WTF have I been doing? WTF have you been doin, Rockstar.

I made some great plans for this past weekend, wrapped them in brown paper, tied it all up with bailing twine, and dropped the whole works in the trash. That's just where stuff ends up sometimes. Doubtfire had his stag in Monkeytown on Saturday, so I wrote of my Wolfville-Roubaix driving buddy with a pre-diagnosis of Moosehead fever (thousands every year are afflicted)

Instead, I went to a trail build day at the Islandview/ Tree Farm trails. The site is an experimental tree farm, where they grow thousands of trees. What do they do with the trees? Experiments, of course. They have this back forty they aren't using, so they let us use it. Most of the trails were built by a local fellow who has since had to move cities, but what a legacy he's left behind. I don't have the distances, but the loop is a good 1.5-2 hour ride a of classic technical east coast single track that is tucked away off a gated fire road that is long enough to make walking to the trail a real pain. The only other users I have seen on this trail system are not only mountain bikers, but friends of mine. It's great!

But...

there is one muddy, mucky, swampy section that is the bane. People have tried to figure out a new route to no avail. Planks and small logs were laid down, which worked for a while and then turned to more mushy, decayed organic matter. It's shitty! You may remember when the hammer dropped last fall and plans were laid and most of the materials hauled in (see "gated fire road... real pain" above), well that got snowed on very suddenly.

It was shitty. Not anymore. In fact, with a little more work it should become the highlight of the loop. A crew of about 6-7 went out last weekend and put in a very full day and now we have some real solid, most importantly, ridable results. Do I have pictures, you ask? F@ck yeah!

Skiimo sawin'

Gill dirtin'


Sean hammerin', and me, I did some rockin' (very few of these ~80lb bastards did any rollin')

Yertle Smilin'. Trust me, that's how he smiles.

There are some more pics here.

This mud that you see is not just a springtime condition. It's pretty much all year round and if you don't watch your step you be in over you fashionable 3/4 calf socks. One more good build day and I would say that the entire expanse of swamp will be bridged and only the unfortunate will have to get sullied.

Edit: All this shit happened, like, 2 weeks ago I just never finished the post in a timely manner. So, sue me. I'm gonna start a new one now.