Spent this morning with rodster hiking Black Mountain East Ridge looking for ways to complete the East Ridge trails now that the city has purchased the entire ridge. This past build season we completed the bushwhacking and about 2/3 of the trail build. This will continue for the 2016-17 season but it is never too early to start the next phase.
Below is the map. You are looking at the east ridge, north towards the top. Green is in the process of being completed and partially open. The red is on very close to being able to to move on and the yellow is under the consideration phase. The rangers are in complete support of these.
Just to give you some idea of what it will look like from the ground level, there are some rather poor mock ups. The first is looking south from the furthest knoll (derailleur for those that know) to where the next phase of the trail will continue from where we ended the Manzanita trail (green in the first map). This is the bottom/north end or the red loop. It will be the second half of the stacked loop.
Also in the process is a trail completing the loop, designed to be ridable both ways. This will allow a rider from the valley below to get up to the east ridge or a rider to drop into the valley and eventually back over to Miner's Ridge. This is under consideration at this point but it is in the master plan to it will be more of a WHEN rather than an IF. Rather than climbing the knoll at the north end (like has to currently be done for Derailleur) the trail will descend the knoll at the low spot on the trail in a counter-clockwise spiral. It has to stay relatively high on the slope as there is a near vertical drop on the east side and there is A LOT of already approved development on the north/west slope extending nearly half way up the hill. This trail will have a lots of character as we have to cross multiple drainages at the bottom half to get to the termination point. Again, here are a few bad mockups of the trail looking at the drainages from about half way up the hill and from the bottom near the terminus.
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While we were out there, we found all kinds of treasures. There is an old homestead foundation and cattle paddock at the bottom of the slope. I looked at some old pictures and the house was last there in the 60's. All that is left is the concrete outline of the foundation.
Once we were up on the mountain, we found a picnic table (very unstable)...
...and two different benches...
...with a hell of a view. Think I need to invest in some new boots.
As the season progresses and we get closer to actual building, keep you eyes on this board or look for me in FB and Meetup. I am looking forward to this year. Hopefully we can keep the momentum rolling that we have had for the last two year. We have gotten nothing but positive feedback on this project from everyone and all entities involved. Keep up the great work folks! See you in a few short months once the rains come.