May 5, 2003: Driving to Tyler.

Sorry about the long delay in journal entries—we’ll try to be more punctual the next time around, it’s just been rather busy lately!

April 1: we pointed the Subaru north and went to work on trails in the Belton Lake Recreation Area, which is on the grounds of Fort Hood military base. While there, we had the good fortune to stay with the president of the Ft. Hood Trailblazers, John Bolin and his wife, Julie. John took us on a tour of the trail system at Ft. Hood and asked a lot of good questions about how to control erosion in specific areas of the trail. Most of the trail is in pretty decent shape, but a few sections are entirely too steep to be sustainable. Therefore we worked with John on using the clinometer to lay out possible new trail grades that would keep water from running directly down the trail, and we did some de-berming to control water pooling in a few low spots. We also had an encounter with a copperhead snake that was coiled around a log; it was beautiful to look at, but a little too close for comfort!

Later that week we met with John Gillette who leads the Central Texas Trails Network (CTTN) and Mike Carter, who is the Mayor of Nolanville. CTTN is in the process of creating a 123-mile multi-use trail system to link several communities in the Belton/Killeen/Temple area, and they’ve asked us to help in the design and eventual construction of the trails. We were also invited to give an economic development presentation the following week to the Nolanville city council to describe how cycling can help bring revenue into a town that wants to be recognized as a “green community”. In addition, we were offered the chance to be photographed on our bikes for the brochure that is in development to raise interest in the trail system. Ryan and I, along with John and Julie, went to Dana Peak Park near Nolanville to meet with the photographer and get some “action shots” of people enjoying a natural-surface trail system. The shots came out pretty well and we look forward to seeing the finished product. We had another snake encounter that day, this time with a rattlesnake that didn’t enjoy us riding by his sunning place. That one was definitely too close, so we’ll be a little more vigilant in the future.

That weekend we went further north up to the Waco area and led a Paydirt work party at Broken Oak Ranch in Valley Mills, which is where the final race of the Spring Series will be held. The course is pretty new, but the Waco Bicycle Club and other folks have done a pretty good job of getting a nice trail system built in a relatively short amount of time. One area called the Gravity Cavity has several fun swoops and dips in a deep basin, but also has low sections that get wet and muddy rather easily. One section there had been armored by building a sidewalk-looking slab with small culvert pipes underneath it, and another similar slab was in the works. Susan acknowledged the need for armoring, and suggested that a different method could yield the same results and look a little more natural in the process. Broken Oak has a lot of rock to work with, so we excavated the low area and brought in rock to build a jig-saw puzzle that would provide a stable surface to ride on that was flush with the rest of the trail tread. It took several hours and we had to use a truck to haul down one huge rock slab, but the end result was just beautiful. Everyone agreed that the natural rock looked much more inviting than a section of sidewalk out in the woods, so we called it a day and went to ride the rest of the trail.

The second week of April we went back to Waco and worked with Matt Kiel, who is the one park ranger that oversees all the trail construction and maintenance in Cameron Park, which is a huge task for one person. Matt has done a lot of reading on trail construction and knows that several of the trails in Cameron Park that were built before he was hired are too steep to ride safely. They have also eroded badly, which is no surprise since they go straight down the fall line and reach grades as high as 35-40 percent! Matt has been working to re-route those sections and asked for our input on other areas that hold water or contribute to safety concerns in the park. Matt was great to work with, and it’s nice to see a city employee who is so passionate about the park he helps to manage and who works very hard to conserve the natural resources there.

The race was that weekend, and we had some nice new Texas Bicycle Coalition banners to hang on the Subaru in the exposition area. Exposure is a good thing! The next week we went to Atlanta State Park up in the northeast corner of the state near Texarkana. The park currently doesn’t allow off-road cycling, but the park manager is interested in opening the hiking and nature trails to bikes, which we of course support fully! One of the trails is little more than a flat glorified logging road, but the nature trail we hiked was one of the most well-built and interesting trails we have seen since we started the job. We were sure it was built by either the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) or somebody who had trained with them, because it was properly bench-cut with good flow, grade reversals, and sustainable grades through a beautiful pine forest. Turns out the park has only been around since the late 1950’s or early 1960’s, but the person at the visitor center said the trail has been around since then, and it almost never receives any maintenance. A forty-year old trail that still looks good with minimal maintenance and no re-routing proves that it was done right at the start. Hopefully we can get some more mileage built out there soon, as opening the park to mountain biking would undoubtedly increase their shrinking visitor numbers.

From Atlanta State Park the intrepid Subaru BikeTexas Trail Doctors took a brief vacation over Easter weekend to—go ride our bikes in the woods. This time we went to Arkansas though, to ride the legendary Womble Trail that was built as a hiking trail by the CCC back in the early 1930’s. Along with a group of friends from Houston we stayed in swanky cabins with hot tubs overlooking the Ouchita river, and did an epic 37-mile point-to-point ride over the span of about 6 hours. The Womble is an outstanding trail, and we highly recommend it to any of our friends who want to take a vacation and ride some of the sweetest, best-designed, most fun single track in the country. And that’s only one of the many trail systems in the area!

Wednesday, April 23: We got back to work and returned to Belton at John Gillette’s request to do a presentation describing our program to the other CTTN members and how we can help with the creation of the new multi-use trail system. We had a great response, and we’re very excited to be involved with a project of this magnitude at such an early stage. Later in the week we met with Matt Kiel again at Waco and prepared for a Paydirt work party at Cameron Park. Unfortunately no one showed up that Friday (even though people were begging more work opportunities before the deadline). However we still got a good day of work in by fixing the approach to a bridge that was too sharp and building a railing to increase its safety.

That weekend was the race at Flat Creek Ranch west of Austin, and thanks to Debbie Main, we got a nice visible spot to park the Subaru and set up our display. Preston Tyree from the TBC office in Austin came out to visit and help with the Kids Cup race, and the weekend went pretty well with good weather and lots of exciting racing. However, Susan got the sad news on Saturday that her grandmother had passed away, so the following week she went up to Ohio to be with family for the memorial service. Gladys Massey Stormer was 100 years old and lived a good long life—may she rest in peace. Ryan held down the fort while Susan was gone, so the last part of April was spent calling people to set up visits on our new schedule for the next several months. He also went to Reimers ranch near Pedernales Falls and rode a new trail system that is under development. Next up on our schedule is a visit to Tyler State Park to meet with park staff, as well as regional natural resource experts and Andy Goldbloom from Texas Parks and Wildlife, so we can provide him with a first-quarter report of our activities.