Category Archives: Trail work

Dirt delivery donation: Knecht’s Nurseries & Landscaping

Leif Knecht, co-owner of Knecht’s Nurseries and Landscaping, got load of dirt from the City of Northfield ‘s maintenance facility yesterday and graciously delivered it for free to the Sechler skills park.  We’ll soon start construction of a beginner’s tabletop jump.

Thank you, Leif!

Leif Knecht, Knecht's Nurseries & Landscaping

CROCT’s first kiosk is in place at the Sechler Park MTB Trailhead

It’s been nine months since we opened the our first mountain bike trail in Northfield’s Sechler Park and we finally have a kiosk at the trail head. It’s adjacent to the paved Mill Towns Trail at the west end of the Peggy Prowe Pedestrian Bridge, a few yards from the cul-de-sac behind Walgreen’s:

Sechler Park MTB trailhead kiosk, Northfield

Sechler Park MTB trailhead kiosk, Northfield

This type of kiosk was recommended to us by TJ Heinricy, Streets & Parks Supervisor with the City of Northfield. (There’s a similar one in the Babcock Park dog park just across the Cannon River. ) Since this portion of the park is in the flood plain, he thought it best to avoid anything too fancy and anything made of wood.  CROCT paid for it ($475) and TJ covered the not-so-insignificant shipping costs out of his parks budget.

CROCT member and uber volunteer Bill Nelson took charge of the kiosk installation yesterday.  I was his marginally adequate helper:

Bill Nelson installing the Sechler Park MTB trailhead kiosk, Northfield

Griff Wigley & Bill Nelson, Sechler Park MTB trailhead kiosk, Northfield

 

So thank you Bill and TJ, and thank you to all CROCT members and CROCT donors. Your financial support paid for the kiosk.

Cannon River Tree Care brings logs for Sechler skills park. Skinnies reconfigured.

We began reworking the Sechler skills park beam skinny a couple weeks ago (blog post here). In the past week, our friends Matt and Jon Feldman at Cannon River Tree Care went out of their way to drop some logs at the gate to the skills park. So CROCT Dirt Boss/El Presidente Marty Larson and I used one of them with the available beams to reconfigure an intermediate-to-advanced-level beam/log/beam combination skinny:

Towing logs into the Sechler skills park

Marty Larson, configuring the beam/log skinny in the Sechler skills park

A few days later, CROCT uber-volunteer Bill Nelson put a fresh chain on his chainsaw and flattened the pine log between the beams. The skinny can be ridden either direction but it’s designed to be a progressively harder challenge when riding it south/towards the ball fields:

Bill Nelson flattening a log in the Sechler skills park

Bill Nelson flattening a log in the Sechler skills park

Josh Seifert on the Sechler skills park beam/log skinny

We’ve temporarily rolled the other logs together into a sizable logover. With the addition of a short beam at one end, the pile also provides a difficult skinny challenge:

Josh Seifert riding the Sechler skills park logover skinny

CROCT member Josh Seifert shows how to do it all in this short video:

Skills park changes in Sechler: teeter totter, dirt pile, and skinnies

We now have a small teeter totter in the Sechler skills park area, approved by the City of Northfield. Props to Jim Wellbrock and fellow volunteers for making it happen:

Galen Murray riding the mtb teeter totter in Sechler Park Jim Wellbrock with mtb teeter totter

We put it to use during Monday night’s youth group ride with great success:

Michael Lehmkuhl watching over the Sechler MTB skills park teeter totter

The nearby dirt pile (used for the baseball fields) now has 5 ‘lines’ on it, providing 5 levels of difficulty for riding over it:

Sechler MTB skills park dirt pile

After watching the problems that some of our Monday night series youth have had on the beam skinny, we’ve started work on reconfiguring it. We don’t have it all worked out but in the interim, there’s now just a single line of 3 beams. We’ve piled the rest of them on the river side of the trail.

Sechler MTB skills park skinny 

Photo album: National Trails Day & CROCT membership raffle at Caron Park

CROCT National Trails Day 2015 - Caron Park

Over three dozen trail workers (including 15+ kids) showed up at Rice County’s Caron Park on Saturday (National Trails Day) to work on the first segment of a CROCT mountain bike trail there. The weather was gorgeous and the bugs were non-existent. Under the direction of trail steward and CROCT board prez Marty Larson, the crew worked from 9 am to noon.

The results? Amazing!

CROCT loop 1 Caron Park CROCT loop 1 Caron Park CROCT loop 1 Caron Park

We don’t yet know the mileage on the new intermediate-level segment that we’re currently calling Loop 1, but it’s significant and it’s going to be a blast to ride. (If you stay connected via the CROCT Facebook page, Twitter feed, email newsletter, or Google Group discussion list we’ll alert you when the trail officially is open to ride.)

We broke for lunch and beverages at noon. Milltown Cycles in Faribault donated and served the hot dogs, brats and pop. Bauers Southside Liquor in Faribault donated and served a great selection of beer:

CROCT membership picnic 2015 - Caron Park CROCT membership picnic 2015 - Caron Park CROCT membership picnic 2015 - Caron Park

After lunch, we raffled off some swag donated by Milltown Cycles to CROCT members in attendance. John Ebling and Kevin Keane won helmets and Jeff Kreis won a jersey. Four others got 3-packs of cycling socks:

John Ebling - CROCT membership raffle 2015 - Caron Park Jeff Kreis - CROCT membership raffle 2015 - Caron Park Kevin Keane - CROCT membership raffle 2015 - Caron Park

As part of our spring membership drive, all 65+ CROCT members were eligible for the six $75 gift certificates from the three Rice County bike shops: FIT To Be TRI’d, Mike’s Bikes, and Milltown Cycles.

Trail Steward & CROCT President Marty Larson - CROCT membership raffle 2015 - Caron Park

The winners:

  • Jeffery Gunn, Karl Frischkorn ($75 gift certificates from Mike’s Bikes)
  • David Wolf, Sue Benson ($75 gift certificates from Fit To Be Tri’d)
  • Bill Nelson, Jerry Bilek ($75 gift certificates from Milltown Cycles)

It was especially fitting that Sue Benson was a winner and present with her granddaughter. Her family on her father’s side owned the land that became Caron Park.

Sue Benson - CROCT membership raffle 2015 - Caron Park

The album of 40+ photos:  Continue reading Photo album: National Trails Day & CROCT membership raffle at Caron Park

June 6 at Caron Park: trail work and raffle and food, oh my!

CROCT membership drive poster spring 2015Our 2015 spring membership drive has been very successful. We now have over 65 members, making us one of the larger IMBA chapters in Minnesota.

Whether or not you’re a member, join us on Saturday, June 6 at Rice County’s Caron Park (map available on that page) for some trail work, food, beverages, and some celebrating.

Here’s the FAQ:

WHAT SHOULD I BRING FOR TRAIL WORK?

The last batch of rain will see the mosquito menace finally hatch so bring bug spray. Wear sturdy boots or shoes. Pants are sure nice to have. Work gloves are really worth it. We have a small selection of tools available, but will certainly need more. If you have loppers, a good hoe, or a nice rake, bring them. And bring some water. We’ll have a container full of water too, but it never hurts to bring a bottle to bring into the woods with you.

HOW DOES THE TRAIL WORK, UM, WORK?

We’ll most likely be breaking down into teams to work on specific sections. Marty Larson, trail steward, will delegate and provide instruction on what needs to be done.

WHAT TIME DOES TRAIL WORK START AND END?

We’re starting at 9am. We’ll break at noon for lunch and the membership raffle. And we’ll continue working into the afternoon if enough people are willing and able.

WHAT IF I CAN’T GET THERE AT 9 AM?

Come anytime before noon! Wander down the main trail into the woods towards the creek at the bottom and you’ll find us eventually. Or text me, Griff Wigley, at 507-319-5541. (Cell phone coverage is spotty.)

CAN I BRING KIDS, FRIENDS, NON-MOUNTAIN BIKERS?

You bet. There will be plenty of kids out and about in the woods, exploring the stream, with some learning to help build trail. If you’ve got friends who are  interested (they don’t NEED to ride a bike to attend, they just need to enjoy trails!) bring them along.

DO I NEED TO RSVP?

No, but if you have a Facebook account, we’d appreciate a confirmation on this event page so we have a rough idea of how many are attending and can order the right amount of food and beverages.

CAN I BRING MY DOG?

Please don’t. Dogs need to be leashed and they’ll hamper your ability to do trail work. And it can be a little dangerous for them to be around people swinging sharp tools.

SHOULD I BRING MY MOUNTAIN BIKE?

Sure! We can’t guarantee it but we’re hoping to have enough trail work done to get some riding in.

CAN I STILL JOIN AND QUALIFY FOR THE CROCT RAFFLE?

Yes. Anyone who’s an active IMBA/CROCT member by the time we hold the raffle at noon qualifies. Visit the IMBA/join webpage. Individual memberships start at just $30 ($20 for youth under 23). Family memberships start at $50 and entitle all family members in a household to membership benefits.

To join or renew your membership now click HERE:

Do it by noon on June 6 and you just might win one of the local CROCT gift certificates worth $75.

Thanks for your support. Hope to see you there?