Sylvan status June 2011

[Russhole]

I walked most of the West side of Sylvan today. I did some clean up and trimming. The trails look surprisingly good. There is still some water on the island in the low spots. However, it is rideable now. There are still two trees down. I need someone with a chain saw to come out and clear them. One is on the far North end over the hiking path and the other is about the center of the west side.

Now the bad news. The little bridge in the center of the west side is toast. We will need to put up some FORC funds and get it rebuilt. I'm thinking something along the lines of a mini turtle bridge (no hand rails). What do you think? We should deffinitely do it right and span the gap. maybe bring the bridge up about three feet. I'm pretty good with a hammer, but I don't know enough about loading to take on the by myself. I suppose we'll need to run it by the city as well.

I'm planning on heading back out Thurs. to check out the East side.

[Vibrato]

The board called a trail day for sylvan - weather permitting, for Sunday at 9:00.

If there needs to be stuff removed, rebuilt, weedeated, etc, post up a list so we can make plans.

Is the bridge gone or broken into 2 pieces, anything of it left we can use? We're REAL low on lumber right now. We never had a bridge there for years because it always dried out. Then we just left the bridge there we put in the day before the race a couple years ago and it stayed ever since. (We figured some less intelligent people would build a bonfire on the middle of it- that's what used to happen to the bridges out there...)

[dirtboy]

Can I make a suggestion? Can someone with more sense of direction on that island than me, mark out a course to ride that would provide a nice lap (one of the race courses maybe). That would allow us to only clean up what is necessary (less ivy), and allow the folks who get turned around every time (me) to ride a decent lap without screwing up. Even I wouldn't turn down a ivy filled wrong turn.

oh yeah, mp & I will be there.
db

[Chris True]

Is this a bridge that could be made by using timber that is already laying around on the island? Maybe use a chainsaw/circular saw/table saw to clean them up?

[Russhole]

I haven't looked carefully at the extent of the damage to the bridge. There are some planks on the island we could use if we need to make a small fix. Time wise that seems to be the case. Maybe in the future I could talk to the city about a real bridge.