Post mourning

Little sac is in much better shape. I rode it a couple times this weekend and the weeds have been mowed, many of the low hanging limbs have been cut and the fallen trees have been cleared. Kudos to those that did the work; it's much appreciated. Speaking of this weekends rides, I had a crazy wreck; and I probably brought it on by jinxing myself. Early in the ride I was rounding a corner that was a bit muddy and started to go down but was able to clip out of my petals and prevent a fall. I thought to myself that my wrecking days could be behind me since not too many months ago that same situation would have resulted in me laying in the mud.

Then on my last lap when I was within sight of the car I took a spill. I was taking a clockwise loop following the trail that parallels the entry road and going at a pretty fast speed. The entire section is slightly downhill and hugs the treeline. Near the end i made a slight turn following the trail when all of a sudden the rear of my bike flew into the air and to the left and since I was pedaling like mad my knee slammed into the top tube of my frame. The speed and sideways momentum meant I was going to go down and to be honest the fall wasn't that bad. I ended up sitting in a bush next to the trail with my knee pulsing in pain. As I sat there I just kept repeating to myself "I'm okay, I'm okay....". I was in fact okay and after about 2 minutes the pain in my knee subsided and I was able to get up and ride the short distance to my car. As an aside, I noticed that while I was sitting in the bush my helmet was off my head being worn like a backwards necklace held on only by my very loose chinstrap and on my bike the only thing amiss was that the chain was off the front sprocket. When I looked to see what had caused my rear tire to fly up all I could find was a root that ran across the trail. I don't know how that would have caused it to happen since I go over much larger roots all the time but maybe my speed had something to do with it. I think my rear shock turned into a kind of catapult....

Anyway, I decided to tighten my helmet, pay more attention to the obstacles on the trail and luckily while my knee is still a bit swollen i think it's going to be fine. Unfortunately everything I do seems to be to my right knee; hopefully it will continue to hold up to the punishment.

Mourning

I'm mourning the current state of the little sac trail. I've never seen it in such bad shape; it's overgrown, tree's across the trails and low hanging limbs everywhere.....

I wrote to ozark greenways about it and they redirected me to a guy that works at cycles unlimited who I guess is responsible for trail maintenance. That's cool, at least somebody accepts responsibility for doing the work that I and many others benefit from. Here's my original email;

The sac river trail is in serious need of maintenance; the weeds are
crowding the trail (often several feet tall) and there are numerous low hanging limbs that need to be trimmed back. There is also a section of the trail along the river that is completely impassable due to fallen trees.

If there are any planned group maintenance days then I would be glad to volunteer to help out. I know with the wet weather trail conditions haven't been the greatest, but I've never seen the trail as overgrown as
it's become.

It needs help.

Thanks,

Mark Gullett

Here's the response I got;

Hey Mark,
thanks for your concern. The greenways guys are going to clean the fallen debris soon. Unfortunately trail conditions have been unrideable for most of the season thus far. Any riding during muddy conditions is bad for trail conditions. As the rain has been relentless any corridor trimming is futile. As soon as we get some dry conditions we will be cutting back the overgrowth. You are welcome to carry some cutters for your next ride and trim anything that is arm widths. I will contact you for any organized trail maintenance. thanks again
ride frequently,
(name omitted to protect the innocent)

I understand what he's saying but the weather has cleared up and the last couple times I've ridden the trails mud hasn't been an issue. I'm willing to help out when they organize a work day, but I don't know about carrying cutters for my next ride; I wreck too often and I hate to think of the damage I could do to myself with those!!!!

Anyway, I'll just deal with having a sub-par trail system since that's better than no trails at all.....