Moderating weather and bright sunshine created a great environment for the Traildog volunteers today. We had eight volunteers today as we departed the dock for the mile long ride across the Crystal Bay. The mild wind created a slight ripple on the water that the bright morning sun turned into a pool of sparkling gems as we quietly motored into Little Bear Creek.

Two of our party hiked to the start of the new section, one, Dan, to GPS the 1.7 miles of completed trail, and the other, Robert, to apply the white blazes used to identify the trail’s route to new users. The balance of our pack hiked the 1.1 miles up the south slope to tool cache on the southern slope of Big Bear Mountain.

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Friday, Jan. 13, we had nine volunteers, including Bill Pell and Chris Ham of the US Forest Service, joining in the finish work on the seventh section.  The weather had improved significantly from Thursday with much calmer winds and a high of around 50 degrees. We are currently progressing through a relatively level area on the north slope of Big Bear Mountain. Because of Thursday night’s low temperatures, the ground was still frozen as we began work Friday and did not really thaw all day.

Lunch break was relatively short due to the cool temperatures and the light wind rising up off the lake.  We persevered and were able to complete the finish work all the way up to where the machines stopped last week.  The USFS machine team was unable to work any of this past week but will be back on the trail next Tuesday, January the 17th.

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This post consists of a series of articles that will chronicle work being done in January, 2012, on the “seventh section” of the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail (LOViT).

Click on the link below to read the full article, as each workday is chronicled by “Alpha Dog” Jerry Shields.

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Looking at the incoming rain today (Monday) we are canceling planned construction both Monday, Jan. 9, and Tuesday, Jan. 10.

We have also been informed by the Corp that the barge we have been utilizing is in for repairs.

The weather map shows heavy rain approaching from the south.  If we had to hike out suddenly, it is a six mile hike back to our vehicles.

We will further evaluate the weather on Tuesday and will let everyone know of any changes to the construction schedule.

Sorry for the delay.

Jerry

We will restart construction of the seventh section of the Vista Trail Monday January 9th at 9:00 am. We will meet at the Crystal Springs Resort Café located at the end of Crystal Springs Road. We will once again utilize a barge to ferry our volunteers to and from  the construction site just across the bay from the marina.

This is our seventh consecutive year of construction resulting in over thirty miles of new hiking and mountain biking trails.

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This post combines a number of messages and photographs from Jerry Shields and other Traildogs to document the work done on “the seventh segment”, which began along Bear Creek in the valley between Little Bear and Bear Mountain, and which will extend up Bear Mountain and along its summit eastward to Brady Mountain Resort.

The following picture gallery contains photographs from each of the updates below.

Dec. 1, 2011

Crisp morning, warm afternoon as we climbed the southern flank of Big Bear Mountain today with two new volunteers joining us.  We had eight volunteers today: myself, Al G., Robert C., Mike C. back from Colorado, Chuck D., Derwood B., Dan W. and Doug P. We especially welcome Doug, our newest Traildog.  Best weather yet, and by 10:30 we were all stripping layers of clothing as our efforts, plus the warm southern sun, had us sweating.

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