Ron and Dorothy Strasser

OBRA-sters,
Jay Rathe and I joined about 30 others and did a bunch of work on Firelane 5 in Forest Park, got a pretty good upper body workout and I believe most of the users will notice the improvements. Most of the work was put into erosion control and making the trail better able to withstand the heavy use year-round. I think the main place OBRA riders will notice is the intersection of FL5 with Wildwood trail. The trail just above was changed to a slight "S" turn that will divert drainage from the wider road above and help the intersection not continue as a bog for users.
I know everyone is busy, but helping out with trail maintenance in any of your community volunteer projects does really make a difference. After helping on this project, I betterunderstand how important even a person putting in an hour can make things better for many users. Oregon (and in this case Portland) has great places to ride off road, but each area gets hammered every year by users and weather. A trail with the blow-down removed is much more fun to ride than one where you have to dismount every few minutes and climb over a tree to continue. As of now... FL 5 is a really good climb or descent with some still great areas of just good-ol' mud and some very stabilized sections of sustainable trail. It offers a very good section for a good training workout right where we live. This type option is important to me as a racer. I used that trail along with Lief Erickson, FL 1 and 3 all summer for training rides. I am glad I can get on my bike at home and do a tough 25 mile loop workout while my truck sits at home and rests.
Thanks to PUMP for organizing the work party. The more we turn out to help (with ever bigger numbers of volunteers) on maintenance projects, the better our access will become to areas like Forest Park. More trails will become a reality.
Oh yeah! The NAHBS show was beyond amazing. I am sure I made a fool of myself through lustful drooling. I was careful not to drool on the jewelry on display.
Thanks for reading.
ron