First Volunteer Workday

This Saturday the 21st we will start clearing a corridor. Come on out we start at 8 am.

Spring Cleaning?

Last friday trail building specialist Mike Capraro join park and rec's Kirk Comer, Amos T.,and myself for a walk around the proposed green circut in order to size up the effort of clearing a corridor.

His input was extremely helpful in pointing out some of the more troubled areas we will be encountering and methods for handling those spots.

I have to admit being new to all this, it all looks very imposing (in a Fangorn Forrest kind of way)but,in the words of Mike "very do-able".

Volunteer lists are now being formed and work days will soon be posted.

Volunteers

History shows that the success of any cause can usually be found in it's volunteers. Those who were willing to sacrifice both time and effort to achieve a greater result.

Last Tuesday night the Shenandoah Town Council gave the final ok for trail building in Big Gem.

And so the call goes out once again for all those willing to help and be a part of the greater result.

Interested persons may call the Shenandoah Town Office at 652-8164 or Hawksbill Bicycles in Luray at 743-1037.

Friend of a Friend of Big Gem

As Dave prepares to fly out to Colorado for a couple of weeks, I've been given the privilege to chime in on his blog from time to time with my own personal perspective.

First I wanted to say I'm totally grateful to those persons who have believed in this project from the beginning.People like Dave and other members of our cycling club.The good people of Shenandoah ,who have high hopes for their community and, for IMBA who has been highly influential in getting the whole thing started.

It's amazing to see that what was a mere embryo of an idea in a few people's noggins a short period ago has suddenly become something quite tangible and connecting.

May the Big Gem circle of friendship continue to grow.......kk

Mountain Bikes in Town Hall

So Kevin and I attended the Parks and Rec meeting. It went well. Council member Keith Sampson and parks and Rec director Lori Mongold had us speak a bit about the work that has been done and they will now go to the council for approval on the trails.

If all goes well we will be starting sooner than later

Kevin had this to say

"Get this they were riding mountain bikes around in the town office last
night! Say you want a revolution.. The countdown has begun. "

Page Valley Cycling Meeting and stuff

So last night the club put up $2850 towards the Big Gem project. This is great news.

I also want to mention:

There is a Parks and Rec meeting Wedenesday at 7pm. Come out and voice an opinion!

and,

a bit unrelated

but the Shenandoah River State Park is building a new trail system, For 25 hours of volunteer service they are offering 1 year free entry. 100 hours is free in all state parks.
Doug Vinson is the guy to contact

Douglas.Vinson@dcr.virginia.gov


There is also a facebook group called
Shenandoah River SP Trail Volunteers

Last Flag

Dan has finished flagging. Its looks like we will have four trails total. These trails will have to go through an approval process. IMBA will compile GPS data to make a map and submit a report after that the town will begin the approval process. Hopefully everything goes smoothly and the town will give the green light soon.

Tonight I sleep

I have been worried. I have worried we would not be able to afford to build these trails. Tonight i worry a little less. We have been validated!

I admitted after receiving this news, even with volunteers I did not know how this project would succeed. We are fortunate indeed!

Big thanks to Bikes Belong

Bikes Belong has given us 10,000 Smackaroos for the Big Gem Community Trail Project



Thanks IMBA (International Mountain Bicycling Association) you stood behind us before we had any money

It was a big day, after i compile my thoughts i will get them down.

Budget

Page Valley cycling will be discussing various budget concerns at the next meeting February 2nd. The club meets at 6:30 at Rancho Viejo in Luray. Some concerns for Big Gem at this meeting will be how much of the clubs current race revenue will go to projects like Big Gem, and what piece of the pie future events will secure for advocacy projects like Big Gem. I unfourtanately will not be able to attend and hope some folks from Shenandoah might make the Trek out and show support for the Gem. Current funding the project has been allocated is $1350 not the $2000 I thought we had, hopefully the club will grant the Gem more. Becoming a member would make ones voice louder.

Send the Board of directors an email asking them to support the project in 2009.


jtstone@embarqmail.com Jeff Stoneberger Vice President

kevin@kiariz.com Kevin Kite Secretary

markabenson@lycos.com Mark Benson Treasurer

The Tour

I met with the director of Parks and Rec Lori Mongold today. We walked the green circuit and talked a bit about things. Lori said there is a need for a connector trail on the south side of the park which will grant access for neighborhoods not directly on park property. This will probably be something Dan Hudson will scope out upon his return. Lori seems excited about the project in whole as am I.

I think the biggest topic today was volunteers. Lori stated just what I had hoped. The town of Shenandoah is very supportive of its community projects and she suspects they will step up to the plate on this one.

Once IMBA turns us loose there will be a huge undertaking in clearing a corridor for the trail. We will certainly need help on this task.

After that we start building. Building can start out by hand. It is slow going but only cost us volunteers and the cost of hand tools. If we are fortunate to pay an operator to do it with a machine we can save cost by doing the finishing work with volunteers. One wise move might be to pay someone to teach a town equipment operator how to cut in trails with a machine if the town has one that can be used.

Anyway you look at volunteers are going to be key to the succes of this project

The Green Circuit

Dan and I spent the day on what will be a green circuit around the central vein that cuts through Big Gem.It is exciting to see a line of flags.

Dan Hudson attending to small details effecting trail flow

It amazed me that a flag moved 5 ft in any direction could really change the outcome 100 ft downstream. Dan discussed various rules that we would try to follow and this helped me understand why the 5 ft change could have such a drastic effect.

A fall line trail follows the straightest path down the hill(big no no). Drop a ball and watch it roll that's the fall line. Now by measuring your fall line you then have a second rule to follow. The 1/2 rule. The half rule states that for a given slope your cross slope trail should not exceed 1/2 of the fall line measurement. These rules help protect the trail from runoff, and cuts down on maintenance.

You ever seen surveyors on the side of the road? One usually has a stick and walks around for the surveyor. Well today I was the stick. Dan would measure the slope with his inclinometer using me as a known reference in order to ensure we have a solid foundation to start with.

So why do I explain all this? It is so that if you are ever on the trails in Big Gem(or anywhere for that matter) you may understand why trails may not go in what seem the logical direction, when in fact if you keep the above rules in mind it is very logical.

I learned today that Trek helps support IMBA and this is why they are able to donate their time to the Gem.

We flag again in two weeks.

First Day in the Gem

This blog is going to be for the sole purpose of tracking events in the park named Big Gem in Shenandoah Virginia. I am about to become involved in the building of a network of trails in this 68 acre park. I hope to share the process from my perspective.

Quick history. My friend Kevin conceived of the idea as an advocacy project for our cycling club(Page Valley Cycling). Big Gem seemed perfect to him for mountain bike trails. So we contacted IMBA (International Mountain Bicycling Association) Attended a parks and rec meeting and then proposed our idea to the town. They received us well and have even partnered with us so that we could apply for grants. To date we have raised $2000 towards the project and hope to hear about the grant we applied for in February.

Today was our first day working with IMBA and the parks and rec dept. We met this morning with Rich Edwards(IMBA), Dan Hudson(IMBA), Lori Mongold (parks & Rec) , Janice(Parks and Rec), and myself. Dan is going to be putting in Flag lines. These little flags will mark where the trails will go. In order to do this we needed to get a good lay of the land. I thought I had a good feel for this piece of property, but I saw it in a whole other light today.

We spent a good portion of the day walking the area and defining the off limit area,boundaries, and areas of concern. The consensus seemed to be that we need a beginners circuit coded with a green designation and a green spur if possible to access the neighborhood bordering the park. This path will be 3-4 ft wide and will be perfect for a leisurely stroll with a dog or cruising on a bike with the kids. The other trails will be blue(intermediate) and red(advanced). We discussed these trails a bit as well but then decided that the green trails are the most important to start with.

Dan and I walked the rough idea of the green circuit and addressed a few concerns. There is a creek bed that must be crossed. We have two options here a bridge at one location or a ford further on down. The bridge is more desirable but the ford is probably what the budget will allow. We will flag both ideas and let everyone stew on it for a bit I recon. We also spent a bit of time trying to decide where one of the trail heads will go and need to gain more info about a new entrance that is planned for the park.

I learned how to use the inclinometer(they measure slope) today and Dan and I zeroed them out on each other so we can go right to work in the morning. I am sure Dan would be more than willing to show all if they wish to come out at some point for a trail building class.

Tomorrow we flag.