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.