Snow storm last Sunday. Rainy and cold this Saturday. But in spite of the weather, the GGR crew - along with a few friends - put in nearly 300 hours of time at the Castle Rock Bike Park during the past two weeks.
Eighteen people showed last Sunday. We had 40 onsite on Saturday. We have now logged 979 hours since May, with 71 people contributing.
Let me know if I left out any of the Saturday crew. My list includes Dave, Lipton, Patterson, Ryane Olin, Miles Olin, John Kowalski, Jordan Norris, Sean Vergillo, Nic Khajavei, Carter Hanley, Buzz Truitt, Mike Vorse, Dave Vorse, Jerry D, Andrea D, Brad Burger, Cage Aaron, Carla Mitchem, Paul, Mel, Kelley, Barry de Semple, Trevor Eades, Jeremy Howard, Chris Laughlin, Vaughn Martin, Randy Toney, Keith Gianella, Ryan McMaster, Andrew Holder, Cori Wiessner, Mark Sanchez, Kevin Knorr, Greg Ogden, Lance Brigman, Todd Schierscher, Tana Gutzka, Jeff Muldoon, and Jack Berry.
I’ve been asked numerous times how we get such a kick-ass, full-on work force, especially when the weather is so bad. The answer is always the same - we have phenomenal people.
Last Sunday and this Saturday sort of blended together in terms of what we accomplished. After all the prep work we’ve done, it’s very gratifying to see things beginning to take shape.
If you haven’t been to the bike park for a while, you would immediately notice that we have completed approximately 65 percent of the elevated trail that serpentines back and forth across the site. Top deck is on and we have completed construction of three massive berms - it will take a while for these to settle.
We also got a great start on a more challenging line that will run down the middle of the east side of the site, bisecting the serpentining trail twice. The gnarlier line already has skinnies and a very large rock to navigate. Crews also made significant progress on the jump lines and pump tracks.
One thing that has gone somewhat unnoticed is the work we’ve done with drainage. After having equipment on site the past two weekends, things are torn up. However, we continue to have success routing water out of the key areas.
Much work remains. If we continue at our current pace, we should have a good portion of the bike park completed by next fall. This prediction is dependent on getting additional materials and the kind of uncommon volunteer support we’ve had thus far.
My hat is off to all of you. Thanks so much for your contributions.