Sunday I met up with BUMP for the monthly workday. Our primary goal was to rebuild a couple of the bridges. The first one we tackled was the small bridge that is next to the gravel dead end between foreplay and Johnson's Mtn. Jim and I went to remove the old bridge while the others stayed to build 
the new one by the shed. Once we removed the old one, I could not help noticing how perfect the spot would be for a gap jump over the little stream. I am always going extremely fast when riding through here counter clockwise. I may suggest adding an alternate route immediately beside the bridge with a little "air". I don't know how well this would go over, but if we marked it well no one would try it unless they wanted to.
I like this picture because the women are working and all the guys are just standing around.
Back on topic: We got the new bridge in and shifted it more toward the road which really helps with the flow down the trail. I would usually only barely catch the side of the bridge after swerving around the tree leading up to it.
After finishing this one we went to the mysterious bridge #6. There was a big discussion as to what the true number of this bridge was, but it is in the 7 bridges section of trail a little 
before the log cross (when travelling clockwise). I shall call this bridge KEVIN so there is no mix up in the future. We also replaced this one and had to raise it up a bit due to the main supports being 2x8s and not wanting to get the stream dammed up with leaves if the water level rose a bit. We managed to get this one done also. The moist ground really helped us as it was pretty easy to dig in where we needed to.
The last thing that was done was a reroute of the trail between Kevin and the log crossing. The trail was moved about 6 feet to the right to slightly higher ground in a spot where water collects. Hopefully this will help with the draining and not be such a muddy mess in the future.
After all the fun of working, Micky brought hot dogs for lunch. We grilled them up and I ate 2 before getting ready to ride. I was a bit worried I might see these hot dogs again, but I really had a good ride.
Mal wanted to go counter clockwise; so Me, Moran, Tommy, Mal, and Mitch took off that direction while Micky and Jim went Clockwise. Mal set a good pace and had us huffing by the time we got to the end of Johnson's mountain.
He had to be back by a certain time so him and Mitch took off and Moran, Tommy and I took a slightly slower pace. Tommy decided he was going to ride up the road and meet us at the top of the BUMP trail. Me and Moran headed up and the trail was pretty sloppy. Most of quarry road was an inch deep in water. I am pretty glad we decided to go this way because this would have ruined the downhill for me as I was trying to keep my bike relatively clean.
We reached the top and waited at least 10 minutes for Tommy. I was expecting him to beat us there as I thought he was going to skip the first climb up the Bump, but come out and go up quarry road. He had ridden all the way to the top of the gravel road and came down the jeep trail. We learned this is definitely not a shorter ride.
Heading up to the top of the mountain I was still trying to keep the bike clean and kept slowing down for the muddy spots and riding through slow. When we finally reached the downhill the trail was still a bit muddy, but I just gave up. I was trying to pop my front wheel up over the water in the first few ditches, but still got wet, so I just ended up splashing my way through. I did stop and snap a few pictures of the water near scout bridge as it was really flowing today.
Still a great downhill we stopped at the bottom and Moran wrung the water out of his socks. Even though I was getting low on water in my camelback, I decided to pass on filling back up. I did get to break in my front fender. It did an excellent job of keeping the mud out of my face and for the $10 I paid was definitely worth it. (an added bonus was that it looked like I was riding a dirt bike every time I looked at the front wheel. I kept wanting to make motorcycle sounds)
We rode the rest of the loop having a nice time. The weather was really nice and I was just enjoying being back on the bike. There were a few more sections of the trail that was really wet and muddy, but everyone made it back fine with no crashes. I am definitely going to have to clean the bike, but I think I am going to try to go again Tuesday, so I may just clean it after that ride.
Here all the pictures I took:
After finishing this one we went to the mysterious bridge #6. There was a big discussion as to what the true number of this bridge was, but it is in the 7 bridges section of trail a little before the log cross (when travelling clockwise). I shall call this bridge KEVIN so there is no mix up in the future. We also replaced this one and had to raise it up a bit due to the main supports being 2x8s and not wanting to get the stream dammed up with leaves if the water level rose a bit. We managed to get this one done also. The moist ground really helped us as it was pretty easy to dig in where we needed to.The last thing that was done was a reroute of the trail between Kevin and the log crossing. The trail was moved about 6 feet to the right to slightly higher ground in a spot where water collects. Hopefully this will help with the draining and not be such a muddy mess in the future.After all the fun of working, Micky brought hot dogs for lunch. We grilled them up and I ate 2 before getting ready to ride. I was a bit worried I might see these hot dogs again, but I really had a good ride.
Mal wanted to go counter clockwise; so Me, Moran, Tommy, Mal, and Mitch took off that direction while Micky and Jim went Clockwise. Mal set a good pace and had us huffing by the time we got to the end of Johnson's mountain.
He had to be back by a certain time so him and Mitch took off and Moran, Tommy and I took a slightly slower pace. Tommy decided he was going to ride up the road and meet us at the top of the BUMP trail. Me and Moran headed up and the trail was pretty sloppy. Most of quarry road was an inch deep in water. I am pretty glad we decided to go this way because this would have ruined the downhill for me as I was trying to keep my bike relatively clean.We reached the top and waited at least 10 minutes for Tommy. I was expecting him to beat us there as I thought he was going to skip the first climb up the Bump, but come out and go up quarry road. He had ridden all the way to the top of the gravel road and came down the jeep trail. We learned this is definitely not a shorter ride.
Heading up to the top of the mountain I was still trying to keep the bike clean and kept slowing down for the muddy spots and riding through slow. When we finally reached the downhill the trail was still a bit muddy, but I just gave up. I was trying to pop my front wheel up over the water in the first few ditches, but still got wet, so I just ended up splashing my way through. I did stop and snap a few pictures of the water near scout bridge as it was really flowing today.
Still a great downhill we stopped at the bottom and Moran wrung the water out of his socks. Even though I was getting low on water in my camelback, I decided to pass on filling back up. I did get to break in my front fender. It did an excellent job of keeping the mud out of my face and for the $10 I paid was definitely worth it. (an added bonus was that it looked like I was riding a dirt bike every time I looked at the front wheel. I kept wanting to make motorcycle sounds)We rode the rest of the loop having a nice time. The weather was really nice and I was just enjoying being back on the bike. There were a few more sections of the trail that was really wet and muddy, but everyone made it back fine with no crashes. I am definitely going to have to clean the bike, but I think I am going to try to go again Tuesday, so I may just clean it after that ride.
Here all the pictures I took:
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