Volunteer trail building at state park, Sunday March 29th
Volunteer trail building opportunity at L.L. Stub Stewart State Park for mountain biking zone... How often do you get the chance to dig new trail that's for "mountain biking only"?
This Sunday, March 29th starting at 9am. Continuing to dig single-track as well as clear more corridor. Check-in at Clayhill Horse Staging area. 1 mile hike to work area. Bring gloves, lunch, and water. Tools provided by State Parks & Recreation Department.
We made lots of progress last build day with a solid turn out of local mountain bikers to give us a hand (Here's results from that day -- http://pumpclub.org/node/874 )
Please consider coming to help continue - we have goal to complete 1.5 miles of single-track by June 6th and need all the help we can get.
For details, see Event Calendar entry here.
Please RSVP if you plan to come - it helps plan the days tasks better if we know roughly how many are coming.
- Forums:
- Riding Areas:
Upcoming Events
- Intermediate Women's Ride-Sandy Ridge, May 26, 2012 - 2012-05-26 09:45
- Stub trail building - XC/AM - 2012-05-27 08:45
- Stub Freeride area build day [W.T.F.] - 2012-05-27 09:00
- Women's Group Meeting - 2012-05-29 17:00
- General Membership Meeting - 2012-05-29 18:00
why isn't this huge?
i'm puzzled.
Venue notwithstanding, the precedent of a wheels only trail in a state park is HUGE.
isn't it?
why aren't more people excited about this?
you got some splainin' to do, Lucy.
D.
The first rule of mountain
The first rule of mountain biking zone at Stub... you don't talk about the mountain biking zone at Stub.
*chuckle*
Seriously though, our agreement with Oregon Parks & Recreation is NOT to make any public (beyond local mountain biking sites) about the trail project. They'll do an official statement through the proper channels when the time comes.
I am the volunteer coordinator for this project for both PUMP and W.T.F. There's not really anything to get people too excited about at this point. It's fresh new single-track and will take a year to settle in and also for us to tweek to get that properly flow on. The area is not yet open to public for riding (trail under construction).
We can thank Roger Louton for attending planning meeting (ages ago cuz that's how long it takes to plan a State Park) on behalf of mountain bikers. He represented "what mountain bikers want". The Stub Stewart trail plan as accepted when the park went live included a zone designated for "mountain biking zone". It included a paragraph about providing "skill challenge features including jumps, drops, tetter-totters, and other features"(I'm paraphrasing but not by much).
Westside Trail Federation picked up the cause in 2007 and continued fleshing out exactly what our vision was, spending much time in discussions with park resources - at one point even presenting our vision down in Salem to executive management - to include a skill area and "more difficult" trail options (for beginner, intermediate, and adanced freeriders). But that is a secondary (parallel) project within the mountain biking zone - it's still in the planning/approval stage (and who knows, might not live to see daylight).
The "plain vanilla" single-track (with modest optional features but main trail being for XC riders) has been under constructing since last year (had 1 build day, then got put on hold while State Park finished out their permitting stuff for trails). This year we've had several build days already.
Goal is to have 1.5 miles of single-track (plus about 1 mile of maintenance access corridor - mainly park responsibility to build that) completed by June 6th State Parks Day / National Trails Day.
If ya want more info, come to a build day. We talk much about the project to people interested out on the ground - while we move dirt.
3% turnout
let's say there are 350 members of PUMP and WTF who have been notified of this project. Fair estimate?
I've Been there to help 2x.
approx 10 people each time.
that's 3% turnout.
Herding cats notwithstanding, why isn't it more like 20% 30% 50%?
why can't 50 people show up?
are smaller parties more desirable?
Tha's what I'd like to know, Lucy!
D.
No complaints from
No complaints from me. I think turnout is meeting our needs just right.
30 people is always good too. But 10 is the managable number to train, talk to about current status of project, and have fun while building. And we can't expect everyone to get the trail building bug like some of us do (I like building more than riding - its just so far more rewarding to me personally).
As far as why more people don't volunteer for projects, that's a question in "social studies". (personal opinion alert) In general (not just mountain biking community), it's always 10% complaining a lot (talking and bitching but not doing), 80% just not caring enough to get involved, and 10% doing the work for the majority.
Do more, whine less.
I'm not complaining about the turn outs - we hope for 10 volunteers - we plan for 10 volunteers, so when we get 10 people it's all good. The numbers we get is hitting our goals for each build day. (there was a build day in January 2007 when we were scouting beginner freeride trail when it snowed and just two dedicated (or insane) people showed up. again, it was expected, due to poor weather).
On a related note, we do have Intel (Hillsboro) planning to come out and help with clearing corridor for maintenance access - they round up about 30 people (non mountain bikers just employees doing civic good in their community). And State Parks & Recreation will be bringing in equipment to clear the bulk of corridor (after putting in drainage crossings on the fire service road). The mountain biking volunteer community can therefore focus 100% on digging single-track.
What will happen is that more people will ride the area, once it's open... and then it'll be easier to get people involved. Until people hear about the trails, see the trails... the trails don't really exist. "if a trail is in the woods, but nobody rides it, then does it really exist?"
Volunteering is rewarding & fun
Thoughts from a fellow leader of volunteers: The operative word is volunteers. People are not paid. They choose to volunteer their time for two main reasons. Because it makes them feel good to do a good deed and to have fun. At least that is why I volunteer.
As for the size of work parties, 8 to 16 seems to be ideal for getting work done without wasting people’s time. Larger groups are harder to manage and to keep everyone busy.
As it relates to specifically PUMP volunteers, our members ride (& work on) a wide range of trails in a large area (1 ½ hr radius around Portland). In our example, PUMP does have a large number of people who volunteer, however we are currently spread a little thin. I added the word “currently” as things are changing. PUMP has been making efforts to recruiting new members. New members equal more people that can volunteer.
As for why some people volunteer and why some do not. Time is the biggest issue. Mtn biking and related activities are recreational activities. Family and work trump it. Plus there are people who do volunteer, but can’t make it to every work project. For example, I do most of my work in the Gorge but don’t make it to many Westside projects. However, I do my Gorge work in hopes that the people who are working on the Westside can benefit from my efforts, and thus I can benefit from their work.
From the IMBA trail handbook I learned the following: Give people a compelling reason to volunteer and they will. When they volunteer make it fun and rewarding and they will come back. My additional comment - swag and treats always sweeten the deal, but are not mandatory.
Keep up the good work!
Ted D
Great comment, Ted and
Great comment, Ted and Joe. I unfortunately can't make it to very many trail building days. Time, location, schedule, the normal issues. I try to make up for it by pluggin gmyself in where I can, more local issues, and the behind the scenes work that can be done in the evenings. The big thing as Ted touched on is to present a cause that people want to get behind and to make it fun. Also, i would add, make sure there are opportunities for everyone to get involved in the ways that they want to and give them credit fortheir time and effort. The amount of time put in by the board members I think would blow us all away, and this is completely behind the scenes. Organizing, working on maintaining, esablishing and building relationships, restructuring, and I can only guess at the time spent taking care of the required infrastructure that allows the organization to function and grow. (HUGE props everyone!)
There is enough support and passion for mountain biking in PDX that I fully expect the # of volunteers to dramatically increase as we tap in to more of the community. Even if the # of volunteers does not go through the roof, just having a larger membership base gives us a stronger voice not only in Portland, but also regionaly.
I love it when trail work is reported on the forums. It allows me to keep current on the projects and trail systems that most interest me. Thanks for all the hard work on Stubbs, Joe and Roger and all the others that have donated a chunk of yoru lives to help bring these trails to fruition!
cheers,
Will