Our trail worker volunteers, under the guidance of dirt boss Marty Larson, have added an extension (Loop 2) to our Caron Park MTB trail. It’s now open for riding but since it’s the season of the freeze-thaw cycle, be sure to check the the CROCT conditions Twitter feed @CROCTconditions before you ride.
The Milltowns Trail bridge along Armstrong Road in Bridgewater Township was destroyed in the July 2013 flood. (See photos of the flood on the Locally Grown Northfield blog.) The wood was salvaged and ultimately donated to CROCT by the Minnesota DNR, thanks to Peter Hark. Back in May, a crew of CROCT volunteer trail workers fashioned timbers and planks from the bridge into two bridges along our Sechler Park trail.
Last week, CROCT members Todd Amunrud, Kevin Herman, Marty Larson, Michael Lehmkuhl, and Galen Murray fashioned some of those timbers and planks into a bridge along a new segment of our mtb trail in Caron Park.
Last week, CROCT member and uber volunteer Bill Nelson drove his Ford Tractor back home. It had been on duty for the past couple of months in the Sechler skills park. 13-second video:
Bill originally brought his tractor to the skills park to sculpt dirt into a beginner table top jump:
I soon discovered it could do other things, like move logs and boulders. I put Bill to work:
Bill eventually got sick of me bossing him and his tractor around so he gave me a few operator lessons:
I teamed up with CROCT member Jason Decoux from Faribault to fashion the table top:
I eventually began to see how the tractor could expand the possibilities for more features in the skills park:
I got better at sculpting with it:
By late fall, I graduated summa cum laude from the Mountain Bike Skills Park Tractor Operators Academy. Thanks to Mr. Bill for the mentoring, the keys, and the hat:
Nick Becker, Stew Moyer, and Gareth Bly from Mike’s Bikes in downtown Northfield took time out of their work day today to install new TreadHunter tires on the rig and haul planks & timbers from the City of Northfield ‘s compost site to the Sechler skills park.
We’ll use the wood (from the flood-damaged Mill Towns Trail bridge) for a bridge at Caron Park & miscellaneous skills park features.
Thank you, Nick, Stew, and Gareth!
Helllllooo all trail lovers! It’s in the air again. The bugs are low and disappearing. The weeds are dying off. It’s time to get back into the woods and build more trails!
Our Caron Park mtb trail is the prime target right now. We need some volunteers to get out there and rake the existing trail. This can be done by anyone, at anytime, no permission required. If you have an hour, if you have four. Every little bit helps for that!
Scheduled days for trail work:
This year, instead of meeting in the Caron Park parking lot, mosey down to the creek. We’ll be working on the far side this fall. We’ve made good progress so far, but a little help goes a long ways!
Once Caron is closer to complete, we’ll start in Northfield again on the east side of the River.
Subscribe to updates on our CROCT Facebook page and/or follow our @CROCTmtb Twitter feed for weather updates and tighter time starts as each day approaches!
Jim Gleason, owner of Charles R. Gleason Company (aka Gleason Sand & Gravel) recently donated the delivery of a load of dirt from the City of Northfield ‘s maintenance facility.
And yesterday, driver Andy Valek delivered it to the Sechler skills park where we’ll soon start construction of a beginner’s tabletop jump.
Thank you Jim and Andy!
