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You might be a trail builder if...


The Tip
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I really enjoyed the Mojo thread and wanted to keep it alive, hopefully. I wish that it could somehow all get copied and pasted here.

http://www.bikemojo.com/speak/14-austin-voodoo/95861-apologies-jeff-foxworthy-you-might-trail-builder-if.html

I thought about that thread when I was power washing some clothes outside just now.

Edited by The Tip
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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

You spend Saturday morning working with a group of volunteers then go back on Sunday to do the heavy work you did not want volunteers to be around. Like volunteers being too close to me swinging a Pulaski to chop out roots.

You might be a trail builder...

Edited by cxagent
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  • 2 years later...

You find you are sore and tired more often than not and have come to accept this as a normal state of being

You've lost weight, muscle tone has improved, and you've pulled the belt in several notches

You dream about trail design in your sleep, and most of your waking thoughts are spent contemplating which of those dreams to act upon next

The trail tool collection expands, and you ponder upon how many of your Ryobi tools can be used for trail work (pole saw, reciprocating saw, chainsaw, hedge trimmer, weed eater, leaf blower, screw gun, mower,...)

You have a separate trail-work-only hydration pack (with a charged Ryobi battery tucked inside)

You have accepted as norminal that you are spending an order of magnitude more hours building trail than you are riding them

When you do ride, you hang a Fiskers 15" Power Gear Lopper on the pack's waist belt and stop often to trim offending flora

The biggest decision to be dealt with on most days is over whether to work on new trail or maintain existing trail

So-called "responsibilities" routinely take a back seat to the trail-related pursuits

 

Is there a twelve step program I should be looking into about this?  🤷‍♂️

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  • 1 year later...

You find yourself bringing up the GPS map on the computer for the trails you have built and start adding up miles of the work you've done on recent projects.

This led to the discovery that of the ten new miles of trail added so far to RHR, I have done the Flagging, Corridor cutting, and initial Tread work on 6.1 miles of it on my own (thankfully, others have pitched in to help fine tune trouble spots once these sections were established) and, found I've worked with volunteers on corridor and tread work for roughly another 2 miles of the new trail.

Whew! What an incredible year+ this has been. That is a lot of murdered Yaupon and Cedar, and oodles of disturbed dirt moved around over the past 16 months. 

Then there was the conjuring, painting, and installing ~70 signs; creating maps (online and print); while still doing a little routine trail maintenance.

The thought has occurred to me that maybe I'm ready to just ride trails for a while.

Though, once you have caught the trail building bug it is challenging to avoid constantly thinking about how to do just a little more work.

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...you slap your forehead and say, "why didn't I think of that two years ago" when you realize you could have done something better originally. 

I had this happen recently. The original trail went under an overhanging, too big to cut, tree limb. Group rides were a constant, "Head!"  warning shouting, Then I had that revelation, Just take out the brush to the side of the trail to not go under that limb. Stupid easy. Now I shake my head in embarrasment every time I ride past that spot! lol

Edited by The Tip
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