The Hurricane Ida Chimney Rock Relief Effort Thread

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Hello fellow Chimney Rock party people!

I discussed this with @Kirt and after the last week (ish) of triage & reports from the park, we decided this is a better place than the CR Conditions thread, which will probably go into an "on hold" state while we move forward with the relief efforts needed at Chimney Rock.

So...the park got hammered. I would say this is far, far worse than the micro-tornados, or really anything else I have ever seen. It's pretty bad out there.

We are going to use this thread to keep a sort of running log of work, observations, plans, and any other news about this. I encourage you to subscribe, pray, send thoughts, call your mom, write your congressman, send me a PM, or whatever it takes to help MCRGA. This also includes printing up t-shirts that read: MAKE CHIMNEY ROCK GREAT AGAIN. I will take a large, thank you.

I will pull out a random number and say that we are looking at minimum of 1000 man-hours to get this place back to a decent state. It's quite possible it may be double that. Some of the carnage is insane.

There will be plenty of opportunity to help in the coming weeks & months. I encourage anyone who has ridden here with any regularity to come out and help. I also suggest that you join JORBA as this is going to be a JORBA-funded, JORBA-run, effort. I won't harp on that point, but I will mention it there.

Also of note is that JORBA is now officially representing 2 parks here - the Somerset County version is "Washington Valley Park" which is the official name of the park JORBA has always represented. Also, JORBA is now officially maintaining the Bridgewater properties adjacent to Washington Valley Park. That includes the ballfield trails, the "black" trail(s) off Gilbride, and the far western piece of Blue. Kirt has met with both systems and they are both on board with doing what is needed to get the park back into shape.

Stay tuned for more!
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Wednesday, September 8th

After the drop off at high school I took the pup over to the back side of the ballfield trails this morning. We walked in, did a CCW loop, then went up the middle to the access trail from the fields themselves, then went back down & continued on the CCW loop back to my car.

I took the axe with me and chopped out roots as I went. This is hardly the most pressing item right now, but it gave me something to do while I got the lay of the land for those trails. So we now have about 100 fewer roots holding water & eroding the trails. A small step, but a step nonetheless.

There is a bit of a gulley on the straight section with gravel on it. I think this will be something we address soon. It's not much now, and should be easy to fix, but it has the hallmark of the "this could get ugly fast" and rut out into a total mess.

bc3f3b1a-f96d-499b-b8ec-4286f850b400-jpeg.166424


Area #2 was the run from the ball field access to the wooden bridge. The end of this is just a rock debris field. I stared at this for a few minutes and went on my way. I do not yet have an idea how to approach this. This will be the biggest piece of this segemt of the park. It's not a huge effort, but it needs to be done and I would say is the most detrimental to opening it up free & clear.

The bridge has a few boards broken. Nothing major but work is needed.

3709ef72-0585-4013-ac81-93e48e26be81-jpeg.166420


The bridge from the ball fields to the trail will need to be extended & supported. The lifespan on this just got shortened by a lot in the last week.

The lowest point where 3 trails come together, before the stream crossing to get to Gilbride, is still a swamp right now. It is greasy mud and needs to dry out more yet. I think there may be a tree down by the stream but I did not go over there.

The main "fun run" down from the top to the "gorge" is eroded badly. Ideally we reroute a little bit of this but it remains to be seen if this is high-priority enough right now. This has been an issue for a while, of course. Last week exacerbated it. It's really washed out now. I am not sure if cutting down the edges and flattening it will be good enough. But it may be all we have time for right now. We obviously need to do a "best approximation" first pass.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Will pack McLeod in the car and head over in the am to see what I can do. High Tech is good or no?

LOL - as I understand it, High Tech is under water, where "water" and "rocks" are interchangeable words.
 

Gene

The Dancing Machine
I’d love to help.

I have a few more areas of trail I need to chainsaw & clear in South Mountain Reservation. While the network is not an official mountain biking area I have spent 11 years living here and doing what I can.

The chainsaw work is not even close to what needs to be addressed with the trails itself so understand where you are coming from.

Bottom line, I own a 20” chainsaw and a few axes. I know how to use them well and open to helping where directed.

Gene
 

The_Mountainside_Menace

Well-Known Member
Sounds fun.
Just bust out the kayak @jimvreeland. Hopefully that rain killed the ground hornets. Was going to venture over after work to assess the damage. Keep us updated on the dates @Norm, would love to help out. Watchung is horrible too. Every single fireroad is completely washed out. The tighter singletrack areas are okay. They just invested all this money on the horse stable trails, but did not reroute them, which is ultimately the main issue since they run straight downhill. Just a complete waste without proper trail design. I really think top of the gorge needs the same kind of love and consideration or else efforts will be for nothing. Parts need to be rerouted big time there.
 

gmb3

JORBA: Sourlands
JORBA.ORG
I still need to do a post-storm assessment of Sourlands, but initial reports say it's fine. If there's nothing to do, i can "donate" the remaining Sourlands VPP days to Chimney Rock. I can also try to come out and help where/when i can. The pictures look crazy.

**EDIT: And then i check the schedule and there are no more VPP days for the year. Oh well, will still help.
 
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icebiker

JORBA: Morris Trails
JORBA.ORG
Sad to hear this. Weekends are full through Oct but if there are any mid week dates after work I’ll lend a hand. It would be good if we inventory the spots that need work and what kind of work, then whomever among us is available can chip away at certain spots as their time allows and as their training (chainsaw?) or specialties (brush removal, nicks, pruning, etc) apply….
 

hls811

Well-Known Member
Following.. and hoping to help out over the weekends! (Damn work gets in the way during the week)
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
@Norm, how should we tag this?

[work]

9/8/2021 - 1 hour
Assess bridges behind ballfield, create materials list
Assess bridges on lower blue, make recommendations
Check bridge on Coney Island, no repairs needed
 

eastbloc

Active Member
Hello friends,

New to this forum, but I've actually been riding these trails for over two decades. We moved to Bridgewater in summer of last year, which has enabled us to enjoy them daily and love them dearly.

I live less than a mile from the trail head, and have resources to commit to this effort. Besides clearing trees and branches from the trails whenever possible, I also have tools for trail maintenance and bridge building, staging and storage areas on my property, even a small Kubota TLB that we can drive into the park if it proves useful.

I am also happy to pay for materials either directly or through JORBA donations. I joined JORBA yesterday. Looking forward to meeting some of you as we unite to MAKE CHIMNEY ROCK GREAT AGAIN :)
 

eastbloc

Active Member
I went for a little walk this morning with the goal of attacking the branches cluttering up Red along the fire road.

red1.jpg


That path is clear now:

red2.jpg



Previously a portage section, this should be rideable now, creating an alternative approach from Steele Gap to crossing the new gorge that has formed on top of Blue.
 
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Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
Why is CR always suffering after an event? Is there something that should be done proactively?

It is on the watchung ridge that is exposed to the raritan river basin or is it the newark basin?
General Washington used it to spot troops coming up from Philly (or trenton, or wherever)
so it is very "exposed"

For the last 35 years i've been around it, that ridge takes a beating any time there is a weather event which lines up with the valley.

I'd start thinking about removing all the dead stuff from underneath - they do prescribed burns, but there seems to be more fuel now.
 

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