East Fern Trail Mods

Google Earth jpeg of the area. That's Park Avenue running east-west along the bottom, Capital Circle NE/US319 running north-south along the right edge. The narrow tall oval neighborhood is Breckenridge on Park, aka Whetherbine Way. Access the Bog section from the Whetherbine "dog walk" or from Fern Trail (lower left to top center). Polos on Park apartments are to the left of this boggy greenspace. The log rides are up near (and to the left/southwest of) the "point" of the red GPS track, top center.

Map updated 16 Feb '09. Bog Loop is complete, with the old Polos bridge moved to creek crossing ~250m south of the new bridge. There is still no bridge at the middle connector's creek crossing.

Zooming out a bit, Fern Trail area as of June 2008. This shows all of the current Fern Trail plus some handy connectors. West (left) end of GPS track is Higher Ground Bike shop. East (far right) is Tom Brown Park's Magnolia Trail. See here for more on Magnolia Trail: http://tallahasseetrails.smugmug.com/gallery/3269787 South (bottom) track is the old Pine Beetle Trail spur. Pine Beetle was also called the "Albertson's" trail. Albertson's is gone - it's now a Kohl's store. Northward tracks (top) are Blairstone Road (left) and Fort Knox connector (right).

A selection of Tallahassee area trails. Shows the relation of Fern Trail (center) to some other trails. Includes some "commute" tracks.

18 Feb 2008: Decided to load up P-Snoop the Pugsley with loppers and a Pulaski to do some minor bridge repair. The two east bridges were washed out of the creek by storms back in like 2001, dude. When repositioned, these two bridges were no longer flush with the ground. Yes, this an "after" photo of the east-most bridge. Do we call this Bridge #1 or Bridge #4?

Same bridge, from the east side. Back in '03, I ended up on my head against that leftside log in the creek. You'd have thunk I would have fixed the bridge that day, rather than waiting five years.

This is the adjacent bridge. Yes, it's a "before" photo, looking northward.

Same "second eastmost" bridge, looking from the north side.

Step one (not shown) is to pull the bridge out of the ground. Step two: use the Pulaski to dig out the dirt so the bridge will sit level with grade.

Same scene, looking southward.

After the repair, looking southward

Same bridge, looking northward. Last shot from 18 Feb 08.

15 March '08: Trees down on Fern. This big pine fell just east of the eastmost bridge. I had time to do a basic cleanup before heading for lunch.

A look from the east bridge back at the mess. The pine took down a few trees and assorted branches and vines when it fell.

I stacked a few branches into a semi-stable pyramid for the time being. The big pine is solid - no decay. I wasn't ready to tackle that with just a Pulaski and zero calories. I'm standing on the log right over the original trail, looking eastward.

Same scene, but looking in the opposite direction. The pine actually spans one of the many little creeks in the area.

The Pugsley and B-O-B IBEX trailer give some perspective.

Looking all the way across the creek to the fallen tree's base.

Where we came from.

Where we're going. There's another pine down, three bridges ahead. (That's actually just around a couple corners on this trail.) It'll have to wait till after lunch.

After lunch - we're back and looking eastward. This dead pine fell just west of bridge #2 (if you're coming from the west), or bridge #3 (if you're coming from the east).

Looking back westward. Note the angle isn't right to do a pyramid. And the log's half rotted. My plan was to cut a section of the log and push it off the tread.

After the fact, looking eastward. I rigged a lever to push the log off trail after chopping out a section (left). It wasn't that hard, though I still wish I owned a Peavey: http://www.benmeadows.com/store/Forestry/Logging_and_Clearing/Logging_Tools/21828/

Looking westward at the cleared out area. Last shot from 15 March 08.