Building bridges is not our favorite thing to do, not even from an idiomatic standpoint much less so the actual act of building real bridges. Maybe that’s simply because the last three bridges we’ve had to build as a club at Poston were all over 20 feet long; one was even over 30 feet long. To this day I still have nightmares about building that 30+ footer! Today however we had to build a simple 8 foot long bridge…wow why can’t all the creeks at Poston be this small? Russell and I met this morning and I commented about how cool it was outside, maybe that’s because we had not started working yet. About an hour later we were soaked in sweat. This is not the time of year for trail work but this bridge work is something we really want to knock out sooner than later. This bridge was a snap to build and now you don’t have to dismount on the trail coming back down from the dog park fence. We also worked on the left-hand switchback right after this crossing, filling in the roots in the turn with dirt and widening the turning radius. Hopefully that switchback will flow better on a bike now. We also worked on this whole run of trail between the dog park fence and the bridge. We did a bit of trail grooming and cut out a lot of trees that were close to the trail which should help to speed it up a bit; it was tight even by PASA standards. We also cut the tree off the trail at the top of the phone line climb that been there for a few weeks. After that we drove out across the dam to the powerline cut and walked to where the Spencer Mountain Loop crosses the powerlines. That crossing has been getting choked down by autumn olive and blackberry briars so we opened it back up with a bush axe and McLeod. As a bonus we also scored a nice blackberry feast, they’re ripe for the picking right now! Word on the street is that John (jdub) was out in the woods at Poston too this morning. He opened up the whole trail corridor on old Michaux Loop and the Spencer Mountain Loop. In general the whole trail system has been getting closed in on by spring growth; we like to keep it tight but face-slappers every 50 feet gets old pretty fast. Thanks John and Russell, I can’t wait to get out there and ride after today’s work!

For a good five plus years now PASA has been in talks with the Town of Kings Mountain and Kings Mountain Gateway Trails (KMGT) Inc. about building mountain bikes trails off their greenway corridor once it was established. We gave presentations back between 2005-2006 to the KMGT steering committee as well as the Cleveland County Chamber of Commerce and the Kings Mountain Rotary Club to make a case for mountain bike trails. We explained that adding mountain bike trails to their greenway system would bring a whole additional group of riders to their trails that otherwise may never visit them. They have always been very receptive to this concept since the first meeting and worked with the land owners to get a few small parcels of land to dedicate to singletrack bike trails; specifically 3 tracts of 10 acres (30 acres total). This would only allow about 3 miles of trail however that’s still a positive. We always felt those 3 miles would be a popular addition and over time demand of more mountain bike trail would lead to more land for the cause. Currently the KMGT phase one has been complete for a year or so and it proving to be a popular recreation feature for the town. Phase two construction is partially complete and will be done this fall. Two of the tracts dedicated to mountain bike trails are in phase two. Today Ben Cohen and I were invited to walk phase two and see the land that has been dedicated to mountain bike trail use. To my surprise the first tract is ~40 to ~60 acres and the second tract is ~20 to ~40 acres…that’s quite a bit more land per parcel that the 10 acres I had knowledge of. This was a little bit of good news they were saving for us today! Additionally proposing this idea of mountain bikes trails those years back paid off as well. Although I always speculated PASA would get to build these trails that was just speculation. Early last week that speculation was put to rest however; this is a PASA project! I have a feeling that over time we will be granted permission to us even more land along the greenway for singletrack. This whole project could lead to even bigger things too as the KMGT when complete will end at the Boulders Access for Crowders Mountain which is a potential location for mountain bike trails in the state park in the future. Could it be that a simple greenway could become a mountain bike mecca in this area? I like to speculate that it will!

- Ben checking out PASA's new land grab!

Sorry for the week late post for this news, I dropped the ball on my front page updates. Last Saturday Kevin Barker met me out at Poston Park with his jeep and we dragged utility poles for two future bridges as close to their destination as we could get them. Kevin’s old trusty jeep has a short wheelbase so he impressively got two of these poles much farther into the woods than I figured he would saving us a lot of man power when the times comes to span these over the creeks. Hopefully we can do this work for one of the bridges in the next couple weeks; it’s a shorter crossing the poles are cut shorter and shouldn’t be too challenging to move. Additionally this particular bridge’s location will require no additional trail to be built to start using it right away; it will also bypass the creek crossing everybody loves to hate! Be sure to thank Kevin, he saved all of us a lot of hard work and sweat. Dingo Jeep rules!

Yesterday we got out to Poston in the morning hoping to beat the heat and get another productive day of trail work in. Mission accomplished! Well sort of anyway; we were productive but we didn't beat the heat. I think trail work is about done until those fall temperatures roll back in later this year. We will have a push to get some bridges installed but other than that trail building temps are gone for a while. So yesterday we built the return trail for the trail that's behind the soccer fields. Basically when you pop out above the dog park on the powerline cut you will come back down around the fence like you always have. However before you get to where you turn right onto the dirt road that take you back behind the soccer fields and parking lot there will be a trail leading you back into the woods instead. It has been marked with double orange flagging as seen in the photo below. On the other side of this tree swing right on a trail that takes you back down into the woods! Everyone get out there and ride it because the trail surface definitely needs some tread on it to speed it up. Also there is a small creek crossing that will require a minor bridge which is not in place yet so you will have to dismount to get over the creek but other than that it's ready to roll. Thanks to Ben, John, and Tom for coming out and working hard to get this loop complete!