Reopening Virginia Key after hurricane Irma
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- Опубликовано: 3 авг 2024
- The 2017 hurricane season has been a tough one, not only has it been incredibly active, but the amount of major hurricanes has been astounding. On september 10th, we got hit by Irmas outer bands in Miami. We know how fortunate we were and hope for the recovery of the more affected aras such as Puerto Rico and other islands on Irmas path. While we were very lucky that Irma lost power and went west, our beloved VK was still hit pretty hard, Irma was nothing short of massive.
I rode the hurricane out at home, it was crazy to feel whole building swaying in the wind and making creaking noises, almost was like being on a cruise ship in bad weather. The day after, things were calm, I went out to VK and its sorrounding areas to check on the damage. The initial sight was gutwrenching. About 80% of the australian pines, that compose most of the park, were down. Interestingly, as a testament to the build quality at VK, the wooden structures survived.
Its hard to understand from the drone footage the extent of the damage, these huge trees look like little twigs, this footage is shot from the ridge visible in the next drone shot. Those green things are 40 ft containers. The extent of damage was crazy.
Over the course of 4 weekends, working both Saturday and Sunday, each day over 100 volunteers showed up to help; each one of these volunteers, together with the dedicated work and organization of the Virginia Key Bike Club netted amazing results! A park that could have been lost was recovered, and today, October 14th VK reopened with a Club benefited fund raiser, around 100 riders showed up, adults and kids alike.
Our first lap was a huge group ride, a single file lined up for the first few trails at a nice pace to look around and see the success that the recovery had been. After the trail split out into the more advance trails, traffic became sparse and we got a chance to let loose. Riding VK again was almost Déjà vu, some parts off the trail were completely different yet it still felt like home.
Although located only minutes away from downtown Miami, VK is an escape from the city life for a great many of us that ride here every single week. These trails are proof that great mountain biking can be had without much elevation change.
So thank you Volunteers, and thank you Virginia Key Bike Club, today was a great day a month in the making. There is still much work to do to get back to 100%, but after seeing how much was done in such short time I have no doubt the future of VK will be great!
We ended the day with a fun time trial at Purple Haze, one of VK's most technical trails, while I had planned to record the whole thing, I got distracted and forgot to start the camera before the start countdown; hey, at least I remembered quickly. Aaaand, well, you know how luck is, I ran out of battery, so that's all I got. I was very happy that I got a second place and got to take home a "medal" made out of one of the trees cutdown, this one is a piece of history to me!
I will see you for the next one and happy riding VK!
Music:
"Spirit of the Girl" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
"The Whip" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b... 
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I misread my script while recording the voice over. Irma passed Miami on September 10th, not 30th. Note to self, no more editing at 1am.
Good footage bro! Florida trailbuilders are very passionate about their trails and always come together! Nothing can stop us!
Thanks man! FL Trailbuilders are truly amazing, so much done! Come hit VK soon, we've yet to get a ride in.
BlindstuffMTB for sure. Looking forward to the cool weather
That's some serious commitment from the local group, big props to all the volunteers, and great job with the video.
Thanks Mike, everybody worked so hard, really amazing to see. We're still missing a few trails that I think will almost be new builds, but hey, just a chance to make it better.
Wow we knew the storm was bad, but seeing your ground footage and drone aerial shots really put things in perspective. It's amazing to see the outpouring of volunteers that came together to restore VK in such a short amount of time. I have no idea how well australian pines hold up to the aggressive Florida climate, but I think you've got the materials to build the world's longest skinny. Let's go volunteers! Make it happen!
It was really amazing in so many ways, the destruction and the work done was monumental. There is definitely a lot of wood to build cool stuff, I like the idea of going for a world record skinny!
Nice. One of the best videos I've seen from Virginia Key North Point trails.
Thanks Adam! Appreciate the kind words.
So glad the trails are mostly fine, good luck with the cleanup!
Thanks Lucas!
Nice work! Great to see you out there for the re-opening celebration. Cannot wait for Fight Nights to begin!
Thanks Amaury! Great seeing you out there, was a really fun day. Oh yeah, I miss fight nights, but the season for that is coming!
Awesome video and story telling man. Glad to see the bike park back up and running!
Thanks man, much appreciated! Great sense of accomplishment to see good results after all that work.
This is an incredible video bud. I am glad VK received so much help. I tried to come out one of the days but my truck broke down. The trails look amazing and I hope they plant something new there.
Thanks Ben! You guys did magic with Markham, aside from a bit less shade, it looks as if nothing had ever happened.
The good/bad thing about the Australian pine is that it grows fast, if nobody plants anything the existing one will respread over a couple of years.
Love this. That drone footage is crazy! I just imagine how scary it would be if for some reason you were actually at the park during that storm and seeing all those trees fall one right after the other. Some apocalyptic ish for sure. Pretty impressive that that park is open again so soon.
BTW, your riding has improved quite a lot if I may say. Since I've seen all your vids I just notice so much more confidence and technique.
Purple Haze has my number for some reason. That trail always freaks me out. I can't wait to tackle it again with my new bike. I know the bike shouldn't be the main factor, it's always the rider of course but my new bike gives me so much more confidence with the added travel, updated geo and bigger tires that I can't wait to see how I'll do on Purple Haze with it.
Thanks man, it was great to see the park open again. It was crazy noisy in the safety of my home, can't imagine what it must be like in the open, scary is an understatement.
Thanks so much for the kind words, I really do feel the Jeffsy is a much better fit for me of a bike, which leads me into what you're saying about Purple Haze, I think if you really like your new Genius you'll do so much better at any trail, confidence is such a huge factor!
I for the first time volunteered to clean up at one of my favorite local tracks just a couple hours north of Virginia Key, it was a great to get riding again, but I also made a bunch of new friends and have a deeper respect for the trail. Now when I ride I look at the massive trees dozens of volunteers cut through and the mile of track I raked (literally a mile).... weeks later, two sections are still underwater, but there is still 5 awesome miles of track to ride and it too has that new, but familiar feeling..
That's awesome Tomek, once you start to get your hands dirty you really appreciate the trails a lot more, right? What trail are you referring to? (want to guess mala compra / Graham swamp? Hahaha)
BlindstuffMTB it was Mala Compra, but Graham Swamp is another fun ride down the street.
Aloha!! Nice stuff. Well done. Yes, I do know the challenges of keeping trails open and recovering the trails. We regularly experience some crazy winds here in Hawaii and it's a constant up-keep work. Congrats to you guys!!
Aloha! Thanks for the comment! Riding in HI must be amazing! Have yet to visit but will someday.
Hope so some day you'll get to visit. It's hilly, rocky, rooted, muddy. A little of a lot.
+G Matsushige sounds like my kind of riding!
Great stuff man! That's some impressive work done by those folks! I wonder if there are plans to build some new features using all those downed trees?
Thanks man! Definitely lots of work, I didn't even capture much, I never took my GoPro, really hard to hold a machete in one hand a film with your phone in the other lol. There's a few new features sprinkled around the park already, hope to build more.
that looks like 1 hell of a great trail, good vid
Thanks man, that's home for us, absolute blast of a trail considering its right next to the heart of the city.
Great work! Gotta get down there and rideVK with you. Never been there😃
Thanks, and definitely! Just send me a message when your planning on coming.
Great Video. Im so glad Virginia Key is back up and running again. I'll be back in Florida at Thanksgiving so hopefully I get to ride some of my favorite trails while I'm down there!
Thanks Evan! VK is always an awesome ride. Hit me up when your here to ride VK.
Will do.
Pretty sweet medal you got there!
hahaha now I just gotta convince my wife about why I want to keep a cut tree trunk!
Silver lining.... Lots of wood for new features!
hahaha there are already a few new ones sprinkled around!
good job
Thanks Erick!
Awesome video
Thank you Kenny!
We met you Saturday I was behind you in line and my son was the one who follows you. Keep it up...
Yeah of course, thanks for the support, good to be able to connect online names with the actual people I've met through this channel. Always rewarding to hear positive comments, much appreciated!
Excellent work! So glad we have such an amazing mtb community here in south Florida. Btw, who's that rider you were following? That guys got some serious skills (;
Thanks man! Really appreciate the help with this video, killer riding, looking steezy for sure!
Does the county plan to replant with native trees? Gumbo limbo, sandalwood? I would get rid of the rest of the Australian pines.
Any way to make the park more hurricane resistant? Miami gets an Irma like hit once every 5 years.
any drone footage after the clean up?
I don't own the drone I used on the first day, couldn't get it back again. This video has some nice footage. ruclips.net/video/7HKM12l-MUE/видео.html
September 30th? Don't you mean September 8th?
+Vyllain Da Rogue oops. September 10th. I misread the script while I was doing the voice over. Hey, did this at 1am, brain fart. Thanks for noticing.
Don't feel so sad, AUS pines are a bad invasive.
Horrible
It was pretty tough to look at for sure, but everyone pulled together to do an awesome job.