GTNP Celebration Ride!

EJ’s Update - Teton Pass 7/25/10

Randy Roberts and Tom Kholhart were busy yesterday picking out rocks and smoothing out the lower section of the Ridge Trial and Phillips Canyon Trail after the bridges.  Thanks for smoothing out this section.  I’ve seen it knock down several riders in the past.  This section of trail will now be much more user-friendly for our beginner-intermediates.

I forgot to mention the Inner City Youth group in last weeks report.  This group of roughly thirty inner city girls dug for several hours on the lower volunteer section of the Ridge Trail.  I wouldn’t really say that most of them enjoyed digging in the dirt, but it was a good experience for them.  Randy led a educational part of the volunteer project and let the girls ride a mountain bike.  The girls loved this, and were almost fighting over the bike by the end.  Several of the girls had never ridden a mountain bike before.  This was a great idea of Randy’s ,and we plan to include more education with our volunteer groups.

I also received report that the Fuzzy Bunny Trail is almost competed.  Harlan and his crew have been working very hard this early summer on this new trail construction.  The “Phase One” hand dig is now complete.  “Phase Two” will include some machine digging with a mini excavator on the lower Fuzzy Bunny trail in a wicked brushy and sidehilled section.  Harlan and crew will also be busy the rest of the summer reworking the Powerline Jumps with a machine and constructing the Candyland Trail which will connect Jimmy’s Mom and the Parallel Trail.  Harlan’s crew and the Freedom Riders are also having a huge summer of trail construction.
Mike Piker has also been busy this last couple of weeks clearing line of sight on our trials.  He especially focused on the Nelson Drive section of the Putt-Putt where we were starting to have a few user conflicts and blind spots.  Mike also worked with Jim Verdone and his backhoe to clean up several gravel sections of the Old Pass Road.  Mike also swept the entire Old Pass Road with pathways new Sthil paddle broom.  The Old Pass Road is now much safer for road bikers.  Thanks Mike and thanks Jim.

Have a nice week.

Erik Jacobsen

USFS

EJ’s SnowKing Update 7-10-10

On Monday we worked on the Josie’s Ridge Project with the Henry’s Fork Fire Crew. This awesome crew finished the project in one day! We rerouted a fall-line section of trail just after the K-mart switchbacks. The reroute totaled about 1,200ft. It was a project that we had wanted to do for 6 years, and it was completed in one day. The crew worked so fast that by l0 o’ clock we decided that the project was going to be finished shortly after lunch. Chris P. and Drew Kneeland charged down the hill to find more work. They found a nice reroute to do on the Sink or Swim trail. They didn’t have a saw to clear the reroute, but “No Worries Mate!”, as Chris P. says these days. Drew cleared the line like a grizzly bear ripping out brush and small trees by his claws and teeth. A nice 800 ft reroute was completed in little more than an hour.

Erik Jacobsen
USFS

EJ’s Teton Pass Update 7-7-10

We had another huge week in the trail building world last week. On Friday we had a grand total of 42 diggers on the Ridge Trail with the FS/FOP trail crew, the Henry’s Fork Fire crew, the Student Conservation Association, and Waldo’s Nordic Diggers combining forces. That was a lot of workers in the woods! It was something to see.

On Tuesday we headed out to the Ridge Trail with the Henry’s Fork Fire Crew. We started up high and tied in the Hunt Trail section on Tuesday. It was a project that we started last year, but did not finish. The crew connected the dots, and now there shouldn’t be a question on how to find the Hunt Trail section.

Wed.-Fri. we worked with the Henry’s Fork Fire Crew on the lower Ridge Trail section after the BPA bridge as you head up-hill. Teton Helitack got a good start for us last week. It was nice to see that they had already busted out a bunch of brush, roots, and small trees. It was a huge boost and gave us a great start for Wednesday. The crew dug uphill and encountered very difficult digging. They called it the hardest that they seen. There were a lot of roots and rocks, and there wasn’t too much good dirt to work with. By the end of the day the crew started a long side hill section, and that is where they found the “red gold”. They found some great red soil. We brought out a couple of wheelbarrows on Thursday and used this good soil to fill in several rough sections of trail. We also worked the long side hill section, and a beautiful wide bench was constructed. On Friday we had the large force of 42 workers on the trail. We built a whole bunch of trail and made a nice connection to the road for the weekend. Over a mile of trail was constructed in just three days.

Waldo set up a great Pica’s dinner for the Henry’s Fork Fire Crew at the end of the day on Friday. The crew loved it and truly deserved it. It is the best that they eat all year. Thanks Waldo for setting this up and motivating the crew. Thank-you to all of Waldo’s donators-
Jim Verdone, Andy Olpin’s friend, and others.

Randy Roberts is back in the woods working hard. You can definitely tell when he is out there working. The woods suddenly get a lot louder. Thanks for keeping it fun Randy.

The Student Conservation Association worked the Ridge trail through the holiday weekend. They continued to work uphill, and made two more connections to the road. They are a good bunch of kids, and they have been working hard. Teton Helitack continued to work on the Ridge Trail last week and through the holiday weekend. I thank them for all their help.

This Tuesday the SCA’s made the connection to what we are calling “Shock Treatment”. This section really wants to be built by a mini-excavator. We have skipped this section for now and headed uphill to a section after the Hunt Trail. It should turn out to be a great section of trail. Galen did a great job with the layout in there.

Have a nice week.
Erik Jacobsen
USFS
EJ

Wednesday Nights in the Victor Bike Park

The crew in Victor got a lot of dirt to play with.  They are setting up weekly evenings to volunteer!

From VICTOR VELO: “Our beloved Victor Bike Park needs some love. Please join us throughout the month of July for Wednesday Nights in the Bike Park. We are looking for volunteers from 6 to 9pm each Wednesday to help out with various tasks including shaping new features, buffing out the dirt jumps, picking up rocks, and dealing with the weeds.”

Piker’s Report from Blacks Canyon 6-30-10

Game Creek Reconstruction Complete!

If you haven’t check out the new improvements on Game Creek you are missing out!  I apologize that I haven’t taken a photo up there, but I was having too much fun.  Thanks guys!  Here’s what EJ has for us:

Hello everyone.  Game Creek trail reconstruction is done.  An old user-created fall-line trail has been replaced by 9,000 feet of world-class trail.  That is almost two miles of new and improved trail.  The new reconstruction came out great.  There was still a good amount of moisture in the soils, and it really helped the new tread reach a good amount of compaction.  The SCA’s did a great job.  They, along with our help, dug a mile of this reroute.  They were a great bunch of kids and worked very hard.  Monday was their last day on the project.  We had 34 people digging in Game Creek that day with the combined forces of the SCA, Henry’s Fork Fire crew, and the FS/FOP crew all digging at once.  It was a big day, and 1,500 ft. was constructed.

We had the Henry’s Fork Fire crew again last week for four days.  This 20 person hand crew got the job done in their usual fashion.  They have been digging trail with us for a while now and really have it pretty figured out.  They dug a very nice looking product.  They constructed 3,600 ft. of trail and did roughly one mile of rehab work to the old trail.  The old trail has been fully rehabbed.  Hopefully it grows back quickly.  We really focused on the eroded sections of trail.  Many, many pickle buckets full of sod were put into these eroded sections.

Brandon Zimmerman wrote a nice article on the Game Creek project.  It was the top headline and article of the Jackson Hole News and Guide weekly Sports section.  The article gave the Game Creek project, the SCA’s, and the Wyoming Business Council Grant projects some great press.  Jenna Schoenfeld took some great photos of the SCA workers.  They were also the front page photo of Monday’s daily.  Thank-you Brandon and Jenna!
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