Jeep Cross Trail re-route

japerry · Jul 28, 2010

Those who have frequented Walker Valley in the past 4 months have noticed that Jeep cross hasn't been easily passable. Logging operations managed to destroy parts of the road, making it dangerous for 4x4 travel.

Additionally, there was a failed culvert allowing water to flow on the road. Repair of this culvert was going to be extensive. Rather than repair this road, it was decided that we would create a re-route (new trail! sorta!).

So after many weeks of discussions and planning -- today I'd like to announce the community effort to restore the Jeep Cross trail. This is your chance to get involved and help the trail look as good as it can for as many types of wheelers as possible.

Elyse Fenor, Jay Guthrie, Pat (MC), and Myself went out to survey this new trail. It has already been ran by various folks getting around the washed out road.

Jay noticed that the trail goes through a swale. This is not good for keeping water off the trail. So today we went to flag the correct alignment for the trail. Here is the walk through (after Jay's speech, the video goes from the top down)

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkqvEmlsjwk[/YT]

What is this thread about?

Organizing people to come up with obstacle ideas
Get people excited and involved in building a trail
making a re-route with as much community involvement as possible

This thread is not to discuss any other WV issue. Just this re-route :awesomework:

There is a work party planned for the 2nd and 3rd weekend of August..
2nd weekend: http://nw-wheelers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54291
3rd weekend: http://nw-wheelers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54292

Lastly, and very important... This is a test from DNR to see how the community can come together and build a trail with nearly 100% donated labor.
Therefore.. please respect the trail as its being built. Only travel on it if you're actively working on it. Foot traffic is encouraged In otherwords, I, Jay, or Elyse don't want to see huge ass ruts all up and down the trail between now and the 2nd week of August. If this happens our chances of this succeeding will be slim.

Now.. discuss!

japerry · Jul 28, 2010

Hill climb with stumps, and needed rocks:

zukkev · Jul 28, 2010

Where's this failed culvert exactly Jakob??? Looks like there's some work to do....but thank you for taking your time to meet with Jay, Alyse, and the other guy!:redneck:

japerry · Jul 28, 2010

zukkev said:
Where's this failed culvert exactly Jakob??? Looks like there's some work to do....but thank you for taking your time to meet with Jay, Alyse, and the other guy!:redneck:

Heh Elyse said it was a failed culvert.. I think its more like a missing one!

We or the MC group will be putting in a short culvert for cycles to cross here.

zukkev · Jul 28, 2010

There's never been a culvert there for as long as I can remember:redneck:....
:eeek: the M/C (and quads I presume) get that trail now (more mileage for their system)...looks like we got shorted going by the map....could be wriong though. Not trying to be negative by any means, maybe the powers that be will give us some leeway on the construction of said reroute...possibly some added trail elsewhere???
REALLY wish I coulda walked this potential reroute the other week...

japerry · Jul 28, 2010

zukkev said:
There's never been a culvert there for as long as I can remember:redneck:....
:eeek: the M/C (and quads I presume) get that trail now (more mileage for their system)...looks like we got shorted going by the map....could be wriong though. Not trying to be negative by any means, maybe the powers that be will give us some leeway on the construction of said reroute...possibly some added trail elsewhere???
REALLY wish I coulda walked this potential reroute the other week...

Ahh yes, so at first glance it'd look like our trail is going down. But in fact we're gaining 1130ft. Mainly because the old trail was really just an old logging road with a missing culvert. Instead we now have a logging road and 1130ft of actual trail.

We're giving the old part to the M/C because of the culvert (which is easier to replace for them) and to give them direct access to Short Timer's trail. In all its a win for us.

We will be able to do fun stuff here. the main thing we're watching out for is water travel.

zukkev · Jul 29, 2010

Ok, got it...makes sense! If it is definitely a go---:eeek:

Binder · Jul 29, 2010

japerry said:
We will be able to do fun stuff here.

Define "fun stuff". Is this another one of those projects where we want to build something fun but the DNR decides it's too fun and asks us to change it?

What do you forsee as being the timeline of this project?

japerry · Jul 29, 2010

Binder said:
Define "fun stuff". Is this another one of those projects where we want to build something fun but the DNR decides it's too fun and asks us to change it?

With the work at Reiter being done, DNR has changed its views on some of the obstacles. But it will require people on the ground to stand up against any actions DNR might want to take to water down the trail.

Binder said:
What do you forsee as being the timeline of this project?

Depends on how many people show up. If we have 20-30 people on the 2nd saturday, and another 20 people on the 3rd saturday, I think we could have the whole trail done. I have tasks to divide people into, we just need the people now.

zukkev · Jul 29, 2010

Binder said:
Define "fun stuff".
What do you forsee as being the timeline of this project?

Well, let's just say that on either weekend, your buggy & trailer could well be an asset...:;

japerry said:
With the work at Reiter being done, DNR has changed its views on some of the obstacles. But it will require people on the ground to stand up against any actions DNR might want to take to water down the trail.
I have tasks to divide people into, we just need the people now.

Again, buggy+trailer=asset...

Had a good long talk with Jakob tonight...I think this could well be a good example of what could be done to make it (trails in general) alot funner, while still being environmentally concious and sustainable...

Binder · Jul 29, 2010

zukkev said:
Well, let's just say that on either weekend, your buggy & trailer could well be an asset...:;

Again, buggy+trailer=asset... Had a good long talk with Jakob tonight...I think this could well be a good example of what could be done to make it (trails in general) alot funner, while still being environmentally concious and sustainable...

I can't make it on the 14th but the 21st is free so I'll plan on helping then.

War-Jeeper · Jul 29, 2010

Im down to help out on this project! The 14th is a no go for me though but i will be there the 21st unless something comes uo between now and then which is unlikely

Binder · Jul 29, 2010

Where exactly is BR 34? Is that the short section of access road where the upper mainline ends?

japerry · Jul 29, 2010

Binder said:
Where exactly is BR 34? Is that the short section of access road where the upper mainline ends?

2slow4you · Jul 29, 2010

I should be able to make one or possibly two of the weekends depending on how my schedule turns out. Thanks for the heads up guys! :awesomework:

xgerstandtx · Jul 29, 2010

Down for the 14th working party. Possibly the 21st also

trxguy · Jul 29, 2010

ill be there both weekends i am always down to make some trails
some other members should be there too ----Hi-Center'd Off Road----

the only questions i have about this trail we are working on, is the difficulty;
are we making another trail for the guy on 33s or will it have some difficulty for the guy on 38s+
_________________________________________________________________
matt
president
Hi-Center'd Off Road

japerry · Jul 29, 2010

trxguy said:
ill be there both weekends i am always down to make some trails
some other members should be there too ----Hi-Center'd Off Road----

the only questions i have about this trail we are working on, is the difficulty;
are we making another trail for the guy on 33s or will it have some difficulty for the guy on 38s+
_________________________________________________________________
matt
president
Hi-Center'd Off Road

The lower sections will be suitable for 33-35s, although I hope the log crawl can be challenging for anyone upto 38s. We don't have a lot of elevation gain, but there will be two small hill 'bumps' we could make hard.

The hill climb on the other-hand, should nearly be impossible on 33s, difficult for 35-38s, and hopefully we can have a line that would make buggies like as well.

aka.. something like this: (37" tires.. and we had to place some logs under to 'bump up'

trxguy · Jul 29, 2010

japerry said:
The lower sections will be suitable for 33-35s, although I hope the log crawl can be challenging for anyone upto 38s. We don't have a lot of elevation gain, but there will be two small hill 'bumps' we could make hard.

The hill climb on the other-hand, should nearly be impossible on 33s, difficult for 35-38s, and hopefully we can have a line that would make buggies like as well.

sounds good to me i don't have a buggy but i do have a yota on 38s so when making this trail we should just keep running my toyota up the obstical untill it doesn't go... at that point we should have a difficult enough trail....lol:awesomework:
__________________________________________________________
matt