Trail Day at Tranquility

Since I had missed the trailday at Manawa, I decided that I would make it out to the one at Tranquility today. Well after an interesting morning of being stranded out in Lincoln (car battery was dead after fog lights were accidentally turned on), I finally made it back to Omaha and to the trail shortly after 3pm.

Get some speed, and then...

Yeah, can you make it up that???

What I came out to find were tools of all sorts being used, people of all ages working on the trail, and people helping out in every which way they could. It was time to finish digging in some new trail that Paul, Chris, and possibly others had started.

Bill and Dave working hard on the turn around section

Lots of people out today to help

A little less steep would be great!

This is like a real worksite. Supervisors everywhere! Just kidding guys.

The new section is at the far northwest section of the swamp/wetlands at Tranquility. While it may seem tame as you first enter it, there is a fast swoopy section near the end with a "good luck getting over that climb" at the end. Many have tried, only one has succeeded (Karl made it over on about his 10th try). Thanks to THOR and Paul/Chris and others for adding on to our already awesome trail we call Tranquility.

Now that Dave's daughter is married, he needs to practice his babysitting skills. 

After seeing this, I don't think I'm going to try it on the next MNR. Not yet. I'll let you guys pack it down first!


The first victim from Misterlime on Vimeo.

Tranquility Trailday - Branches and Trash

After riding at Tranquility last Monday, it was clear that a trailday was necessary to whip the place into shape. There were branches everywhere on the ground, along with low hanging trees that practically took the light off of your helmet.

Ten of us plus three dogs made it out for a spectacularly nice sunny Saturday morning. Loppers, rakes, chainsaws, handsaws, and garbage bags were all that were needed this day. Trees and trash were the main focus. All sides of Tranquility were worked on and the one hour flew by. Tranquility finally got the haircut it deserved. A winter's worth of heavy snow really showed its effect on the trees. And the growth since last year was also apparent.

Dave N, Dave M, and myself then proceeded to head to the north of Fort side to clean trash. Eventually, the other crew met up with us on bikes and helped us in finishing the trash clean up.

I can't believe the amount of trash that we picked up just on that section of trail by the houses. We walked out with at least four full trash bags, two full boxes, and a full garbage can of junk. I found laminated fully intact health insurance cards, unopened cans of beer, tons of styrofoam, newspapers, and a ton of plastic grocery bags. Dave M even found a conch shell.

After the trash was picked up, we proceeded to do a lap around Tranquility. It felt good to be out in shorts and short sleeves. The wind eventually picked up by 1pm but that didn't stop the riders and runners from showing up at Tranquility. By the time we left, the parking was nearly full. Thanks to all who came out that morning to help with the trailday!

I was trimming this tree and I heard something move above me. I looked up and it looked like a plastic bag was moving around, but it had weight to it. Upon further inspection I found out it was an owl! It was trying to get out of the branches but kept hitting them like a pinball machine. This was the best picture I could get of it before it flew away. 

Trash everywhere

Virgin loppers no more! The conch shell that Dave found

The full can of beer now resides in a new home

Lets RIDE!

Can you believe it? More dirt dumping.

Recovery food and drink at Old Chicago

Trailwork, Pseudobeach Riding, and Humongous Burgers!

Wow, what a day! After another busy week at work (this time 11 hrs of OT), I was hoping to sleep in on a Saturday. But somehow a planned trailday at Lake Manawa and riding afterwards had me up and ready to go by 8am. I don't even wake up that early on workdays!

This is the first thing you see when you arrive at the boat docks of Lake Manawa

Mangled and twisted, this TTF was displaced by the flood

I loaded up the fatty, packed up the beers, brought a PB and J, and headed down to Council Bluffs. Hooked up with 11 other THOR members to help repair a TTF that was moved about 15 feet due to the flooding this past year. Besides the strong and chilly winds, the first thing that I noticed after stepping out of the car was the sand. Sand everywhere. No grass or dirt. Just sand. It was a very fine sand, packed down more than you would believe. It reminded me of a trip to Destin, FL. Minus the beautiful beach and bikini clad girls of course. The only water I would be seeing this time is the Missouri River!

Key was to figure out how to dismantle this thing

The other half about 15 ft away

But the sight made me smile. This winter has been weird, very little snow in Omaha except for maybe one or two quick storms. I figured, heck if I can't ride snow with my Mukluk, then I might as well ride sand. Never in a million years did I think that I would be riding sand in January on my fat bike in the midwest. Snow yes, sand never. And the sand is a sight to see. It looked like a wasteland. Everything was out of place. Trees coming out of the sand. Water level lines making an impression in the flora of the land. Yes, the flooding had done its damage. The real question is whether or not the trees survived after being underwater for half of the year.

The other half was behind me, yes it had moved that far

The reassembly

On to the ttf site. We followed a flagged trail that would eventually get us to what is left of Tony's Playground. The ttf was still there, it was just in two pieces and one section was severely twisted and about 15 ft from where it should have been. The original goal was to have enough hands to pick it up and move it. Not gonna happen. The base supports alone for the ttf were massive. The THOR team worked away with sledgehammers, cordless drills, hammers, and screws to disassemble, move, then reassemble the once and still intimidating piece of riding structure. It went a lot quicker than I had imagined. Thanks to everyone who showed up to help. Time to ride!

The finished product

Now Todd, just no repeat of 2009!

Riders were throwing out nicknames for the trail, such as Mana-sands and Mana-dunes. In my mind I was calling one section, "The Beach". The following pictures will speak louder than words. There are still some downed trees in the far east side of the trail. And I'm not talking log crossings. I'm talking get off your bike and lift your heavy a** Mukluk2 bike over two feet of log. About four of those if I remember right. I quickly learned that to use that bike in a cyclocross race, even as a joke, would be torture.

You can see the water line on the trees. And remember folks, this part of the trail is a good 10-20 feet above the river. 

More water lines on the trees

What the heck is this thing? Umm...ma'am your wig got swept away in the flood

Logs stuck up in trees

After riding the lollipop shaped loop for two laps (about 3.5 miles total), we headed to lunch in Bellevue. Stella's is where we decided on. Cool hamburger joint, where seating is first come serve and we had to wait at least 10 minutes. But man was it worth it. Tall boy Schlitz, onion rings, and a humongous southwestern burger to refill my energy. Plan was to ride Swanson afterwards and that we did. It was slow going, but fun nonetheless. Thanks to whoever installed that new section of trail at the end, nice looking loop! Looks like a lot of hard working hours were used to get that in place.

Dave riding through the beach

Kind of surreal. It is quiet and there are trees coming out of the sand. 

It was a busy type of exhausting day. Ended the day with a three hour nap on the couch. I think this will be a good year of trailworking and riding. I plan to head back out to Manawa with my DSLR, tripod, GoPro, and Mukluk one of these weekends. There is just too much out there to absorb in one day. Here is a link to Paul's pictures.
https://picasaweb.google.com/103456255070070059782/ManawaTrailDayJan282012?authuser=0&feat=directlink


I tracked the route using Endomondo:

Now that's what I call a burger!

Paul and Dave ready to dig in. No plates here, burgers are served on a napkin

Some proof that we actually rode Swanson

  

So on Brian and Paul's Surly Karate Monkeys, you can actually open your beverages on the Tuggnut. We were having way too much fun with it. 

Surly Tuggnut, meet Dig. Enjoying New Belgium's latest spring time brew, Dig. Good stuff guys! It's their newest pale ale