December 16, 2007 Trail Update

Traildogs - December 16, 2007

With 2007 drawing to a close I would like to wish you all a Happy and Peaceful holiday.

2007 has a been a good year for our trail development as we were able to open the second segment in March that added over five miles of new trail to our project.

In addition we have begun construction on the one mile ADA Accessible Watchable Wildlife trail and are about 50% complete on this leg of the trail. When completed this trail will be partially paved and partially elevated with watch stations along the trail to allow everyone including those physically challenged to walk the trail and observe the wide variety of wildlife that lives in and around this beautiful bay of Lake Ouachita. The ADA trail will include a new trailhead parking area, restrooms, an information kiosk and a picnic area. We are also evaluating the feasibility of adding exercise stations along a portion of the trail. Our goal is to have a ribbon cutting on this trail segment around June 1, 2008.

We have also designed and received construction clearance the next segment of the hiking/biking trail that will add another 5 miles of trail and will terminate at the Hickory Nut Mountain Vista some 1400 feet above the surface of the lake.

This fall we have rerouted approximately 1/2 mile of the existing trail on the eastern most end of the trail. This reroute was to avoid two obstacles, an unsafe road crossing and an ongoing land dispute.

Construction plans for this third leg have been finalized for the next two months. We will be utilizing a Corps of Engineers Mini-excavator and operator to bust the tread and our traildog volunteers will follow directly behind the machine doing the finish work of setting the angle of repose, cutting roots and leveling construction berm and clearing limbs, logs and brush. We will utilize a 9:00 am start time but you may join anytime prior and after that time. We generally work until 2:00 pm each day with lunch on the trail. The schedule listed below are the ever other week dates the Corps machine and operator will be on the trail but a construction needs dictate we may work additional days in the off weeks. The planned weeks are:

Jan 14 - 19
Jan 28 - Feb 2
Feb 11 - 16

Initially we will meet at the parking lot of the Joplin Methodist Church on Mountain Harbor Road. We will have a tool cache on the trail but you may bring your own equipment if preferred.

Due to budget constraints the US Forest Service team will not be on the trail with us this year until later in the spring but with the generous help of the Corp and the trail dog volunteers we will keep the momentum going as we take the challenge of extending this trail up the mountain.

General construction rules are:
1. If it's raining we don't work
2. Have fun
3. Bring water and food
4. Only do the work you can comfortably do
5. Come when can and leave when you want.

Wednesday December 19 we will meet with the Corps operator to review where we will begin digging and give an orientation on how we want the dig to be coordinated with the volunteers. If any of you would like to join us we will meet at the Methodist Church lot at 9:00am.

Lat year we had almost two thousand volunteer hours on the trail and without the hours we would not have a trail. Your ideas, support and energy is what keeps this effort moving forward and makes this one of Arkansas finest trails. We can all feel proud that the Arkansas Democrat/Gazette awarded the Vista trail its highest, 5 star, award last Sunday December 16 in their Sunday addition.

If you have any suggestions or questions please drop me a note. We have include Saturdays on schedule for those who want to help on the trail but work during the week. If you plan to join us it would be helpful if you would let me know in advance to insure we have adequate tools available.

I look for to seeing our in this beautiful forest as take this big step up the mountain.

Jerry