^^^

_________________
~I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
~Nothing from nothing is nothing.
~I'm allowed to be a pussy because I have one!

96

_________________
blog

After looking at the pictures above, there may not be any reason to be as upset as I was. That area will continue to erode and be back to normal after a couple rains. Mother Nature does not want smooth trails and there is little to nothing that can be done to keep that 'sidewalk' to the top as is. It still pissed me off that anyone can do some much trail work without any reason or notice.

I'm super bummed that last night was my first ride there. It had always been on my "to ride" list, but since it was preferred to be ridden on the weekdays, that made it difficult.

I have an idea of what it used to look like... you could actually see chunks of rock that were broken down and pushed off to the side of the trail. Disappointing.

There is still a fair amount of tech, but being that I'd never ridden there before I was told it was considerably less. I still think it was pretty fun though.

But after seeing what is there, I think what I'm most confused about is: If the work actually started in the winter, how is it that no word about this has reached the community until now? Did they really do it in such small increments that it was hardly noticeable to those that frequent it on more than a monthly basis? Or was there really such a drastic change over the weekend that it needed this emergency halt on trailwork?

_________________
~I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
~Nothing from nothing is nothing.
~I'm allowed to be a pussy because I have one!

That's a very reasonable question. Surely other people have been riding it and saw what was going on (before Steve, Mark and Evan rode it last Friday). You'd think the word would have leaked but doesn't look like it did until steve rang the alarm bell and took action.

Speaking of bells, the church bell in the village just rang again. it's 6:30PM here. I'm done working for the week, I'm stoked to be riding tomorrow and the local watering house has good hefeweizen waiting for me.

Auf wiedersehen fraulein.

You guys that rode it yesterday also rode it 'wet' or 'moist' (for lack of a better term)
when that dirt dries it is like talcum power, loose soft powdery dirt.
I ran up there earlier in the week (I think Monday?) and it looked much worse than the pics that I see from last night.
Try it in a month and see how fun it is.

_________________
I Blame Barcy.

after seeing those pics, its so sad. iron is a shell of its former self.
i have been riding iron for a long time, well over 60+ times on that trail, used to never see any riders on it. i took aqua there for the first time and he initally didn't like it that much, but it grew on him to become one of his favorite trails. every year it got alittle more santized and then this. i should of inquired long time ago about it, but i didn't so i can blame myself for being passive about this issue. a real shame.

one can hope for monster storms to make new lines next winter:)

Well said.

If you want to assign blame, then we are ALL at fault as a community. I am not the only one who saw MTBill's BLOG report for March 14, yet all I did was passively PM a few people about the blog report with a few questions and concerns and did nothing after that. I am to blame as much as anyone.

Whats the motivation for these trail projects? It's bizarre to me, as this seems to be a non-issue in New England where the trails are waaaay rockier (well, at least on par with pre-sanitation Iron Mt). Not saying one region is better then the other, just pointing out that you'd expect more of these sanitations here then there, but it seems as if this happens regularly in SoCal.

Is it a liability thing? A result of heavy usage? Sucks no matter what.

_________________
this is simply an everyday tale of life, longing and mindless vandalism. everything is true, especially the bit where we all lie.

I don't know, but if it was a liability thing, I'd think that the hiker's trail on Cowles would have been sanitized a long time ago. Seems like every month or so someone is getting airlifted with a broken ankle or something like that.

_________________
"Those skilled at the unorthodox are infinite as heaven and earth, inexhaustible as the great rivers."
— Tzun Tzu

I have a feeling it is the use or lose it method of government funding: The City of Poway P&R department had money they needed to spend and prison trail work crew willing to accept it. Add in a lack of oversight and a complete lack of trail science knowledge and you get.....

perfect storm.

too bad they didn't think to construct new trails with their surplus money / work force instead.

_________________
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

Well, I thought I posted something this morning that was on my mind, but I don't see it, so I'll repost my questions.

What was Poway's reason for the project in the first place? I would think it would have something to do with the insanely high volume of hikers/bikers/horses over-using a trail that is sensitive to soil erosion and in a high fire risk area. I trail run here a lot, especially in winter, and over the last few months have watched the water bars go from small bumps in the trail to huge eroded step-ups with lots of drainage ditches creating rivers of water down the middle of the trail. My thought was that maintenance is definitely needed on this trail in some sense to stave off further erosion and protect the ecosystem. Now, whether a prison crew or whoever was out there moving dirt and rocks around were trained in proper erosion control and trail maintenance remains to be answered.

Cowles is a different ballgame because its in the city of SD. They prefer to sit and talk about doing something about it for atleast a year or two