Trail Updates - BCB Met with Williamson County Parks and Rec on site today

We had a good on site mtg with the county today.

We are authorized to do the following IMMEDIATELY:
1) Reopen the original line to Swag Rock - the line parallel to the existing one (Josh probably had this open before I posted this). The reason for this is to a) provide a turn around for users to head back and ride the trail back to the trailhead, b) an option to ride to the beginning of Snake Ridge and ride back to the trail head or c) ride down about 500 yards to the BCRT - this will be a NEW bail out. The new bail out line should actually be completed by the end of this week.

It will look like this:

The overall theme for the the above is to officially establish the first 3 miles of Deception (from the east) as an intermediate trail and the second 3 miles as an Advanced Trail - providing users with viable options if they wish to not proceed with the rest of Deception. The turnaround/bailouts will have accompanying signage (in the near future) to advise users that from Swag on the trail become very difficult and technically challenging and provide directions back to the east TH and to a new bail out trail to the BCRT. Also - we plan to completely close and block off the existing bail out at the bottom of Swag at the turn before Testy (the climb up). It is expected to be made impassable as an exit - please respect it and use the soon-to-be new bail out before Swag. While the county would like to minimize the intersections where singletrack and BCRT meet they do realize that there are certain places it just makes sense.

2) Flag a new route at the beginning of Deception (just after the composite bridge west of Mulligan. This will become the official east Trail Head for Deception. It's just across from an existing historical marker and information signs. We advised the county that the existing trail (not ours) starts on a fall line and if we plan for that to become the official trailhead we must reroute through the trees and along the slope rather than straight up the hill. This means we get to squeeze in a bit more trail, not much, but we'll milk it for what we can.

A kiosk for Deception will be located here. There will be a kiosk of the west end, at the Picnic X intersection, at Picnic and at the new bail out trail head, possibly other locations.

The yellow would the area of the new climb from the BCRT to Deception

Items to be worked on the very near future.
1) A small reroute on Picnic near the Basket. The private property across the creek actually extends onto the Picnic side. We don't expect to lose anything and from what I can tell it will be a minor reroute in the area below Basket. The county will flag the border for us, then we can reroute.

2) Area between The Rim and Dave's - the area up top beside the fence. This is actually private property. My first option is to contact the landowner and get written permission to keep the trail. If I can do that the county will allow it to stay - unless their atty says otherwise. The alternative is to reroute the connection between Rim and Dave's - this again will not be a big loss, but we would lose The Gate and the upper most portion. The area below that portion is actually pretty interesting itself.

3)  Reroute the exit of Mulligan (Cru Jones) to the entrance area. This means a large berm and a short connector trail. To augment this the county will provide fill material, large boulders and vegetation. The idea here is ONE entry/exit for Mulligan and the existing entrance is going to be it. We will wait for the county to drop off the material before we work on this.

NOTE: There will be closures - bail out lines - spurs off the BCRT to various area of Deception, Picnic, etc. Please respect these closures. We will get signage out there and the closures will become a bit more permanent with material blocking them. We are not losing trail.