Another meeting

Today I met with Marcus Beard (District Ranger), Cathy Briggs (Rec Staff), Chuck Hess (Wildlife Biologist), and Susan Fitzgerald (Wildlife Biologist) to review comments on the proposed reroutes. Last week Chuck walked the reroutes around the ponds. He’d like the trail moved further from each pond. Andrea Repp (Archeologist) emailed her report and would also like the trail moved further from the ponds. There comments will be incorporated into the assessment. We should have the assessment on the blog soon. Thanks for hanging in there.

Back to GPSing

Kevin Doar, FSU Intern and I have been spending time GPSing user created trails that cross the Munson Hills Trail. You’ll see the orange flags with UCT written on them. I’ve often wondered why there was never a push for additional miles of official trail. Appears that with all the miles of user created trail there’s been no need to discuss adding additional designated trail miles. That was the past, now Mountain Bikes fall under the same new Forest Service rules as motorcycles and ATVs. That is, OHVs and bicycles are supposed to stay on designated trails or roads signed open to their use. Everything else is considered riding cross country. This new Forest Service rule is affecting all Forests across the country. The Forest Service website has a Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) for each Forest. These are maps that show where motor vehicles can travel. They are free to download and print and have to be updated every January.

Draft assessment meeting

We received a draft copy of Munson Hills / Twilight Mountain Bike Trail System Assessment from Valerie this morning. Just in time for a scheduled meeting with Apalachicola District Staff (Marcus, Garth, Cathy, Sherry, Jake, Miki, Chuck, and Andrea). Micah and I drove down for the meeting. We reviewed the assessment and discussed the project. Everyone is to have their comments and edits in by next Wednesday. Andrea will head out on Wednesday to survey proposed changes on the trails for archeological concerns. And Chuck will go out Monday to survey same for biological concerns.

Valerie gets it done

Bill Otersen, Jeremy Floyd, Cliff Leonard, and Sherry Gaston joined Valerie and I Monday morning to assess sections of Twilight. Valerie and I worked late and finished up assessing Twilight. Kevin Doar, our new Florida State GIS intern did a fantastic job of producing maps quickly on Tuesday morning. In the afternoon Valerie and I drove down to Crawfordville to meet with Marcus Beard, Apalachicola NF District Ranger and some of his staff (Garth, Cathy, Sherry, Jake) to present proposed enhancements for both trails. Wednesday was back to adjusting maps for assessment report. In the afternoon we had time to visit two local quarries and two of our sand clay pits to get ideas on what kinds of materials are available locally. Valerie heads home tomorrow and will be sending us a draft assessment in a few weeks. Was a jam packed week.

Learning

Saturday was a day of sharing and learning about what’s planned for the Munson/Twilight Trails. At 8:30 am Valerie Naylor led a group of 40 interested bikers on a ride of Munson. The group stopped at several areas to discuss planned improvements and get answers to their questions. The group reconvened at the Lakes at San Marcos community room for a presentation by Valerie on the planned enhancements. Refreshments were provided by Jo Haley the manager of Lakes at San Marcos. Thanks Jo. Tom Sauret, Executive Director of Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association (SORBA) and Regional Director of International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) and Ken Foster, the interim president of the Tallahassee Mountain Bike Association shared with the group their efforts to organize mountain bikers in support of local trail projects. Folks stayed around to look at maps and discuss the project. At 7:00 pm, even with the rain more than 50 folks showed up for food, drinks, good conservation, and to party at Higher Ground. Great evening of socializing with fellow bikers. Thanks to Tod and the guys at Higher Ground for a fun time.

Valerie to the Rescue

Valerie Naylor with Trail Dynamics http://www.traildynamics.homestead.com/ is here to help assess both Munson Hills and Twilight Trails. We got started on Wednesday and finished up Munson Hills by Friday. We have pin flagged sections of trail that will need work and also pin flagged some re-routes that will need to be reviewed by our Forest Service Resource Specialists.

Micah - Biking Biologist

Micah Thorning, our new Supervisor’s Office Biologist, joined me on a ride of Munson Hills Trail Friday to survey the trail segments that run near ponds. Micah is a mountain biker and trail runner, in fact he runs the Munson/Twilight loop every Sunday with two other guys from our office. As part of our trail assessment next week with Valerie Naylor we’ll be looking at these segments again. We may have to flag in a few reroutes. But, we’ll have to wait and see. That’s what the assessment is all about.