They Don’t Maintain Themselves

I’m talking about trails.  You know, the ones we all ride.  Saturday was National Trails Day, and our local club (the Tarheel Trailblazers) teamed up with REI to do some trail maintenance. 

We met up at Lake Norman State Park bright and early, and broke up into several groups to do some work on the 20 plus miles of trails out there.  Being a member (and VP) of the club, I volunteered to lead a crew of workers out there. 

Before we could get started though, one of our members had to give brief instructions on how to properly kill someone with trail tools.

Once we divided up into our groups, we headed out to our assigned loops.  My crew got right to work to take care of the trail.

Yep, that is the Bike Shop Girl on my team of trail workers.

I had a good group, and we worked our asses off out there.  Of course, Lunchbox was on my team.

It was a great day to give back to the trails, or as one of our locals put it, to get our trail karma right.  The trails you ride are most likely built and maintained by volunteers (not some government agency.)  You should give back to those trails every once in a while.  If you enjoy the places you ride, then get your ass out there and do a little work to keep them nice.

Sure, I got to ride after we worked on the trails.  That’s probably the best part about it…riding on a trail that you just worked on makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. 

It’s much better than hanging out after a stage race and making love to a strange can of beer like Dicky prefers to do.

 

Yuck.  I thinks he’s been spending too much time in the saddle.  Maybe he should get out and do some trailwork too.

Speaking of beer, after the trailwork I dropped by to see my pals at First Flight Bicycles in nearby Statesville.  Sure, they have a really cool museum in the shop (that you should really go visit), but I went there for the beer.

A Bourbon Barrel Stout from Bluegrass Brewing Company in Kentucky.  Oh hell yes.

I’ll be back tomorrow.  You know this already.