May 3rd Forest Park Trail Maintenance Day!
PUMP Forest Park Build Day
May Focus: Newton Road!
PUMP and OBRA Members working on FL5 - November 2007
Yippie! It's time for another Forest Park Trail Maintenance Party. Our trail parties are building community, gaining in popularity, and definitely getting our Mountain Biking Community noticed in a big way! We are currently the only Forest Park user group showing up in consistent large numbers and that is doing a lot in regard to advocating for more singletrack in Forest Park and other urban areas of our city -- Let's keep that wheel spinning, riders!
New Focus For May 3rd Trial Party:
Our efforts on FL5 have turned it into the best conditioned section in the park. This provides us the opportunity to give some mountain biker love to another fantastic section of often over looked singletrack: Newton Road!
Yes. We will be venturing further into the park to do some maintenance, enhancements, and re-routes! Many of you who either worked on FL5 or have ridden it since November when PUMP began our regular maintenance efforts have noticed the changes we've made on that section: addition of serpentines, culverts, drainage improvements, etc. which result in an enhanced experience on the trail. We will be doing similar projects on the Newton Road section.
For those of you who've not ventured this far into the park, you will be introduced to what is often described as the most fun section of singletrack downhill in the park. Our wonderful Trail and Restoration Manager from the Forest Park Conservancy, Jeff Hough, will be sharing tips on how to incorporate this fabulous section into your Forest Park Rides during his orientation briefing after sign-in.
We also have 5 amazing volunteer Trail Team Captains who are volunteering extra time to come out on Friday to walk the trail with Jeff & I to get section specific training for each part of trail work that needs to be accomplished. This will enable our trail party volunteers to feel really confident in their trail efforts and have questions answered quickly. Thank you so much JD, Shane, John Joy, Frank, and Butch for taking the extra time required for the walk-through and training. If anyone else is interested in doing this at future parties, please contact me directly.
Warning: Advocacy can be addictive!
So come on out and get addicted with us! Taming a new trail is very work intensive and also provides an amazing sense of accomplishment when you see what you and 40 other mountain bikers have completed in 4 short hours. This is a family friendly event, so please bring your young bikers, enlist your friends, and come join the party!
Please RSVP so we can plan the additional work and have enough equipment (and pastries) on hand for everyone!
Event: Newton Road Trail (Build) Party
Date: Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
Time: 9:00 am - 1:00 PM
Meet Location:
Road Parking near Rail Road Tracks on NW Marina Way off Hwy 30
Please click Map: http://tinyurl.com/479e95
Directions: From Portland drive out Highway 30 and make a right on NW Marina Way. *Marina Way is on the North side of the St John's Bridge* Cross rail road tracks and park where ever you are able on the shoulder. Jeff Hough's Forest Park Conservancy vehicle will be in the pole position and will be the meet point.
Newton Road is directly across Hwy 30 from the meet point (though not marked on the map), but has no parking area. For that reason, we will be parking on NW Marina and walking over to Newton after sign in and orientation.
Please:
* RSVP so we can plan work to be done and have enough tools on hand for everyone (and pastries!)
* Thank the folks from Fat Tire Farm, Mtbr, Revolver Bikes, OR Bike, OBRA, and Bike Portland.org for not only getting the word out, but also putting gloves to shovel and participating in the trial parties.
* A massive “Thanks” to Forest Park Conservancy who continue to provided us with the trail building equipment, time, and expertise of Jeff Hough, FPC's Trail and Restoration Manager. Please check their website at Forest Park Conservancy to join them on other trail maintenance days. If you can't come out on the weekend, Jeff leads a maintenance party for all who show up on Tuesday mornings at 8:30. This provides fantastic opportunities to work shoulder to shoulder and build rapport with non-mountain biker user groups. Remember to wear your PUMP T-Shirt and let everyone know you're a concerned mountain biker!
Ride-On, PUMPsters!
Shanti Ware
Forest Park Co-Liaison
PUMP
503-228-0589
mtb_grrl@msn.com
Wow and big THANKS!
That work party was awesome! There were about 25 folks that showed up to earn some sweat equity in Forest Park. A big thanks to Shanti, Jeff, and the volunteer group coordinators. We built:
Great job all!
Absolutely Amazing!
I'd love to echo Ryan K.'s comments. It was absolutely amazing to see what 26 bikers accomplished in 5 hours! Most folks opted to work a little more because there was so much to do and people really got into their projects, so with 26 biker + Jeff Hough from the
Forest Park Conservancy (who is a mountain biker as well), this trail crew donated over $2,430 in trail hours to Portland and our community today - Wow!
This is an amazing section of true singletrack in Forest Park that is often overlooked -- Check it out! We can't wait to ride it.
Due to the fun work to still be done on this, Jeff and I are going to try to coordinate a Sunday work party about a month out from now. I know people always have a race, a run, skiing, or some conflict. I do try to give everyone an opportunity when scheduling and these parties do take pre-party work and coordination, so I really appreciate everyone's understanding in that. Please check the Forest Park section in the PUMP website Forums and the Ride Calendar for more info coming SOON!
I am in process of posting the pictures from today's party along with a complete follow-up story to be posted in the Forest Park section of the PUMP Forums page, so stay tuned!
Again, thank you to all that showed up for making this a success!
Shanti Ware
Forest Park Coordinator
Portland United Mountain Pedalers
Please post constuctive feedback and suggestions directly to this Forum or e-mail me directly at mtb_grrl@msn.com
Speak - Build - Ride - Respect!
Natural Sculpting!
Please respect the trails and the fact that we have built them in the homes of the wild creatures.
First I have to say in a selfish vein... I just had alot of fun out there today. I had to leave a little after noon to get home (expecting a call from my wife to go pick her up) to only find out that she had gotten a ride from a volunteer working with her on the animal therapy testing. I could have stayed longer had I known....EEEEEEEK even more fun!
It was such a positive experience working together to make the trail better not just for us riders... but anyone that hikes it as well. Our group worked together so well. Fred was a super supportive leader. It was so neat to watch Jeff, Jay and Fred really bring the creek crossing together. They created functional art! Then we worked on some sweeping turns before the crossing to make the ride more interesting.I just hope the upcoming Sunday work party is not on one of my race Sundays... I feel like a kid in that I want to "do it all". I live so close that I can always ride over and use my pruners to hack back on blackberries even if I could not make the workfest. Thanks for the opportunity.
Oh yeah!... after I found out I did not need to go pick up Dorothy, I took a 45 minute nap. Getting old allows one to take full advantage of those precious moments.
Tomorrow I ride!!!
ron
It was a lot fun
It was great to see such a positive group. We got a lot of work done, I didn't know just how hard it is to build a raised bridge over swampy areas. The Newman road is now a really nice piece of singletrack.
jordan
Fun at Work
I don't work that hard on my own projects. It was fun to see how much we accomplished in one morning...and early afternoon. Jeff and I talked about adding some more re-routes above the section that we were working on but making them with much larger radii so you can carry speed without going perfectly straight. It's great to have Jeff on board and to have him see things the way we see them as bikers.
Thanks to everyone that I worked with, Jeff, Jay, Ron, and Nick. We completed a really cool stream crossing and two re-routes. Jeff is the guy with the eye for placing rock for sure. My back and legs were really worked after hiking, scouring, and carrying the large stones for the crossing, not to mention carrying gravel in buckets. Ron, I am with you on the nap idea.
Nick, make sure you come out to Scappoose one Friday evening, or hit one of us up for a weekend ride.
Fred