Shenandoah Mountain 100 - Vintage 2000

An amazing blast back to the beginning of the clasic event that defined what an east coast epic needed to resemble.

Thanks so much Kevin Keane and Steele Bennett for working on this and making it happen. Rolling into #15 in this fine year of 2013. Come on out and lets do this again!!

Lookout Mountain - SVBC begins the trail realignment today with Trail Dynamics - thanks IMBA and USFS for the help.

It's going to be sooooo amazing to have a trail on the west side of Lookout Mountain (pictured below). The views up into the North River Watershed and into one of the largest roadless areas on the east coast are breathtaking. The natural terrain is INCREDIBLE- rock cliffs, huge school bus size slabs with great black bear and rattlesnake habitat.

Cheers to Harrisonburg's ever improving IMBA EPIC Ride Center Trail System!



Sent from SMT Headquarters!

Lookout Mountain - SVBC begins the trail realignment today with Trail Dynamics - thanks IMBA and USFS for the help.

It's going to be sooooo amazing to have a trail on the west side of Lookout Mountain (pictured below). The views up into the North River Watershed and into one of the largest roadless areas on the east coast are breathtaking. The natural terrain is INCREDIBLE- rock cliffs, huge school bus size slabs with great black bear and rattlesnake habitat.

Cheers to Harrisonburg's ever improving IMBA EPIC Ride Center Trail System!


Sent from SMT Headquarters!

Shenandoah Mountain 100 - 2011 - A tiny bit of the post event goodness!

WOW, super FUN! Thanks everyone! Volunteers, Sponsors, and PARTICIPANTS!
HERE is a link to an .xls preliminary result file. We hope your system is able to allow it to be opened!
Please EMAIL us if you see any corrections that should be made.

For those of you that are super pumped to improve your time in the ride next year Coach Chris Eatough has a special for participants from the 2011 Shenandoah Mountain 100. We can't publish the deal here for others to see, but you can EMAIL us to inquire about the special on either or both of the -  20 week Winter Training plan or the Shenandoah Mountain 100 training plan.

Shenandoah Mountain 100 brief photo set HERE or below

From Shenandoah Mountain 100 - 2011

Shenandoah Mountain 100 Trail Work Mission - Chestnut Ridge

Yesterday, Tyler and Matt headed up to Little Bald Knob then cruised down Chestnut Ridge while clearing loose sketchy rocks, lopping thorny face-slappers, and weedeating the hay-quality grass.  What was once a test to get through now is a dream to descend!  Check out some pictures from the day:

Super-wide corridors!!



Shenandoah Mountain 100 Trail Work Mission- Wolf Ridge/ Lynn Trail

Yesterday, Matt and Tyler went out to Wolf Ridge and Lynn Trail to clear some trees, cut grass, and throw loose rocks off the trail.  This trail is now super clear and smooth, some may be getting the sonic BOOM during the race.  Here are some pictures from the mission:

Big thanks to the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition for getting volunteers to come out and fix a nasty spring that popped up on Wolf.

Our BoB trailer helped get the chainsaw, chainsaw tools, and the weed eater up and down the mountain on this mission.

Trail Improvement Project in the GW - Moving Forward! - Thanks USFS, SVBC, SMT, IMBA and Ironwood Outdoors

The North River Ranger District of the George Washington National Forest has partnered with Ironwood Outdoors to rehabilitate a portion of the Wild Oak National Recreation Trail, Bear Draft Trail and Shaffer Hollow Trail. District Ranger Elwood Burge is leveraging limited trail maintance funding that will end up quadrupling its value before the project is done. By the time the project is completed the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition, Shenandoah Mountain Touring, the International Mountain Bicycling Association and other trail volunteer groups will contribute volunteer hours and provide financial assistance helping Ironwood Outdoors more the project forward.

The trail project is in Augusta County on Lookout Mountain which over looks the North River watershed in the George Washington National Forest.  Stabilizing the soil on these mountain trails will improve water quality and provide a better recreational experience for all the non motorized trail visitors which consists of  equestrians, bicyclists, hikers and trail runners. National Forest Trail Specialist Christian Canary said, "we are really excited to give the bicyclists' this opportunity to improve these system trails that they enjoy so much. Everyone will benefit from this collaboration" 

Shaffer Hollow Trail and portions of the Wild Oak Trail are used in the upcoming Shenandoah Mountain 100 Backcountry Bicycle Event held on Sunday September 4th. The annual event is held the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. 2011 will mark the 13 edition of the event. The event is operated under a special event permit with the George Washington National Forest. The event brings over 2000 visitors to the Forest each year contributing over $500,000 annually to the local economy while leveraging hundreds of volunteer trail improvement hours associated with the event. 

Shenandoah Mountain Touring, LLC

http://www.mountaintouring.com/

Shenandoah Mountain 100 Trail Work Mission- Dowell's Draft

Trail work comes often here at SMT, especially the month before the 100!  Our second mission of the week sent us to Dowell's Draft to clear grown in trail and loose rocks on the entire trail!  A little bit of love to this trail and it is world class!  Matt towed our new BoB Trailer and it was a great help getting our tools to the top, not to mention was a dream on the way back down!  Here are some pictures from the day:

<--- Outlook at the top of Dowell's Draft

Matt setting out with the BoB trailer

Using a rolling system to move this log off the trail

Shenandoah Mountain 100 Trail Work Mission- Bridge Hollow/Braley Pond

 Matt and Tyler set out early Tuesday morning to clear up some grown in trail as well as remove downed trees on Bridge Hollow, Braley Pond Trail, and Johnson Draft Trail. What does this all mean?? The last section of trail heading into aid station 4 is ROLLIN'!!!! Here's some pictures from the mission:

George Washington National Forest - Spring Trail Clearing

Holy cow, there is always an opportunity to get out and clear some trail in the George Washington National Forest. Just don't forget to do all the right things first - volunteer agreement, prior approval of specific projects and use proper safety gear with required certifications.

Some quality work on Shenandoah Mountain - 4 work days in already and I haven't even ridden from Rt. 250 to Scotchtown Draft since last year.

A collaborative project on Carr Mountain - what a cool connector!

Stribbling Springs is not looking soooo good - will add picture link soon

Dowell's Draft is tight - thanks Matt, Katy and Jennifer!

Beards and Little Mare for SDS - thanks Matt, Mike and Tyler!

Lots more to do, Eliotts in the am!

From Elliotts Crawford Chimney Hollow

Yes, it could be this cold up there again!

From Elliotts Crawford Chimney Hollow

It will surely be this sweet up there again, even with some rain!

From Elliotts Crawford Chimney Hollow

SDS Trailwork on the Southern Traverse

The "Southern Traverse" is open and rolling. Two days of clearing and cutting deadfall. 

Lynn Trail switchback is reconstructed in the George Washington National Forest

First assess the worksite and make it a safe area to work
Make a plan that can be completed successfully
Start digging the foundation for the rock crib wall
After cutting the backslope
Spread the soil on the trail tread
Tamp the ground to compact the soil
Take a moment to appreciate your hard work that will last forever

Lynn Trail is the 2nd climb in the Shenandoah Mountain 100 bicycle route. It is one heck of a challenging trail to climb. The Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition just reconstructed the rocky steep and very difficult to ride switchback about half way up the trail. Thanks to Ed Sutton of Trail Dynamics for coming out and volunteering with our local bicycle club. Trail Dynamics just finish the work on lower Wolf Ridge Trail which is the descent that bicycles use after the climb on Lynn Trail in the Shenandoah Mountain 100. The Wolf Ridge trail project was funded by a Recreational Trails Program (RTP) grant that the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition was awarded. The grant is administered through Virginia's Department of Conservation and Recreation and funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The funds are from the estimated tax from fuel that is not used on our highways.

DCR Grant trail work in progress!

First, clear the corridor and clear out the organic soil

Get down to the mineral soil, the foundation for the trail

Hand work for some finishing touches... 

 Lots of finishing touches to clean it up...

 ....and admire! 

DCR Grant trail work in the North River district of the George Washington National Forest is in full swing. The Trail Dynamics has been working this week on the Wolf Ridge trail #378 reroute towards the bottom of Wolf Ridge. The finished product looks amazing and will be ready for use very soon!

Wolf Ridge Trail in the George Washington National Forest is looking super good after 3 days clearing it for the Shenandoah Mountain 100

Hauling the gear out after 3 long work days - BOB Trailers are useful!

Getting a grasp on the quantity of work to be done, also helps gauge how far we have gone per day, can you see the trail ahead?

Yep, this is our potential wilderness area, remnants of an old logging truck

Some of the gear required to remove this tree, not shown is the safety gear that is being warn and the 1st aid/CPR card and the chainsaw operators card that expires every 3 years

Little beauty

Free the trail! - FREEDOM in the George Washington National Forest is very important to members of the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition

One big dead guy, will be picking up pieces of this tree for a long time to come

That is Jake 20 feet off the trail doing the job right, flush cutting a sapling off that is reaching into the trail

Some many dead trees... soooo little time, Wolf Ridge Trail was not even passable all spring because there we some many dead branches locked together along the trail

Orange is such a nice color in the woods

Nick clears up some of this debris, the USFS cut this one down for us - THANKS!

I see over 20 trees that will be laying across the trail in the next 5 years

Nick Pence after a 12 hr day clearing trail, ready to head back to Harrisonburg, Virginia after hauling the gear out with our bicycles.

Brushing with the gas powered equipment is huge necessity when the canopy of trees overhead has died from one pass of the gypsy moth. Many people thought that it would take a few passes of the leave eating gypsy moth to kill these tree's in the George Washington National Forest. They were wrong. The average tree in your backyard can take a few devastation's 3-4, so I have been told, before they die. These ridge top beauties are not as resistant. It must be a hard world for trees on the ridge tops with excessive winds, thin soils, cold winters and direct sunlight from all sides all year long. The ground is now erupting with saplings', briars, invasive vines and stripped maples that are swallowing the trails and closing them off to
hikers, bicyclists and equestrians. Back to the theme of the post. Thank goodness we are allowed to use mechanized devices to keep these trails closed. Mechanized devices are not allowed to keep the trails open in Wilderness Areas in National Forests. Right now a crew of workers are spending over $100,000 clearing trails in the Ramsey's Draft Wilderness Area. We cleared the trail in the Little River Potential Wilderness Area for free. Volunteerism at its best. Thanks Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition for all the countless hours and dedication to keeping trails open for bicycles, hikers and equestrians in the George Washington National Forest for the last decade.