DNR Jones Creek ATV Trail System Work Party ReportDarel and I would like to thank everyone who came out and helped with the DNR Jones Creek ATV Trail System Work Party on Saturday. Your efforts were very much appreciated by DNR, JCTRA, DirtChurch and especially Darel and myself.
All who attended put in a incredible amount of effort - you guys really put the WORK in work party - NO slackers here...
For everyone's efforts, we were able to put three checks in the boxes:
Trail Repair & Hardening -- CHECK
Fence Construction and Culvert Install -- CHECK
Landing Clean-Up and Blockade -- CHECK
There were 42 volunteers in attendance that day and 22 of them were Piston's Wild members, applicants and guests - all-in-all, a phenomenal representation from the 4x4 community (especially for working on ATV trails).
A big round of applause goes out to Josh Rieppe from DNR for coordinating all of the materials (lumber, gravel, tools, hardware etc.) for this workparty. I know that folks don't always recognize how much effort goes into coordinating something like this because so much of the planning is behind the scenes. Anyway, from one event coordinator to another - GREAT JOB JOSH!
Special thanks go out to Jake Turpeinen (excavator03) from Cascade Cruisers, Dustin Braaden (TORX) of NAXJA, Kenny (Kenny811) and Daryl (thedude) from Sore 4x4. I would also like to thank the folks from the Christian Motorcycle Association for helping out JCTRA with the trail brushing project - Ross really appreciated your help.
This work party would not have been possible without the following donations:
Jake Turpeinen - operating and donating his mini-excavator for the entire day
Kenny (via ISCO) for donating the culverts used for the trail crossing
Douglas Glidden (via Longview Pro-Caliber) for donating the Kawasaki Mule and the Polaris 6x6 for hauling rock for the day.
(* extra special thanks to Douglas for hauling them in and cleaning them up after the rest of us called it a day)
JCTRA for loaning us Bruce Wells and one of the 6x6's for the day and also allowing us to use two more of the 6x6's at the end of the day to finish our projects. Our guys found out really quick that they are not as easy to operate as we thought...
Sunbelt Rentals Vancouver (thanks Brent & Don) for donating the use of the skidplate compactor for the work party - you guys always come through for me and we really appreciate your contributions!
And last but not least, Darel Crowder for donating the use of "Big Green", his John Deere 4x4 tractor for loading gravel and cleaning up the landing.
Thanks to Cheri and Margaret for doing a great job monitoring the radios and flagging on the roadways to keep the wingnuts who were racing on the service roads to "caution lap" speeds.
Also thanks to Margaret and Cheri for firing up the grill and cooking up hot dogs for the crew - it would have been a R E A L L Y long day without that yummy lunch break.
We could have used a couple more volunteers for the day to help with spreading gravel and someone dedicated to taking pictures - I did not get any pictures of the "fence" crew or even the finished product - sorry guys (I will grab some completed product pics next time I am up there). Everyone gave 110% and we got the job done...
Thank you again to everyone who contributed - hopefully we will be working on 4x4 trails in the near future (May ?).
Respectfully reporting,
Crystal Crowder