May 3rd Forest Park Trail Party: 100% Success!

Last Saturday morning began with smiles, doughnuts, and mountain bike community spirit for the 25 bikers who assembled at the bottom of Newton Road in Forest Park for our third Portland United Mountain Pedalers (PUMP) coordinated and sponsored Forest Park Trail Maintenance Party.

After two PUMP sponsored Forest Park trail parties on Firelane 5 since November, our volunteers were eager to sink their shovels, loppers, and Mcleouds into a new piece of neglected trail: The lower section of Newton Road (alternate map version). This section is often referred to as the "most fun" section of singletrack in The Park. Many people don't know about it because it is farther to the North (past the town of Linnton) or don't go because of the misleading "Road" in its name. This is because it's a Fire Road instead of a Firelane such as FLs 3, 5, 7, etc. In reality, it is only a "road" for a very short distance; the rest is sweet singletrack. It sounded like a perfect project for PUMP and our merry volunteers!

We had 4 volunteer Trail Team Captains who walked the trail the day prior with Jeff Hough, Trail & Restoration Manager with the Forest Park Conservancy, and myself to flag-out projects and establish the technical details of the work. Although Spring is just now "springing," the trail was already having overgrowth issues in many spots. Water was a definite problem resulting in mud, trail erosion, and straight-out washouts. Our Team Captains JD, Shane, Fred, and Butch definitely had their work cut out for them. Good thing they had a crew of enthusiastic volunteers chomping at their cranksets to get out there!

Three things were listed as Major Projects:

1. An old culvert has washed out near the bottom of the trail and had left an erosion problem. This required armouring with flagstone in such a way as to let water pass through, yet give a good solid trailbed for riders and walkers to pass. The old culvert was not to be re-installed. In addition, a double serpentine was to be built to both slow riders down in their approach to the new water crossing and to make the trail more interesting. Team Captain Fred took on this mission.

2. In the middle section, about 45+ feet of trail was in a low spot that created a chronic muddy bog. We are talking inches of nasty mud near a stream, which was cause for silt and mud run-off into the nearby creek besides being rather unpleasant for walkers and non-mud loving mountain bikers. The goal here was to establish a 48' elevated trailbed with culvert drainage. This project was taken on by Team Captains JD and Shane, who also dubbed this "turnpike" the "Toll Bridge." Let that name live on in infamy - Hail Captain JD!

3. At the uppermost section of work to be done on May 3rd, a stream bed had completely washed out the trail. Boulders, rocks, etc. had taken over. Bikers had taken two routes to breach this wash-out, but neither could really be called a "trail." As well, one side of the trail was eroding and washing into the established creek. Yet again: Erosion is not our friend nor healthy for the park. This project called for a retaining wall to be built, the trail to be re-established, and a re-route from one of the breaches. Team Captain Butch stepped up to the plate for this one.

In addition:

Several trees had blown down over the trail in a group. These needed to be cut and cleared.

The pruning sweep had its job cut out as riders were already being assaulted by limbs and harassed by Blackberries (its just May, right?).

Several muddy spots needed to be nicked and given a place to drain.

All of this in less than 4 hours? Hold on to your riding shorts and get ready for this:

Lower water crossing "before"

During:

Geoff laying the initial paving stones. New serpenine being laid out in background.

Jay and Nick working on the new double-serpentine

Now that is a thing of beauty! Everyone agrees: Geoff's stone work is art.

See Gabrielle ride it here!

Blow-Down before:

During


Jeff notching

Nick chopping and shaping ...

Now we have perfect beginner wheelie practice! Thanks, Nick!

Trail Captains with overgrowth before:

JD, Fred, Butch, Shane, and Trail & Restoration Manager Jeff Hough

Members of our famous Pruning Team!

Susan, Amy, and Gabrielle tame the things that grab us!

Ahhhhhhh - Much better!

... and the mud. Always the star of the show ...

Jeff Hough, FPC Trail & Restoration Manager explains work to be completed on the "Toll Bridge"

Jay, Shane, John, Sharon, Jordan, and Don haul up a tree for the new Toll Bridge

Setting of logs and culvert

Hauling ... tamping ... hauling ... tamping ... (repeat!)

and that, folks, is forty-eight feet of hard-earned "Toll Bridge!"

Absolutely amazing job, crew. You rock!

And last, but not least: The Washout

During:

Butch (wrench at Hollywood Bike Gallery) and Mark (owner of Revolver Bikes) work on the retaining wall

Mark and Sharon stand on completed re-route project. Unfortunately due to severity of terrain, you're going to have to ride it for yourself to see the improvement.

Impact:
PUMP asks all volunteers to "sign in" on our roster at the beginning of each work party. This is for PUMPsters and Non-PUMP members alike. PUMP does this because the club tracks volunteer hours to show mountain biker impact on a local level. PUMP also reports these hours to the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) so the organization can tally our hours with those of other clubs on national and international levels. When you see IMBA lobbying and using "dollars contributed" to the National Forests we are trying to keep open to moutain biking, many of those "dollars" come from trail parties just like our Forest Park events.

Volunteer Trail Hours are calculated at a rate of $18.00/hr. During our May 3rd Newton Road Trail Party, our 25 Trail volunteers working an average of 5 hours each contributed a combined total of 138.5 hours. That means volunteers at this single event contributed $2,493 to the City of Portland and all the user groups of The Park. Combine that with our other two trail parties since November and it comes to a whopping total of $8,833. This is being noticed.

Aside from the cycling community advocacy impact, our volunteers enjoy getting out in the woods working shoulder-to-shoulder with other involved riders. Some folks are new to the area, such as Nick K. and Sharon A., and want to meet new ride partners and learn about our area. Some have been PUMPsters in the past and are jazzed about what we are doing in regard to local advocacy. Some are cyclocrossers ... some are roadies ... some are Freeriders ... we are all bikers who love our sport and enjoy the comeraderie these trail parties facilitate. So please, come out and join us!

Next Forest Park Trail Party:

The next Forest Park Trail Party is scheduled for Tuesday, August 5th from 4:00 PM - 7:30 PM. Please mark your calendars and check back the week of the event for more specifics. This party is on a Tuesday to help our partners in the Bike Industry and others who work weekends to come out and join us. It also won't take away from precious summer weekend ride time. Our Trail Parties are family friendly events and a great day in the woods with your kids, so please feel free to bring your younger riders (recommended for 6+ y/o).

Because of the work done on Newton Road and more projects on that trail we wish to accomplish, Jeff Hough and I are trying to coordinate another Newton Road/Forest Park Trail Party in the next month and a half. Please continue to check the PUMP Ride Calendar and the PUMP Forest Park Forums Page for more info.

If you are unable to make a PUMP trail party, but would still like to spend some time working on trails in Forest Park, please check out the Forest Park Conservancy's Volunteer Opportunity page. These work parties might not be on trail that is open to bikes, but they are a great opportunity to interact with other user groups of The Park and show them that we are people and nature enthusiasts just like them ... we just like it on two wheels!

Background:

Portland United Mountain Pedalers (PUMP) began offically began organizing and sponoring quarterly work parties in Forest Park last Fall with it's first project on Firelane 5 on November 3rd, 2007. This has been a joint effort with The Forest Park Conservancy (formerly Friends of Forest Park). The FPC provides PUMP with the time and expertise of their Trail & Restoration Manager, Jeff Hough, and all equipment needed for the work PUMP's volunteers perform. Since our first trail party in November 2007, PUMP's efforts (and those of volunteers from across our biking community) have turned FL5 into the best maintained piece of trail in the park. In two FL5 trail parties, volunteers attended to chronic mud problems on the trail, armoured trail with stone and gravel, built serpentines to make the trail more enjoyable, and installed culverts. It looks amazing now.

PUMP coordinates and sponsors Forest Park "trail parties" quarterly. These events are posted on our Ride Calendar and in the Forest Park section of our Forums page.

If you are interested in finding out what PUMP is about, please check our Ride Calendar! We have members of all backgrounds, ages, and abilities. Some folks are just starting. You are sure to meet someone you share comonalities with. Yes, we do have many women riders! A great "get to know you" is our weekly Wednesday Forest Park ride with post-ride noshings and trail talk at Cracker Jack's in NW. Find a ride and come join us!

With greatest thanks to our volunteers,

Ms. Shanti Ware
Forest Park Liaison,
Portland United Mountain Pedalers
e-mail: mtb_grrl@msn.com

Like to see more pictures and video?
Click Here: More "Before" pictures
Click Here: More "After" pictures + video