Rain has been the enemy of efforts to repair the damaged North Shore Trails at Clinton State Park, but another attempt will be made next weekend.
The aftermath of Lands End on April 25, a week after the race.
Danny Loental has scheduled a trail repair day from 8 a.m. until noon Saturday, May 23, at the state park in southwest Lawrence. An additional session may take place from noon to 4 p.m. if a crew leader is available. Approximately 20 miles of the North Shore Trails were damaged April 18 when a thunderstorm soaked the course during the Kansas City Trail Nerds’ Free State Trail Runs. Around 250 runners were on the course running various distances, and most the trail system sustained damage – some of it severe – by the conclusion of the 17-hour event. In the four weeks since then, more than 60 trail-users have received trail repair training from the Kansas Trails Council, and three official work days have been scheduled. All three were rained out. In addition to the trail repair day on May 23, Loental also is seeking volunteers for trail repair days during the week. Those available for trail repair during the week or who plan to attend on May 23 can RSVP in the comments section on the Trail Nerds’ Facebook page. Numerous members of the local trail-using community remain unnecessarily blocked from the page for bogus reasons by Trail Nerds owner Ben Holmes, however, and therefore will be unable to RSVP. If that is the case, feel free to post here and I will pass it along. I will be attending the morning session on May 23.
Update at 9:45 a.m. May 17: An official trail repair day event page for May 23 has been set up. For more details or to RSVP, go here.
Chris Wristen 
Can You honestly say why those people are banned? If not, why say it was bogus if you don’t know the real reason. I honestly feel this type of wording is what causes issues and problems. Know the facts 100% before you post that kind of stuff
Roger, thank you for your inquiry. Yes, I can say it, because it is factual and based on quite a bit of research.
The explanation that Mr. Holmes gave publicly – which has since been edited – was that after the Free State event he “let people vent for a while, hoping for some positive and constructive posts (like Chris Wristen’s), but it got out of hand and I had to block some users on the site.”
Clearly, a handful who commented were combative in their dialogue, however they made up just a few of the many who were blocked. What is factual is that many others were blocked despite being civil in discourse, and many others – myself included, until I brought it to Mr. Holmes’ attention – were blocked despite posting no comments at all. Thus, the explanation Mr. Holmes gave to the group as to why many of its members were blocked was a half-truth at best – or a “bogus” reason – something that Mr. Holmes acknowledged on the page when he was called out on it by Cliff Jones of the Trail Masons.
I can provide examples of comments made by people who were blocked, comments made by people who were not blocked, and take you through the full discourse to identify people who were blocked despite never making a comment. I have it documented. Rehashing that at this point doesn’t make much sense to me, though, since it’s in the past and our community is taking great strides at healing, working together, and moving forward with repairing the trails at Clinton State Park and many other parks throughout the Kansas City area. Lots of good, positive stuff is happening.
While our community is healing, however, some divisive behaviors continue to hinder progress. Our community deserves better than that, which is why I continue to write about it.