Paris Mountain SP Trail Crew Journal

December 2003

1^st through 3^rd :

Attended South Carolina Land Manager trail conference held at Paris Mountain SP that was held by an International Mountain Bike Association trail care crew. Worked on basic trail layout exercises, discussed erosion and trail building theory, and walked the trails discussing possible solutions to some problem areas.

7^th through 13^th:

Attended a nation wide trail builders conference in DuPont State Forest outside of Brevard, NC. In attendance were twenty five of the most experienced trail builders in the country, many of which specialize in mechanized trail building. We built 2860’ of new trail in two days with this crew and eight machines in wet conditions. This was our introduction to our Ditch Witch SK 500, and we got extensive training and experience with our new machine. We had a rigging specialist come in and teach us a lot of rock moving techniques with the Grip Hoist (a hand powered winch). At night we sat around and talked about the trail we were building and possible issues with similar trails. Also discussed trail theory world wide, the advantages of mechanized versus hand building of trails, and different methods of dealing with common predicaments encountered while building trails.

On the thirteenth we came down to Paris Mountain SP and worked with Hands on Greenville cutting backslope on the Brissey Ridge Trail. We had a great time meeting and working with the volunteers and got a lot of work done in a short amount of time.

17^th through 21^st:

We had our state park chainsaw certification and training with Brody Davis on the 17^th and 18^th. Brody is extremely knowledgeable about the woods in general and how the ecosystem works, it was very enlightening to be able to walk in the woods with him and learn about the way our environment works, and give us a greater respect for the land that we are working in and on.

The 19^th through the 21^st was spent laying out the flag line for the new connector trail that will connect the Lake Placid Trail to the Sulfur Springs Loop.

27^th through 30^th:

We designed a few possible solutions for the trail below the spillway on Lake Placid. We then rebuilt the top section of the stone steps that come up from the bridge on the north side of the creek with five community service volunteers.

We also came back to our flag line with fresh eyes and fine tuned the line slightly.

January 2004

2^nd through 4^th:

Started new trail construction off of existing trail above amphitheater, built 960’ of new trail with four exceptional community service volunteers.