The Booker T. Washington State Park Trail Work Day held on June 26, 2010 was a huge success.

The crew of eleven volunteers appeared for the trail day.  While most trail volunteers cut back patches of overgrowth, one volunteer debremed sections of trail and nicked-out mud puddles, and two other walked the trail spraying the poison ivy to keep it in check and away from the trail.

We would like to thank all the volunteers who attended the trail work day. Without your hard work and dedication we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish so much. Trail volunteers completing three hours of volunteer trial work included,  Jeffrey Schaarschmidt, Christain Howard, James Holder, Brian Grow, John Wikle, Brian Berganback, Mark McOmbie, Ken Radley, John Sullivan and Barry Smith.  We would also like to thank Jaclyn Holder  for taking the time to deliver lunch for all of the other volunteers.

Thirteen brave souls volunteered at Enterprise South Nature Park on May 1^st despite the forecast for rain.  In fact the only water to hit the trail was a little sweat.  Temps were perfect and the crew did another outstanding job continuing the finish work on grade dips and flowing curves through the pines.  Another 500-600’ of trail was completed.  Several people volunteered to work over until nearly 5:00 that day.  The bridges are coming along as well with decking going down on 3 of the 5 bridge so far.

An outstanding lunch was provided by grill-master Erik Rippon who put out a great spread (as usual).  The other highlight was the inaugural ride of the trail.  Three people were the first to try out the fast flowing turns and continuous roller coaster effect designed and built into the trail.  Lots of smiles.  The ride gave everyone a little encouragement to press on and get the project complete after they could see what the end result of their work was for.

At lunch the consensus was to fit in another workday before the Natl Trails Day event on June 15.  Look for details on that soon.

Volunteers install rubber water bars on the Mega Watt trail

The Raccoon Mountain Volunteer Trail Work Day held on April 17, 2010 was a huge success.

Our trail volunteers were able to tackle a large number of trail issues including, nearly completing a reroute on the

The rubber water bars are flexible enough to fold down when cyclists ride over them, but stiff enough to divert water from the trail.

East Rim Trail, adding rubber water bars to the Mega Watt trail in the area near the visitor center, raking vegetable matter out of the low area in the rolling grade dips on the Mega Watt trail, removing sand from where it was collecting in a spot the power lines on the Electric Avenue trail, and building a covert where the trail passed through a  muddy ditch at the East Overlook Parking lot.

Following the trail work, SORBA-Chattanooga provide the volunteers with a fried chicken lunch which also included rolls, cole slaw and cookies.

We would like to thank all the volunteers who attended the trail work day. Without your hard work and dedication we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish so much. Trail volunteers completing four hours of volunteer trial were included, Christian Howard, Jeffrey Schaarschmidt, Bruce Dickman, James Holder, Jaclyn Holder, Nick Carrier, Michael Najjar, Collins Bishop, Tom Snellgrove, Matthew Simpson, Karen Rogers, Steve Symes, Matt Ridge, Mynia James, and Barry Smith.

The small crew of seven volunteers repaired low spots, re-established drainages and built up a berm that was collecting water.

We would like to thank all the volunteers who attended the trail work day. Without your hard work and dedication we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish so much. Trail volunteers completing three hours of volunteer trial work included Greg Brannon, Jeff Burgess, Trey Commander, James Holder,  Mark McOmie, Jeffrey Schaarschmidt,and Steven Seaborn.

Currently SORBA-Chattanooga has the approval to build nearly 10 miles of trail at ESNP, this will be done in three loops with volunteers working to complete the first loop hopefully in the next two months.  The next trail work day is this upcoming Saturday March 20,  2010.  No prior trail work or tools are necessary to attend and SORBA-Chattanooga will be providing grilled hot dogs and hamburgers for lunch.  We hope to see you at trail work day soon!

This photo demonstrates how even foot traffic during the freeze-thaw cycle can impact the trail long after it drys out.

The natural freeze-thaw process is starting to make a noticeable impact with trail surface distortion on our local trails.  In particular the Raccoon Mountain trail network is experiencing the freeze-thaw process.

Between abundant precipitation and very cold temperatures, off road enthusiasts have been largely kept off their bikes for weeks.  After a long cold and wet month many mountain bikers are just itching to ride.  The arrival of warmer weather means that many want to head out on to the trails right away.

Most mountain bikers understand riding a trail when wet and muddy can cause rutting, puddling and other forms of trail degradation.  However, many of these same users don’t understand that trails are at even greater risk during the freeze-thaw process.

This trail has suffered degradation from foot traffic during the free-thaw process.

What is the freeze-thaw process?

During wet winter months, when the trial becomes saturated and temperatures drop, ice forms in soil voids.   Through the night temperatures drop and the freezing process pushes soil grains apart reducing particle cohesion and soil strength and making the soil more erodible.  During the day temperatures increase and the trail surface thaws.

Even though the surface has thawed, the ground is still frozen just below the surface. To make matters worse, the frozen ground prevents precipitation from sinking in any further. This means the thawed layer at the surface is absolutely saturated with water so it is very intolerant of any disturbance. Come riding along and you’ll cut through the thawed layer right down to the frozen ground. The thawed layer will end up with ruts from the tire tracks, which will persist even when the soil dries out.

Local Trails

Chattanooga is currently experiencing the freeze-thaw process. Due to its elevation, the Raccoon Mountain trails are at greater risk to damage associated with use during free-thaw than other local trails.  

Please be patient and please stay off of the trails until the ground fully thaws.  Consider riding at Booker T. Washington State Park, which due to its lower elevation and soil type is less at risk to the free-thaw process.

Precious Resources

Our trails are a precious resource. A little bit of forethought now will mean that they will be in good shape in a few weeks time.

While Enterprise South Nature Park still sits behind locked gates, SORBA-Chattanooga continues to push their trail project forward with the goal of completing at least 10 miles of biking and hiking trails before the park opens.

To help move the project forward, the SORBA-Chattanooga’s board of directors recently approved funding to pay master trial designer Barry Smith to start the machine work.  Mr. Smith is running the machine five days a week.  The goal is to have all of the  machine work  in connection with Phase I  cut as quickly as possible, so the trail can be completed by the time the park opens to the general public in late 2010 or early 2011.

SORBA-Chattanooga president, Jeffrey Schaarschmidt, described the advantage of paying to have the machine work done.  “Because it is nearly impossible to secure the necessary equipment and a skilled volunteer operator every weekend, it would take a approximately two months of volunteer efforts to complete the same amount of work that a paid operator can complete in just 5 days.”

A skilled machine operator can construct interesting features to an otherwise flat trail, such as rolling dips and bermed turns.

Mr. Schaarschmidt notes that volunteers are still needed.  “We are paying a machine operator to cut in the initial trail bed, however volunteers are still needed to help complete the finish work, to  hand cut the back slope, to help smooth out and narrow the trail bed so the trail has the look and feel of having been there for years.”

A recent volunteer trial day, held on January 1st and 2nd drew about 14 volunteers over the two day period.

The volunteers’ main focus was a section of the Laurel Point trail which, due to a minor seasonal spring, suffers from freeze-thaw issues.  This section of trail suffered from some minor rutting during the last two years.  The volunteers were able to reestablish a small ditch used to divert the seasons spring.  The volunteers eliminated a few ruts that were preventing proper drainage and regraded the trail.

The trail volunteers also nicked out some low lying areas on the trail that were collecting water and armored a couple of other problems section of trail, by adding rock slabs to the trial bed.

Following the trial work day SORBA-Chattanooga provided a lunch of fried chicken, rolls, potato salad and chips.

We would like to thank all of the volunteers who help keep the Raccoon Mountain trails in the best conditionpossible.

Despite rain the previous night 12 volunteers attended the October 10th trail day on Stringer’s Ridge.  The volunteers continued the trail maintenance work started on August 29, by continuing to collect and remove trash and dumped tires from the woods.  At the end of the day the volunteers has completely filled another huge dumpster with over 50 bags of trash and miscellaneous refuge (including old car seats, roof shingles, old tents, etc…) and stacked up about 75 tires so the city could pick up and properly dispose of the same.

]]> http://sorbachattanooga.org/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=519 7 http://sorbachattanooga.org/wordpress/?p=385 http://sorbachattanooga.org/wordpress/?p=385#comments Sat, 05 Sep 2009 02:39:28 +0000 schaarschmidt http://sorbachattanooga.com/wordpress/?p=385 Nearly 80 volunteers from SORBA, the Trust for Public Land the Boonies trail running club, Chattanooga Bike Club, Senic City Velo, Outdoor Chattanooga and various members from the community attended the Stringer’s Ridge trail maintenance and clean up day.   After only three and a half hours volunteers had pulled over 200 tires and more than 100 (45 gallon) trash liners full of trash from the woods.

Volunteers removed and bagged up so much trash they had completely filled a commercial dumpster and still have enough trash bagged up along the trail to fill at least another dumpster.

In addition to trash removal, a number of trail sustainability issues were addressed.   Several trail maintenance crews constructed water bars and rolling grade dips in order to reduce trail erosion along the existing trail and road beds.

Following the event many of the volunteers went to the Terminal Brewery to an tapping of their new special Old Baldy ESP, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Trust for Public Lands Stringer’s Ridge preservation efforts.  The brew will be on tap through September so don’t miss out on an opportunity to sample a great brew and help preserve Stringer’s Ridge at the same time.

The volunteer day was organized by SORBA-Chattanooga, the Trust for Public Land, the Boonies and Outdoor Chattanooga.  Event sponsors include, Rock Creek Outfitters, Clif-Bar, Superior Bicycle Service, Owens Cyclery, Suck Creek Cycle, East Ridge Cycles, and Trek Store.

Check out the Rock/Creek blog for their article and more pictures.  Also, check out the event’s FaceBook page for more photos and here for additional photos posted to Flickr.