My apologies for not doing more updates.  I keep thinking: once this next thing happens, it will be a good time to post. And then six months go by with me saying that to myself and not posting.

Hiking-Only Trails

One of the two hiking-only loops is mostly complete and signed.  It’s Segments 32 and 33 on the Master Plan map and signed as Kinard’s North and South.  It is not on the kiosk or trail map quite yet.  You’ll use Lonely Hunter to connect the two.  It begins at Palmetto Crossing, and it’s probably about a 3.5 mile hike or run from there. 

For the duration of hunting season, you will be able to park at the clearing just to north of Palmetto Crossing.  In the midterm, we are working on getting a small gravel lot in that clearing (the “hiking trailhead”) and moving the gate back to just beyond the new parking area.  Hopefully that will get done in the first or second quarter of 2023.

Construction on the second hiking-only loop will begin in late February.  It will be located on the ridge to the north of Bimini North. 

As you will see if you hike Kinard’s, we are going to need some volunteer labor to fully finish some sections of that trail.  The Southeaster Conservation Corps did a great job, but we weren’t able to get everything fully finished in the time we had allotted.  Stay tuned for workdays over the coming few months as the ground softens.

Multi-Use and Gravity

Valerie Naylor is here finishing Hissy Fit and building segment 20.  Pinnacle Trail Design and Construction will start on Segment 26 on November 28th.  We are hopeful all of those segments will be completed by the end of the year.  But be warned that opening new trails right before winter can be tough, and they may be closed more than the other trails until spring.

We are working on contracts for Segments 19 and 21 and some more jumps near the trailhead (including a green jump line) for the spring.  We’ll provide updates on those once we nail them down.

We’re also finally going to get that corner on Bimini West opened up and do a few other fixes and tweaks.

Gravity Trail Closures*

As we move into winter, please be sure to respect the closure of the Gravity Trails even when other trails are open.  It is important to keep them in good condition.  If you see others riding them when they are closed, please nicely explain that they are closed and why.

A couple of other notes:

• We are trying to spread out responsibilities and flubbed the opening of the Gravity Trails a couple of Sundays ago.  Sorry. 
• Those signs and chains at the top are intended for January and February when the gravity trails may be closed for weeks at a time, and we may even blow a bunch of leaves onto them and close them down until early March – especially Swavey’s. Please let us be the ones to put them up.

Website and Future Updates

We are working on a significant website update and have set up a Constant Contact account.  Very soon, you’ll be able to sign up for text and email alerts about trail closures and opening, group hikes/runs/rides, trail workdays, news alerts, and more.  That will be critical to creating more community and getting more volunteer involvement, because social media has become fairly ineffective for a few reasons.

Big Picture

Our long-term management plan is slated for final approval in early December and I’ll do a big post on that when it happens.  We (especially me) are hopeful that we will at least begin the search for a (paid) executive director in 2023.  More details coming soon!

Thanks for your support and hope to see you on the trails!

• Here is the “get the names right” draft of the new kiosk map. We’ll be tweaking before it’s printed and installed. Note that the mileage of a few trails may not be entirely accurate.
• Note that some names are changing, especially for Lonely Hunter. A single name for that large of a loop was always meant to be temporary and change once we built more trail.
• We’ll get a video up soon with some explanation for the changes.

• Because there’s a window where we have some volunteer capacity, we are going to go ahead and start changing the trail signage.
• Please bear with us while we make the change and offer help to others are that are looking confused.
• Believe it or not, there is a bad wet spot on Sittin’ Pretty near where it intersects Primus. Please ride the low edge and help us by using the tool to deberm the lower edge and smooth out ruts until it hardens up. If it’s a problem this coming winter, we’ll armor it. We’ll probably have to do that, but hopefully if we give it a chance to harden up, the length we have to armor will be smaller.

Finally, here’s a quick rundown of what’s changing and what will be the projects for upcoming workdays. Please watch social media and help us spread the word.

• We need to improve the large stream crossing on the norther section of Bimini right out of the parking lot.
• We need to clean up Straight Shot so it’s more attractive to hikers and we can use it to climb to Hissy Fit. We also need to armor a section right at the beginning.
• We need to clean up Clovis.
• We need to do a very short connection from Lonely Hunter over to Bimini to help create a more cohesive “teal” outer loop.
• We need to clean up access to an old road bed so it’s easy to session the upper section of Lickety Split.
• We need to reshape a couple of things right after the first corner on Lickety Split.
• We might add some clay to the berms on Swavey’s, which is the only spot where the dirt is not gloriously good.

Thanks for your support!

* Please see below for a full rundown of the Spring Build.

These are BLUE jumps (including step-ups and step-downs) of up to just under 20 feet in length.  There are no gaps, but the lips are designed to require air and prevent rolling them, because that damages the lips.  If you have not ridden a jump line before, you probably have not ridden concave jump faces with steep lips.  RESPECT THE JUMPS AND BE CAUTIOUS.  If you’re at anything close to trail speed, air is mandatory. 

If you’re not completely sure of your ability to ride the jumps or if you’re not going fast enough that air is mandatory, please wait on the green jumps and practice more on those.  Staring next week, The Bug will be closed for a few weeks while it is reworked to create more green jumps so that we have a cohesive offering with progression.

Swavey’s was the first (or at least a very early) flight school in Columbus.

Have fun and be smart!

The build this spring has been evolving as we responded to terrain and rock content and reconsidered how future trails will fit into the experience offered by the entire system. This video provides a rundown of the new trails that will open soon and the thought behind the decisions that were made.

A new trail/kiosk map is in process, and once we have a draft we’ll provide more details on trail names and how the additional trails will allow for inner and outer “teal” (between green and blue) loops. It would be really confusing to try to do so without the new map.

We are also in discussions and have received some proposals to get about 6 miles of hiking-only trail built this fall. We’ll also be adding some more multi-use and at least one black gravity. More to come on where we go after the current build.

As always, please help us by being a responsible and courteous trail user, donating (it’s easy to set up a small, monthly donation), and attending trail workdays.

Trail Conditions and Maintenance

• We had a great winter in terms of rainfall. In combination with all of the work we’ve done over the past two winters and people respecting trail closures, that meant we had some decent trail conditions during January and February, and things were looking great by the first weekend in March.
• There are still some spots on Lickety Split that struggling, which is normal for a trail’s first winter. We are also going to do some maintenance on the jumps soon.
• Please help us move limbs and small trees off the trail, and when things start growing, take a pair of clippers with you and cut back a few things.

Spring Build

• We got the dollars we needed and then some. Thanks to everyone who donated.
• Trail Solutions got started on the spring build at the beginning of this week (March 7th).
• On the Master Plan, the segments to be constructed are 10 & 11 (complete the inner blue loop), 22 (to create a less chunky and techy option for an outer loop), and 24 (blue jump line). As soon as 10 & 11 are complete, the inner blue will be the only blue trail that is directional by day.
• We’re also going to do some things to make the entrance to Primary Goods work a little better now that we have the second lot, fix (make more green) the sharp turn on the section of Bimini that’s right by the river, and address a few other issues that call for professionals with machines.
• We are going to consider pulling some rollers together to create more tables and opportunities for air on The Bug. How much of this we do will depend, to some extent, on how blue we can make the jump line (as limited by grade and other factors).

Beyond the Spring

• At long, long last, we are finally closing in on a long-term management paradigm for the property as a whole. We are just trying to iron out the details of the written agreements. We hope to be able to communicate publicly late this spring or early this summer.
• As soon as that happens, we’ll turn our attention to better signage and some trailhead facilities like picnic tables and changing stalls.
• We’ve raised close to $2,250,000 and are only about $250,000 from having the funds to build all 35 miles that are in the Trails Master Plan. In the coming month, we’ll be working on getting builders under contract for this fall, with an emphasis on constructing all of the hiking-only trails. Then, in the spring and summer of 2023, we’ll hopefully get pretty darn close to building all 35 miles.
• Hopefully late this summer or early this fall we’ll really start being able to direct a lot of time and energy into driving more utilization and creating more community. In the meantime, please talk up the trails and take friends and family out there.

If you would like to help with group rides, cookouts, etc. or at the trailhead with things like the construction of changing stalls and the like, please emails us!

As always, thanks for your support and see you on the trails!

We’ve been making steady progress on a number of important issues and there have been some substantial updates to the website.  This post will summarize these and let everyone know the key ways to help, which are:

1. Be a responsible and courteous trail user.
2. Tell people about the trails and make the time to take new people for their first experience.
3. Make a donation to help fund the spring build.  The donations page allows you to set up a recurring monthly donation if that’s easier for you.
4. Watch for upcoming workdays on our social media accounts and attend.

Volunteer Trail Maintenance

• A number of issues have been handled, almost all of which are part of the process of breaking in new trails and were related to the 11-12 inch rain event earlier this fall.  As general matter, we were very pleased with how the trails handled that extraordinary amount of rain. 
• The leaves are falling and the cold and wet are coming.  We’ll be doing a lot of work clearing drains and doing other winter maintenance beginning after Thanksgiving.
• Now that fall is here and the grasses and undergrowth are dying, we’re beginning to work on getting the “troads” currently on the kiosk map cleared and signed.  We have someone identified to mow/clear and waiting on permission from DNR.  The hope is that if we do that and then drive traffic onto them by signing them, we’ll get a nice compacted path that doesn’t need to be mowed in the future.  You can already see this happening in number of places.

Infrastructure

Parking

• We’ve addressed the lack of sufficient parking and now have about 100 spots.  We don’t need that much parking currently, but it would not have made sense to add 20 spots at a time.  It wouldn’t oversimply things all that much to say that the main goal over the next few years will be to start filling up the new parking area.  We need to go from 20-30 cars at peak times to something like 60-70.
• The new parking area is pretty much complete.  We were able to do build that lot for just over $30K (less than half the cost of grading contractor) because of the generosity of Jack Hughston and Hughston Homes. 
  • We are working on getting some trees planted in the island (that area just had a much of small pines and nothing worth saving).  Once we do that, we’ll eventually work on picnic tables and some changing stalls.
  • In a few weeks we’ll have a workday to build a short section of trail to connect the southwest corner of the lot to Primary Goods.
• We’ve also moved the wheel stops on the west side of the upper parking to make it a little bit wider as well as cleaned up the downed trees on the east side. 

Hubs and Rest Stops

• While we had workers and equipment for the parking lot, we created some spots for bike racks and benches at Hub I (Primary Goods and Bimini).  Fairly soon, we’ll begin working on racks and benches there as well as a few other spots (e.g. new section of Bimini by the water).
• We also need to get some mini-kiosk maps at some of the hubs.
• Please let us know if you are interested in helping with this (e.g., you’ve got some carpentry skills or a contact about getting some picnic tables donated or provided at cost).

Management

• E-bikes: We’ve put off taking a position on e-bikes for a variety of reasons, but as the trails become more popular we’ve more and more e-bikes on the trails.  The current rule is that e-bikes are allowed on a trial basis.  Please see the E-bike link under “Trails.”

Construction and Fundraising

• The revised master plan and map have been posted under “The Plan”. 
• We are hoping to construct the following beginning in March:
  • Complete the inner blue loop: seg 10 and 11
  • Outer teal loop: seg 22 (coupled with the green trails and the section of Lonely Hunter by the river/lake, this will create an outer loop that is somewhere between green and blue, or teal)
  • Segments 10, 11, and 22 are the remaining segments that are most important for creating connectivity.
  • Jump trail near parking: seg 24
  • A few tweaks (e.g., widen the turn on new section of Bimini by the water)
• Cost: $300K
• Fundraising:
  • Existing Funds and Pledges: $100K
  • Matching Grant: $100K
    • Every dollar you gives turns into two dollars
  • Need to Raise $100K of new dollars
    • Remaining Need: $55K as of December 10

New Hiking-Only Trail

• We are struggling a little with how to approach the new hiking-only trails in the Master Plan.  The “troads” will offer excellent “walking” experiences as soon as we can get them cleared and signed, so we want the new hiking-only trails to be narrow, rugged, and very natural – in other words, hand-built.
• Hiring a contractor for hand-built trails is difficult and potentially inefficient since volunteers are more than capable of building these trails and most contractors build with machines.  The best case scenario would be for one or two new volunteers to take ownership of this effort and lead it.  Our current trail maintenance leaders are already spread too thin with maintenance to take on the construction of a significant amount of trail.
• We will continue to work on this and get it figured out.

Thanks for taking to the time to learn about what’s going on and please consider a donation to help us complete the spring 2022 build.