USI -cross country/ bent twig

[Tim]

I have recently been contacted by the USI volunteer dept. They are excited about clearing the trails and making them useful again. It really isn't a whole lot that needs to be done other than basic clearing and some chainsaw work. Right now I still have to get all the liability / waiver type stuff cleared up.

If you are interested in some volunteer work please let me know here so I can contact you when and if we get permission. Some of the trails out there have a lot of potential as far as being fun and a little bit technical. Most of them are not real long but are a lot of fun. They have just been ignored and over grown for a long time.

Thanks, tim

[Tim]

Well, they pretty much told me "NO" in the most politically pleasant way they could.......

Hi Tim,

I followed up and unfortunately the decision was made not to allow the volunteer trail maintenance. Although the Physical Plant and Grounds Maintenance greatly appreciate the offer, their decision was based on several factors, including the following:

· There is a significant liability issue if someone were to get hurt working on the trail that they do not want to experience.

· The trail is more for walking and jogging and not mountain bikes. We do not prohibit bikes on the trails but we do not promote it due to the conflict with runners, walkers, and the cross country teams that run the courses during their meets.

· Because this is heavily used for our cross country team, we do not want encourage biking on the trails.

· Supervision of a group volunteering to clean up the trails is a real concern. We would have to schedule someone with supervisory experience to oversee the work and finding someone to do this is difficult, especially after normal work hours and weekends.

· Our Grounds department will be working on the trails as soon as the winter sets in and we have more time to devote to them.



It is with great sincerity that we say thank you for the idea and offer. We do not want to discourage future ideas or interest in involvement at USI and hope to hear from you again.



Best regards,

Kira N. Vaal '03

Assistant Director

Alumni & Volunteer Services

University of Southern Indiana

Much respect, it is after all their property and their rules.
Experienced supervisor ? I suppose that's in case people start a game of (rake toss)

It's really too bad, the place still had potential but I suppose cross country comes first.

[freerideco]

Nice effort, Tim. It seems to me like they are making assumptions. Mike Hillyard, USI cross country coach, is in full support of mountain bikers creating new trails. At least that was the case when I went to school there about 5 years ago. The school owns some land south of Broadway and he encouraged mountain bikers to cut some new trail in that area. I'm not sure if that is still an option but it wouldn't hurt to get in touch with him to see where he stands on the issue. I used to work with him at Gilles and haven't talked to him for some time. But if you'd like me to put you in touch with him I would be more than happy to.

[Tim]

Thanks but I don't really want to persue it any further. If they want to do something the door is open here. I'll respect their decision. They should at least clear the bent twig trails for the sake of hiking. There are unique landscapes back there.

[Tim]

Thanks but I don't really want to persue it any further. If they want to do something the door is open here. I'll respect their decision. They should at least clear the bent twig trails for the sake of hiking. There are unique landscapes back there.

[freerideco]

Agreed. Their loss.

[Tim]

Well, well, well.....

Good news, USI has decided to rebuild their trail system starting with the Bent Twig educational trail by reflection lake. They have decided to alow me to participate and at least have a small opinion on things.

It is basically a campus fitness project and is mostly designed for hiking and running.
We had a little meeting today to go over some of the plans for the project and I brought up mountain biking and they kind of frowned on that

My guess is that it will interfere with their cross country running or it's that old stigma about how bikes tear up the trails.

None the less, in my need to educate, I provided some info on how trails built by IMBA were designed to be sustainable against erosion. Everyone benefits from that, hikers, walkers, or runners.
They are looking at starting in mid March or April as the weather allows,

Aside from mountain biking, the bent twig trail is a very unique area to this part of town. The trails follow natural fall lines in a unique limestone ravine. It also has some nice seasonal waterfalls. Originally built in 1970 it has not been updated since then.

They are looking at starting in mid March or April as the weather allows.
The project will start with the lake trails and will eventually work it's way into the cross country trail area. they may have frowned on the MTB part but they also mentioned that they won't turn them away.

From what I've read it's a good funded program and I'm glad to be a part of it.
you can read more about it here :

sibiketrails.blogspot.com/2010/02/university-of-southern-indiana-bent.html

If anyone would like to help, they are more than welcome. I'll post more info on work dates as I get them.

Over all it's a win win situation regardless of certain views.

____________________________________________________________________________

[ricdix]

That's great news Tim. Good for you.
What ever you do, keep trying to get them to buy in on IMBA's sustainable contour trails. You might stress to them that it was developed by mountain bikers but the methods have been embraced by all professional trail builders.
If they have money in the budget they might want to consider consulting with Spectrum/Alex about the design. After all, the actual layout and design is the most critical part.
If there ends up being a user conflict, they can always post a schedule and close the trail for cross country practices or events.
By the way, does USI have a cycling team?

[Tim]

Thanks. As far as mountain biking goes, i gave them a link for some free trail stuff including the IMBA guide to sustainable trails.

she handed them around but no one was really interested in looking at them. I would say because they are not the ones who will do the work

We will see how things turn out. Right now their focus is on the nature trail but next year they will move to the main cross country area.
Maybe I can swing the vote there a bit. They have a lot of fall line trails that are in pretty bad shape