First Ride

I finally got to ride the loop yesterday. I had a meeting scheduled with Woody at 3:00 so my plan was to get there an hour early to do a couple of loops. I also had to attend a meeting at noon that my friend Christian was giving. Christian wanted to ride the trail also so it was going to work out good. Well, the meeting ran a little late so we only got to do one lap but the cool thing was that Christian has met Woody in the past and they knew a lot of the same people. That kinda helped break the ice. I guess over in Point Washington near Destin they have a bike trail that the forestry people built and maintain and Woody was one of those guys. So we talked about the trail some and he was ok with us bridging over the little ditch although he forgot to check if the pile o’ timbers was still available for our use. He also suggested we start thinking about blazing the trail and building kiosks. I think paint for the blazing would be the best so he was going to check on the specifications and color suggestions and I would do the labor. The kiosk might take a while but he definitely wants to start using the Juniper Creek parking area as the spot to park instead of the gate where I have been parking. That just means I have to build that northern section of the trail next. Out of the blue he started talking about day use fees. He said it would only be $1 to use the area but it kinda caught me off guard. I suggested that the club, having built the trail and are going to be maintaining it, would be exempt from the fee and he thought that was fair but he would have to run it by the bosses. That might also help with club membership. I think now is the time we need to create an MOU just to define some responsibilities and such. Anyway, we had a nice ride and I think the trail will be fun to ride although it’s still a little rough. I need to spend a few hours riding the loop and working out some lines. Hopefully next weekend.