November 30, 2006

Palmer Park Saturday Series Trail Work Report

Greetings!

The trail work season is now over. It's about
time that I reported on this years activities.

One of the first things that we did this year was
to get approval from Josh to purchase new tools.
The ones we have been using were getting well worn,
and needed replacment. So the group bought a dozen
each pulaskis, macleods, and rock bars. This
amounted to almost $2000 worth of tools. And gave
us the ability to provide up to 50 people with
tools.

We started out early this year, even before the spring
meeting. All of the work we did was on the Kinnikinnick
Trail.

The first work day, April 29, was sponsored by Bicycle
Village. They really took this seriously, and sent out
several employees to help. We had 14 people come out,
with coffee and donuts to get ready. Some great trail
work was done, and we were off to a great start. We
made a lot of progress on the trail, and some very
good rock work at the intersection that needed so much
TLC.

The second day, May 20, was sponsored by Old Town Bike
Shop. The turnout was a lot lower. There were
only four of us. But even though we didn't get
a lot done, what was done was good work. And
those that showed made out due to the very generous
schwag donation by John Crandall, owner of OTBS.

And this was the day we discovered "culvert man"
in the park. About ten minutes after starting
our work, a guy about 60 years old or so, crawled
out of the culvert under where we were working,
said he'd crawled in there to cool off, then
jogged away, like this was normal or something.

The third day out, June 17, sponsored by Brian's
Bicycle repair, turned out better. Brian managed
to get 13 people to turn out, and we got a lot
done. We even had a some new folks come out who
heard about us the the Gazette Slice article
about Medicine Wheel that came out during bike
week. And one family of four came out and did a
superb job rebuilding an old water bar. And I'm
sure Nate appreciated that $50.00 gift certificate
that he received from Brian.

July 22nd, our fourth work day in the series, was
sponsored by The Criterium Bike Shop. Nine people
showed up for this work day as we continued our
work. And those that showed were treated to
schwag and a nice barbeque back at the shop.

The August 19th workday had to be rescheduled due
to a death in the family, and was moved to the
following weekend, our usual practice for work
days that have to be changed. This work day
was sponsored by Ted's Bicycles. Nobody
showed.

The weather that morning was rainy at 8:00am.
I'd like to think that the moving of the day,
and the weather were the reasons for the turnout.
But by 9:00 am, the scheduled start time, the
weather was great, perfect for trail work.

I've not called off work days until I've checked
the weather and the trail conditions at the work
location at the scheduled time. This was the first
time in all of the years I've worked with Medicine
Wheel that we've no turnout for a work day.

The sixth, and final work day for the series
was September 16, and was sponsored by Pro
Cycling. Two people showed up to help me for the
last of some really great work done on this trail.
I combined the schwag from Ted's and Pro Cycling,
and those that came really got paid well for their
efforts. And Jamba Juice smoothies were delivered
for us to finish up a hot day at the end of the
season.

So the winner for the series challenge:

Bicycle Village.

So please support them, and all of our fine
sponsors for the year.

In addition to my efforts, Paul von Boeck has
led some work days of his own in the park,
working on some other trails. And Larry Hilliard
has done some solo work over in Garden of the
Gods. Hats off to those guys.

One more thing, this will be my last report to
you as the Medicine Wheel Trail Work Coordinator.
I am retiring from the position, passing the
pulaski so to speak. So the position is open,
and the challenge to motivate mountain cyclists
to help create and maintain trails in the Pikes
Peak Region is available to anyone who feels like
they are up to it.


Happy Trails,

Phil Yearsley
Medicine Wheel
Trail Work Coordinator (Ret.)