The Hurricane Ida Chimney Rock Relief Effort Thread

[Kirt]

Wanted to say thanks to all the local people that joined JORBA and/or donated to support the efforts to get the park back to normal. Every bit helps.

Seems like we already have a nice sized group for tomorrows session but I thought I'd link it here for any of the new folks.

WVP/Chimney Rock TM SATURDAY 9/25 8am

So the storm clean up continues this Saturday. Plan is to finish the east side of the orange section and move onto lower yellow if we have time. We will meet at 8am at the Gilbride lot. The lot is currently closed off but we have permission to park there. Any time you can give is helpful, so...

www.mtbnj.com

 

[gmb3]

Got in for an afternoon quickie mission today. Parked at ballfields and walked in, over small ladder bridge and left toward Frolf. 3rd "dip" before Frolf was holding water due to runoff blocking the low side. Shoveled it out and the water started flowing.

Walked through "the shithole" and it actually didn't smell! Nice job clearing that out, @Norm !
Crossed over to Orange and cleared out a couple drainage spots on my way up to the gully turn. Before picture of gully turn:

Used McLeod to hack down the inside of the turn and pull that dirt into the gully. Only had to hack thru 1 large root! Pickaxe woulda been preferred for hacking but then wouldn't have had a good pulling/packing tool. Turn is widened and slightly bermed for your shredding pleasure. After picture:

Just below it is a small gully in the straightaway that i didn't have time to address other than i threw some rocks in it. Needs dirt over top. Not sure the plan for tomorrow's TM but this spot is not worthy of a large crew.

 

[Norm]

Saturday, September 25th

Just 3 months until Christmas and the park got an early Xmas present today in the form of the TM session. You can see the thread here.

In total, 17 people showed up today and we worked from the Gilbride lot, which the park opened up for us. High Tech donated 5 guys, which Kirt took with Rob the translator to lower orange. I led the crew on upper orange. By 10:30, we had that all knocked out.

gmb3 gave us a head start and smoothed out a section of orange which you can see in the thread above - awesome job George! So we kept moving up and working a few sections. This tree had fallen in the last week:

We addressed a bunch of low spots by de-rooting, cutting down the cupping to pull the dirt to the high side, and nicking out the low side. The climb on orange is tough because there are some solid rock sections but we do what we can.

We addressed a few other sections then made it to the top of the enduro downhill (the way back down to the river) where we took a right towards the top of the guardrail climb then another right to go back towards Gilbride. There is a spot there which is always wet. We did the best we could by dropping rocks then dirt on top.

This in no way is a long-term solution but it's much better than it was. It'll need work again in the spring but for now it's better.

We all went back to the lot for a snack then hit yellow.

We did a bunch of work near the bridge, most notably dredging out a place for the stream to flow. The water was going under the rock pile which has no chance of surviving long-term. So we gave the water an outlet, and put the bridge back. We also cut out a trail from the bridge to the trail leading to Gilbride.

This is looking towards the river from that same spot:

After this we worked from here to the rock slide on Train Simulator.

You can see more pics from hls811 here, and Kirt here.

Still some work to do, but getting closer every week. Stay tuned for the next session. Soon enough we'll be back to the regularly scheduled program of moving the ball downfield instead of trying to get it back to the original line of scrimmage.

Many thanks to everyone who came out!

 

[Norm]

This Week

I have been focusing on Blue this week in an effort to address some of the wet areas as well as the roots. Tuesday I was out cutting roots and all I can say is wow, there's about 40,000 exposed now. Trails are more or less ok but very worn out.

I've also been trying to address some of the wet areas which is going to be obvious for people who have been out there this week. Some of these are a heavy work-in-progress and there's only so much we can do without a dump truck of soil to cover everything with. These will all be addressed in time it's just going to take a while for 100-200 pounds of mud to dry out.

One thing we did more or less (let's say 80%) finish today was fixing up the work that Kirt & the crew did in the spring right before the middle crossover trail. The stream crossing was awesome but Ida had other plans.

Before & after, not the best lighting in the world but you get the idea.

There is actually still water flowing from under here, so it may take some time to fully settle in. But the gaping hole that was threatening to eat bikers has been addressed.

The mud hole halfway down the western side is a mud hole. Again, work in progress.

Even though it is a really low priority I am going to keep chipping away at the absurd erosion issues on lower blue (middlebrook). This will never be a destination trail, nor will it be an IMBA epic. But I am hoping that we can slowly shape it away from the bombed out moonscape that it has become. Anyone who has been here in the last few days should see some obvious signs of work.

 

[CNJRider]

Awesome. Thanks for all the hard work! Just donated a few more bucks through jorba to CR this week. About lower blue’s bombed out moonscape…. I may be in the minority but I actually like that section. Change of pace zig zagging up and over the tangles of roots and permanent mud puddles. Blue remains a favorite part of CR and one of many reasons I love the park overall.

 

[Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST]

That river gorge at the top of red is something else. I'm not sure what the plan is for that.
The rock pile crossing on blue is totally rideable.
Nice work everyone.

 

[TomS887]

Trails are awesome, but park has flagged the trail by the dam as closed. Anyone know what they are planning? The trail is indeed pretty sketchy here, but no detour besides going around the reservoir?

 

[Norm]

Trails are awesome, but park has flagged the trail by the dam as closed. Anyone know what they are planning?

Not sure what the plan is. The road is caving into the reservoir dam overflow so it looks to be a massive project to me. Ideally they would let us reroute around it into the woods but I don't think that is likely. As of now, no plan that I am aware of.

 

[eastbloc]

Doesn't actually seem unsafe unless you ride into the hole. It's possible more of the edge will collapse unexpectedly, but I reckon it's more of a liability issue.

 

[hls811]

Doesn't actually seem unsafe unless you ride into the hole. It's possible more of the edge will collapse unexpectedly, but I reckon it's more of a liability issue.

Just put a ramp before the hole and make people go airborne over it. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[Bike N Gear]

Just put a ramp before the hole and make people go airborne over it. 🤷🏻‍♂️

But you have to be careful you don’t snag your handlebar on the chain link fence.

Years ago I did that out at Round Valley while dropping down the RR ties next to the fence. Stops the bike cold, but not your body.

 

[eastbloc]

But you have to be careful you don’t snag your handlebar on the chain link fence.

Years ago I did that out at Round Valley while dropping down the RR ties next to the fence. Stops the bike cold, but not your body.

I've actually worried about this more at the base of the fire road by the lake where you turn right to drop down towards the red trail. The fence is broken there and protruding just about pedal height. Snagging it while going down that steep little drop would be a bad time.

I've recently had a near-conjunction between face and rock on a totally innocuous little drop gone wrong that had me contemplating what might have happened if I had traveled a few more uncontrolled inches. It's led me to invest in a helmet with a chin bar. We'll see what happens when it's 90 degrees out, but so far I actually like it a lot, as a long-time motorcyclist I find it familiar and reassuring.

 

[hls811]

I've actually worried about this more at the base of the fire road by the lake where you turn right to drop down towards the red trail. The fence is broken there and protruding just about pedal height. Snagging it while going down that steep little drop would be a bad time.

I've recently had a near-conjunction between face and rock on a totally innocuous little drop gone wrong that had me contemplating what might have happened if I had traveled a few more uncontrolled inches. It's led me to invest in a helmet with a chin bar. We'll see what happens when it's 90 degrees out, but so far I actually like it a lot, as a long-time motorcyclist I find it familiar and reassuring.

That little drop is where I went over my bars last year and broke a rib. I couldn’t blame the fence then, just my riding “skills”, but when I worked up the nerve to try it again this year… I clipped the fence and went down again. (Injury-free.. unless you count the beating my ego took in not being able to do it).

 

[CNJRider]

That little drop is where I went over my bars last year and broke a rib. I couldn’t blame the fence then, just my riding “skills”, but when I worked up the nerve to try it again this year… I clipped the fence and went down again. (Injury-free.. unless you count the beating my ego took in not being able to do it).

Now I don’t feel so bad about always detouring around that drop through the second gap further down the fire road. Guess I am right to trust my instincts. I like my ribs (and clavicle and other bones).

I have a full face that I bought for Mountain Creek but never got around to going. Will wait for cooler temps and use for trail riding too. While not as breezy as a halfie, there are some pretty well ventilated options available.

 

[Norm]

On topic please, gents.

On that specific note of the fence drop, adjustments will be made to that eventually.

 

[gmb3]

@Norm and @Kirt - fridays seem to be good for me. I know a lot has been done already but is there anything else on "the list" that i might take care of tomorrow?

 

[Norm]

@Norm and @Kirt - fridays seem to be good for me. I know a lot has been done already but is there anything else on "the list" that i might take care of tomorrow?

Your mission if you so choose to accept it is to address the root drop as discussed above. That drop is now eroded and the roots need to be removed from it.

Also the go around is overgrown and I believe hard to pass through right now. That's probably an area that is good for a solo mission.

Make sense?

 

[gmb3]

Your mission if you so choose to accept it is to address the root drop as discussed above. That drop is now eroded and the roots need to be removed from it.

Also the go around is overgrown and I believe hard to pass through right now. That's probably an area that is good for a solo mission.

Make sense?

not making it today afterall

 

[thegock]

#alreadyplayedwalkupmusic

 

[Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST]

@Norm Thanks for the berm on upper blue. It's riding nicely.