs a little more thought, but I think we may be able to build a return trail so that most of the route north back to the trail head can occur on single track.
Here is a (blurry) photo of the downed tree and some tools right after I arrived to remove it.
There were a surprising number of people out riding the trails today, and this was rather nice. It’s really great to see a bunch of people out enjoying them.
I am sure it rather easy to clear the trees, might be interesting to build some jumps over future downed trees. Small enough for novice riders to just roll over. Just a thought.
Josh: I don’t want to leave any trees down on the trail tread itself, because unless particularly well placed it’ll often interrupt the flow of the trail. Additionally, even a small tree (2″ or so) is intimidating to many new riders; exactly the kind which River Bends gets quite a few of. There’s already one log pile, but it’s extremely well built, specifically placed, and has a visible bypass. There will likely be more added as well, but there will be an alternate route around them. I just want to be sure they are well built and placed, not just wherever they happened to drop.