Another busy year for GORC. With 19 official workdays, not to mention some impromptu ones, as well as a lot of unpublicized individual efforts, it’s hard to keep track of everything. Here’s a summary what went on this year, and I’ll try to point out the plans for each of the trails in the coming year.
SIUE – 2 workdays. 0.3 miles of new trail.
1/15 – minor reroutes, and armoring of areas which were becoming troublesome to deal with. Announcement of the opening of additional area for building of new trails.
12/10 – first 0.3 miles of trail in the new area south of the Morris bikeway.
What’s up for 2012: Continued expansion south of the bikeway and development of new area east of University Dr.
Greensfelder – 4 workdays. 1.25 miles of new trail.
2/26 – 0.5 miles of new trail on the Deer Run trail descending from Scenic Loop Rd. to Eagle Valley trail.
4/9 – Greensfelder- armoring of Deer Run trail in preparation for Greensfelder Challenge race. Armoring and maintenance on Eagle Valley trail behind Visitor Center.
9/24, Greensfelder – Worked on rerouting trail at the north end of the Green Rock just inside the park boundary that was encroaching on private property.
11/12 – completed reroute on Green Rock.
Greensfelder Challenge race was held in May as a fundraiser for GORC (Thanks DRJ and United in Dirt!).
What’s up for 2012: completion of Deer Run descent from Scenic Loop to Eagle Valley. Work on new Beulah trail branching off from DeClue.
Matson Hill – 3 workdays. 1.1 miles of new trail.
3/12 – Matson Hill- construction of 0.6 miles of new singletrack branching off from the Oxen Mill trail, and opening a new section of the Hayes property addition.
4/23 – Matson Hill- canceled due to rain and mud.
10/15, Matson Hill – continued with work extending trail up the hillside.
10/29, Matson Hill – Up, up and away. Continuing up the hillside of the multi-switchback climb.
What’s up for 2012: Continue heading southward towards Duke Rd. Matson will eventually have more than 10 miles of singletrack!
Indian Camp Creek – 2 workdays.
3/26 – reroutes, maintenance, and armoring projects.
6/4 – National Trails Day. Maintenance on the Ridge Trail.
Cliff Cave – 2 workdays, 0.8 miles of new trail.
5/21 – work on addition to Spring Valley trail which will complete an inner loop within the main SV trail.
10/22 – worked on completing inner loop of Spring Valley and rerouted some problem areas.
Tons of unofficial work put in by Kevin Ginther, Steve Ludwig and others. The official stats don’t do justice to this.
What’s up for 2012: Completion of Spring Valley inner loop.
Castlewood – 2 workdays.
6/4 – (moved from 5/14) – National Trails Day. Maintenance on main trails at the front of the park.
11/19 – reroute on Cedar Bluff trail, and maintenance.
Rock Hollow – 2 workdays.
9/17- worked on creek crossings which will show the contractor who wins the bid to complete the trail what level of work needs done.
12/3 – continued work on creek crossings.
Creve Coeur – 2 workdays, 1 mile of new trail.
11/5 – (GORC Appreciation Party) – 0.5 miles of new trail and Volunteer Appreciation Party complete with donation of Stone Beer from Major Brands! Thanks to all GORC volunteers.
12/17 – completed 0.5 miles of new loop trail giving it a total length of 1 mile. There is now 4.25 miles of singletrack at CCP!
Lost Valley – No official workdays, but the trails got a lot of much needed maintenance attention thanks to Greg Ott, Mitch Johnson and Larry Koester.
What’s up for 2012: replacing doubletrack with singletrack, and lots of it!!!
In additon there were many events throughout the year that GORC members participated in: Ouachita Challenge, Syllamo’s Revenge, trip to Taos, Brown County Breakdown, Berryman Trail Epic, Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day, and numerous mountain bike and cyclocross races.
Matt Buckley took over as head of the GORC chapter of the National Mtb Patrol. Look for them out on the trail, or at a race.
This year also has something different with a bike (donated by Ballwin Schwinn) being raffled off to those who participated in 2 workdays. The drawing is January 4th at the monthly meeting.
It was a great year, and we hope to continue to add new trail, and keep what we have in good condition. None of this could be done without your help, so please continue to volunteer whenever you can.
See you on the trails!