After a week of clearing....

The area leveled on the west side has not gone much further north, but has widened almost to the Pipeline Trail. The dozers were inactive Saturday--they needed the weekend off.

Piles of brush are larger and higher, but as promised, they have left plenty of good trees. There are small unmarked yellow flags on the northern edge of what they cleared, and that might be as far as they're going.

I am changing my views on this ever so slightly on what has been done. Most of what they cleared was completely unusable land. From where the Old Boys trail turns north, everything west was deep dense briers and deadfall. Most of the trees were choked off from the thick scavenger undergrowth. We really had no trails in most of what they cleared, other than Old Boys.

A few years back, I had the bright idea of cutting a loop through this area--but after hacking and clipping for an hour and a half, I had got about 30 feet and ditched the idea. It's flat land--nothing all that interesting.

These were meat-eating thorns too. I shed some blood there, and ripped my clothes. Boo hoo. The fact that prospective buyers could not see what was for sale is basically why this land was cleared. If these folks finish they job they stated they were going to do, they'll smooth the dirt and seed or sod. The place will end up looking like a park.

I'd still rather it be more wooded, but what they've done IS an improvement. One of the equipment operators has said that they'd smooth the path where the unearthed trail was for us. A little bike traffic will bring this trail back in no time. I would like to see another trail created to loop through the cleared area. We might even gain a quarter mile of trail out of all this. The best thing we can hope for is for some generous somebody to buy this land and set it aside for park use. The next best thing--if it is developed, that they only utilize a small part of it and do the best they can to keep it "green." I really do not see how they could develop the land that heads down hill into the ravines and washes. We have trailz there, and we may get to keep these. The worse that could happen is if they fence it all off.

As it has been mentioned, awareness is so important. It needs to be made known that there are tons of people who feel like we do. Calling all outdoor enthusiasts, hikers, bikers, trail runners, and tree huggers. Make some intelligent noise. Our Turkey Mountain clean up days are such good PR for our cause, but keeping things clean in the first place is also key. Pack it in and pack it out. Pick up a bit of litter as you head back toward the parking lot. Maybe we'll not lose a thing.