As crazy as it sounds, three of us actually did do trail work in the rain
on Saturday. It was a truly valuable work day. Russell Adams, Richard
Gabrunas (Huntsville Trail Steward), and I put on our rain gear (useless)
and walked and worked on the yellow and orange trails during the rain from
9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. This allowed us to see the runoff in action on our
trails. This was both scary and helpful. We were able to deberm areas
that were causing pooling of water and mud holes, cleaned off and under two
bridges that were clogged, closed go-arounds or cut-throughs at several
locations, and determined places were water diversion or rolling grade dips
are needed. I took pictures of many of these areas until my camera lense
fogged over; you will see some of these pictures on the website in the next
couple of weeks. The Parks Dept. maintenance guys were also there in the
rain, although we didn't need the wheel barrows :)

For those who don't know, a Rolling Grade Dip is a natural dirt berm that
is placed across the trail to direct water into the surrounding vegetated
area rather than allow the water to flow down the trail. The rolling grade
dips are not "speed bumps" for cyclists. RGDs are typically placed at or
near the top of a slope or in the middle of a very long, slightly angeled
section of trail and should be wide enough to only appear as a hump in the
trail. If water is allowed to travel down a slope, it picks up speed and
ultimately creates a trough and takes more soil with it. You will be
seeing more of these RGDs at Memorial for better water management on the
trails. Double Lake Recreation Area mountain bike trail was originally
designed and built with RGDs, and erosion has been minimized as a result.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next trail work day!!!!

Christina