Work and Wheels

Monday morning, we had a huge storm in the area around 5:00 AM, the kind that had me laying awake, staring into the darkness, and wondering if it's this house's turn to have a tree fall on it.  I knew it was gonna rain, so my only plan for the day was to go fix a "feature" that had come to a state of disrepair (IMHOMO).

Dr Mike joined me with our pathetic collection of tools, and we managed to take the slab lip off this steep climb about a third of the way up.

It ain't much, and it sure ain't pretty, but it works... for now?

Whilst collecting rocks to Tetris into the gap, we noticed "some" trees down on the jump line.  We'd brought loppers and a bow saw because we'd heard that "there would be some limbs to kick off the trail."

This is the top of a tree...

That was across the trail three times.  Jeebus.

Dr Mike and I did what we could to clean up the jump line area trails with our meager tools, and I sent word out to Leaf Life that the jump line was currently quite the mess.

Dr Mike and I headed out to the Tech Loop on Tuesday, since we both had the afternoon off.  Once again, equipped with humble toolage, we headed out to clear what we could.  I was really hoping we could at least open (unofficially) the Tech Loop by hand.  Not ten minutes in, we found this:

The same trees I mentioned just a week ago that don't play nicely with my ESI grips being that they're probably about 810mm apart.

Well, they were anyways.  My grips (and pinky fingers) approve of the storm's work in this area.

I was optimistic as the damage seemed limited to smaller trees, and it was looking good until...

Mother of dog.  It's gonna take a far better man (men?) than me to get this guy outta the way.  Once again, a tree that crossed the trail multiple times.  Shit.  The rest of the entire loop was manageable with loppers and our shitty hand saw, but this guy stymied us in our tracks.

Dr Mike headed home, and I went over to the jump line to help Leaf, Shawn, Woody, and Bayer handle the big boys over on the jump line.  Not much to do while waiting for your turn to help roll a giant log, so I got bored and start playing in the dirt.

The root ball of one of the giant trees had left a giant hole in one of the optional lines... creating a giant gap where no trail remained.  It ooked like half the work of a gap jump had been done, and with a root ball to borrow dirt from (that needed to be removed to make a landing), I just started digging... because I'd found a forgotten shovel under an old wooden feature.

All the big logs got shoved outta place, and Leaf looked at what I'd been doing and says...

"I was thinking about doing that same thing.  I bet we could finish it in about twenty more minutes."

And thus, we did.

Like most things I help Leaf build, I'll probably never hit it.

Wednesday.  I was optimistic to say the least.  I headed out to the Left Loop to see if anyone had cleared it off yet.  Full of naivety, I went out on my bike, thinking mebbe the whole of the main trail was now clear.  Prolly two minutes in and I'm grabbing a stick, trail jousting small debris, stopping to see what I can remove... without tools?  Because I'm that dumb?

Cleared of all but one cedar that I couldn't break with my weight... and mebbe now the rest of the trail is clear?

Because I'm that dumb?

Dammit.  The middle of the trail system took a huge hit.  I went as far as I could, turned around, started riding the main trail backwards until it was impassable again.

Shit balls.

This is a not an updated map, but if I had to guess, something tore the asshole outta the Backyard Trails Monday morning.

So, Leaf says he'll redirect his efforts there, I run home, eat, head back out... and we're joined by Tim, Jon Danger (down from West Virginia), and some guy who was just riding along and stopped to help... for hours.  Thanks, Adam.

Leaf went to town on the big logs, and soon Jacob showed up and fired up a second chainsaw.

Whilst Santana and Jack attacked the big boy over on the Tech Loop...

Which alone musta took a couple hours.  I would have loved to see how the hell they got it down.  Seriously, I have no clue.

By 7:00 PM, they had it down to just a few "smaller" downed trees that needed chainsaw work, so I headed home.  Before the sun went down, they had opened BYT.

Goal achieved. 

I get to go ride ALL THE TRAILS today.

Which a few days ago seemed like my curse, but after a few days without them, I'm reminded how fortunate I am.  My failing grip on sanity is restored.

I love all my friends who pulled together to get so much damage under control in less than three days.

Oh yeah, get home, whooped... and then UPS comes knocking.

 Perfect timing... ?

As I'd mentioned before, I'd taken the "race wheels" off my bike because there's no actual racing right now.  Also, I had no idea when these would show up as Industry Nine was focusing some of their production power to help those fighting COVID-19. 

So I am excite but also sad because I won't be putting these on any time soon.

I can tell you that there is now a pair of Industry Nine 310c Hydra 24 spoke (pank) wheels of the non-boost variety on the market now.  One year old, but hanging on a hook for at least 25% of that year, so very, very good condition.... only ridden by a four apple tall man to the market every Sunday.*

BTW: I wished I woulda taken more photos of the work that was done.  These guys are awesome, and I don't know where our local trails would be without them.  I was too busy running around like an idiot trying to find all the downed trees and lopping like a slobbering nut job to document it all.  So glad I went out and invested in REAL loppers and REAL work gloves.

* Looks like they're gone already.