TM/National Trails Day, June 6th

Shaggz

A strong 7
Hell,

Thanks to everyone who came out yesterday to complete this portion of trail.

Name clarification:
J7: Jose
Lilbuj: Josh
EDIT-
Rich: NJBadger, just joined

I thought it pretty cool that we were able to start and finish a project in one session. Even though participation was limited in numbers, compared to the work at the wall, any more and we would have been tripping over ourselves. 8-12 volunteers seems to be the magic number right now.

I was thinking a bit about the (lack of) diversity at our sessions, and the best I can come up with is the sense of urgency we as mountain bikers feel when we approach these efforts. Being the lowest on the rung at MDR and other parks throughout the state & country, we have a lot more at stake, and that is a big motivator.

I know how we spread the word for the MDR TM sessions, and quite frankly, I am uncertain if & how this message gets out to the hiking community. On occasion, a thread or post will pop up on this board about someone doing TM (ad hoc or planned), and someone else rode by and said hello. This ultimately turns into a debate about use of time, and intention when heading out for the day.

If all of those folks who showed up for the hiking portion of NTD had no idea that a TM session was going on, or what TM really meant, I can not really blame them for not changing their agenda. How do we know that they were not part of the regular Schooley's, Pyramid or Lew Mo sessions? Would it be OK for a trail crew at Lew Mo to be judgemental of Frank Harms if he rode by while they were slinging dirt? I can say I would probably do the same if I showed up for a ride, only find out a TM session was occurring at the same time.

Ultimately, if we want increase hiker/equestrian/naked trail jogger participation at TM sessions at MDR, we have to develop a better approach to getting the word out aside from posting on MTB web sites. The reality is this "group" is a little over a year old, and MDR is pretty far off the radar screen of the majority of Morris county residents. Perception is what counts, and we are clamining our stake as mountain bikers at MDR, and that is what is most important.
 
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Shaggz

A strong 7
We had a several hundred pound stone tumble down passed where it was intended to sit on the trail, and ultimately take out Duncan's back pack. Getting the stone back into place involved chains a lot man-ass touching, but it was a success. After the session was over, we discovered that the container of gasoline that was in the pack bore the brunt of the force, and amazingly did not leak or explode.

We also took the opportunity to survey the middle section of the wall reroute, and fixing that will be the focus of the June 27 session.
 

trailhead

JORBA: Wildcat/Splitrock
JORBA.ORG
It was still disappointing, though. I just hope that they all had a great hike and that none of them sneer or make disparaging remarks to any mountain bikers they meet on their hikes (especially those of us that do TM!). Though, I'll also wager that virtually none of them had any clue that the little group of folks who were sweaty, dirty, and tick covered were bicycle riders that built them a pretty cool hiking trail...while they hiked.

Well, at least the Morris County folks know where the vast majority of their volunteer trail labor comes from...that has to be good for us.

Well, 15 or so years ago it was Duncan expressing the same sentiment that you now are. Bikers were using the trails put in by the TC and not contributing. So take a lesson from him, and hopefully there will be better unity with trail users in the near future. Another factor is that many people have the misconception that trails are maintained by the paid staff at parks.
 

Fogerson

Former Resident Nerd
Well, 15 or so years ago it was Duncan expressing the same sentiment that you now are. Bikers were using the trails put in by the TC and not contributing. So take a lesson from him, and hopefully there will be better unity with trail users in the near future. Another factor is that many people have the misconception that trails are maintained by the paid staff at parks.

Of this I have no doubt, but it doesn't make it any less disappointing for me today. And no matter what else comes outta' my mouth, believe this, Duncan is the man!

So how do we do this? I noticed that there were quite a few of the hikers wearing polos with the same logo; silly me didn't take enough notice to remember what the logo was, but I'd hazard to guess it was a hiking club of some sort. And judging by yesterday's hike turnout, they gotta' have a good way to "get the word out".

Perhaps JORBA could reach out to the primary hiking clubs in NJ and depending on their structure get folks there introduced to the JORBA leads at each of the parks. Then maybe some co-planning/promotion/notification etc. could get rolling and we'd see a trail "Tour de Force" getting out for TM in our park. Or has that happened and not yielded fruit?

There are parks closing all over the country and there is no doubt that if all trail users are in lock step and contributing, the odds of that happening here go down...
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
We've seen no parks closed in this state in the recent past as far as I know. As such, I'm fine with 8:0 in terms of bikers:hikers in turnout. This shows that we put our money where our mouths are.
 

Fogerson

Former Resident Nerd
We've seen no parks closed in this state in the recent past as far as I know. As such, I'm fine with 8:0 in terms of bikers:hikers in turnout. This shows that we put our money where our mouths are.

I certainly understand where you're coming from Norm, but if we could understand and remedy the lop-sided representation, why wouldn't we?

Take yesterday for instance. If there were 16 of us instead of 8, we could've done what we did AND put the finishing touches on The Wall. Next time we could've been off to something "new"...

I dunno'...if it is a posting/notification/advertising thing among the hiking community, it seems like that could be a easy thing to fix.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I certainly understand where you're coming from Norm, but if we could understand and remedy the lop-sided representation, why wouldn't we?

Because I don't believe hikers accept bikers as bikers accept hikers. If the hikers were half as mobilized as the bikers are, and decided they didn't like us on "their" trails, I think we might be doomed.
 

Fogerson

Former Resident Nerd
Because I don't believe hikers accept bikers as bikers accept hikers. If the hikers were half as mobilized as the bikers are, and decided they didn't like us on "their" trails, I think we might be doomed.

You may be right and if that is the majority view, well then, this is the way it will always be.
 
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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
You may be right and if that is the majority view, well then, this is the way it will always be.

Likewise I may be dead wrong. I'm just somewhat fearful of poking the giant body of hikers that exists.
 

Laura T

New Member
We had a several hundred pound stone tumble down passed where it was intended to sit on the trail, and ultimately take out Duncan's back pack. Getting the stone back into place involved chains and a lot man-ass touching, but it was a success.
Oh Shaggz, you just had to write that, didn't you?? You KNOW I have the photos to back this up, too. My only question is: where exactly was your hand in that second photo, and why do you have such a goofy smile on your face??
 

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Fogerson

Former Resident Nerd
Likewise I may be dead wrong. I'm just somewhat fearful of poking the giant body of hikers that exists.

I think it is quite a leap from "Hey folks, ya' wanna' collaborate on some trail projects" to "Fee-fi-fo-fum I smell the blood of a biker having fun!"...well, you know what I mean...
 

VelocityBoy

"Sleeveless Joe"
Oh Shaggz, you just had to write that, didn't you?? You KNOW I have the photos to back this up, too. My only question is: where exactly was your hand in that second photo, and why do you have such a goofy smile on your face??

Those photos are great!

:rofl:
 

J-Dro

Well-Known Member
Because I don't believe hikers accept bikers as bikers accept hikers. If the hikers were half as mobilized as the bikers are, and decided they didn't like us on "their" trails, I think we might be doomed.

Funny story from our last Sourlands TM. We had a crew of about 12 working on a pretty serious armoring project. To be fair, there were 2 hikers among the volunteers. Nobody had bikes on this day because it was ridiculously soggy. This guy comes hiking along (in his polo shirt) and inquires about what we are doing. I spoke with him for a few minutes and mentioned JORBA of course, but I guess it didn't register. So he assumes that we are all hikers, and whispers in a condescending tone that if we really wanted to keep the trails in good shape we should ban all the mountain bikers. I then proceeded to introduce all the mountain bikers in the group, by name, to our passer-by. Without going into lecture mode, I explained that these trails wouldn't be maintained at all if it weren't for the dedicated MTB crew. I tried to recruit him for future TM's but somehow I'm not holding my breath.

We usually get 1 or 2 hikers at our TM's. The County helps spread the word through an email list for anyone who has volunteered for the past few years. It's not a huge hiker turnout but working hand-in-hand with other user groups can only help our cause.
 

Frank

Sasquatch
So he assumes that we are all hikers, and whispers in a condescending tone that if we really wanted to keep the trails in good shape we should ban all the mountain bikers. I then proceeded to introduce all the mountain bikers in the group, by name, to our passer-by. Without going into lecture mode, I explained that these trails wouldn't be maintained at all if it weren't for the dedicated MTB crew. I tried to recruit him for future TM's but somehow I'm not holding my breath.

Bravo Jeff, Bravo
 

trailhead

JORBA: Wildcat/Splitrock
JORBA.ORG
Perhaps JORBA could reach out to the primary hiking clubs in NJ and depending on their structure get folks there introduced to the JORBA leads at each of the parks. Then maybe some co-planning/promotion/notification etc. could get rolling and we'd see a trail "Tour de Force" getting out for TM in our park. Or has that happened and not yielded fruit?.

JORBA already has and is making good progress. And thanks to the good work you/we are putting into the trails, the effort has not gone un-recognized by these groups. They just need to get passed some deep rooted ideals, like refusing to work on multi-use trails. The fact that you were working on a hiking only trail shows our willingness to compromise. ;)
 

Fogerson

Former Resident Nerd
JORBA already has and is making good progress. And thanks to the good work you/we are putting into the trails, the effort has not gone un-recognized by these groups. They just need to get passed some deep rooted ideals, like refusing to work on multi-use trails. The fact that you were working on a hiking only trail shows our willingness to compromise. ;)

Interesting...as long as it is balanced and everybody has a net benefit I'm cool with it and it always, I dunno', startles me a bit when I'm reminded not everybody sees it that way. It is just like when I get a sneer upon greeting somebody on the trail with a smile and a "good morning" or get an absolutely zero response as if I was invisible :confused:

Anyway, I admit if I was working on hiking or equestrian only (or combo) trails every time I went up for TM it would, uh, wear on me and eventually I'd probably fade away. But as long as we're all helping each other out or it needs to be done, sh!t, sign me up. In the end we all just wanna' get out and enjoy our woodlands...
 

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