Dig It

I have an image of Forest Service workers. College kids with beards, sure. Lanky old skinny guys with leathery skin and thick glasses, check. Matronly middle aged women with loud voices and ill fitting khaki's cinched so tight at the waist that you would expect Grover to step out of the trees and say "This is the letter "B"boys and girls." And, minus the last one in the list, all the stereotypical versions of USFS employees were represented at today's trail work day up on the Mill Canyon Trail.
But as we were milling around the trucks this morning getting ready to go dig, Steve Winters introduced me to Sheryl the volunteer coordinator for the USFS. I had heard Steve talk about Sheryl before, he never described her, but I had an idea of what I thought she would look like. It was the Helga version that I had in mind. So when this petite little twentysomething turned around I was very surprised. She was friendly, and funny, and well......young. Then the rest of the trailwork crew started to put things together. Not a single menopausal woman in the bunch.
I am of the opinion, that the Forest Service would have no problem getting volunteers if they would make a poster with all these ladies that said " I Want You!....To Volunteer For Trailwork." They'd quadruple their teenage boys and middle aged men volunteers. One middle aged volunteer who will remain anonymous walked up and elbowed me at one point, and said, "I'll bet you never knew there were so many attractive young ladies in the forest service, did you Josh?" No I did not. It's like when your watching a horror movie and all the camp counselors, or ski patrollers, or whatever, look like they just stepped out of an Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue.
Anyway, we did actually do some trailwork. A lot of trailwork actually. While I was the sole representative from the Bike Peddler Weekly group(slackers) the URMB contingent was well represented. Along with a ton of motorcycle guys. Next time you mutter under your breath as a motorcycle passes you on a climb up there, don't. They outnumbered mountain bikers by about 2 to 1. You can still grumble about horsemen though, there was only one of them. But he was a very cool guy so they get extra credit. And while your at it don't complain about at-risk teenage girls either because there were like a dozen of them up there digging under the direction of their counselor while you were scratching your butt on the couch this morning.The Mill Canyon reroute, is an ambitious project. The route has already been flagged, cleared, and scraped by a mini-dozer. We were working on grading out the 4-5 foot swath and pulling the uphill side in to narrow the usable trail, and clearing the berm on the downhill side to allow drainage.
They are taking the very steep, and direct route of the Mill Canyon Trail and adding several miles to the existing three. For now it only redirects the upper section before the intersection connecting to Tibble.
Honestly, I was a little sad to see the changes happening. Upper Mill Canyon has always been a blast to ride. It is a steep, rocky, rooty, chainsaw of a trail. And to get to it you have to climb a really steep grunt from the four-way intersection on Ridge Trail. The new trail will be similar to South Fork Lower Deer Creek. Smooth fast goodness. Plus it will be a couple miles longer. It will still be a great trail, but the character is going to change dramatically. In this poorly lit photograph you can see what I'm talking about.
On the left is the new trail being cut in. Smooth, and fast. On the right is the existing trail. rocky and treachorous, but in a good way.
The best part though, is that it will be climbable. Not in a, make sure your toe spikes are in tight and your bike is shoulderable kind of way, but in a gradual, doable grade kind of way. I am imagining a loop that starts and finishes at the summit trailhead. Ridge Trail down from the top of Mill could become a favorite new downhill. Or you could climb from the Mud/Tibble intersection and then turn around and bomb all the way back down to the reservoir. It's gonna be cool.
Oh, and here is a photo of the biggest damn wasps nest I've ever seen.
If you love the trail the way it is, relax. You've got some time to say goodbye. The Forest Service crew mentioned that proper protocol says a new trail has to settle for a year before it can be officially opened. So it will likely be awhile. I plan to ride it before the snow flies, and as much as I can next year before it is officially closed. You can come with me if you can pry your butt up off the couch.