Trail Work

Saturday was the first day of trail work for the year. National Trails Day. The good news is I put the IF on the Stack Rock trail system for the first time. Man it felt good to get up there--pine tree canopy, skinny trail littered with the refuse of the winter, flowers pushing through the floor to grab at the sun. It was beautiful as I'd expected it to be, and it felt great to be up there.

The bad news is that the actual trail work felt like a total waste. Not total--me and Will and Leo Hennessey did some good work on water diversion on a nice fast downhill that was seeing some serious erosion. And we cleared some brush that needed clearing.

But then we started in on Chris Cook's projects. We rerouted a trail that did not need rerouting. And we built a new trail that, while fun for about a dozen people who will ride it, is nothing but a circus attraction when it comes down to it. A big long stunt trail with nasty rock drops and a long long log ride. Cool stuff, nice freeride options, and a total waste of the time and energy of the people who showed up for legitimate trail work. I feel we were taken advantage of.

When I left this work site, at long last, and went for a ride on trail we hadn't visited, I found loads of logs down and blocking the trial, rerouting traffic around them and damaging the trail. I found lots of brush that was getting so overgrown it was rerouting traffic and damaging the trail. Banks along Sinker Creek were caving in under the weight of down trees, trail junctions and turnoffs were nearly invisible due to overgrowth and down trees, and there was just a lot of cleaning up to do.

With the manpower we had up there, we could have done all the little stuff and a good deal of the big stuff. But, instead, we cleared the first mile or so and spent the rest of the day dicking around on freeride bullshit. This is a good example of why Cook's tenure as SWIMBA president has to end. He works hard and means well, but his efforts are almost totally misguided and, in the end, counterproductive. Hopefully this month's elections will get this organization back on track.

Meantime, at least Stack Rock season has begun again.