We had a super turnout for the annual Thanksgiving clean up. All of the electric sites filled up by the end of the week. We had great weather Wednesday through Saturday with rain on Sunday. The road clean up went great. All the trash along the road was picked up by ITRA members and it looked so much better when they were done. It is amazing how much trash can accumulate alongside a two-mile stretch of road. The campground was cleaned up of trash and the chain saw crew worked very hard to rid all the trails of downed trees. Trail 11 was rerouted on the section that was so dangerous coming down the hill. Brett Erwood and Chris Riehl walked in and cut in some water bars on the reroute making the trail much safer. Bob Montgomery and David Rollins tried to chop out the roots on the trail but finally gave up and deemed it unsafe and needed to be watched closely. We brushed in the old section of trail so it could heal. Trail H just off trail B that always had a foot of deep mud has been hardened. I had asked Doug to provide the geotech and stone and we would provide the skid steer and volunteers. Unfortunately the DNR was unable to get enough stone up the hill due to the rain and we were only able to complete a short section of the trail hardening but I hope you can tell the difference when riding there. We also cleared out a few more spots that were holding water that needed deberming before we called it a day and got ready for the pitch-in. Once again the food was awesome and a big thanks to Dave Maksymczak, Scotty Eskridge and Bob McPheeters and everyone who set up and cleaned up for the pitch-in. There were a total of 216.5 volunteer hours donated by ITRA volunteers and friends for the Thanksgiving week.
Sunday was spent honoring Tony Ragains by hanging a really nice cross and wreath on the tree facing his property. Trail riders were invited to go to Tony’s house and ride in the wagon driven by Dean, the pastor for the Sunday church service, to the backside of Tony’s property that joins Brown County State Park. Dean is really a great hand with his team of horses and his big wagon. Almost everyone had a story to
share about Tony. Tony was greatly missed and I expected at any moment to turn around and see him driving up in his little white truck to see if anyone needed help with anything.
