The regularly scheduled meeting for this  week has been postponed until 4/7.  We will be meeting at the Great Dane downtown location at 7pm on April 7th.

This will be an informal meeting as part of the IMBA site visit.  I strongly encourage everybody to come out and have a drink with us!!! 

It’s the announcement you’ve all been waiting for.  There is, due to unforeseen circumstances, a room available at Earthrider for BALLS!

The ride leaves Barneveld early morning on 4/25, spends the night at Earthrider, and returns to Madison on the 26th.  About 100miles day one and 50ish miles day two.

Check out the hotel: http://www.earthridercycling.com/

It’s a steal at thr $70 they charge and a great way to unwind after a huge ride.  Plan on having your significant other meet us in Brodhead to spend the night.

If interested shoot me an e-mail at scott@madcitydirt.org 

I’ve got a great deal for everybody in need of socks.  Swiftwick will do a custom CORP sock using our logo for $10/pair.

The minimum order is 150 pair so I need to know who is interested and how many pair you want.  Haven’t heard of Swiftwick?  Check out www.swiftwick.com.  We would likely be getting the Merino wool 4inch sock.  I’ve had a few pair of Swiftwicks and they are really really nice.  I’ll post a design sample as soon as it is available.  Normal price is $16/pair so this is a significant savings and a great opprotunity to stock up.  I’m in for 10 pair.  How about you?  Shoot me an e-mail scott@madcitydirt.org or post on the forums if you are interested.

It’s the time of year that CORP is prepping for our annual round of spring workdays.  Call it the necessary evil to maintain and progress the great trails in our area.  So, what exactly is a workday?

Quite simply it’s taking untouched land and working a sustainable trail into it.  For visual reference here’s Garett laying down some sweet bench cut out at Cam-Rock.

Never swung a trail building tool before?  Absolutely no problem at all.  CORP starts each workday with a quick safety lecture and a short description of the tools being used and what we want to accomplish.

What do I need to bring?  I’d suggest a pair of pants, gloves, and generally clothes you don’t mind getting messy.  We are playing in the dirt after all.  A light snack for our mid-work break and plenty of water are two other essentials.  That’s all you need!  CORP will take care of the rest.

What’s in it for you?  Other than the satisfaction of newly cut singletrack you may be lucky enough to experience a CORP gourmet feast.  If we are working at Cam-Rock plan on a post work Heather’s extravaganza.  Other times we light up a grill and throw on some of Johnsonville’s finest.

But I’ve got kids so I won’t be able to help.  Oh please.  Workdays are generally kid friendly as long as they stay away from swinging tools.  Seriously, can you think of a better way to spend some time outside with the little ones?

We kick off the workday season on March 28th at Cam-Rock park in the world famous Rockdale.  Meet in the main parking lot at 8:00am.  We generally work until about noon with a short break halfway.  If 8:00am is too early be at the parking lot at 10am and somebody will meet the stragglers to guide them to our current project.  It’s a little work, hopefully some cold beer, and a great chance to ham it up with friends!

See you there!

Scott Baryenbruch - CORP President

I don’t want to get boring or preachy but a recent post by Walt Hougas regarding his work at Blue Mound is required reading for anybody working on trail layout this year.  With a lot of projects in the works we need to keep in my mind that great trails start long before the first dirt is dug.  I have pasted Walt’s post below as anybody flagging or working on trail can benefit greatly from his thoughts.

How to design a trail:

“I wanted to check places where it seemed that the trail was getting too close to the fall line. IMBA guidelines state that a trail’s slope should not be more than 1/2 the slope of the fall line. Think of the places on John Muir and Emma Carlin where there are erosion mats and gravel holding the trail together. Some of those sections go straight up and down the hill, or to state it differently, are on the fall line. There are some limited places where it’s possible to exceed the guideline, but in general it’s an excellent rule.

I bought a clinometer recently and had some fun trying it out yesterday. I was able to make some small adjustment to the flag line in several places to bring the proposed trail slope within the 50% guideline. What’s interesting to me is that the places that I thought were marginal, were indeed close to the 50% mark, or over.

The bottom line is that I need to check my work with actual measuring instruments and verify that what I’m laying out is sound.

A point that may be of interest is the measurements I took confirm something I’ve suspected for a while. The difficulty in laying out a sustainable trail at Blue Mound (besides the areas that seep water late into the spring) is that the average slope in some areas is so shallow that it’s really easy to lay the trail out too close to the fall line without realizing it.

When I think of describing trail layout to someone who is not familiar with the process, I tend to use big, steeply sloped hills as an example. That’s because it’s easier to visualize what’s going on. You’re cutting a notch into a hill side that is roughly at a right angle to the slope of the hill.

When the trail is being laid out in an area with a shallow slope to it, the image gets less clear. Instead of talking about a single slope, now you’re dealing with small, localized undulations. It’s difficult for me as the trail designer to visualize what’s going on let alone to explain it to someone else. It’s hard to see the local slope variations, especially in the summer when the undergrowth makes the sight lines shorter.

It has been crucial to my work to get out in the winter when I am able to see the landscape better. Now I’m hoping to use the clinometer to find the weakness in my work and end up with a trail that will stand up to the rain for years to come.

Walt