2009- The Year in Review

Rip flipping burgers (not with the shovel)

Edwards Creek Trail- Greenville, MI

Taking a break on Georgia Pass- Colorado Trail

Ozark Trail- Trace Creek Section (before)

Thanks to all of those who volunteered, 2009 was another busy, and successful year. Of course, the biggest highlight is the nearly 8.5 miles of trail that GORC built, or helped design. All told, GORC contributed more than 5,200 hrs of labor to the various parks in the area. This total doesn't include an additional 900 hours that were devoted to administrative duties, marketing, meetings and the website. Sadly, we also suffered a big loss with the untimely, and unexpected passing of our friend John Roth, founder of the OTA.

Here's a rundown of events from the year:
Bangert Island: 192 hours, including one workday. Added another 1.5 miles of trail. A lot of other work was put in by St. Charles County Parks with several reroutes, and cleaning up after the island flooded several times.
Broemmelsiek: 203 hours. A short connector trail was completed to provide better flow at the rear of the park.  Several reroutes were also added to eliminate water issues.
Castlewood: 112 hours. A workday on National Trails Day in June did maintenance in the park.
Chubb: 166 hours, including 2 workdays. Maintenance along the river to provide a reroute around a washed out culvert. Began construction of a an alternate route around a fall-line section west of the picnic table.
Cliff Cave: 84 hours. First steps are being taken in getting the trails back into shape. Watch for workdays in the future.
Creve Coeur: 778 hours, including 3 workdays on Bootlegger's Run trail. This trail just opened last year, and there are already 3 miles of new singletrack,
right in the heart of the STL metro area. Lots more to come, including some interesting terrain near the bluffs.
Greensfelder: 929 hours, including 4 workdays. Mostly spent on completing the reroute of the DeClue extension, which is nearly finished save for completion of
2 switchbacks. GORC also designed a section of singletrack which completes the Eagle Valley loop behind the Visitor Center, and led crews on 3 other workdays organized by St. Louis County parks.  Maintenance crews fixed several problem areas by armoring and rerouting the trail.
Indian Camp Creek: 497 hours, including 5 workdays devoted to continuation of new section of trail and reroutes of problem sections that were flooded or washed away.
Klondike: 170 hours, including 2 workdays. Completed Riptide, the last of the wooden structures at the park.
Lost Valley: 864 hours, including 4 workdays, and one additional workday. 2.75 miles of new singletrack replacing the collapsed bridge and bypassing an often muddy meadow area and some old doubletrack.
Matson Hill: 585 hours, including 3 workdays. Some reroutes to prepare the trail for heading back to the newest section of the park which will result in perhaps an additional 10 miles of singletrack! ~1.5 miles of new trail also built in that direction.
North Trace/Council Bluff: 408 hours over 4 outings. 2 were clearing the trail of deadfall, one after the incredible storms in May which closed nearly 80 miles of trail, some of which are still not open. Another was a reroute of a section in which the trail actually ran in a creek bed, and had been an irritant for years. Also cleared the trail in preparation for the  Burning at the Bluff.
Quail Ridge: 94 hours. 1/8th mile trail section added below the dam with assistance from SCCP maintenance crew to move trail away from eroding creek edge. Several small reroutes to eliminate water issues.
SIUE: 130 hours of maintenance and bike patrol.

Midwest Mountain Bike Summit: this year it was in Grand Rapids, MI, and several GORC members made the trip to sample a different kind of riding experience than we have at home. Mike Dunston also led an armoring workshop which constructed a drop on the downhill course at a point where it crossed an XC trail.
Breckenridge Trip: The annual GORC trip headed west to Breckenridge, CO for some spectacular riding and great beer.
Bike Patrol: GORC's chapter of IMBA's National Mountain Bike Patrol provided support at a Take a Kid Mountain Biking day, the Burning at the Bluff race at Council Bluff Lake, and the Lost Valley Luau. This was all in addition to regular riding on many of the local trails to help trail users with any problems they might have, either mechanical or medical. Also led a series of guided rides in several St. Charles County Parks oriented for newer riders, and provided support for the Moonlight Ride series on various full moon nights, in parks which ordinarily don't allow riding at night.
Berryman Epic Race/Ride: some members participated in this 55 mile off-road epic through the Mark Twain National Forest.
Halloween Spooktacular/Volunteer Appreciation Party: provided food and
refreshments for these social events as a way of showing our appreciation for all of the help provided by volunteers throughout the year.

As always, we have big plans for area trails, and are always in need of help to implement them, so if you like what you see on your local trails, or even if you don't like it; GET INVOLVED! The trails that get built are the ones that reflect the interest of people who care enough to take the time to work on them. Please try to make it to a workday or two in 2010. See you on the trails!