Sunday, November 6, 2011

Moss Creek Trail Work

This past Saturday, the girls and I headed up to Jake Mountain to put in a little work. It was the last work party of the year. Last month's had been cancelled - we just couldn't get enough people together. This month, we made up for it.

 Lots of Volunteers

I think there were 24 of us before it was all over. Equestrians, mountain bikers and even a couple of hikers this time. I couldn't even get everyone in the same shot.

 The Crew

Debbie gave us our safety briefing, we loaded up, headed over to the old game check station and hiked out to the work site on Moss Creek.

I gave a quick deberming demo which, of course, didn't go as well as I'd planned. I picked the one spot on the whole trail with tough soil. My longitudinal plowing technique worked, but not super easily like it usually does. I managed to get it plowed though and the girls pulled the soil downhill. We demoed the soccer ball test too and then sent everyone off down the trail.

It was a good crew. There were some folks down from Tennessee that really knew what they were doing. Eddie knows what he's doing these days too, as does Greg Holland. We had Kathleen Tokuda with us too, who got some kind of award for number of hours of trail work way back when we were riding in the GAP series. Of course, Debbie and the CTHA folks have been doing this for years too. We really got it done. I mean Done. I checked the finished sections with the soccer ball and very few of them need to be touched up.

 Soccer Ball Test

The soccer ball doesn't lie. It's your best friend and your worst enemy.

We got the trail finished to the intersection with Jake Mountain and called it a day.

I don't know what happened or when, but I've got a tear or an adhesion or something in one of the muscles in my left shoulder. It only acts up when I'm swinging a pulaski or carrying it home. It's not disabling but it's annoying as hell.

Post-work we were treated to some delicious chili. Sophie even liked it, especially since she could put cheese in it. She loves cheese. There was apple cake too. Mmmm. Apple cake.

The folks from Tennessee had their horses with them. Technically they had two horses and one mule. I'm bad with names, so the only one I remember was the mule: Henry. The girls and I pet them and fed them apples. Feeding them seemed like a great idea to Sophie until she actually tried to do it, then it was terrifying. Their owner tried to explain what it would be like...

 Feeding the Horses

...but it didn't help. Eventually his wife held the apple and Sophie pushed her hand up to the horse's mouth. Then she laughed because the way the horse stuck out its lips to pick up the apple seemed hilarious to her.

Kathryn was out all day, so when the girls and I got home we sat on the couch and watched TV. I took a nap for a few hours too.

It was a great day.

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