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There was a workday at Matson Hill this weekend. Apparently not a lot of people knew about it. There were some conflicts with a few big events, namely the Ouachita Challenge, and the Ozark Trail Mega Event, but clearly, having only 12 or so people show at a park which is slated to have perhaps the most singletrack in the metro area was less than we hoped for.

I recently attended the Professional Trailbuilders Conference in Asheville, NC on March 18th and 19th. After the conference, I participated in the a USFS Chainsaw Certification class in the Dupont State Forest. The conference was set up in 1:15 sessions on various subjects pertaining to land use, trail building and trail management.

Several GORC members attended the Lost Valley race. Craig and Steph were on GORC Bike Patrol and the crowd appreciated the assistance in the Kid’s Race. Larry Koester, Bryan Adams, Scott Piepert, Greg Ott, John Twist, Curt, among many more whom I can’t recall due to my race-fogged mind, rode circles around Lost Valley.

A disclaimer: if you already have nagging knee problems you will find that this style of riding either helps correct the issue or puts you in a wheelchair. This article is not science and I am not Adam Craig. I am an average midwestern mountain biker with access to a blog that needs some articles.

For those of you who may have missed it in the minutes from the last meeting, GORC has new Officers. Bryan Adams is the new President, and Matt Hayes is Vice President. I’m sure they will prove to be as effective at cat herding as their predecessors. Next time you see them, buy them a beer- if only so that they gain a little weight to slow them down.

It’s another busy week. Here’s what’s going on, including a few items from the past weekend –On Saturday the 28th, there was a workday at Lost Valley which began the construction of a reroute that will eventually be around 2 miles long. We’ll need a big turnout on March 21st or it probably won’t be open until the Fall

The bridge at Lost Valley has finally given out. There’s a small reroute just north of it to allow you to get around it temporarily. The good news is that GORC is building a reroute that will bypass it cutting out about 0.5 miles of fire road, but adding around 2 additional miles of singletrack that will be similar to the trail added with the “Haunted Hollow” reroute 4 years ago.

This is a big event for GORC. Now that all of the trails in the park are multi-use, we are evaluating existing trails, and trying to decide which, if any, can be reused, or whether we need to start over from scratch. Needless to say, we think there is the potential to have as many as 25 miles of singletrack in this park!

This is what most of the river bottom trail looked like on Saturday. The fact that you could barely walk without falling (2 members of our work party slipped and fell just trying to get to the work area) didn’t seem to deter users from being out on the trail. We saw several groups of hikers, a couple of equestrians, and some trail runners.

We’re hoping that the weather for February is better than it was last year, because there are some significant things for area trails coming up this month and in early March.