Bridge Out, Please Help

Falls Area SingleTrack needed to remove one of the two bridges on the Leaders Park singletrack project. The five inches of rain received in about two hours a week or so ago overflowed the drainage ditch that cuts diagonally through Leaders Park. This high flow rate eroded the bank in some areas. One such place was the bank supporting one of the bridge abutments.

We assessed the situation. It was clear the bridge was unsafe given one abutment was almost floating in mid air. We dismantled this bridge last Saturday morning.

We have elected to replace the 30 foot long trusses with 50 foot long trusses and rebuild the bridge in the same location. By lengthening the bridge by 20 feet this will push the abutments well away from the drainage ditch’s edge and out of harm’s way.

The good news is we can reuse all the materials we dismantled with the exception of the trusses. The bad news is the 30 foot trusses were a donation – the 50 foot replacements will not be. We’ll reuse 100% of the wood deck and rails. But, we’ll need more.

We’ve calculated the replacement trusses and additional wood will cost $3,000.00. Falls Area SingleTrack, INC has not been in existence long enough to apply for 501(c)3 non profit status with the Internal Revenue Service. I trust this will not deter you from making a donation even though it cannot be used as a tax deduction.

Please consider making a donation to this project. Any amount will be fine. If you can spare $5 – great! If you can spare $500 – cool! Please make donations payable to Falls Area SingleTrack and mail them to:

FAST
PO Box 90144
Sioux Falls, SD 57109

Thank you in advance for your support!

Thursday Movie Night

Come enjoy some off-road movies. Renew your membership. Donate a couple bucks to the effort. Enjoy FAST.

Monk's.
Thursday.
6:30pm.

Digging Resumes...Saturday (Movie Night Coming)

Greetings!

We are now ready to resume trail digging in Leaders Park. Trail digging will be Saturday May 7th from 9:00 AM until noon, again on Saturday beginning at 2:00 PM and ending at 5:00 PM, and on Sunday beginning at 1:00 PM and ending at 4:00 PM. There is no need or obligation to attend all sessions. If you’d like to lend a hand, pick which session(s) work for you because that’s what works for us!

For digging, no experience is necessary. We’ll gladly train you. It’s not that hard and we’re just talking about dirt, here. However, please do wear close toed shoes. Gloves are a good idea. We’ll have a few loaner pairs if you don’t have any or forget. We highly recommend you bring a water bottle. There are no restroom facilities in the park so please handle that business before you get there.

We meet at the Leaders Park sign on the corner of E 6th St and Leadale Ave. We’ll have a check-in and then walk to the training / staging area. We’ll have a safety meeting and then begin working.

Great progress was made last fall. I very much think we can have the first loop done within three weekends. This coming weekend we’ll be doing some maintenance on the work from last year. I need to take full responsibility for the deficiencies. There are some routing issues to address and some trail width areas to be fixed. I began work on both of these fixes earlier this spring. The good news is I’ve learned from my errors and the fixes go really, really fast.

Once the first loop is done, again we’ll need volunteers. This time for fun stuff – riding the trail! Bike traffic is an excellent way to compact the trail. In addition, I’d very much like feedback on what you ride. Tell me what’s good and tell me what’s not so good. We want this trail to be as good as it can be and feedback provides the information we need to insure that happens.

Lastly, FAST is planning for a mountain bike movie night. It will be Thursday, May 19th. Start time to be determined soon. Two sponsors have come forward to provide the movies. We’ll be showing these movies for free but, we are asking for a free will donation, 100% of which goes directly to FAST to continue to fund the singletrack project.

Please mark your calendars and pass the word along both for the trail digging and movie night. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks!

Chris Pierson, President
Falls Area SingleTrack, INC.

Spring 2011 Garbage

It's pretty evident that a large portion of the litter generated east of I-229 flows through Leaders Park with storm drainage. We're pretty sure the 11 tires we pulled over the weekend arrived by other means.

Here's evidence that at least some western South Dakota garbage flows through the park.



Occasionally we get to see some wild life too.




I'll spare you the humanuer.



These kids are rockers!

Trailbuilding resumes...May 19.

Come Clean: Earth Day 2011

Let's start this season the same way we ended last season!

Here we all are last fall half-way done walking through the park picking up garbage.



Some things are more interesting than others...



Some things are hard to move...



But in the end it's reasonably satisfying work.



So let's do it again.

The Second Annual Earth Day Leaders Park Garbage Pickup
Saturday April 23 @ 1pm
Meet @ 6th & Leadale

Grab a bag & fill a bag. Relieve your bladder before you arrive. Wear closed toed shoes and gloves.

Snakebite's Swap

He's doing it again AND proceeds are going to FAST, again!



Thanks Snakebite!