Trail Maintenance days are typically held the last Sunday of each month. The crews usually take July and August off – summer vacation etc. usually means fewer people available to volunteer and the crew leaders are usually pretty burned out after all the work to prep for the Route of All Evil Fun Ride.
We meet at the Staging Area at 9:30am, then organize into groups and head out from there.
99% of the time we will drive to the trail head and hike in from there. Very rarely will we ride in to a location – it’s much harder to ride with tools and not fair to have others carry tools in/out for you so you can ride in to the location.
The FSR’s into the trail heads are typically too rough for a low-clearance car, so it’s best to drive in with a truck or SUV. If you can only get to staging in a car, then you’ll be able to hop in with somebody in a truck/SUV.
The club will provide all necessary tools, just wear appropriate footwear and clothing.
Common questions and answers:
– how long are you doing trail maintenance?
It depends – but typically 4 hours.
– can you do it for a couple hours and leave if you need to?
Yes, as long as you drove yourself in or got a ride with somebody who also needs/wants to leave. Some locations can’t be accessed with a low-clearance car – those attending with a car will normally need to hitch a ride with somebody driving in with a truck/suv.
– can you ride in and help and then go ride after a few hours?
We try to avoid having people ride in (except for some very remote locations) because it’s hard to carry tools on your bike, which means those who are hiking in would need to carry an extra set of tools in and out for those who are riding in.
– when they said wear appropriate clothing and footwear , what do they mean?
Just whatever clothing is appropriate for the day’s weather. Hiking boots, jacket, clothing you don’t mind getting dirty. If it’s raining, then add some rain gear – although when it’s raining, it’s typically not very wet in the forest. Wear layers – it may be cool hiking in, but once you’re working you’ll warm up and want to remove a layer.
– what’s the most you have to hike in?
Rarely more than about 20 minutes of hiking in – typically much less.
– someone asked “will the club let us know which trails they want to work on before the trail day? This will help me know if I can actually hike in that far”
When we meet at 9:30, we will determine what trails we’ll be working on and figure out who will be joining which groups. It’s very hard to plan ahead of time mostly because we don’t know how many volunteers we’ll have until that morning. We’ll have some projects on our minds, but decide, based on the turnout what projects to do. We generally don’t like to announce publicly (before or after the trail day) which trail(s) we’re working on as we’ve found once a trail has been worked on if we announce it publicly, LOTS of people will go ride that trail and add extra traffic to it.
– do we bring lunch in?
We would suggest bringing a lunch or snack with you.