CATS Continue Building Lake Trail, July 5, 2018, City of Loveland Natural Area

Absolutely! Seven of us got there in the heat of the day again and whacked in some good flat basic trail. No so fun, but great time as the weather was outstanding again - cool breeze off the lake, cloud cover and temps dropped considerably. Actually, I considered the working temperature and conditions perfect for trail building. As so it is we whack trail in most conditions. Though I am here to say (in a separate email soon) that temps over 90+ at 3pm on our work evenings are going to be delayed by one hour to 4 pm to get past the hottest part of the day. Four pm is about the hottest around here, but we can work into it better I reckon. So without me going out with an email blast at the last minute – remember to come later by one hour if the temperature is hotter than 90° F….
No skitos and lots of teeny tiny toads all over the place in the mud flats caused by the lake pulling back its shoreline. Seems the lake is getting some water pulled out. No worries – we tried not to step on those little giants. We got a lot of trail done next to the tree line at the edge of the meadow as it was very relaxing in that area as there was shade and a cool breeze.
Members: Navy Bob, Connie, Dean, Leigh, Andy, Scott, Lynn
Hours:   4.5

RESULTS:   360 feet of basic new trail

ROSES:
·       Lynn earned her CATS hat and was presented at dinner
·       Great weather again – cool breeze – no storms – temps good
·       No skitos to bother about
·       Lots of little toadies
·       Andy found a friend – big box turtle in the bush
·       Sharpened tools seemed to assist better in cutting out the never ending grass chunks
·       Great working conditions all the way around
·       Great bunch coming out to work trail
THORNS:
·       What happened to our shoreline – water pulled back
BUDS:
Is there art in trail work? The Art of Trail could be defined differently with this trail. I like to accentuate the positive and I see a nice curvy dirt trail coming in to existence. I see folks strolling along the trail in the future and enjoying the meadow and the lake views. I also turned around and saw a tall man with a biking helmet on standing right behind me. Why do people come up and scare you? Anyway, he was a nice man that lives over on the other side of the lake and stopped by to give us some words of praise and thanks. We are already getting attention on the development of this trail. We have some people pulling off the road with their vehicles and watching us work and now bikers pulling off and hiking through the field. We are plying our performance ‘art’ for all to see. Then are we actors? I know for sure that some of us are ‘trail clowns’ but for the most part – we are CATS and proud of our work, even though the work seems mundane and boring at the moment. We will push on and ‘geter dun’. We are scrutinized and talked about – hopefully all good things are gasped from others lips. When it is all done, the product will speak volumes of who we are and the curtains will rise up, the crowds will cheer, and we will hoist another beer to all those trail actors and their roles in the big drama.

On the trail,
Bob Johnson

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/
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Location: Loveland, CO, USA

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