I’ve intended to volunteer for my local trail building organization for months now, but it wasn’t until this past weekend that I finally made it out to a Salem Area Trail Alliance (SATA) Work Party, and it was awesome. SATA has done a lot of work on the trail systems in and around Salem, including the new Geer Bike Park, the Croisan Creek/Skyline Trail system, some Spring Valley trails along the Greenway next to highway 221, and, of course, Silver Falls State Park, where the majority of their work is done. Sata defines itself as a ‘grassroots organization that seeks to design, build and maintain nearby non-motorized trails for health enhancing recreational opportunities while preserving and improving local green spaces’ and, after meeting some of the major players of SATA, they appear to do just that.
Sunday’s work goal was to finish building the railing of a bridge on the new section of mountain bike trail being put in at the top of the Catamount Trail. It was a quick job of transporting the bridge parts about a half mile down to the bridge site, and then assembling all the pre-cut parts to complete the bridge railing. The work party was scheduled to go from 9am-1pm, but we finished around 11:30am, which meant that the rest of the morning was spent drinking beer, getting to know cool people passionate about biking and trail sustainability, and for me, of course, riding my bike. It was a great way to spend a Sunday, and I’ recommend it for anyone interested in trying to get involved in trail work in the Salem area.
