GORC World HQ recently compiled the statistics showing the course of our trailbuilding efforts over the past 10 years, and they proved to be somewhat of an eye-opener, even to those who are actively involved in trail design and building
Many people in the STL area probably take these trails for granted, or think that they were built with taxpayer money, and don’t realize how much trail was really built by volunteer labor. Some of these trails listed have been around for a long time, others are brand new. One thing they have in common is that GORC has at some point contributed to them. The contributions range from very small, like construction of a short reroute on Berryman, and periodic maintenance there. Others are like SIUE, Klondike, or Creve Coeur where the trails were completely designed, built and actively maintained by GORC. We are not taking credit for all of the trails listed here, but the mileage totals speak for themselves. Many different outdoor-oriented groups make use of these trails, and we wanted to make it known how they came about. GORC is really a pretty small group, and most of its effectiveness comes from being able to manage the logistical aspects of drawing together a shifting, and diverse pool of volunteer labor- not just mountain bikers, to get trails built. We need all the help we can get to continue to build and maintain trails in the area. Please consider attending a workday to help out. If you don’t want to attend a workday, we’ll also happily take your donations, but we’d rather have the labor.
Area trails with their total mileage, and the part of each which was constructed by GORC
Total trail mileage, and that constructed by GORC
Area trail mileage constructed by year
The dip in production in 2005-06 was due to our hosting the Midwest Mountain Bike Festival, which took away a lot of time from design