Monday, February 11, 2008

In honor of Paris Mountain


Paris Mountain State Park just north of Greenville, SC is arguably where all this stuff I do now came from. It was the best year of my life. Fast-forward 3 and a half years to now and a revisit. I went down to Greenville this morning to meet up with my old boss and the new greenways coordinator for Greenville County, Ty Houck. Ty is an awesome guy and a real asset to the local outdoors community. We met over some breakfast this morning, then I was hoping to run into a few other people, but they were all tied up with business and couldn't break away. Oh, well it let me go hang out with my baby. Paris - not Hilton - Mountain. The above photo is only a small sample of what lays on the surface of an amazing area.



This one is of a bridge Adam Winton and I built around the Lake Placid trail. A curvilinear master piece dubbed "Flow". It had a 36" diameter pine tree fall across it with no ill effect, that is bomber.



This one is of a horseshoe bend in a road to trail conversion we did leading 150 volunteers. What a day, we knocked out a mile and a half in four hours. That is still one of the most amazing transformations I have ever seen. This little hand cut bench horseshoe is some of the only real single-track on the trail, but certainly helps to set a more intimate tone than the old 20 plus foot wide roadbed.

Below are two great examples of optional technical features. The log was built after I left, but the rock-drop was constructed with the help of a few local groms, who have since moved off to college and some sweet trail of their own.






Seeing an old friend again was a great way to spend the afternoon. I look forward to getting a bike back down there in a few weeks and spinning around on the dirt again. If you have a chance it is a highly recommended adventure.

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