CATS Romp at Lake, June 28, 2018, City of Loveland Natural Area

Actually more like go slower in 97°F weather with full sun. Fortunately, the weather changes and it cooled down with clouds and a ‘sea breeze’ off the lake. Delightful again and almost exactly like last Thursday. We changed the day to Wednesday quickly as Thursday has been reported to reach 102° F midday. Good call! There was some confusion the time we started today – but no worries please. If you show up – you are on time (don’t make it a practice) but you know what I mean. We are glad to see our members coming in at all times as it gives those out there a boost (like a shot in the arm) with Red Bull! We had a good night too. Seems ten of us have the grass trail building process down pat. Our measurable trail increased this session and we are now finished with the point (land out by the lake). Next week we are heading into the tree line and hopefully some shade. Nice job out there! We also found a birds nest at the edge of the lake and nearly missed piling on cuttings. We flagged  the nest and worked away from it. Our parents were not happy with us and patiently waited for our crew to depart the area. We were whipped at 730 pm and packed up and headed over to the Wapiti again for a fun evening outside on the porch.

Members: Navy Bob and Connie, Kathleen and Ben, Dean, Leigh, the Other Bob, Andy, Scott, Brandon
Hours:   4.5

RESULTS:   413’ of finished new trail

ROSES:
·       Thank you City of Loveland – they mowed a good 3’ strip by our flags
·       Weather held – exact same scenario as last week – storm, passes over, cool breeze
·       Big crew tonight – 10
·       Trail building – the methodology of cutting and getting out the grass roots is becoming real clear to all
·       Working the ‘one foot rule’ on finish work – looks so much nicer and clean
·       Bird nest saved!
·       Toads – little boogers are everywhere and we try not to step on them (some are smaller than the size of your pinky fingernail)
·       Skitos not bad
·       Food items – watermelon – a killer feast and those cookies from Andy’s wife
·       Good views from Wapiti out on the porch
·        
THORNS:
·       Tiring
·       Must sharpen all tools before next whack
·       AC in CATS van decided to work after Brandon checked it (it died the last two weeks and now decides to work – figures)
·        
BUDS:
We are causing a stir out there. Quite a few vehicles are slowing down to check us out working in the fields. Paddle boarders are coming by and waving at us. I hope it is all good? Otherwise, the city will field all the phone calls like years ago at the Mariana Butte project. Some citizens will report everything and complain about everything. No worries here. Back to trail. We are getting really good at systematically whacking in this type of trail lately. The leap frogging along the trail is fun to watch as we work into another’s piece of trail. Some take the time to drag off duff blankets and this helps others with the cutting. Good teamwork and greatly appreciated. The heat was there, but with a cloud cover and breeze, it was not bad. Dean says we have five more whacks if we keep it at 400 ft. per evening. That is about right. With our 3rd trail system going in this year here in COL, we are confident to finish this one on time or better. The grass cutting really helped out a lot as we were able to cut on grass root systems and not spend a lot of time clearing the area.
My blog – what the heck is that anyway? I decided to call it BobCATS Blog. Rather catchy – would you agree? Since I am not on Facebook, the ‘likers’ there can now follow my (written) blathering’s on this blog site  https://coloradotrailcats.blogspot.com/ 
No real words of wisdom this week – too hot. Only I think sharing is a valuable human characteristic or virtue and it shows with our band of CATS. Thanks for the information sharing and food sharing – both have real worth and digested by the brain and the stomach. Don’t get me started about that again.


Go here to sign up for events: http://trailcats.org/volunteer
E-mail:  info@trailcats.org    bob@trailcats.org

Website: www.trailcats.org

Blog:  https://coloradotrailcats.blogspot.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/trailcats.org    Go here to see all our latest trail events!  
Go here to see all our photos!  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xQg_4tMEbeb6rMi6d56GwwRBzb36DQZW

-- 
Bob Johnson
Field Director - CATS

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