The last two miles of the Halo trail are almost complete.  Come join us this weekend to help do some finish work and seeding.  Meeting at Hoge Road Trail Head, Sunday November 29 @ 9:00 am.  Bring your bike for a test ride after.

It is hard to believe after years of hardwork the Halo Trail is finally happening. The NCC has made excellent progress this Spring completing a little more than a mile so far the Double U is almost complete. The Poedunks kicked off the trailwork season Saturday April 18 by dialing in a switchback and taking a ride/tour of the Halo. Thanks: Lee, Stan, Alan, Maryann, Brian. We are going to be very busy finishing and riding the trail in the next few months and look forward to seeing y’all out there. Please check out the slideshow below to see the progress. -Randy

Happy Holidays and thanks to all those who helped out on the trails this year. In 2007 we worked on:

· Trail Maintenance on the Miners Trail
· Started work on the N Trail at Rancho San Rafael
· Pulled rocks out of the abandoned cars in Keystone Canyon so they could be flown out
· A super clean up of the Keystone Canyon/Hoge Road area on Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful Day
· Built three turns for Washoe County parks Department on the Browns Creek Trail in the Galena area
· Put in hundreds of hours finishing, naturalizing, planting and seeding the 1.5 mile long Connector Trail at Rancho San Rafael
· And even got in some rides

All told: 25 work dates, 73 volunteers, 673 volunteer hours. In 2008 we are looking to secure permission from the USFS to layout and build a 4 mile section of trail in the non-motorized above Keystone Canyon. This will be a huge undertaking so we’ll looking for help in many ways (trail work, money, advertising, etc.). Stay tuned, enjoy the Holidays and happy trails! Your help and work has been greatly appreciated.

For persons, hours, places and dates worked in 2007 check out the “Build / Volunteers 2007″ page.

The Poedunks and dhreno scored big today pulling off a double header on The “N” Trail and Seeding The RSF Keystone Connector Trail.

Jim hauls a heavy load!

Thanks to Jim, Alex, Chris, Roger, Dale, Randy Jeff from the TMTA and Carolyn from Washoe County Parks for a job well done on the connector trail. Today was just icing on the cake for what has already been a really successful project. A native seed mix was spread over the area disturbed by the construction of the new trail, hopefully winter snows will blanket the trail and this spring we will have a nice ribbon of native vegetation meandering through our cheatgrass covered hillside! We also laid several rolls of Jute Netting which will hopefully erase some of the unwanted roads in The Keystone area. We also powered out a couple 2′ deep post holes for a nice bench overlooking the Truckee Meadows.

Chris working on erasing a road. Warning do not try to smoke the Jute Net.

Dale staging the seed

The crew Jim, Jeff, Roger, Chris and Alex

The site of the new bench.

Last Thursday we wrapped up the finish work on three turns on the Brown’s Creek Trail.  A big thanks goes to

Kristi Andresen
Steve Cleek
Paul Girard
Michael Henderson
Juni Henderson
Joe Hoffman
Dan Oakley
Eric Robinson
Randy Meyer
Dale Beesmer

for 75 hours of trail work over 5 evenings and one work day!

The Browns Creek trail has also has been pushed over the ridge and now connects to the Hippy Shack Trail at the bottom of the Browns Creek drainage in St James Village.  Give it a go the next time you are in the area.

Thanks again for helping the Washoe County Parks Department to complete this trail segment and for providing a new trail experience in our area.

The Poedunks teamed up with The Tahoe Rim Trail on Saturday June 9th to build the Brown’s Crk Trail. We are about 90% complete on our job and will be returning on Thursday evening June 14th to put the finishing touches on our work. Please join us!

Steve and Clay prepare to set a large boulder in a crib wall.

Clay begins filling the the downhill leg of the switchback. Steve has more photos on the dhreno site HERE

The conference held May 18 – 20 at Galena Park was a huge success. It was a great opportunity to learn more about all aspects of trail building from planning and advocacy to layout and construction. Attendees were split into 3 groups based on experience: beginner, advanced, and crew leader. All groups got a healthy dose of both classroom lectures and hands on field work.

On Sunday the crew leaders tested their skills by leading the beginner class, building a new section of the Brown’s Creek Trail for Washoe County. The work session was successful with almost 2000′ of new trail being constructed in about a 1/2 day. The Poedunks will be returning June 9 to help The Tahoe Rim Trail and Truckee Meadows Trail Association to complete this project. More info will be posted here soon.

Members of the advanced trailbuilding class led by Tahoe Rim Trail Crew Leaders built the start of this impressive rock staircase down to Marylin’s Pond using native stone. Weighing up to 2,000 lbs, these boulders were moved by humans with rock bars and were set without mortar. There is no doubt that this section of trail is now considered sustainable and may last hundreds of years.

The conference was also a great opportunity to meet land managers and volunteer leaders from Nevada and California. Feedback from the land managers emphasized the growing demand for trails and recreational resources while budgets are dwindling to almost nothing. Partnerships with local advocacy groups such as the Poedunks are more important than ever.

I also picked up this scary tid bit from the Forest Service the 4 greatest perceived threats to public lands

1. Urban Encroachment
2. Wild-land Fire
3. Noxious Weeds
4. Unauthorized Recreational Trails (i.e. bootleg trails)

The solution is simple…look in the mirror.

-Randy

Space is still available for The 2nd Anual Regional Trails Training May 18-20 @ Galena Creek State Park.

This program is hosted by the good folks at The Tahoe Rim Trail Association and provides beginner, advanced and leadership training opportunities plus a special trail layout and design session led by California State Park trail guru Karl Knapp and a Mountain Bike Trail session led by Garrett Villanueva of The lake Tahoe Management Unit of The USFS. I encourage anyone interested in trail building to attend if they can. If you can’t make it don’t worry I will be sharing my experience here and on the trail.

-Randy

Eric rocking out

One of our first projects is to rehabilitate what is known and the Collegiate Trail that descends from above the “N” into the Entrail(N-Trail) which cuts under the “N.” This trail is currently used for UNR races and the Peavine Challenge race. It was never officially built and though it is cool and popular it is generally agreed that it needs to be brought up to standard to be sustainable.

Don Moorehouse Rolling the rocks at the top.

We have flagged out a new route from the Electrical tower down about half way to the Entrail. Randy estimates a 1/3 increase in trail length over that stretch. Eric, and others had test ridden it and feel that it will me much more fun. Dale and Randy feel that if the County gives us a go ahead we can complete at least that section before the Peavine challenge race in June.

This is an ongoing effort with which we will need your help on the ground. Please stay tuned to this blog for updates on when we will be out working.

-M