5 Million Dollars Damage to Fairmount Park

Fairmount Park

MonolithicX said:

Did any of you see this article in the Inquirer?(Free Registration Required) That's a bunch of cash for what is already an under-funded park system.

It's not hard to believe if you've ridden Wissahickon lately, or read any of the recent posts about it. I wonder how it's going to look after what's left of the hurricanes comes rolling through this weekend?

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This has to be the worst weather since I started riding 8 years ago. Some parts of Wiss are now more challenging but some parts are downright dangerous. Hopefully the fed's will send some cash but i'm sure it'll be a long process .

toe-knee said:

This has to be the worst weather since I started riding 8 years ago. Some parts of Wiss are now more challenging but some parts are downright dangerous. Hopefully the fed's will send some cash but i'm sure it'll be a long process .

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We ride there alot, & i have never seen damage like this before.. looks like earthquake damage in some areas.. i can not see it being fixed anytime soon...the sad part is , that the longer they wait the worse it will get-which will cause more damage & cost more money... that will probably NOT be funded by the state & you know the city is not gonna give up that kinda money ay time soon, with winter right around the corner.. it should be interesting

$5 mil? What, they're paying folks to work on trails now?

Hell, give me a shovel and a pulaski and me and my friends will come there and fix the trails for a paltry $3 million.
You got a local volunteer trail group in philly? You can buy a lot of hoagies and work gloves for $5 mil. What else is required? It pretty much comes down to folks with tools putting in the time and effort, doesn't it? Bummer though. Funny, I grew up in SE PA, Bucks Co., and in all the time I lived there, we never got the kind of constant rains y'all have had to put up with since I moved to CO in'92. Got outa there just in time I guess.

Just got back..................

..........from a ride down there. It's pretty ugly. Can't imagine how it looked before the work got under way. Didn't do too much up in the trails, as I didn't want to cause any more damage in the "soft spots", but the two major climbs I did were almost purely rock (more so than usual), and one was almost washed out completely in the middle. I also couldn't believe the amount of water still running down and across the Bridal Path.

Let's all just take care when we ride here, as we don't want to give any more reasons for the anti-bike crowd to get up in arms. And with the current conditions, we really need to be careful.

Peace.

The Wissahickon Valley is only one small part of what is collectively known as Fairmount Park.The $5 mil estimate includes damage to bridges, historic structures, etc. throughout Fairmount Park, the Valley Green Inn, etc. It's not like they're saying it'll take $5 million to dump some dirt and spread it around.

bulC said:

Hell, give me a shovel and a pulaski and me and my friends will come there and fix the trails for a paltry $3 million.
You got a local volunteer trail group in philly? You can buy a lot of hoagies and work gloves for $5 mil. What else is required? It pretty much comes down to folks with tools putting in the time and effort, doesn't it? Bummer though. Funny, I grew up in SE PA, Bucks Co., and in all the time I lived there, we never got the kind of constant rains y'all have had to put up with since I moved to CO in'92. Got outa there just in time I guess.

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Here's a Plan !!!

If we can get....say 99,999 people to plunk down $50.00 for a Trail Use Permit like I did, we can cover the cost of the repairs! The main problem is, if/when they do trail repair work...they will probably end up "sanitizing" the trail( ie- Lively Lane hill, the hill up the the Indian Statue, and the lower section of the Bell's Mill hill). Man, I hate crushed stone! Could be worse...pine bark mulch!

Hey - I do not even ride there anymore sad for me. Since the anti-bike people are so angry about everything they think they own fairmount park. So I just go there to walk around. Also horse people are way out of control and not that friendly. I have ridden in other states where horse people and mtb riders really get along. I think it is just something in the drinking water here in philly that make them so mad if one group is out done by another. It is too bad that the bike groups can not get even more organized.
Just my two cents on my take of what I have seen.

Atomic300 said:

Hey - I do not even ride there anymore sad for me. Since the anti-bike people are so angry about everything they think they own fairmount park. So I just go there to walk around. Also horse people are way out of control and not that friendly. I have ridden in other states where horse people and mtb riders really get along. I think it is just something in the drinking water here in philly that make them so mad if one group is out done by another. It is too bad that the bike groups can not get even more organized.
Just my two cents on my take of what I have seen.

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What is sad is that where else is there to ride within 20-30 minutes of Philly? The best place to live in the Delaware Valley is Newark, DE. Work for Dupont, Gore or MBNA and ride in Fair Hill, Iron Hill, Middlerun or Elk Neck.

Atomic300 said:

Hey - I do not even ride there anymore sad for me. Since the anti-bike people are so angry about everything they think they own fairmount park. So I just go there to walk around. Also horse people are way out of control and not that friendly. I have ridden in other states where horse people and mtb riders really get along. I think it is just something in the drinking water here in philly that make them so mad if one group is out done by another. It is too bad that the bike groups can not get even more organized.
Just my two cents on my take of what I have seen.

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I'm suprised. Although this is only my second year of riding there I've never had any problems with hiker, bikers, or horsey riders. I've also spoken with Tom Pelikan, Executive Director of Friends of the Wissahickon, several times on my rides down there and he seems to accept that all of us have a right to use the trails.

The only times I've had problems with the bikeless was at French Creek. The first time a woman on horse back pulled off on the side of the trail and I asked her if I could pass(I had stopped to let her pass). She yelled at me saying, "That's what I pulled off for!" The second time a hiker told me I was riding on a hiking only trail. I stopped and pulled my map and we discovered that the part we were on was bike and hike and the part he had just left was hike only. He said hello and waved when I passed him farther into the loop again.

Atomic300 said:

Hey - I do not even ride there anymore sad for me. Since the anti-bike people are so angry about everything they think they own fairmount park. So I just go there to walk around. Also horse people are way out of control and not that friendly. I have ridden in other states where horse people and mtb riders really get along. I think it is just something in the drinking water here in philly that make them so mad if one group is out done by another. It is too bad that the bike groups can not get even more organized.
Just my two cents on my take of what I have seen.

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I can honestly say that the only rudeness I've gotten down at the Wiss was from elitist snob MTB'ers (Closet roadies, perhaps?). The equestrians I've encountered have all been very friendly, as have nearly all hikers. Just gotta show a little good will toward your fellow trail users, and they'll be pretty cool. I think the vast majority of non-bikers has this perception that we're all beer swilling, spitting, cursing littering ruffians. And, well, some of us are. But the way mountain biking is portrayed in it's VERY limited media exposure, you'd think we were all "Extreme" types. Not fathers and mothers, etc.
Bottom line is that a friendly hello goes a long way.

Now back on topic, dammit!!