[chuffer]

haggard trails.

word of the day:

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i wasnt the only old dog out there:

no bling here:

slight rant ahead:

the weather here today was gorgeous just like it has been for the past month. sunny, cool and dry. too bad that these conditions are terrible for trails and at the same time seem to bring all the poachers out. I busted my ass all summer to keep these trails in top condition, but the weather and more importantly the poachers have beaten them down in the last weeks. i did a solo session this afternoon (thus no action photos) to say goodbye to this place. it was fun, but I am moving on. moving on to private property where poachers can be shot and buried.

serious bi+ching and moaning on the way:

poachers come in many different shapes and sizes. however, the worst by far is the self righteous poacher. he is the guy who shows up throws a couple of shovels of dirt once and thinks that he has thus earned his keep. extreme cases of this sort will start to order others around and even begin changing lines. to this type his half hour of work for the whole summer is somehow equilavent to my 10-20 hours of digging per week on top of a 60+ hour job.

 

[BikeSATORI]

Build'em up, break-down...

nice quick shots.

I'd agree with ya' though, having to deal with chumps is harsh.... but, fortunately for me I guess, most of the commune trails I've dealt with over the years not only built up some sick jumps, but also some solid camaraderie... all the locals knew eachother, worked together, and it was usually obvious who hacked up the jumps last so you could just take it out on them, haha... and we managed the keep'em on the stealth mode big time, so it was usually only us back there, and possibly some REAL "poachers" maybe only leaving behind some deer guts, haha...


oh yeah, and I see you have a green Molly as well! very nice taste indeed.

 

[chuffer]

oh yeah, and I see you have a green Molly as well! very nice taste indeed.

Yeah, it is thanks to the testimonials from you and others on RM that helped me decide on the Molly.

Sounds like you have a good group to ride with. Not really the case here...yet. We are slowly building up a solid core of riders and builders.

 

[BikeSATORI]

Yeah, it is thanks to the testimonials from you and others on RM that helped me decide on the Molly.

Sounds like you have a good group to ride with. Not really the case here...yet. We are slowly building up a solid core of riders and builders.

oh ok, I gotcha, thought you had that bad mamma jamma for the long haul

and as for riding and trail building, I was speaking about several several years ago, haha, when I was first getting a drivers' license and the crew was down for the cause... these days I live in the inner city, absolutely no dirt to work with here... take a long train ride to get out to some real trails... although I'll be working on scoring some land of my own some time soon to mess around with.

 

[don]

chuffer - yup, yup, and yup. Good post and it's a lot like I have been feeling lately. We cabled up some of our runs but the damage was done mid summer. Luckily, there was a good spell of rain in August and I got on top of one run and rebuilt it myself. No poaching thanks to the cables but I can only imagine what that line would look like if it wasn't.

The funny/sad thing is I am getting emails and messages from people that I didn't hear from all summer. "Can I ride, I don't mind helping digging?" Yeah, one line is pretty dialed now after I spent a bunch of time working on it and a bunch of money for tarps and burlap to keep the shape and now you want to ride and "help dig"?

I was just out of town for the week up in Stowe. They have a great town park that makes me want to move up there. After 5 pm there was a good amount of people riding. I really wish I didn't have to cable but when it's just 2 people digging and maintaining and almost 10x that poaching then what is the other option? I am sure you know - a poacher doesn't care that the lip took 2 hours of finish shaping to get it that way. Or a landing another 2 hours to get built up the right height and distance. They rather keep on trucking w/ a big ol' case than pull the right lever and hike back up the starting hill.

Best of luck with the private land setup - sounds like it will be better in the long run. Believe me smooth, well made trails are so much more fun to ride than hacked up sh1t.

One last rant... When the hell is the north east getting some rain!

 

[chuffer]

thanks for the words fellas.

i was out at the spot on private land today. i am stoked. we have a six pack 90% done with plans for lots more. the cat who owns the land has been building a ton of free ride oriented stuff as well. there is more fun to be had on his property than at most pay-to-ride places. we have even been tossing around the idea of renting a bobcat to do some serious trail work. try using a rented bobcat and public land...

oh yeah, don, I hear ya on the rain. for now it is portable water sprayers ($15 at lowes) and 5 gallon jugs of water.