Special N.O.L.S. Trail Work Session

On September 29th the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) joined us for a special session. They were truly an inspired and diverse group of individuals. Twenty-two (22) hard working young volunteers. This session was made possible due to a relationship that has developed over the last few years. About half of the students were from the east coast.  A couple were from the south, and the most distant visitor was from Beijing China. All were energetic, smart, and inspired. We had a great time working with them. We hope they had as much fun as we did; this is a relationship that we hope will endure.

In this second image (below) you can see where we were working. This is a long side-hill traverse, it runs parallel to to the Little Mountain Park access road - but hundreds of feet up the hill. This extension of the trail called Rooty will connect the mid-mountain area to the top of trails (one that we've yet to build) that will lead down to the new Heart of the Park Public Trail Facility.

Here (below) you'll see one of the NOLS instructors at work. No surprise they brought a group of skilled leaders, individuals that truly lead by example. We gave each instructor a MVTB tee shirt for helping make this session possible.

digging2

In this last photo (below) you can see two students helping shape the trail tread. We got probably twice as much done as was planned. Thank you NOLS!

If a special session interests your business, school, church or your civic organization please contact us...

Progress on the HOP Connector Trail

Last session we made more progress on the HOP Connector Trail. The trail is open, it connects Little Mountain Road to the rest of the trails. But more importantly, pedestrian users no longer need to enter the park by using the main park entrance, pedestrian users can now get away from cars. Below you'll see the crew we started with, a few others arrived later. We had fourteen (14) volunteers and accomplished a great deal. While our volunteer numbers are still off a touch we're optimistic. We had fun, enjoyed a great lunch (provided by the Estep family) - and did some solid work.

In this second image (below) we show a couple new volunteers, both coming to us from Edison Elementary. We've had a number of wonderful young people come to us from that school. We doubt that it is an accident, they are clearly doing something right - THANK YOU.

And in our last session image (below) you'll see Adam and Ken, they are standing in front of a small tree they just removed. They had to cut a lot of roots before we could lift it out with the Dingo loader. At this session they both earned their MVTB volunteer tee shirts.

At our session this coming Saturday, October 10th, we'll finish the entrance to the HOP Connector Trail. We have graveling and rock work to finish.

The pedestrian trail leading to the Heart of the Park Public Trail Facility needs to be perfect!

Thanks for your interest in our work. We hope to see you this weekend.

The Southern Connector Trail is Finished!

At our 9/12/15 session we finished the connector trail on the south side of Little Mountain Park. The trail is now ready for this weekend's 10k.

As you'll notice (above) our volunteer numbers were down. We had ten (10) volunteers, or about half our normal turnout. In order for us to achieve our goal for the session everyone worked really hard.

There's always an upside, look at the sandwiches (below) - we had seconds, thirds and leftovers. Thanks Liz for a great lunch!

Here (below) Caroline negotiates a sharp downhill switchback corner, which shows the value of the disc brakes we added to our wheelbarrows.

And (below) John and Caroline teamed-up to compact that completed corner. This is one of the two rock walls that we built this session.

And lastly (below) Martin and his four month old daughter named Hana came out to visit. She is our youngest session attendee so far. Our plan is to build a Strider park in the very near future. I am confident that she will be volunteering at that session, possibly as an "assistant" water girl.

That would mean we'd have a new "youngest" volunteer...

We hope to see many of you at our session this coming weekend. We will be back at our normal location, at the main park entrance.

We will finish the HOP (Heart of the Park) Connector Trail at this session. This is the new trail that links our existing trails to Little Mountain Road.

Work Resuming On Southern Connector Trail

On 9/12/15 at 10:00 am meet us at the Silver Arrow Bowmen Archery Range on Hickox Road. Below you can see an opening in the fence, that's the new Little Mountain ParkSouthern Connector. This is where the 10k on September 26 will enter the park.

We have one switchback corner to complete. Please join us, as always we'll have donated Starbucks Coffee and Haggen Foods pastries.  This session Liz McNett Crowl will again provide lunch, thanks Liz!