CRAMBA: Stony Creek

[utabintarbo]

Rode the re-route for the first time today, seemed a lot faster through there however I miss the climb. Any chance the old route could be added back in as an "Expert" route kind of like the some of the rock gardens and log jumps have two routes? The old climb was a nice burn on the legs!

Unlikely, as the previous climb was getting very washed out and eroded. We essentially tore up the trail tread to facilitate plant growth and reclaim the soil in that area. It won't be back anytime soon. Perhaps in several years we my look at reroutes of that reroute to capture some more elevation change.

[lucban]

Nice re-route!! Hope they will add and explore more trails around roller coaster area. I hit this trail 2-3x wk because i live around the area and its probably the best trail in SE MI to train. It has several big climbs that you can connect and do several Repeat climbs plus rolling fireroads and good single track on Pines/Roller Coaster. Kudos to MMBA for the new Reroute!!

[buster]

Rode the re-route for the first time today, seemed a lot faster through there however I miss the climb. Any chance the old route could be added back in as an "Expert" route kind of like the some of the rock gardens and log jumps have two routes? The old climb was a nice burn on the legs!

Unlikely, as the previous climb was getting very washed out and eroded. We essentially tore up the trail tread to facilitate plant growth and reclaim the soil in that area. It won't be back anytime soon. Perhaps in several years we my look at reroutes of that reroute to capture some more elevation change.

Why several years? Stoney is great but it would be nice to have it flow much better (like Tree Farm in Novi). There is still a lot of land back there that could be developed. Is the park against expansion?

[Archangel6]

WHOA! That whole backside doesn't feel right since the reroute - I felt like I was transported to a different trail!

[PK]

Yes.
As "policy" there is to be no expansion allowed in the mountainbike trail system.
We've been trying for years to create a complete single track loop.

Rest assured though, we will continue to try for additional singletrack at Stony.

Pete.

[PK]

The tweaks in the Rollercoaster were very nice as well, though the log coming up to the "Rest Area" could use a little dirt on the approach.

Your wish is my command......
The log has been blended-in nicely this morning.....

Pete.

[utabintarbo]

The tweaks in the Rollercoaster were very nice as well, though the log coming up to the "Rest Area" could use a little dirt on the approach.

Your wish is my command......
The log has been blended-in nicely this morning.....

Pete.

Thanks!

[Rock N' Rolla]

I haven't been the stony in afew weeks, I've been taken it to Addison( nice job by BTW), where is this reroute that you speak of....

[bh357]

I haven't been the stony in afew weeks, I've been taken it to Addison( nice job by BTW), where is this reroute that you speak of....

In the back 9, Where you bomb down hill, then climb a washed out hill straight away, followed by a 90 degree right turn.

[mtb_frk]

Good job on the reroute. The first time through I couldn't even tell where the old trail was.

The trail is in great shape.

[PK]

Yea, as we get more training and time on the trail, we keep learning more about how to do things "right".
I feel that we've had a bad habit of doing a poor job when closing-off old trails.
I think we spent all of our energy on the new trail and were too pooped-out to finish the job correctly.
I've learned to scout the re-route and do the initial trail cutting BEFORE the actual trail day. That way, on the trail day we can all just jump in and get it done. No thinking involved, just work.

Pete

[i69whitey]

I've learned to scout the re-route and do the initial trail cutting BEFORE the actual trail day. That way, on the trail day we can all just jump in and get it done. No thinking involved, just work.

Pete

heck yer gettin so good at it that of us who get there a little late (or run on 6 yr old time) miss everything
i barely made it in time for a test ride
keep up the great work, crew

[PK]

Stony was pretty much "tacky-fast" this evening. The only wet spots to be found mainly in the usual areas of 2-track..

Pete.

[Roy]

Pete,
Pre marking the tail does not give new recruits a chance to learn the art. In the long run you will get less and less volunteers.
Without trail school, we should use every new trail cut as an oppertunity share and teach the hows and whys.

Roy

[dirt]

Pete,
Pre marking the tail does not give new recruits a chance to learn the art. In the long run you will get less and less volunteers.
Without trail school, we should use every new trail cut as an oppertunity share and teach the hows and whys.

Pre-marking the trail is so that we aren't wasting the time of our volunteers. It's not very time effective for anybody if we get 10-20 volunteers on the trail, and then spend the next hour scouting/marking/flagging the trail work to be done. There is no way that many volunteers can effectively learn anything learn anything when the class size is that large, and when the focus is getting the trail marked so that work can get started, not education.

There is discussion currently about a couple of IMBA chapters working together to get a Trail School started again.

But, if someone wants to learn the art of scouting and marking trail, I would suggest reaching out to one of the Trail Coordinators, or the chapter, and express your interest. Many of the TCs got their start by working with other TCs on the pre-work done before the trail days, scouting and marking. There is more time for effective teaching in these situations, and the TCs are always open for other thoughts and suggestions, and if need be, explain why those suggestions are good or not, and why they may or may not work.