Eagle Point Trails

[Tigris99]

Hey guys, wanted help spreading the word and hopefully get you guys to come ride up here sometime.

My good friend that started all this is unable to handle things with the project due to life matters and other commitments. So in his words '' The baton has been passed" to me. Now I'm kicking things into high gear to get some good trails finished here.

There has been a single loop (with one blue decent that's fun as hell if you like a challenge) for the last couple years that I've been maintaining for/with HPL. Storms last year did some damage making one section very difficult to ride and I am hoping to get a new line cut in next week so hikers and bikers have a safe way through. Only section I couldn't easily repair and required rerouting.

These ARE shared trails with equestrians but do not be alarmed. They are not choppy trails, solid trail bed etc. They have been on board with the project. I am yet to actually cross one while riding since we opened these.

Signage is not complete, is first thing on my list as I have the materials in hand. Will have that mostly done, even some just temp markers, next week.

Now we are expanding. Learned a lot from helping out on our (FORC) trails. We also have more of the park available to us than the horses are allowed to use. But step one is finishing planned shared use singletrack first then move out to the other areas from there.

Also plans to add in a loop so even the smallest kids on striders can ride trail is coming soon. It's the final part of Stage 1. Stage 2 I'll be kidnapping Drew and whoever else I can find to help me plan and lay out the trail so we up here have worthy trails.

I have learned of 3 other riders up here, gotten to know them, but expect there are more up this way. Plus Fred and Amy over in Sterling-Rockfalls.

Pass the word, if your reading this and live north of the QCA and want to help out on trail work, let me know. BUT MAKE SOME TIME TO COME RIDE UP HERE. May not be 10 miles of trails yet, but they are fun and offer some challenging climbs. Not mention some AMAZING views of the river from the top of the northern bluffs. Then too you all can throw some feedback our way as things progress.

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[Vibrato]

Tig- give us a good location description or other map. As everyone knows, I am not into building trails that horses use unless the trail bed can handle it, but I'd be willing to come up for a ride, beer, camaraderie and see what you've got.

If you have room for expansion, create a master plan so you don't end up with a system where inter-connectivity is a nightmare. This makes the difference between a good trail system that only locals can find their way around in- or a great trail system people travel to ride because the trails are awesome and the system is easy to understand. Average riders don't want to spend more time "orienteering" than riding.

Also- you may have newby trail builders who desire to make a dozen downhill trails with no thought to interconnecting them in a planned system. Even if you are making an urban park instead of a trail system, create a master plan, be open to new ideas that make the plan better and avoid ideas that hurt it even if the temptation is strong because the ONE trail would be cool- to the detriment of the system.

There's a big difference between a park with one cool trail that pumps a couple of locals ego's and a cool park than makes average riders feel like they're MTB masters. While I enjoy the former, I'm a big, big fan of the latter.

I hope this helps.

-Vibrato

[Tigris99]

Thanks man.

Trail bed deals with it pretty well. Most of the trails are existing horse trail built by those that have a clue (I met with the heads of their club yesterday, amazingly awesome people). Trails are 20+ years old. We simply clean and widen what we want to use, build connections so there is flow instead of random tight turns. They respect conditions and except for a couple of younger ones that live just outside the park (which I want to strange occasionally and aren't club members) they have been great.

Also trails are all up on top of bluffs/hills inland from them so dirt itself isn't terribly deep, it's all rock underneath. Drains well.

At least for now there is VERY LITTLE dirt work we've had to do compared to how much trail we have. Most of it is bushwacking and cleanup. Some more major dirt work is in the works as I can't find another option beyond switch backs to make a sustainable (and not nightmare) climb in one spot to connect 2 sections.

I'm building with the knowldge gains from our trails.

Bunch of downhill doesn't even exist. There's climbing, some interesting tech, just got told yesterday to STOP clearing all trees that fall across the trail which made me really happy. Any trees that horses and hikers can step over I need to leave. To a point of course. Means we can have 2 lines, one to step over and I'll make log overs for Mtbs next to that.

There will NOT be a weird network, the horses have them if you can spot them which look more like game trails except the outer loop we maintain.

Steve did a really good job of making a nice loop by connecting trails which avoided the web issue. Sylvan is 10x more confusing than this will ever be.

Current project is to make an entire green loop. Right now it's green until hitting the lower west side. 2 brutal climbs. Think illiniwek north climb but 0 relief till you get to the top. One solid climb in a long sweeping curve. Have a nice fast flow section inside that stays up on the hills pretty much is what we start on next week. There will be a steep down through a small valley and then the climbs back will be reduced grade using switch backs.

Hell the horsemans club was talking to me about berms and understood the point of them. Had no issue at all. As long as there was room for them on the inside of any corner we build with a berms so they can avoid the berms itself.

I get many are concerned about horses. Other than avoiding trail apples but at least here and in St Louis where they have shared use, things work out well. Especially when the soil and plenty of rock to handle the load.

But as I said, I'm just trying to get people to come up here and ride. All these years I've been driving down there, now theres good reason to come up here and ride.

Appreciate the advise!!! Thankfully Steve was happy to come help with Dewitt to learn and he had ridden other trails. He was hoping we could have something like Illiniwek out here but we don't have that kind of man power.

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[Vibrato]

Thanks man.

He was hoping we could have something like Illiniwek out here but we don't have that kind of man power.

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If YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME!!

[Tigris99]

If YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME!!

Lol. Riders yes, but with a messed up shoulder what I can do is limited. So hopefully that applies to help too

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