Poto: Rolling Hills Park

[bill_m]

Mike, given the morning start why don't you pick up some doughnuts, bagels and coffee for the crew. Save the receipt and the Poto Chapter will cover the tab. It's the least we can do.

Sorry I'll miss it. I'll be up at Ore to Shore on Saturday.

[michael48197]

There will definitely be donuts, coffee and bagels. There're good for a morning wake up. Even better, I've arranged with RHP management an awesome cool down of a free admission to the water park for all trail crew members for the afternoon!!! Park Supervisor - Steve Wyatt - will arrange for the crew to enter as a group as his guests. So, bring your brawn to build the trail, your bike to ride and your suit for swimming. See you Saturday 8/8 at 9 AM!

Oh, if you plan to come to the work day, please send me a RSVP at the Email address below. I'd like to have an idea of the crew size so we can plan the scale of the work day. Thanks.

Michael Connolly
RHP Trail Coordinator
734-528-1496
mconnolly62@yahoo.com

[michael48197]

One more update on the work day this Saturday 8/8. If you don't already have a Washtenaw County Park Pass, we've arranged for trail workers to get free admission into Rolling Hills Park as well as free group admission to the water park. When you arrive at the park gate, each volunteer identify should identify that they are there to volunteer for Trail Work Saturday and show your ID. The Gate Attendant will record your name, then pass you through to the parking area to meet.

Michael Connolly
MMBA Rolling Hills Trail Coordinator
734-528-1496

[michael48197]

The trail work day for today, Sat. 8/8, has been canceled due to the rain. Look for notices for rescheduling on the MMBA-Poto Yahoo! Group mailing list (register at http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/MMBA-Poto/) or on this Forum. Also, check out the Trailwork Tuesday Forum for weeknight trail work activities. Thanks.

Michael Connolly
Rolling Hills Trail Coordinator
734-528-1496

[michael48197]

We continue to make progress with the new trail with small crews, albeit glacially. The trail has passed the 'crater' and an open glade, crossed the grass path and is now headed down hill to a twisty section. We did a bit of bench cutting last night (8/11) and plan to use the natural terrain for some nice swooping downhill turns during the build session next week. There will likely be a 'technical bypass' in the upcoming section to ride along a ridge and over some boulders and old building debris. See the attached map for an update.

Tentatively, we aim to reschedule the rain-canceled Saturday workday from this past weekend to Sat. 8/29. Look for details here in a few days and on the MMBA-Poto Yahoo! User group.

Michael Connolly
Rolling Hills Trail Coordinator
734-528-1496

[pimpalicous]

I walked the trail today and allI can say is WOW!!!!! This is going to one great piece of riding paradice when completed. I'm gonna try to get out again to help (schedule's been hectic). The trail that has been cut needs to be ridden so that the trea dcan set in. It's already starting to over grow at the begining off of the "service drive". Hope to see ya all again soon.

[bill_m]

How sweet is this going to be when RH+HC=a 30 mile loop of kick *beep* singletrack. We're gonna need a bigger parking lot

[G.Cook]

Ditch Witch SK 500 . Thats all I gotta say

[J.knight]

Ditch Witch SK 500 . Thats all I gotta say

How about XR650R? Can randomly move some dirt.

[G.Cook]

Probably at one of the "night trail work " sessions only .

[michael48197]

I'm please to read the comments from 'pimpalicious' and see some enthusiasm for the effort the RHP team has put in so far. We expect the trail will be quite a surprise to first time riders. Not so tame as one might expect.

Too bad the rain washed out the planned work day for Sat. 8/8. With evenings beginning to shorten, Trail Work Tuesday's will come to an end relatively soon...at least before we finish the trail. So, we want to plan a couple of Saturday workdays in the next few months and especially want to get one more in before the RHP Water Park closes for the year. Tentatively, Norm Roller, Bob Hollen and I have penciled in Saturday 8/29 as the next Saturday trail work day for RHP. Not official yet as I want to clear it with the RHP Supervisor and arrange entrance passes to the park and water park. As follow up, we've also penciled in Sat. 9/12 with Sat. 9/26 as alternate. These look like the only viable weekends until the end of Sept. as 8/22 is the MMBA Maybury race, 9/5 is Labor Day and 9/19 is the Triple Trail Challenge.

Give me some feedback on your interest and availability for Sat. workdays. Look for an announcement here and on the Yahoo!Group in the next few days.

Michael Connolly
Rolling Hills Trail Coordinator
734-528-1496
mconnolly62@yahoo.com

[michael48197]

Mark your calendar for Saturday August 29. We will be having a workday at Rolling Hills from 9 AM to 1 PM on 8/29 to start a big push on this trail since we'd like to get Phase 1 (first 5 miles) done this year. We will meet as usual in the main parking lot near the park HQ. If you can't arrive until later, look for a map attached to one of the cars and meet us at the work site. With a crew of 8-10, we can both extend the trail quite a bit and clean up some sections built over the past few months. A bigger crew will also allow us to build technical sections through the center of the 'crater', a 'rock garden' over some old road rubble and complete a log pile.

There will be donuts, coffee and bagels for a good morning wake up. Even better, I've arranged with RHP management for an awesome cool down of free admission to the water park for all trail crew members for the afternoon!!! (http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/de ... _park.html) Park Supervisor - Steve Wyatt - will arrange for the crew to enter as a group as his guests. If you don't already have a Washtenaw County Park Pass, we've arranged for trail workers to get free admission into Rolling Hills Park. When you arrive at the park gate, each volunteer should identify that they are there for the MMBA Trail Work Saturday and show your ID. The Gate Attendant will record your name, then pass you through to the parking area to meet.

Info on RHP including a map can be found at: http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/de ... kroll.html

So, come out to see the trail progress and lend a hand. As usual, long pants & sleeves, work shoes and bug juice are a must. Trail implements like rakes, shovels and pruners are always welcome. Bring your bike to ride the first section if you like. Add a half mile on the mowed/gravel park roads and the trail makes a nice 1.5 mile loop at this point.

Bring your brawn to build the trail, your bike to ride and your suit for swimming. Oh, if you plan to come to the work day, please send me a RSVP at the Email address below. I'd like to have an idea of the crew size so we can plan the scale of the work day. Feel free to contact me with any questions. Thanks. See you Saturday 8/8 at 9 AM!


Michael Connolly
Rolling Hills Trail Coordinator
734-528-1496
mconnolly62@yahoo.com

[michael48197]

As I was away on business, I couldn't make it to this week's Trail Work Tuesday at RHP. However, Norm Roller and several NEW (!!) volunteers made some good progress on a 'swooping' downhill section and back up the slope towards the next park road crossing. Next week on TWT (8/25) and the Saturday work day (8/29) we will cross the park road and continue following the steeply contoured terrain.

With summer coming to an end, trail building weather will improve and the bugs will wane. The RHP trail inexorably is coming into shape. Come out and lend a hand.

Michael Connolly
Rolling Hills Trail Coordinator
734-528-1496
mconnolly62@yahoo.com

[michael48197]

REMINDER: Trail Work Saturday 8/29 - 9 AM to 1 PM

Tree Fort Bikes has agreed to sponsor a pizza lunch after the work session!! See my posting from Monday 8/17 for details.

Michael Connolly
RHP Trail Coordinator
734-528-1496
mconnolly62@yahoo.com

[michael48197]

The new RHP trail continues to take shape. The hilly terrain and serpentine trail will be a blast to ride when it's completed this fall. We've got about 1.5 miles of trail at the moment with a total of 3.5 to 4 miles to be cut this year. Check out the map below for trail progress and this link (http://picasaweb.google.com/BikeHewensC ... TrailDays#) for some updated photos of RHP work days.

Come out the the trail work day this Saturday 8/29 to help finish this trail and open it for riding this fall.

Michael Connolly
RHP Trail Coordinator