RR. Goodbye old friend

Had a chance to revisit an old haunt recently, the Trails in Jonesboro,
GA (otherwise known as the Olympic Beach Vollyball park from the 96'
Olympics, where'd they get all that sand??)

Let me start by saying this place used to be great! I honed my skills
(what little they may be) on this 9 mile patch of meandering
singletrack, right smack dab in the middle of the urban sprawl that is
Clayton County Georgia. I rode this place at least weekly, if not two
or three times a week. It was a great little place to ride after a hard
day at the grind, close by, never crowded, semi-beautiful surrondings.
Just a nice oasis in an ocean of concrete. Some local Eagle scouts had
done some fine bridge work to help ease erosion concerns.

But then the tennis courts came. All 18 of them. Sandwiched right in
the middle of some of the sweetest part of this oasis. It absolutley
blew chow...ruined at least 5 miles of this little paradise. But all
was not entirely lost. The local trail builders from the Stockbridge
Cycle Center added another 5 miles on the opposite side of the drive
leading into the park, as well as connectiing the remains of the "core"
trails that remained on the backside of the new monstrosity, actually
making a very fast (albeit, short) slice of singletrack. They had
gotten the total mileage back up to about 8 miles. Definetly not bad
for where it's located.

But then came the convalescence center. Fortunatly, it is only ripping
out the rest of the original "core" of this layout, which wasn't but
about 3 miles, but still a loss nonetheless. The trail that remains is
pretty overgrown, and you can tell that it hasn't been riden in quite a
while.

I guess this place would still be O.K if you lived nearby, but I don't,
and this was mainly a quick after work ride for me when I first got
back onto a bike. I truly liked this place, and it's too bad the county
had to do what it had to do....

Guess I have to venture out a bit more for close-ish rides....

Dave (now where are the directions to Blanket's Creek again??)

Nice RR. Local spots that most people wouldn't bother to travel to are
great when you just need to ride. I remember when a sweet section of
coastal singletrack near me was made into a 2m wide smooth gravel path,
gutted.

"spademan o---[) *" wrote in message
oups.com...
Nice RR. Local spots that most people wouldn't bother to travel to are
great when you just need to ride. I remember when a sweet section of
coastal singletrack near me was made into a 2m wide smooth gravel path,
gutted.


I feel very bad when i see this type of thing. You know the was a little
poetic justice on that ride. There were at least 4 riders on the trails, and
not one single tennis player on either of the 18 courts at the TC...that
made me smile.

On 19 Oct 2005 08:58:18 -0700, "freightgod" wrote:

[nip say]

I'm not going anywhere.

Bill


The First law, Inertia: Unless acted upon by an outside force,
a body at rest tends to stay at rest,
and a body in motion tends to stay in motion.
Sir Isaac Newton