Back on February 16th when PASA broke ground on Rocky Branch Trail which is our latest trail project. Rocky Branch is situated in Belmont, not far from the downtown area. The weather that day was not amazing...rain, snow, sleet, cold. I ended up cancelling the work session but a few people came out and helped clear and rough cut the first quarter mile or so. Big thanks to Jacob, Pagan, J-dub, Ty and his daughter for coming out to that first session. This last weekend we got back in the woods to really clean up and bench that first quarter mile of trail. The dirt out there is nice and loamy with lots of sand it in, much like Pee Wee's dirt. Dirt like this makes for almost effortless working conditions and super easy to bench which lead to us getting a lot of work done! We had a really nice showing of volunteers and that REALLY helps as well. Thanks go out to Dave, Jacob, J-dub, Dan, Calvin, Jonboy (and his child labor force). Everyone be on the lookout of the forum as well as Facebook for future work sessions which we will be having about every other Saturday or so. Here's some pics to get you pumped!

The Piedmont Area Singletrack Alliance is excited to announce our new club sponsor, Ride-A-Bike Bicycle Shop in Lincolnton. If you have never been to Ride-A-Bike you need to check it out....great shop, great owner, cool location! To show his support for our club and as well as our members that give $20 or more a year to PASA the shop owner, Brantley is now offering 10% discounts on all parts and accessories (does not apply to bike purchases or labor). Just another great reason to support PASA by contributing $20 or more each year to our club as well as supporting a local bike shop. Big thanks to Ride-A-Bike for their continued support of the local scene!

http://www.rideabike.com

116 NE Court Square
Lincolnton, NC 28092
704-735-1746

So for those of you who remember the good old days at Poston when the trail actually had a loop that didn't make you puke, before the creeks became a lake. Side note - It's funny how Michaux's Loop felt hard at the time...by current Poston Trail standards it is probably a joy ride. The current layout without that creek valley makes Michaux seem easy as I remember it. That's probably not the case but it's fun to think there was once a Poston without pain. Now where was I? Oh yeah, when the lake was put we kind of lost our old bridge 2 creek crossing spot which is now underwater. Parks and Rec was nice enough to finance a replacement bridge that we as a club would not even have to put in. After some studying we found some modular fiberglass bridges that pieced out are light and easy to get into the woods. There are two bridges being installed actually but one will mainly be for foot traffic (and mountain bike shortcut traffic). This is some classy construction...people will look at it and say, "yeah PASA didn't build that" and you know what that's fine by me because I HATE building bridges! Check out the pics below of the first bridge installed...so pretty. The contractors and park staff are working on the second bridge this week! It will be nice to FINALLY move the trail-head back to the front of the park...not that the big blue trash dumpster is not one sweet trail-head marker!

So the Spencer Mtn Trail is finally complete! There is still some work that needs to be done up in there but it's nothing major and the trail will benefit from traffic so Russ and I opened up the entrance/exit on Saturday. It's not marked but it's super easy to find. After you ride the trail that goes behind the soccer fields where you pop out above the dog park instead of turning right like you would normally do (where you ride along the dog park fence and then take the right by the pine tree and go back into the woods) turn left up the power line road like you're going to ride straight up the face of Spencer Mountain. When you get to the point where there is a power line road that splits off to the left if you look to the right you will see singletrack taking off into the woods. That's the trail. Now there is no signage yet so remember this simple rule. If there is a spilt in the trail GO RIGHT unless you've been there already then GO LEFT. This is because the entrance and exit use the same 50 feet or so of trail. Also there is a stretch of trail you ride twice which we call the Deja Vu loop. The first time you get to split at the end of it you turn RIGHT then you end up coming up the same climb and your second time at the split you turn LEFT. It's all pretty easy to figure out and we will get it signed soon so it's even easier to make out. Get on it ASAP and beat the trail down!