nothing lasts

Early last Saturday morning I headed up the Black Mtn. trail with my sights set on Laurel > Pilot and a big ride. Right at the bottom of the trail I encountered Trail Design Specialists bulldozer and saw the first examples of their brand of trail work. Just the night before I has responded to a comment on this blog where in regards to the proposed Squirrel Gap trail work I said 'so be it' but seeing the machine and seeing how they managed to widen a stretch of trail already as wide as a road quickly changed my opinion. I didn't like seeing that machine there and didn't like the idea of it heading deeper into the woods on a trail that has never seen a machine.



As I worked my way up Black all I could think about is how they are going to rip Squirrel to shreds and that is quite simply sad. The only way to protect our woods from powered machinery is through Federal law. A pristine mountain trail is not safe unless it is in Wilderness. It seems like the Forest Service and the contractors they hire would want to preserve the character of the trails they maintain but that is simply not the case. It comes down to silly politics, bureaucracy and money.

It took me over an hour to reach the turn onto Turkey Pen which is slow for me and then when I started down Turkey Pen Gap I was hit with more frustration. The first half mile of trail is still covered in dead fall as it has been since March. In fact it looked like nobody had touched a single branch since I was up there scouting before pmbar, instead of dragging a few branches off the trail everyone has just been going around them. That is not going to make the trail any better. I stopped for a while and cleared a few spots and decided to bail on Laurel and just do Squirrel instead. So, on down to the river, up Mullinax and onto Squirrel.

Squirrel Gap needs some work, no question about that, but it does not need a machine to be driven down it and compared to dozens of other trails in the district it really isn't in bad shape at all. I made good time as I worked my way around and when I stopped at Cantrell to refill my water I saw several different salamanders, frogs and toads. I wonder how they will like a bulldozer driving through there. I paused again at Squirrel Gap itself. The beauty of Pisgah:



From there it was just back up to the top of Black. A week earlier it had taken me a half hour to make it up to the top but this time I felt good and managed to ride most of the way and cut that time in half. I stopped to snap the obligatory pic, eat a few blueberries that hung from the cliff and watched a few hawks drafting in the valley below. Downhill from here:



Sunday's to relax but my dog needs exercise so I loaded him up and headed for the only place I seem to know anymore. It was afternoon and hot and he would need water so I picked a short trail with a stream at the top of the climb - The North Slope. After our run we went down and sat in the river to refresh our aching legs and watched as a never ending line of tubers floated past.