Cool but sunny weather greeted us today on the Trail. Overnight a light shower settled the dust of our construction making work on the trail a bit easier today. We are currently working our way up the west flank of Brady Mountain and are about a half a mile from the summit and those huge rock outcroppings. We are now just reaching the north face of the mountain where today the north wind coming up the mountain from the lake had a sharp edge to it. As when we were on the south side, the cool 39 degree temperature was softened by a Blue Bird sky and a warm February sun. We call this a good day to find a sunny spot with a downed tree trunk to soak up the sun while we enjoy our trail lunch. Mike Wade, a ranger from the Corps of Engineers, who is installing …Click to read the full article
A Nice day to be on the trail today as four Traildogs pushed the finish work to the 1.5 mile mark. The rolling, twisting terrain of this section will be a good change of pace for those hiking or riding east off the challenging Bear Mountain section. The Machine team is approaching the halfway mark of this dig and are moving through the rocky area near the peak of the mountain where the large rock outcroppings are located. This unique scenic area is where plan to install a bench and interpretive sign once we have completed construction. We began using the FS’ WO04 road as our access to the work area. Directions to this road are: Take Brady Mt Road 4.9 miles from the US 270-W turnoff. At the 4 mile mark, you will be at the trailhead parking area. Continue .3 miles north, where you will pass a dirt …Click to read the full article
One of our rare Saturday workdays produced a great team. We had seven Arkansas Wildlife students from Arkansas Tech in Russellville join seven traildogs working the finishing step in the construction of the final leg of the trail. It was a perfect day to be on the trail with temps in the low 70’s and a crystal clear sky. Were able to complete 8/10’s of a mile of finish work, which brought us up close to the trailing machine of the three machine crew from Progressive Trail Design. We owe another deep word of thanks to Wayne Shewmake of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation for recruiting another fine group of young adults to help on the trail. We appreciate their driving down from Russellville for a day of raking and cutting. A special word of thanks to Ricky Lee and his Subway crew for preparing and donating the trail lunch for …Click to read the full article
Some of the northern states’ misplaced weather has finally passed, and our currently moderate weather is allowing all the Traildogs down with cabin fever to hit the Trail again. Nine Traildogs gathered at the Spillway Recreation Area trail crossing to begin our tenth year of constructing the LOViT trail. It was 25 degrees and sunny as we broke into two teams, one three man team of sawyers to clear the Forest Service Road of storm damage, and a six man team to join the Progressive Trail Design (PTD) dig team on the west end to begin the finish work on this new section. The sawyers team cleared approximately 3/4 of mile of the FS Road, and the finish trail team completed 700 feet of finish work. The PTD machine team is about a 1/3 of mile ahead of the finish team. We welcome two new Traildog volunteers today – John …Click to read the full article
Fellow ‘dogs, It’s construction time again. The current plan is for the Progressive Trail Design dig team to arrive here on Monday, February 10th, depending on the weather. They will be transporting equipment, setting up their machines, and will will begin actual construction on Tuesday the 11th. They will be starting from the west end of the new Section 8 at the new Brady Mountain Road Trailhead parking area, directly across from the current termination point of the trail coming off Bear Mountain. There will be a three-man machine team who will work 5-6 days a week, with a target completion date of the end of March. This year’s PTD on-site leader will be Jon Bryan, who was part of the team last year. We will take a little different approach to working on the trail this year due to the reduced hand finish work required because of PTD construction …Click to read the full article
Fellow Trail Diggers, We are finally ready to begin construction of the Brady Mountain Road to Blakely Dam section of the LOViT. We have signed a construction contract with Progressive Trail Design, Inc. (PTD) to lead the construction effort beginning February 10, 2014. PTD was the construction company we utilized to build the final five miles of the Bear Mountain section of the trail. PTD is a professional trail building contractor with extensive experience building single track multiple use trails. This five-plus mile section has been designed, flagged and approved for construction and will be a great addition to the previous 39 miles of trail. This new section will begin directly east of Brady Mountain Road from the current termination point on the west side of the road. Once we have established our work schedules we will publish the planned workdays and times. Once we have competed this section, we will have completed the planned 45 …Click to read the full article