KTC Trail Coordinators' Reports for 2002

(Submitted in January of 2003)

Lyle Riedy reported a total of 335 hours of trail work and maintenance on the Perry Mountain Bike Trail. Two volunteers—J. L. Cleland and Lyle—put in most of the hours. The majority of the time was devoted to mowing and removing fallen trees from the trail. In late June, Mike Goodwin and Mike Clausen brought out chain saws to help clean up after a major windstorm dropped 22 large trees across the trail. In 2002 Lyle also received volunteer help from members of Lawrence Mountain Bike Club to mow and trim the trail for a race and to help clear brush for a one-mile extension to the trail as well as a 1/4-mile "kid’s loop" near the trailhead.

Mike Goodwin reported that Clinton Lake benefited from a great volunteer effort on the Clinton Lake North Shore Trails in 2002 with 25 volunteers logging a total of 494 hours working on the trails. He also reported that he and his volunteers are currently maintaining about 21 miles of single track hiking and biking trails.

Olivia Huddleston reported that volunteer time for 2002 totaled 1,198 3/4 hours. As coordinator she logged 545 of these hours and drove approximately 7,820 miles to accomplish this. The majority of this time was spent in clearing trail of rocks, deadfall or the removal of weeds, so the trails looked inviting and no one strayed onto private property.

Besides the annual Flint Hills Competitive Trail Ride, which was held in October, many horseback riders used these trails extensively in 2002. There is also a running group out of Manhattan that has recently held two distance runs—one at Randolph State Park in February of 2003 and one from Carnahan to Garrison and back in late December of 2002. She went on to report that many people are currently using these trails.

The Flint Hills Trails Asssociation paid for the materials and the State Park Office installed two new water hydrants at Randolph State Park. One of the new ones is on the south side toward the east of the Park and one is at Randolph North. The latter one will stay on all year around. She reported that this will be a great benefit to winter riding in the future. She and trail users at Tuttle Creek greatly appreciate the Park Office for this accomplishment. She also extends a thank you to the State Park Office for the new corral at Randolph South. This is a dual stall and she expects that it will be used a great deal as soon as warmer weather arrives.

Olivia reports that the trails at Tuttle Creek are in great shape and that some improvements at Garrison have received praise from horse riders and runners alike.

Former trail coordinator, Phil Morris reported about 50 hours of personal time spent on the Elk River Hiking Trail in 2002 before he withdrew from the trail coordinator’s job early last year. Most of his time was spent removing trees that had fallen across the trail as the result of an ice storm last winter.

Eric Steele reported that his volunteer crew from the Kansas Ultrarunners’ Society put in 116 hours of maintenance on the Elk River Hiking Trail last fall.

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(I will save you some time on the math.  KTC coordinators and a relatively small number of volunteers donated almost 2200 hours to trail maintenance on KTC trails in 2002 alone.)

Trails that are not regularly maintained are soon lost to all of us!

Although they are no longer coordinating the trails at Elk City Lake, Dolores and Bud Baker continue to volunteer some time to trail maintenance there.

***The KTC Board of Directors is currently confronted with the task of locating a new trail coordinator for the trails at Elk City. They urge anyone that might be interested in being the coordinator to contact any board member and visit with them about the possibilities. A complete list of board members is listed elsewhere.