GORC's New Secret Weapon

If you've been on any of the newest trails that GORC has been working on, you've probably been surprised at how fast so much trail is being built. On of the reasons, in addition to the super hard work and dedication of all of our volunteers, is this amazing piece of equipment, the Weed Wrench. In the past, where we had to spend a lot of time with pulaskis grubbing each and every sapling or small tree at the roots, now a single person or small crew can go along and remove them in a fraction of the time.
The retractable jaws clamp on to the base of the sapling, and then applying leverage to the handle closes the jaws and pops the tree out, rootball and all. Depending on which size you get, (we have the Heavy model), some stubborn ones will then require a few snips with loppers or a hack with a pulaski, but the efficiency is pretty amazing. It also seems like whoever is the lucky person to get on this detail doesn't want to give it up for the rest of the day! Why not come out to one of our workdays and give it a try yourself?

SIUE Workday- Saturday, December 16th

Thanks to the hard work last weekend of the approximately 30 volunteers who cleared all of the nearly 6 miles of existing trail at SIUE, we'll be able to spend this workday completely on the construction of the new Trail #4. The damage was impressive, requiring 4 hrs. of work for nearly every crew, of which there were 2 for each of the 3 trails. Kirby's crew also cleared the section under construction, so they worked for over 5 hours! As usual, the workday will begin at 9 am, followed by food, and a ride-- the weather looks like it will cooperate this weekend, yay!

SIUE Update

Well, we all knew that the ice storm had done major damage at SIUE. Here's a rundown: the map shows the downed trees which will require sawyer work. 34 on Loop #3, 21 on Loop #2. The ones marked with asterisks will require extra work. This does not even address the trees/branches which can be moved by hand or cut with loppers. Unfortunately, many of the downed trees also brought down tangles of grapevines or briars. It also does not include Loop #1, which others have looked at and discussed at some length. The kiosk on Loop #2 at the Morris Bikeway narrowly avoided being pulverized.
Unless there's a large turnout for the emergency workday on Sat. Dec. 9th, these trails will remain unrideable for some time to come. If you can spare the time, please come out and help. There's plenty of work to be done even if you're not a sawyer.