Saturday Ride Information/Labor Day Weekend Trail Work

Buena Ride Saturday Morning: Well, it's hump day, and that means it is time to start planning for the upcoming weekend. Last week we had an incredibly good turnout for our group ride with just perhaps the first feeling of the coming fall season as it was a little cool when we started out.

It was nice to have a good healthy number of riders out there last weekend. Here, Mischa Larisch, Conrad Loney, and Laura Larisch are all pictured in the foreground. Conrad is really busy, so it was nice seeing him again!

Anyway, it was a great ride and we got to take a route that I can fairly and safely say that probably nobody has ever duplicated before. We'll see if we can be as creative this coming weekend. Who wants to lead? Be thinking about it and what route you'd choose. Regardless, meet at the Buena Vista trailhead, about 2.5 miles south of Show Low off highway 260 for a 7:00 a.m. departure. We'll be riding about 12-15 miles (we beat that amount by just a bit last Saturday) and should return to the trailhead about 9:00-9:30.

See ya Saturday morning!

Flintsone/Chihuahua Pines Trail Work: So, speaking of being able to put together creative new routes . . . we have two main construction projects left to complete in the Buena Vista area this fall. One of them is a small re-route of the Flintstone trail in the area of old El Cucuy. That needs to be done to avoid an archeological site. The second project is the building of a new Chihuahua Pines Connector on the east side of highway 60 that will run from the bottom of Flintstone to the underpass beneath Highway 60, and which will replace the unsightly and boring road.

Here's the plan. We are going to have not just one, but two "give-back" trail work days over the appropriately named Labor Day weekend! The first of these will be on Saturday, September 5th at 7:00 a.m. That will be done instead of having a group ride that day. The second work day will be on Monday, September 7th at 7:00 a.m. Both days we'll meet at the Buena Vista trailhead and head out to the work site. I'd expect that we'll have the tools driven out both days so that the group can ride bikes out to the work area if they so choose. Those that don't want to ride out can drive following Steve Dobbs who will be hauling the tools. Which project we focus on each day is going to depend a little bit on what work is done between now and Labor Day weekend. Rest assured however, there is going to be plenty of labor needing to be done, as Chihuahua is a almost a mile long and nothing has been done at this point to get it ready to be built.

We need lots of volunteers that weekend! So we certainly appreciate you penciling one or both of those dates in to help give back to the trail system that gives so much to us.