Subaru/BikeTexas
Trail Doctors Diaries
December
2003
IMBA Trail Conference
Howdy
folks! We hope you all had a safe and happy holiday
season. Here’s what we were up to during
the month of December.
We
started off the month by driving our trusty Subaru
up to the Belton/Temple and Nolanville area to
teach a couple of trail schools and lead some
work parties. Many thanks to John Gillette with
the Central
Texas Trails Network for organizing our visit
and Murray McCarley with the Army Corps of Engineers
for getting us access to the property where we
conducted a trail design class and did some corridor
clearing work.
Early
on Saturday Dec. 6 we helped TBC Board member
John Bean with registration for a benefit road
ride, held to raise some money for the city of
Nolanville’s trail development efforts.
From there we started the long drive towards North
Carolina to attend the “trail guru gathering”
organized by IMBA.
After spending the night in Jefferson, Georgia
(just east of Atlanta), we drove the rest of the
way into North Carolina on Sunday and met up with
the gang at DuPont
State Forest, where we had met and rode with
IMBA Board member Woody Keene during our vacation
back in July.
This
gathering was created as an opportunity for professional
trail builders from around the country to meet
and share ideas about new developments and practice
using mechanized trail building tools to create
sustainable trails in a more time-efficient manner.
We used the week as a continuing education seminar,
and we felt honored to be included in such an
esteemed group. The cast of all-stars included:
Woody and his talented staff of Ed and Simone;
both current IMBA
Trail Care Crews, Mark Schmidt and Lora Woolner
and Aaryn Kay and Scott Linnenburger; the IMBA
Trail Solutions staff of Joey Klein and Rich Edwards;
IMBA membership director and advocacy guru Pete
Weber; the 3rd Texas IMBA representative and prolific
volunteer trail builder Dewayne Buratti; and Mike
Riter, who owns a trail building business in Conyers,
Georgia, and was on the very first IMBA Trail
Care Crew along with his wife Jan from 1997-2000.
There were various other local trail builders
there as well, including folks who have done extensive
work on the Appalachian Trail with local state
parks.
The
week was a whirlwind of trail building and experimentation
with lots of really cool equipment. We learned
how to operate walk-behind bulldozers (called
skid steers) and mini-excavator machines, to cut
new tread and dig out small tree stumps. We practiced
on a cool machine called an Ibex that is like
a small sit-atop bulldozer combined with a mechanized
wheelbarrow. One day was devoted to working with
rigging and grip hoists to move large rocks to
create technical features in a trail. Did you
know that the proper term for those spools of
metal is not cable, but ‘wire rope’?
And that one cubic foot of rock weighs approximately
150-200 pounds? Neither did we, but we do now.
Pretty cool stuff! The Stanley Tools representative
came out one day, and we got to have a lot of
fun playing with high dollar hydraulic equipment
that could be applied in trail work situations.
We used a drill with about a 3-foot long bit to
drill through a locust log in record time, and
a pole chainsaw attached to one of the skid steers
to clear out a high corridor very efficiently.
And let's not forget the jackhammer—we had
to break some rocks for our armoring project,
and the jackhammer came in very handy for that.
The irony was not lost on Susan that after going
to school for 24 years to become a psychologist,
she is now becoming proficient in using heavy
equipment. It never hurts to broaden your skill
set though. We learned a lot that week, and are
looking forward to working with a skid steer dozer
on some future projects here in Texas. The Ditch
Witch SK-500 seems to be the most useful piece
of equipment for the type of trail building we
want to do, and we had an outstanding instructor
in Mike Riter, who was very patient and encouraging
in teaching us to use the equipment. We can rent
the machine at Home Depot, so there’s a
distinct chance we’ll be working with one
in the future.
One
bonus we got to experience on the way home was
riding the very first Olympic mountain bike course
at the Conyers Horse Park in Georgia. Mike and
Jan invited us to stay with them, and we had a
lot of fun talking about the early days of the
Trail Care Crew and the work they currently do
on maintaining the Olympic course. That ride kicked
our behinds! You’d be surprised how much
climbing there is in Georgia, and the eastern
slickrock is very challenging. We even got to
sleep in the bed that Tinker Juarez used in 1996—maybe
some of that speed will rub off on us! All in
all we had a very nice visit and hope to see Mike
and Jan again, maybe for a crew leader training
in Texas.
After
we got back to Texas, we enjoyed getting together
with our coworkers for the holiday office party
in Austin. Then we went back to the ranch to work
on some race preparations for our event scheduled
on January 3. Before we knew it Christmas had
arrived, so Ryan went to visit his folks in Houston
while Susan flew home to Florida to see her family
and catch up with a lot of old friends. Some final
race preparations were done on New Year’s
Eve day (including Susan pre-riding the course
for her longest 1-day ride ever) and flagging
the final route was done on Friday January 2 with
the help of Susan’s parents John and Nancy,
who drove back to Texas to provide volunteer help.
Although
this is the December journal, we want to include
a bonus brief write-up on our race from Jan. 3rd.
The Traildocs Torture Test was an overwhelming
success, and we want to say thanks to all of the
racers, volunteers, and sponsors who helped to
make it happen. Racers did about 92 miles, completing
a lap each at Warda and Smithville and connecting
them with about 70 miles of gravel, dirt, and
(roughly) paved roads. Hill Abell from Bicycle
Sport Shop in Austin facilitated a donation
of about $3,000 worth of schwag (including a bike!)
from Gary Fisher that we got to raffle off to
our racers. We also had donations of cash prizes
from Bikemojo.com and STORM; Koobi saddles, Hydrapaks,
Carboom, and Oakley gear; and Clif bars galore.
The race was held as a fundraiser for our program,
because our grant was about $4,000 shy, so we
are proud to report that after expenses we still
raised about $3,000. Thanks again everybody!!
We’re glad that we’ll still be able
to eat and buy gasoline in the 4th quarter of
2004, so we can continue to work around the state
creating more and better trail riding opportunities.
Next
up in January: We go to Leakey to explore future
trail opportunities at a gorgeous ranch, then
hit Flat Rock Ranch in Comfort for some consultation,
and on to Lajitas to hang out with the Desert
Sports crew again. Take care y’all, and
we’ll talk to you in another month.
