Some Trail Expansion: Build It

We’re expanding the singletrack at Leaders Park and we need your help, please.

At the very northwestern part of the park there’s a severe elevation drop to the north bridge. This portion of trail gets lots of use by the neighborhood because it’s the most direct route from Homestead Circle to Ronning Park at the top of the hill. We’ve seen quite a lot of deterioration from erosion and traffic. It’s time to change the routing.

This deteriorating section of trail also roughly marks the northern border of Leaders Park. We’ve spent some time around a table with park’s leadership describing the whys and wherefores of what we want to do. We’ve also spent time showing them a roughed in solution to our problem.

They agree it’s the right thing to do and the right way to do it.

Here it is: we’ll go north, gradually down the hillside and south to reconnect to the bridge. We will also connect our trail to the east/west portion of Homestead Circle. This provides an access point; additional on-street parking spaces and a nice connection through the park for people utilizing our trail for FUN transport.

It’s a modest expansion but it’s also the biggest publicly available singletrack expansion within 70 miles of Sioux Falls in two years.

One week from today, Thursday August 29 at 6pm IMBA trained Adam will lead a learning and trail building session at the park. After Labor Day the work will continue on Thursday evenings until the build is complete. Please commit to a few Thursday nights between now and the end of October.

The meet spot for the learning/building session is Homestead Circle & Lowell Ave at the north end of the park.

There are no trail faeries. Singletrack exists because people build it.

Big Loop Video

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It's Shindig Thursday

We doing a pizza shindig Thursday to celebrate our volunteers, members and riders. People like you.

We've got the Meldrum Park shelter reserved at 6pm for a couple hours. Meldrum Park is a few blocks west of Leaders Park, so ride, check out the handcrafted trail then come eat free pizza. Then ride again.

There will be some time to exchange information, talk about future efforts at Leaders, and tell about the work we've been doing to maintain the park.

You're invited. We'd be happy to see you.

Thursday, June 27, 6pm.

Wacking Weeds...

...but keeping the flowers.

Pushing Back the Green

There were no ramps...

to return to their original state...

so the team split up.

Some took to the string trimmer pushing back the spring growth on the east side expert loop.

Others made improvements to the bench cuts on the west side expert loop.

There are only 2 more Thursday night trail sessions remaining in June. Thursday Trail Day this week will be more string trimming, some lopper work, and more dirt movement.

The final Thursday in June we're gonna have a bit of a shindig. Pay attention for that. If you're not on our e-mail list get on it.

Bridge Ramp Permanence

We used to have this pretty cool and slightly intimidating bridge ramp. It ended a few inches above the ground. Rock then completed the decent to the ground. Now, because we can't have nice things - somehow the rocks tended to end up in the river - last Thursday night's volunteers (thanks Ben and Brad!) made a more permanent solution.

Here's what it looks like on the way off the bridge:

What it looks like on approach:

And, the profile:

The Bridges of Leaders Park

Thursday was our first Thursday Trail Day and by most measures it was a huge success.

In March we cut and treated enough wood to repair the railings on both bridges.

Thursday began with a pretty decent amount of haulin' wood.

Then it was time to get the power tools out and put the screws to it.

Many hands make light work and Travis, Steve, Adam, Ben and Brad turned this out in just over two hours.

 In the end there were two bridges returned to their original condition.

This is how these are supposed to look. Thanks guys!