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Hats off to the folks at the NFS for clearing 50 miles of mountain bike trail here in the Ozarks after a CRAZY ice storm and then a very wet summer.  As a cyclist, I get the chance to ride the Sylamo mtb system fairly often.   The International Mountain Bike Association has named the trails as one of 48 ' epic ' rides in the world.

However, after trying to ride it a few times this summer, and putting a couple days of work in on the trail myself, I was not sure that our beloved Syllamo would be back to it's previous condition ever.  Fortunately, turns out I was very wrong.  The trails are in excellent shape with all tread repaired, trees cleared, and most brush is trimmed back.

Some of this video, which is of the top portion of Jack's Branch - the Yellow trail,  shows a little of the tree work done.  Our ice storm in January of 09 was so severe that not only did branches and tree tops fall across the trail, but many trees simply were uprooted  when falling over.  The root wads would rip big holes in the trail.   Some of the holes were nearly as tall as people. All of this damage is repaired and we are back to normal. 

Forest Service personnel:  We are very pleased with the attention to our mountain bike trail...   however, I still have a bone to pick with you over some of the scheduled trail closures for Jeeps...   more on this later.    

Here's a link to get a map of the Sylamo bicycle trails