A rider crosses some awesome scenery during the Deadman trail ride
in the Little Belt Mountains in July.

Trail work accomplished in 2007

Finished the lower portion of the 2007 Trails Day High Plains Trail relo out to the two-track. Added fiberglass markers at the lower end (ran out of decals but will get back out there to finish the posts).

Smoothed out the intersection with the Northshore Trail near there to eliminate the awkward alignment. The new connection is one smooth radius following the tracks that were developing. We moved the signage to match the new route. Came out nice.

Reworked the switchbacks at Ryan Reservoir to make them more IMBA-style. They are now much larger, flatter and bermed. We also reworked the treadway throughout that area to improve the surface and widen things a bit. We built in several erosion control features (dips, nicks, grade reversals) to reduce erosion. The trail is still steep in spots, but should be ridable going down. The lowest switchback is still very steep for going up.

Also at Ryan Reservoir we re-aligned the Trail at the top of the old two-track to make a smooth alignment onto the switchbacks. We did lots of erosion control work in this area and hopefully have the water off the Trail and old two-track (water running down the two-track was eroding the lower portion by the cable gate). We added fiberglass markers to identify the official trail and keep folks from getting confused with the motorcycle trails (we also added some "no motor-vehicle" signs on the motorcycle routes). We reworked the lower portion of the trail by the cable gate to smooth it out and make it look more inviting. We tried to install a new wood post to consolidate signage but hit rock, will have to try another location.

We installed a series of fiberglass posts on the Trail near the Ryan Overlook to help identify the offical trail and provide reassurance to folks. These will also help to reduce confusion with the illegal motorcycle trails. We still need to come in from the Ryan Trailhead and install posts at confusing places.

We finished these projects and suprisingly had time to build a new singletrack portion from the top of the 2006 Trails Day portion of the High Plains Trail to connect with the existing singletrack "center portion." This makes the High Plains Trail all singletrack now. I think it came out really nice. We made large radius turns and did some swoops. The Club may want to go out and smooth out the treadway. We have to add a few decals to the posts yet.