Independence Trail Maint. 4/12/08

[Jeff S.]

I have been in touch with the BLM to see what issues they have with the trail. The only thing that they are real concerned with is a few areas that have had oil spills that weren't cleaned up very well, but there are a few other issues they want addressed. I'm going to meet the BLM rep down there to walk the trail so he can point out problem areas that they want addressed and so we can discuss some other items down there. The plan is to do the cleanup on Saturday, 4/12/08, and if there is bad weather, do it the 19th. If there is anyone interested in helping out, please let me know so I can get a plan together. I'm hoping that if we can get enough volunteers to help we can get everything taken care of in 1 day.

Thanks,
Jeff

PS. The trail will be closed while the work is going on.

[lvbrian2008]

I Have To Work On Saturdays But If You Change Your Mind And Do The Maintence On Sunday The 13th I May Be Able To Make The Trip And Help Out

[Shadow]

I would like to help depending on how my work load is but I will put it on the top of my list for sure!

I talked to Jerry at Predator a while back and he was mentioning the problems that have been happening in the trail such as oil spills not being cleaned up etc. Come on people we need to keep this trail open!

Chris

[RoadDog]

I will plan on being there Jeff.

[Jeff S.]

That would be great. Any help will be greatly appreciated. It's not looking like there are too many people interested in coming out for this. Unfortunately it is one of the necessary evils for keeping the trails there open. That's alright though, we'll be thankful for anyone that can help.

[SUPERGILDO43]

I would LOVE to help. I will try to keep an eye on this thread but could someone PLEASE call me about it? 719-671-8496

chris, maybe we can carpool there :thumbsup:

[Shadow]

Sounds good. Should I bring my buggy and anything else? I wouldn't mind car pooling and it would be nice to meet you. :beer:

[mtntj]

I'm IN!

[JeepWheelin02]

Im in for helping with this one Jeff. Just keep us posted on time and dates.

[Shadow]

As many people that run the trail you think the list would be pretty big :shrug:.

[jim80cj5]

i can come and help where i can due to an injury i may not be able to do much but i'll do what i can. what kind of equiptment are you going to need

[JeepWheelin02]

As many people that run the trail you think the list would be pretty big :shrug:.

I would agree but I also know a lot of people that run those trails arent always on the board. Today was the first time I saw this post.

[SUPERGILDO43]

Sounds good. Should I bring my buggy and anything else? I wouldn't mind car pooling and it would be nice to meet you. :beer:

sounds great, your vehicle or mine?

[ANGRYITCH]

I've never ran the trail but would like to help. I know a couple of buddies I can ask to come along as well...

[Shadow]

sounds great, your vehicle or mine?

It depends if my buggy would be of assistance so if that is the case I hope you don't mind riding in it to the trail :D. If not it doesn't matter whos vehicle we take.

[SUPERGILDO43]

It depends if my buggy would be of assistance so if that is the case I hope you don't mind riding in it to the trail :D. If not it doesn't matter whos vehicle we take.

of course I wouldnt! sounds great, I hope someone bumps this on thursday ish next week so I dont forget :eek:

[Jeff S.]

The plan pending weather of course is to start at 9:00 am on Saturday morning. I should have all the tools handled. I've got rock bars, shovels, etc. The only things anyone should need to bring would be lunch, good work gloves, sunscreen, etc. We will probably need 1 or 2 vehicles with winches on the trail to winch rocks around. I will more than likely be bringing a skid loader to work on getting a good winch anchor at the exit again. The biggest thing needed is help, and it sounds like that's coming together nicely. I don't get to walk the trails with the BLM rep until next week, so there may be a couple other things to do after I meet with him. For the most part though, people have been taking care of the trail and I don't think there is much to do. :thumbsup: I will keep everyone informed with what I find out.
Thanks,
Jeff

PS. If I have a general head count, I will pick up some stuff to have a little cookout afterwards. Nothing fancy, just some burgers, brats, etc.

[JeepWheelin02]

Just keep us updated Jeff.

[SUPERGILDO43]

let me know if you want me to bring some food or drinks for the cookout as well, jeff

[Shadow]

Sounds like a plan.!

[TIMITIMI]

Ad 2 more to your list that will be there. Let us know if we need to bring anything.

[orangezuk]

I'll be there after breakfast at the gooseberry patch about 8ish if anybody wants to meet there.

[TIMITIMI]

are you buying. lol

[SUPERGILDO43]

in need to try the legendary gooseberry patch. hey chris, want to go a tad early for it?

[Shadow]

Hell yeah that place is the bomb :drool: Orangezuk we'll meet ya there at 8 :D. Been a while since I ate there and special thanks to Orangezuk when I did:hail:.

[SUPERGILDO43]

schweet!!! this is gonna be great!

[Jeff S.]

I know I would be down for the Gooseberry Patch first. I'm in for 8:00 there.

[Kbear]

How hard is it to get back into where the cleanup has to happen? I'm a novice Jeeper, and looking at a couple of websites for that trail, I see a few vehicles on their top. I'd like to avoid doing that, for a while at least :D

[Jeff S.]

How hard is it to get back into where the cleanup has to happen? I'm a novice Jeeper, and looking at a couple of websites for that trail, I see a few vehicles on their top. I'd like to avoid doing that, for a while at least :D

Getting to where the work is going to be happening is easy. You don't have to drive the trail at all. You can just park right above it and walk in. The trail is very short and has easy access by foot.

[JeepWheelin02]

8:00 at the Gooseberry sounds good to me. That place has great food.

[WyoGeorge1]

Still on for saturday?

[SUPERGILDO43]

hope so cause i am gonna miss some partyin in denver for it!

[RoadDog]

As of now I would say yes, but we are expectings some rain the next two days. So it depends on how much and if BLM leaves the trail open? Weather for Friday thru Sunday looks really good. I hope that Jeff S. post some info by late Thrusday to Friday.

[timsjeep]

I will more than likely be bringing a skid loader to work on getting a good winch anchor at the exit again. Thanks,
Jeff.

I have a large skid (Bobcat S250) I can bring if you would like to no worry about getting one from your work. Tim

[Jeff S.]

I met with the BLM rep today and walked the trail. By far their biggest concern is oil spills all over the trail that need cleaned up. I was amazed at all the spills and how little, or even no effort is made to try to clean them up. Fortunately, they aren't overly upset about it, they just want them cleaned up, so that will be one of our major focuses this Saturday. Their second concern, and it wasn't a huge deal yet, is a couple places that the trail is getting wider from people catching the bank a little at a time from what the trail was originally and making it a little wider. Not by a lot, but enough that they are noticing and want us to try to stop it. That should be easy enough to take care.
Another thing we discussed was the rails and cable that are down and if we had to fix it. I was told that since people are doing such a good job of staying on the trail, we could just clean up and remove the stuff that is down on the entrance and along the trail. They do want the rails at the exit and in a couple places along the trail left alone. At least we will be allowed to clean some of it up and not fix everything.
As far as the weather, he said that since they aren't expecting much moisture down there and Saturday is supposed to be pretty nice, we will still be a go. He told me that if they do get a lot of moisture that causes them to close the gate, he will call me Friday to let me know. As of now though, we will be there on Saturday taking care of business. Looking forward to seeing everyone there and we'll plan on doing a cookout afterwards.
Thanks,
Jeff

[orangezuk]

If the weather holds up and clean up is still on, what kind of stuff should I bring shovels, trash bags, I've never been involved in a clean, up not sure what to bring.

[Jeff S.]

If the weather holds up and clean up is still on, what kind of stuff should I bring shovels, trash bags, I've never been involved in a clean, up not sure what to bring.

Mainly just gloves, some lunch, water, sunblock if necessary, and that should be about it. I will have some shovels, rakes, rock bars, trash bags, etc. Hopefully I'll have us pretty well covered on all those items.
Thanks

[SUPERGILDO43]

sounds great!

should i bring anything for the cookout??

[Jeff S.]

should i bring anything for the cookout??

If you want to bring some chips or desert or anything else, that would be cool.

[Shadow]

Whats the latest with the weather. I can't make this Saturday due to my work schedule :( so I hope it is canceled until next weekend.

Thanks

Chris

[mtntj]

As of right now the weather is ok. A little cold, overcast, I think it is still a go.

[Jeff S.]

Just got home from a lllllllooooooonnnnnnngggggggg day, but everything is still a go for tomorrow. We're planning on hitting the Gooseberry Patch at 8:00 am and get out to the trail at 9:00 am. I will be bringing pretty much everything we need as far as tools with the exception of Tim bringing a skid loader. All anyone needs to bring is gloves, water, lunch, warm clothes, etc. We will have the cookout afterwards. See you all there tomorrow.
Jeff

[RoadDog]

See ya there.

[Bigrockbronc]

So Orangezuk is still buying breakfast last i heard!:D :D

[rch]

I have to go to work or else i'd be there like a blonde loves money.... :D

[SUPERGILDO43]

I am heading over to chris' (shadow) place in beulah, we're gonna do the brakes on his superduty and we'll be there. we'll miss breakfast with everyone, but we'll see you all on the trail :thumbsup:

[RoadDog]

I think that we had a great turn out for the trail clean up. It showed the dedication that is among us to keep this trail open, thank you. I really would like to thank everyone that stuck around for the late evening run and that helped me when I broke my front output shaft on my Dana 300. Everyone pitched in and got my broke buggy out, Thanks for all your hard work today.

[SUPERGILDO43]

sorry we rolled in so late, I wished we could have made the cleanup, but it wasnt in the cards.

also, we wanted to stay late but werent able to do that either. I saw you on your way in road dog.

nice to meet some of you though :thumbsup:

[Jeff S.]

I want to give a HUGE THANKS to everyone that came out and helped yesterday :hail: . There were about 30 people there along with fantastic weather, and it really helped make short work of everything. We got the trail cleaned up and hopefully what turned out to be a really good winch anchor installed at the exit of Patriot. There was very little trash on the trail to so props to everyone that helps to keep things clean down there. We were done with the work pretty early, so then lots of wheeleing ensued. There were a couple South Dakota guys there that had never wheeled the trail, and a bunch of local guys that of course had. They started out with Patriot, then dropped back in and ran Liberty, and finished with dropping in Patriot backwards and going back up Bunker Hill and the entrance. Sorry you broke your case RoadDog, but I'm glad getting you out went so smooth. It definitely could have been much worse.
Thanks again to everyone. :thumbsup:
Jeff

[mtntj]

MY son and I a great time meeting everyone. Jeff tanks for the Bar-b-q, I bet you don't forget grill parts again? Interesting day to say the least.