The story remains the same for the effort to repair the North Shore Trails at Clinton State Park: another weekend washed out by rain.
The latest effort, a work day slated for 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 23, was canceled after rain re-soaked the trails and left pools of water standing in holes created by footprints. This work day had been organized by Danny Loental, and he had at least 15 volunteers committed to giving their time.
Photo update of Clinton State Park trail conditions Friday, May 22, 2015.
It has rained four out of five weekends since approximately 20 miles of the trail system were damaged April 18 during the Kansas City Trail Nerds’ Free State Trail Runs. The only weekend without rain was the first weekend that trail maintenance courses were taught by the Kansas Trails Council.
In total, more than 60 members of the greater trail-using community attended the training courses, and since then volunteers have been eager to get to work repairing the trails. Each weekend, however, rain has stood in the way. Trail work days have been scheduled multiple times, and each weekend they’ve been canceled due to concern of causing new damage.
Fortunately for the trails, rain hasn’t stopped every repair effort. Loental coordinated a small work day on Tuesday where he, Wayne Garner and Amy White Schmitz repaired a section of the White Trail east of the Lands End interchange.
Loental has rescheduled a weekend work day for 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 30. Those interested in volunteering can RSVP on the event page here.
In addition, Sarah Rackleff is recruiting volunteers for a work day at Clinton State Park on Thursday, May 28, and/or Friday, May 29. To RSVP, post on the message thread on the Trail Nerds’ Facebook page. Those who were blocked from the page after the Free State Trail Runs have been unblocked and should now have access to the page.
Trail repair work day updates will continue to be posted on this site.
Chris Wristen 