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9 hours ago, AustinBike said:

Tunnel Vision is a section, and Little Sugar is the system, as I understand it. But, Tunnel Vision is the bulk of the trail in the system.

@AustinBike nailed it.

Check out oztrails.com for some good maps of the trail systems up there. The AirBnB we stayed at in May had the Coler and Slaughter Pen maps hanging on the wall and they were a great way to get a big picture view of where to ride or where we did ride.

Here’s a link to their Little Sugar map: https://www.oztrails.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Little-Sugar-120720.pdf

and a general overview map showing the proximity of the different trail systems in Bentonville-Bella Vista area:

https://www.oztrails.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/BENTONVILLE-OVERALL-MAP_120720.pdf

It could be yours then, but could you tell me the color?

Found on New Edition Sunday morning. PM me if you think it’s yours and want it back. 

As seen in downtown Denver.

Note that the paid parking program at the HoL trailhead has started. This picture was from a road ride I did to there Sun morning. Creek was flowing strong, and a hella lotta people down there.

Yeah, I don't think many in this forum will be affected by the change, but I thought I'd post a heads-up.

I regularly use the HoL drop in. I used to work nearby, and that trailhead allowed me to get in a ride before work, and now it's just become a habit. The parking change probably won't affect me much since I'm usually out of there by 8.

I understand the neighborhood's concern. That trailhead was overrun at the beginning of lockdown last spring, and it looked like there were parking issues even on weekday mornings. The crowds died down once the creek dried up, and I haven't seen the crowds and loutish behavior that I saw last year. I wouldn't doubt that there are still issues on the weekends though.

As a side note, the admission stand and the port-a-potties at the entrance are gone. I guess the city is no longer requiring a permit to enter the greenbelt.

No sweat, AntonioGG. I also have plenty of source material if you're interested in following up on Shinerider's suggestion. You can have all of my ~50 tubes, although I may hold a few in reserve to follow up on Barry's suggestion in the other thread to turn the tubes into a poop bag slingshot (dog-poo-tapult? tre-poo-chet?)

A couple of weeks ago I noticed some new spray paint and updated signage on Scottish Woods indicating that the paid parking program was getting restarted.

I contacted the city and they confirmed that the program is getting going again. They were unable to provide me with a timeline, but told me that there was going to be an HOA meeting last week and that the web page would be updated with more info after the meeting. I just checked and it still says that the program is on hold.

http://austintexas.gov/WoodsofWestlakeParking

In any case, last  year when they were talking about paid parking at the HoL one of those new parking signs was exposed and showed that they were planning to use the Park ATX app to charge for parking between 8AM to 8PM. I don't know if that's still the plan, but be aware that it looks like a change is coming.

Thanks, that's good to know. I've been wanting to take some old paint and garden chemicals down there and I see that they've finally reopened again, albeit by appointment only.

http://www.austintexas.gov/department/recycle-reuse-drop-center

Back in November Yellow Bike took some of my gently used tires, but at the time they had enough tubes and their recycler wasn't taking any more rubber. The same was true at REI. Things may have changed since then.

4 hours ago, GFisher said:

I haven't done the 'Tour' but rode it back in late 90's. Stayed in a BandB in Aspen and then rode back the same way. I hear Star /Taylor Pass is a good alternative one direction. Epic back up there at 12700ft+ it got cold and rainy and we were not prepared (white cotton socks, fingerless gloves, shorts, light wind jacket). Rained the whole way back, V-brakes fried, cleats packed with mud, crashed once. It was tough, I think about 25 miles of climbing from the CB side up but only about 15 miles from the Aspen side. Some nasty chunk hike a bike at the top***. Be prepared, but it is an awesome ride for sure.

***probably all rideable on a modern rig

 

I didn't do the Tour either, but I rode PP solo from Aspen (Buttermilk) to CB in Sep 2018.

Garmin says it was about 40 miles and 5600' of climbing that took me over 10 hours. By the time I was finished I called it a fun thing that I'll never do again, but after looking at some pictures of the ride and a couple of years of brain cell deterioration I'm tempted to try it again. Looking at my ride profile I'd say that the climb out of Aspen is steeper than out of CB, and my recollection was that it was rockier too, but that may be because it's easier to go down over the rocks than up.

A lot of that climb reminded me of the HoL; that is, loose and steep.

It was definitely chunky at the top, and possibly rideable by someone who isn't me.

Although REI is currently not taking the tubes, it looks like I can send tubes directly to Alchemy if I want to pay the postage.

https://www.alchemygoods.com/pages/tube-upcycling

Postage for that many tubes is beyond my pain threshold, so I'll hold onto them for now. In the meantime I've got plenty of new ideas for reusing what I have.

Many of them are patchable, but I'm running tubeless now, so I don't really have the need for them. Plus, they're all 26" tubes. I figured Yellow Bike could easily patch them and give them out as spares, but they already had what they needed.

Also, I just got off the phone with REI and they were willing to take all the tubes (and the tires too), but they currently can't take them because the recycling company has temporarily stopped  picking up the rubber. 

These things have been in my garage for a while now, so a little while longer won't hurt. In the meantime I can start making them into slingshots.

Not to derail this thread, but was riding the BCGB the other morning and this guy didn't want to share the trail. He was one of two, but the other one waddled off while this one stood his ground.

19 hours ago, Big_papa_nuts said:

Take the tubes to REI. They send them to Alchemy to make bag out of.

Great, thanks for the tip. I'll give REI a ring and hopefully they can take all of them (~50) off of my hands.

19 hours ago, Barry said:

Based on what I've seen, you should just leave your used tubes in the trees along the trail.

17 hours ago, TheX said:

Next to the poop bags?

Some of the tubes I'm trying to get rid of have been plucked from trees, but the only thing I've done with the bags o' poo is curse them.

Is there a good place to get rid of old tubes and tires? Over the years I've amassed a large collection of tubes with holes, along with a bunch of tires that ranged from gently used to bald, including some with sidewall holes. Yellow Bike was able to take the gently used tires, but they didn't need any tubes, and their recycler is no longer taking any rubber, so I still have all the tubes and most of the tires. From what I can tell I'm not supposed to throw them in the CoA recycling bin, so do y'all know of anywhere else that might take these off my hands?

On 8/15/2020 at 10:07 AM, Shinerider said:

Do they really care about people entering the greenbelt from other than main access points?  I would figure the main thing they are trying to do is keep the groups of people gathering at the normal swimming holes (which are probably pretty tepid if not dry by now).

As of this morning the swimming hole at the bottom of the HoL isn't dry, and is possibly beyond tepid.

The number of people there in the early morning seems to have diminished compared to what it was like before the closure at the beginning of July. As a bonus, so has the amount of dog poop and poop bags. There is an increase in wild animal scat though.

I also noticed that near the trailhead at the end of Scottish Woods someone had spray painted P2P in preparation for the paid parking program. When I called the BCGB hotline last week to ask if the greenbelt was open I also asked about paid parking and they stated that the parking was going to be handled by TxDOT and that they didn't have a timeline for the implementation.