North Trace Creek Cleared

Thanks to the efforts of a small crew on Saturday, GORC's North Trace Creek Adopt-A-Trail section is clear from just south of Hazel Creek to the Telleck Branch Connector. If you haven't been on one of the Ozark Trail Maintenance runs, you should sign up for the next one. They're great fun, and if you've never seen the BOB trailers bouncing around behind a bike you'll have a good laugh.

New Trail at West Tyson Park

We all know what a blast it is to come barreling down the Chubb and finish up a ride at the Circle. What could be better? How about being able to ride back to the parking lot on singletrack rather than on the road? Well, if there are enough volunteers at the Flint Quarry Trailhead at 9 am this Saturday, March 10, you'll be able to do just that.
This trail is short, only about 3/10 of a mile, but it's very rocky and complicated, and will require a lot of benchcutting and moving of rocks. The trail crosses two creeks, and actually uses one of them for around 100 feet.
Because of all the digging, we'll need a really good volunteer turnout to finish this, so please come out and help if you can. This makes 2 new sections of trail in 2 weeks!

The Rollercoaster at Castlewood

Thanks to the more than 50 volunteers who braved the wintry conditions this weekend, there is a new trail at Castlewood. If you go clockwise from where it starts across from the Ranger Station Cut-Off you might find the trail a little hard to follow at the moment. Just keep following the orange flags and paint. Sam says he's going to try and get out this week and blow the leaves off the tread, so get out and help beat it in once the trails have dried out. The updated map and description should be up on the Trails Page soon.

Yo, Big Dummy

These shots are ripped off directly from Surly where there are more on the blog. You may already know they're working on a frame called the Big Dummy. It's basically an Xtracycle-inspired frame and I think it'll cost about $800 or so. It's supposed to be available sometime in the summer.

Never mind the StokeMonkey red thing in the middle, that's a pricey extra bit. I think the wheels are 26in. and can take up to a 2.5 tire. Theyhave a proto rigged with 40 pounds of gear, including a mini keg.

I think the frame could be a good idea for trail maintenance deep in the Ozark backcountry - such as Middlefork, North Trace and even Council Bluffs. As a bonus, you could bulldoze the downhills.

There's a hundred ways to outfit the frame to haul all the tools into the worksite and it handles better than a trailer setup. Not to mention it's one less (odd) tire size to deal with when it flats or gets ripped from the trailer.

This could be a wise GORC investment, you know, since the club is all rich now. Who knows, maybe we could get some sort of club discount from Surly for using it for a good cause. We could also build it up with donated components.