The last few rides I have cleared back the Lilac trail of brush and also did some on the Ahwee trail. They do need a few touch ups here & there but at least it's brushed.
On today's ride I found this on the first turn coming into the Ahwee trail from the park
Now, it looks like a small branch just fell down but that's not the case. The turn right before this had a big branch CUT and dragged into the turn. The picture above doesn't look like it but there were 3 big branches that were CUT and dragged. Look how trail users made a go around on this obstruction. The corner was cleaned and this was not done in any "trail maintenance" manner that I would see.
Here is the turn after I removed the branches back to the original trail contour.
There were 4 larger sized rocks placed in the middle of the Lilac trail to so I think we have a trail nazi among us. Please keep your eyes open and stop to have a discussion with anyone doing this.
Yesterday I brush backed the Manzanita loop trail and only saw a few people during my ride/trail work session. One large group of bikers and two other riders stopped to thank me but one trail runner stopped and asked what I was doing. I told him I was clearing the brush back and he told me I can't do that. We had a "spirited discussion" about this trail I was working on. I pointed out minor details like I helped build it so jerks like him can enjoy it. I have gone to the city and had legal permission after my check years back. Also informed him that maybe he could help out to maintain and built other in the future. Man, people like this piss me off but I think it helps me be motivated to keep it up.
In closing I would like to challenge you to give back a little here and there. We all bitch about trail and I think I can be one of the worse at times. I've started to ride with a Corona pruning saw I picked up at Lowes for 20 bucks. When I see a section of any trail that could use some loving I just stop and trim it up. It can take just a minute or two to make it a better trail next time someone uses it.
"trail don't build themselves"
