Written by Jered Bogli
Saturday Sessions have started
Rocky Point is hosting weekly Saturday digs from now through the end of April. We’re keeping things small and safe with only ten volunteer spots available. Saturday Sessions are about building skill and confidence in trail maintenance and trail building. Keeping groups small ensures everyone comes away with new skills, and you do some much-needed work at Rocky Point – a win-win situation.
We kicked off on 11/28. Addison led a crew on some long overdue maintenance of Tres Amigos. The crew fixed the trail around the root ball at the bottom of the trail – they moved a huge amount of dirt to build up the bench. They worked their way up the trail, fixing drainage problems and put some extra width on the super tight switchback at the bottom of the climb – don’t worry, it is still challenging.
This past weekend Ryan led a crew on one of our new builds for the winter. The crew was super excited to be working on a new trail. Their work was made much easier by the sawyer crew that prepared the corridor for them a few weeks earlier. The stretch of trail the crew was working involved pulling out lots of Oregon Grape, clipping the roots, and putting in the tread. From the looks of things, they finally found some rocks at Rocky Point too.
At some point in the day, there was a mushroom mutiny. The Mcleod doesn’t do one task well, but the wide tines on the rake are great for pulling back duff. This time of year tends to reveal truffles, and the low elevation at Rocky Point means chanterelles hang around longer than other places. Once the fungi were hoarded, the mutiny quelled, and trail building resumed. The things you find while building!
Registration opens up every Monday for the upcoming Saturday, everyone is welcome, and you don’t need to have any experience; the small size makes it a perfect place to learn. Due to the limited size, Saturday Sessions tend to fill up quickly, so register ASAP.
Saturday Sessions are small scale work events that are a great place to practice and grow your trail building skills. Come out and help create the future of Mountain Biking in Portland. *Rocky Point is property that is leased by NWTA. In order to attend this event (or to access this land) you will need to be a NWTA member (JOIN HERE), in good standing, as well as sign the online Rocky Point waiver: HERE
If you have any questions, please email [email protected]