The last 500 feet of the Spencer Mountain Trail at Poston is a brutal slow build...steep hillside, lots of rocks (boulders), and rooty. It's one of those sections of trail that you're cursing as you build it but ince complete will look like something out of Pisgah. Scott and I spent a few hours this morning chipping away at it and managed to bench in probably 200+ feet. The climb looked like it was going to be pretty tough but after leveling out spots by moving dirt around it doesn't look too overly intense (by Poston standards). Next week if we have a crew of three or more we should be able to knock all that bench out. The Spencer trails still need a good bit of TLC here and there and one bridge built but we can probably open it even before we get to everything...hopefully it will be open for business the first or second week in April. Carlton and Dan were also out and about at Poston today adding some berms to the turns! This dirt work is just what Poston needs to speed up the trail and add more flow. Thanks to all the workers including those who worked out at Kings Mountain today. PASA is getting it done!

- Scott cutting bench on the Spencer Mountain Loop!

- The final product after some tough bench work...

This morning we spent more time working up on the Poston mountain property at the base of Spencer Mountain. An additional loop had already been flagged up in the hills last week by Carlton and me so today we were able to concentrate on notching out what was marked. Amazingly we knocked it all out which had to be over a half mile of new trail cut....rake-and ride hillside trail for the most part believe it or not! We do need to get back out there and bench a few sections and REALLY throw a pro-bench on the last 100 yards. I think a crew of five+ could knock all that out in a few hours though so keep your schedule open for next Saturday morning. After we knock this out and a little bit of additional clean up work the first phase of the Spencer Mountain Loop can be opened to everyone! Altogether it will add about one to one and a half miles of additional trail to Poston. Oh yeah there is a bridge to get built as well but we can add that after the fact if we don't get to it before we're ready to open house. There is a ride-around for now thanks to Jonboy. It was not a cool morning today, once the sun got up in the sky it was pretty toasty work so big thanks to Richard, Russ (and son), and Scott for coming out and sweating it out...super productive day!

- We heard Poston was in need of more elevation...fixed.

- Child labor laws? Never heard of them......

It has been almost a month since a front page update; bikepasa might need to fire their webmaster. I’m gonna talk to somebody about that pronto. Well even though the front page has been lacking the club has been doing plenty. First off lots of work has been going on with Poston Trail as always. Right now we are working on a new loop up on the lower edge of Spencer Mountain, hopefully we can finish that up by the end of March and hook it into the trail system.  Typical Poston…you go up, you go down but even more so than normal. One downhill should be the fastest currently in the whole trail system!

- Freshly cut bench and a nice little cairn (ode to Wilson Creek).

- The Spencer Mountain Trail will have plenty of rock features!

Meanwhile in Kings Mountain we continue to take an assembly line attack strategy with the dense scrub we’re slowly getting trail into. Right now we have a Trail Designer who goes in and cuts a path wide enough to squeeze through to flag, and then multiple trail coordinators come in behind that flagging to open the corridor. At this point we are not even working on the trail surface yet…clearing alone is a full-time gig.

- This is what the Trail Designer has to deal with…the blind leading the blind. Bushwhack and flag!

- After serious clearing and MUCH hard work by the Trail Coordinators and their volunteers we end up with this. Be sure to thank those peeps…this is not an easy or fun process.

Finally today we had our very first PASA swap meet. This one was held at Pee Wee’s Mountain Bike Park and we had a really great turnout for a first stab at this. Everyone had a great time, scored some good deals, and enjoyed a nice group ride after the barter session. Look for us to have another swap meet for sure…maybe sooner than later.

- PASA Swap Meet at Pee Wee’s Mountain Bike Park…

On Sunday afternoon Calvin and I set out to start flagging the trail corridor for the Kings Mountain Bike Trail. A lot of this woods is new growth from what looks like a clear cut from maybe 3-5 years a go. We knew it would be thick but until we actually stepped into it we didn't have a clue. You literally cannot walk through it, you can't see 10 feet in front of you. Luckily this trail is going to be pretty linear most of the time so design without site isn't a huge issue as we're in the woods a few hundred feet away from the greenway so we can kind of tell what's going on by getting out in the open. Moving through the woods and flagging without cutting some form of an opening as you go however is dang near impossible. We brought a bush axe but that was not the correct tools, you didn't have room to swing it. Next time loppers and maybe a machete are the right tools for the job. We're also looking into the possibility of using a walk-behind brush mower to open the initial path which would blow through what's really just grunt work before any trail work can even be done. One way or another we got some clearing to do but it's totally worth it...the Kings Mountain Bike Trail is going to be an epic ride!

- Calvin at the start of our flagging which ended up taking an hour to move less than a 10th of a mile. The start pictured above is about as open as it got.