I guess it's time to write another blog post, now that the holidays are done and the new year is here.
Personally, I'm not too excited about the new year. The best thing about it is that it means that 2016 is finally over. It was not a banner year for me, and I'm glad to see it go. But the course ahead looks grim, and the prospect of watching the country go down in flames over the next four years really depresses me. So I've made a decision to have a personal boycott of all news media until January 2021 - everything may suck, but I won't know about it. As a part of this effort I'm no longer visiting Facebook - not because I believe that it's inherently bad, but because I don't want to see the news or all the ugly things that ignorant, evil people believe. I have been sharing items to the bicycling page I made for our area on occasion but I'm no longer actually visiting my page. This is for my own piece of mind - if it bothers you, kindly keep it to yourself.
Since I last posted in October the fall riding season has long since come to an end. But late fall might be my favorite time of the year, and I took advantage of every bit of good weather to get outside. There was a great camping trip with Diana at Kelly Pines in the Allegheny National Forest, quite a bit of trail work, and of course lots of bike riding. That includes some great mountain bike rides as well as plenty of pavement miles. I made several trips down to Beaver Creek State Park to ride the trails down there, including the still to be finished new trail above Salamander Trail. I think that Beaver Creek might have the most mountain bike suitable terrain in Ohio, and the new trail takes advantage of it to the fullest extents. The riding can be very technical, but I love that stuff and really enjoy getting out on Dogwood, Salamander, and the new trail.
Of course I also got in plenty of fall rides at West Branch, the park that's just 25 miles down the road. Much of that was night riding, which doesn't really make for great photos but is still a lot of fun. I just checked back on my MapMyRide ride log, and it looks like the only other singletrack that I rode in the fall was at North Road Nature Preserve, where I had a whole bunch of short, after work rides.
Apparently I never get tired of taking pictures of the West Branch skinnies.
Freshly raked trails at North Road Nature Preserve
Speaking of North Park Nature Preserve, I've finally finished the trail project that I committed to four long years ago. So the last of the three trails, the one that took twice as long as the others, is finally finished. The first two trails, Red Trail and Blue Trail, mostly went through a semi-mature forest where clearing the trail corridor and building the tread was easy. This last one, Yellow Trail, has about half it's distance in a mature forest, with the remainder located in dense scrub. The forest part of the trail was easy enough, but clearing and building trail through the scrub was incredibly difficult. Just clearing a corridor was very tough, and since the trail wasn't finished and not getting any user traffic, it was a constant battle to maintain the already built trail. And the ground in the scrubby section was an unbelievable mess of wet spots and pot holes, so that making a tread required several rock armoring and infill sections.
And then there was the wet spot - a short section of very dense scrub that tends to hold water way longer than anywhere else we built. Because of the restraints of the property we had to build at least some trail in this wet area, or not build the loop at all. Thinking that the only solution was going to be to build over 100' of turnpiking, we put this section off for last. But with volunteer hours dropping off I was faced with the prospect of singlehandedly bringing back several tons of fill gravel with our trail wagon - something that would have likely taken me another year to do. So I was very happy when Trumbull Metroparks agreed to give us enough money to build a 120' long boardwalk across this problem area. I started construction in August, and finally finished in October. Most of the construction and material hauling I did myself, but there were a few kind souls who pitched in for a work session or two.
The boardwalk with newly finished transition.
Stopping to cut out a downed tree while hauling more lumber back to the build site.
I'm very glad to have this project done, since it already has taken longer than I thought it would, and I'd like to get involved with some trail building at other parks. But after finishing off the two loops and one out'n'back trail I started to wonder if there was a way to make that out'n'back into a loop. Long story short - this winter I'm working on adding another 1/3 mile of trail through mature woods to make Blue Trail into a loop. Next year I'd like to work on adding some mtb specific features to the trails, but I haven't committed to that yet.
New trail will run through the trees on the creek bank.
During the summer I had decided that I was spending too much time riding on the rail trails, and not enough riding my mountain bike in the woods. So I started riding more mtb miles, but I still managed to get in quite a bit of different rail trail rides. Of course I did the local trails - Western Reserve Greenway & Little Beaver Creek Greenway - but I also managed to hit a couple that I don't get to that much. One trip on the Maple Highlands Trail had an unfortunate incident where I managed to crash on pavement in dry, clear weather. I managed to ride through a small moist spot on the trail, which was slippery as owl snot and hit the pavement hard. I was lucky I had my helmet on, because I banged my head off the pavement way harder than I really wanted to.
I also managed to put a large hole in my elbow, which is still not healed 6 weeks later.
I made a Thanksgiving day ride on part of the Ohio & Erie Towpath Trail, doing some volunteer work for the Industrial Heartland Trail Coalition by checking one of the 'trail itineraries' that they are developing. It turned out to be an interesting ride, with almost no one on the trail, rain most of the way - and a nice layer of crushed limestone trail surface spread evenly over me and my bike.
Covered with grit.
I also made a couple of snow rides in the cold periods of December & January, evenly split between mountain biking and pavement riding. Keeping my schedule of riding 3 or 4 days a week was pretty nice, and I managed to hit my 2000 mile goal for 2016 by finishing with 2100 miles. Not sure how many miles I'll try for this year. I'll get in as many as I can during the winter, and then see how the numbers shape up when the weather starts to break.
Near the end of the year I took a look at some of the video that I'd take while out riding, and put together a short video of my riding year in review (though there are some clips included from before 2016). I did the same thing last year, and was happy with the result, but this year the song I found to be the soundtrack really added a lot. This year's review turned out even better than last years, if I may say so myself!
Here's hoping that your trails are dry, the wind is at your back, and the hills are few.
Now we've moved into November, and in northeast Ohio the bright reds and yellows of October have faded to the russet and pale yellow of late fall. Temperatures are starting to get lower at night, and the hours of daylight are shrinking. This past weekend Daylight Savings Time switched over, so now the sun sets at 5:30 - just when I'm getting home from work.
The frenzy of early autumn outdoors activity is dying down for the most part. People are packing away their summer toys and clothes, getting ready for spending the next few months indoors as much as possible. There are no cars at the campgrounds, trails are becoming less crowded, and there's almost no one out paddling the creeks and rivers. The wheel of the seasons rolls around again, and people hunker down to wait for the sun again. Almost time for me to unpack the cold weather gear and resign myself to cold fingers and toes.
There have been quite a few rail trail miles for me since my last entry in late September. I've continued to put in a bunch of miles on the Western Reserve Greenway Trail, the local rail trail that's only 5 miles from my house. This is my default ride when I want to get in some miles and don't have the time to travel elsewhere. It's a nice trail, with over 15 miles north of town in our county, which then continues on in the next county north nearly to the shore of Lake Erie. The WRGT is just about the straightest, flattest rail trail around, as the railroad bed that it was built on traveled parallel to the river, instead of crossing over several drainages, and climbing in and of a bunch of creek valleys. Some riders say that the it's boring to ride, because of the lack of variety in the terrain. But there's plenty to see, if you keep your eyes open.
The Rock Creek bridge and observation deck.
Looking down from the bridge at the bedrock of Rock Creek.
There were three events on WRGT in the last 6 weeks or so. The first was the First Annual Bike Ride with the County Commissioners. One of the three commissioners showed up to ride, and a group of 15 or so bicyclists made the short 7 mile ride.
Ride with the County Commissioners on WRGT.
Then last weekend there were two separate dedication ceremonies. The bike trail through town, as well as the county parks bike trail both recognized a local cyclist, Garrett Wonders, who was killed by a motorist while training for the Olympic cycling team several years ago. Both ceremonies were well attended, despite the chilly fall weather.
The Warren Bike Trail is now the Garrett Wonders Bike Trail.
My Friday after work rides on the Little Beaver Creek Greenway have continued. This trail is 45 minutes south of me, but it's the only local rail trail that allows night riding, so it's become my go-to Friday ride. Usually I ride the 20 mile round trip of the main section of trail end to end, a beautiful ride through rural farm country and Beaver Creek's stream valley. However I did have an incident on the trail a couple of weeks ago that was less than pleasant.
I was riding along in the dark with my lights on, somewhere around midway, when an animal ran out in front of me. It came down the steep hillside on my left and tried to cross the trail, but was stopped by the fence to the right. It did an abrupt about face and bounded back up the grade. It was only like 10 feet in front of me, and startled me enough that I rode off the edge of the trail and dumped the bike at about 15 mph. It's been a while since I've crashed on pavement, and I've got to say that I don't miss it. Several bruises, more damage to my already screwed up left knee, and road rash that is still healing. As for the animal, I originally thought it might have been a grey fox, but after looking at a couple of pictures I think it was probably a coyote (or maybe a chupacabra). No real damage, but it's a good thing I had my helmet on, because my head bounced off that asphalt like it was a super ball.
I also headed a bit west and rode a section of trail new to me. I've ridden on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail before, up near Peninsula, but never had been on the southern end, down between Massillon and Bolivar. This trail isn't built on an old rail bed, rather it's on the road used by mules to haul boats up and down the Ohio and Erie Canal. It was a gorgeous fall ride with only a few other trail users to be seen in over 25 miles.
The O&E Canal Towpath Trail on the banks of Tuscarawas River.
With mostly dry weather continuing I've managed to get in a bunch of mountain bike rides in the last 6 weeks. Several times I've managed to get after work rides out at West Branch State Park (the local trails) including a couple of great night rides. I also got in rides at North Road Nature Preserve here in town, and at Bavington in Pennsylvania. And just this weekend I got my fastest lap of the year at Quail Hollow State Park (that would be 23 minutes flat, including time to stop for a dropped chain).
The town trails at North Road Nature Preserve after raking.
West Branch SP trails with heavy leaf cover.
Sunset from the West Branch trails from a night ride.
My brother during a rest break at Bavington.
Some of the Bavington trails are overgrown with multiflora rose (my nemesis).
I even had a chance for a little overnight adventure a couple of weeks ago. My wife was heading down to Columbus to visit her sister for the weekend, and the boy was off backpacking with the Scouts. That left me with no adult supervision for the weekend, so I decided to pack the bikes and some camping equipment and head out. I started with a night ride on the Sandy Creek Trail near Franklin, Pa. This is a remote trail, way out in rural western Pennsylvania, and all through the ride I kept hearing the crashing of animals through the woods on either side of me. Luckily the only thing that I saw were 3 porcupines wandering around the trail (no chupacabra this time).
Riding up to the Deep Hollow tunnel on Sandy Creek Trail.
After finishing my ride at Sandy Creek I headed further east, and by 10:30 had made camp near Robin's Island camping area on the Clarion River in Allegheny National Forest. After Labor Day these campgrounds are pretty much abandoned, and I had the place to myself. No need for a tent since it was just me and I was planning on leaving early in the morning
A tarp, cot and sleeping bag - home for the night.
View of the Clarion River from my campsite.
The goal of this trip was to investigate some multi-use trails on land recently put under Cooks Forest State Park management. That meant getting way back on some rough dead end roads onto land I'd never visited before. It was beautiful remote territory down by the river, but the trails themselves left a lot to be desired. Mostly they were old logging road double track, and shared with horses - so the riding situation wasn't that great in the first place, and then it was churned up to mud by the horses. Too bad, since this is such a perfect place for mountain biking. I can only hope that eventually PA DCNR wise up to how many people ride mountain bikes these days and put some effort into REAL mtb trails.
Old doubletrack near Cooks Forest - Boiler Trail.
More logging roads masquerading as mtb trails near Cooks Forest SP.
Plenty of rocks for trails!
Beautiful forest near the river.
Only one chance to kayak since the last entry, since it's been raining in small increments when it eventually does happen. I took the middle half of the day off work last week and got on Beaver Creek for a quick run while the water was up. I keep hoping we'll get a good rain event to bring up some of the Allegheny gorge creeks, but it's getting closer and closer to snow season...
I'll end up this post with some miscellaneous fall foliage pictures - gotta love the colors of autumn!
I've written here about trail building before, but since it's been taking up quite a bit of my time this fall I figure it's time to come back to the topic once more.
For the time being my trail building energy is being spent developing a short (approx. 3 mile) mountain bike/hiking trail network at North Road Nature Preserve, a county park in my home town of Warren, Ohio. This piece of land is bounded on one side by swampy, slow Mosquito Creek, with a big apartment complex framing the other side. The land was put into a conservation easement by a developer, then the state of Ohio transferred it to Trumbull County Metroparks for possible future development. The total acreage is about 140 acres, but because of some site features we've limited our trail network to about half of the site.
The terrain is gently sloping towards the creek, with not very good drainage. Part of the land was bulldozed back in the 60's as it was intended to become an addition to the apartment complex. The vegetation on this part of the land is recovering forest, with some fairly good sized trees and patches of dense scrub in the lower, wetter spots. Back by the creek there is strip of more mature, open forest, with some trees in the 4 to 5 foot diameter range. And then there is a section of dense, short scrub - the worst stuff to build trails through that I'm familiar with.
Three years ago I heard that the Howland Wellness Committee had volunteered to build trails at this site. Since I had some experience helping CAMBA (Cleveland Area Mountain Bike Association) build trails at West Branch State Park it seemed like I should join them and help to get this accomplished. Turns out that I was the only one who actually had trail building experience, so I got to be the informal boss of the crew.
A section of the Red Trail, raked and ready to ride.
That first year we spent a bit of time just walking the site, getting familiar with what it had to offer. What we found out is that the site wasn't particularly well suited for hike/mtb trails - the drainage is poor enough that during wet seasons the whole thing pretty much turns to mud. But this would be the first shot at mtb trails in our county, and if we turned down this opportunity it might take 20 years for us to get a second chance. So we flagged a 1 mile trail loop through the second growth woods near the apartments and set to work.
One of the wet spots on the Red Trail, with a rock stockpile for armoring.
Our crew has varied over the years, but it's always been a small group. Most of the volunteers are even older than me, and are not mountain bikers - just a group of nature-loving community people who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. We've had some help from other groups - Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and once from a small local mtb club. Since we're such a small group we don't limit ourselves to fall/winter work sessions like the bigger clubs in our area - we work all year long, conditions permitting. But with an older core group we limit our work days to just a couple of hours, so it helps to get out more often.
The trail building process goes like this - flagging, detail flagging, corridor cutting, and tread finishing. We start by flagging a rough line through the woods, avoiding as many wet spots as possible and hitting as many desirable areas as we can. After that we pin-flag the trail to a more precise route, picking which side of which tree we want to pass and how tight we want the curves to be. The next step, corridor cutting, is where it actually starts to look like a trail. Using loppers and saws we cut back the trees and undergrowth to create a corridor about 4' wide and 7' tall. Cutting corridor through the mature forest is pretty easy. Cutting corridor through the newer forest is quite a bit harder. Cutting through the scrub is brutal.
Once the corridor is cut in we have to make the tread that actually forms the trail. We're aiming for an 18" wide tread of clear dirt in the center of the corridor, with the undergrowth trimmed down on either side. That involves a lot of cutting out of small sapling stumps and pulling of weeds. In the sections going through scrub this part of the job is amazingly difficult.
But persistence pays off and after the first year we had our initial trail loop finished. That gave us 1 mile of beginner level trail, so we began planning for phase 2. This was an out and back trail that cut down by the creek through the more mature woods. We'd tried to run part of it right alongside the creek, but the whole area near the water was too low and soft, so we had to keep a good distance back to take advantage of more suitable soils. It took the whole year to finish phase 2, but it turned out pretty nice. With this trail being an out and back, now we had a 2.5 mile ride possible in one 'lap'.
In the spring of 2013 we started flagging the phase 3 of the trail. We wanted to take advantage of the more mature forest area, and also run trail down a section of higher creek bank downstream, but in order to do this we were going to have to run a section of the trail through the dense scrub - not an optimal choice, but it's what we have to deal with. We worked on it through the summer and fall, but when last winter hit us with long periods of heavy snow and extreme cold progress almost stopped. Then the late spring and early summer of 2014 turned out to be so rainy that the trails were barely even suitable for walking, much less riding or working. So it was into August before we were able to get back on track.
Newly built trail on phase 3.
The section of phase 3 that we had built in 2013 down by the creek was still in good condition, but the rainy summer had allowed the undergrowth in the recovering forest to sprout up like weeds (amazing, huh?) We spent a good deal of time re-working the tread as well as adding rock armoring to the wettest spots. And finally, about 2 months ago, we cut the last section of corridor for phase 3, connecting the creekside trail with the trail through the recovering woods. Unfortunately this connection is through the dense scrub, and is the least suitable terrain for trail building that we've encountered yet. But we're not about to give up, so it will eventually get turned into singletrack.
Newly cut corridor through the dense scrub of phase 3. Bleah.
One of the aspects of this project that has been a lot of work is the rocks - or more precisely the LACK of rocks. With as poor drainage as the site has it's impossible to build trail that misses all the wet spots. To deal with these wet spots the most common approach is rock armoring - in other words paving the wet areas with big rocks. Unfortunately there are nearly no rocks on site bigger than an apple. That means that we have to bring rocks from off site, and then carry them into the wet spots using our trail wagon. So far I figure we've hauled in around 6 tons of rock and gravel - all by hand power.
More new phase 3 trail through the scrub.
Another problem for this site is the blasted multiflora roses. These are an invasive species of wild roses that are widespread across the site. While their white flowers do look nice, and the rose hips provide food for the birds - these things are the bane of my existence. One plant can spread out over a 20' diameter, with long canes that can grow up to a foot a week. So not only are they a pain to get rid of when you're building trail, but they constantly need cut back during the spring and summer as they reach out onto the trail. This fall I've spent a LOT of time on the existing trails, taking advantage of the sparser foliage to hunt down and eliminate rose bushes within 10' of the trail. My hope is that this will save a ton on maintenance time this next riding season.
Gravel path and rock armoring on one of the wet spots on phase 3.
I'm guessing that we will finish off the phase 3 trail in 2015 (that is if it doesn't rain all spring and summer like in 2014). That would complete the scope of our original trail plan, and give a 'lap' of about 3.5 miles. There is a tentative plan to change the phase 2 out and back trail to a loop, which would add a bit more trail. Personally, once the phase 3 trail is done I hope to add some mtb specific trail features to phase 2 and 3, so that developing mtbrs will have a bit of challenge once they're used to the phase 1 beginners trail. Once that's done I have another idea - I plan on approaching Mosquito Lake State Park (just 6 miles up the road) to see if they'll let me build a mile or two of trail in their 'multipurpose trail' area.
One other little nugget of trail news from this fall, Way back in the woods, but still within sight of our phase 2 trail, one of our volunteers found a cache of suspicious looking containers hidden out of sight beneath a big fallen log. To make a long story short, it turned out to be chemicals used for the manufacture of methamphetamine. It doesn't look like they actually had the lab set up back there, but just had the chemicals hidden in the woods for some reason. Our local police investigated and removed the hazard, but it just goes to show that you need to keep your eyes open at all times.
The stash of chemicals.
Here's a little video of the phase 1 trail - aka the Red Trail. This is from just a week or so ago, and shows that our raked trail is maintaining a surprisingly good tread considering the rain and chill temperatures we'd had for the previous couple of weeks.
Special thanks to CAMBA for tools and encouragement - I really owe you guys a ton for believing we could do this. Also, if anyone out there reading this is interested in helping us build, or just wants more information about our little trail system, go to the 'Warren Bicyclists' facebook page and ask there. Hope to see you on the trail!
BTW it looks like I've been writing this blog for just over 3 years. Today it says that it got it's 12,000th view! Not too bad for such a wandering and disorganized mess. Special thanks to all the Russians and Ukrainians who apparently check it out frequently (????).
