The sand continues to get more loose. Hitting them with speed helps on the straights but turning is difficult. We will be trying different solutions to make it more rideable for non fat bikes.

After the THOR annual meeting in February, a handful went out to Manawa State Park to put the roof back on the kiosk, which someone purposely fell a tree on. Bright, sunny day, no wind thankfully, because it was in the teens.

March 10 a group of 10 or so worked at Tranquility Park trimming low hanging branches and picking up trash accumulated over the Winter. Several rode afterwards. See Mike’s pics and commentary on the event.

March 17 a group of 6 walked Jewell Park clearing branches and downed trees. Then we rode a lap or two and ate pizza after!

March 18 after a running event, a group of 15 or so runners and riders worked on the trail at Swanson Park trimming limbs and working tread.

March 24 and 25, a group of 5 put in 40 hours of benching, other tread work, and trimming branches at Ponca State Park on Bagley’s Ravine Trail south of the West Shelter. This will be incorporated in the Nebraska Lottery Pscowpath race June 16.

Here are a couple pics (5 nice color ones from Paul) from Ponca:

This is looking north towards levee flood gate. This was that little ditch we went down and up just before the camelback. Future trail will now need to go north to levee to get farther east.

Surveyed with Steve D. a couple weeks ago, and yesterday looked at flagged trails from the kiosk east to No Second Chance. Though a couple sections of old trail are used, most is new. Topography lends itself to a grid system on levees and higher ground around No Second Chance, Fastback, and Tony’s Playground. Inside each grid, a loop can be laid out that follows the terrain and natural TTFs.

Though I was skeptical of rebuilding Manawa, I have come to the conclusion it is worth the risk/effort. The main reason is that most of the work will be cutting trees and brush out of the trail corridor. Very little dirt will need to be moved. Yes it will flood again – its a flood plain. But the grid connectors will always be the first to dryout and ride while the grid interior loops may take days to weeks longer to dry. Bottom line, the trail layout is being designed with flooding in mind. It is a worthy experiment with views of the Missouri River and some amazing devestation left behind from the 2011 flood.

Steve and I plan to get some trail corridor cut in this Fall yet. The weekend of December 3 and 4 are the first traildays. We will watch the weather and announce the work hours later. Tools will be loppers, handsaws, chainsaws, rogue hoes to dig out roots in tread. Please plan to put in a few hours on one or both of these days to begin the re-creation of the Manawa mtb trail.

For fat bikes, the sand dunes along the river bank and some of the old trail west of the parking lot are available to ride now. Time to go bush wacking.

As normal, we concentrated on the river boat ramp/mountain bike trail area. We had a crew of about 7. The crew (plus 2 that left early) is shown in the photo. We picked up a truckload of trash.

Meet at shelter 6 at just before 1 pm. The clean up effort is expect to last approximately 2 hours. THe parks department will provide the trash bags.

Raffle and food to follow at 3pm.

Wear your THOR shirts if you have them!

Tranquility: Open
Swanson: Open
Lewis & Clark: Open
Lake Manawa: Open
Platte River: Too soft/muddy

Tread lightly. There may be soft spots in the trails. Rain is forecast for this evening – get your dirt fix in today!

A great time was had by all. Just awesome weather, fun on bicycles for kids of all ages, good food, and good company.

Thursday, Sept 2 – mow and trim large portions of trail. 6 pm till dark.
Meet by red truck in parking lot.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Sept 7, 8 — 6 pm till dark.
Will have shovels, blower, chainsaw, and trimmers. Come put them to work.
Meet by red truck in parking lot.

Bring work clothing, bug spray and your bike to ride to areas that need to be worked.

Thursday, Sept 9 – come and ride the trail and enjoy your work!

Steve D.

No trailwork day needed Wednesday. Too muddy to ride now but Thursday should be about the right time!

Steve D.