Printable View
Grade reversals before and after corners should control the water pretty well, might take some work if the trail is already well established. As for the second spot, can you get material down the fire road? Haul in a bunch of rock if possible and you could rebuild it with rock and outslope it or excavate and pipe it under the trail. Added benefit of the pipe is you can inslope the trail all around the low spot to keep it dry.
Build season is here. I hope we don't get snow too soon and more importantly less wind storms so we don't have to spend so much time on maintenance.
Cannot overstate how awesome this tool has been.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...8477933471.jpg
I'm banned from the bike for the rest of the year, so I saw this thread and for a minute I thought "Hey, lemons->lemonade, I'll go dig a bunch!" Then I remembered I also have a broken sternum--not going to be digging anything for a while either.
Just get healthy bud... your lemonade will come. Get lost in some novels or something.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dantheman
Physical activity is good for the brain, as is time in the woods.Quote:
Originally Posted by grskier
Got that same saw this fall. Pretty happy with it, for the most part. The small chain is kinda fussy though. And I wish the whole package was lighter. It's a good bit heavier than a decent gas saw, which kinda sucks when I'm riding with it. Power and battery life are impressive though.Quote:
Originally Posted by jackstraw
Yeah, I don't mind the weight vs dealing with gas an shit. Depending how much cutting needs to be done you can run a smaller lighter battery like in my pic.Quote:
Originally Posted by toast2266
I haven't had any chain issues.
I've had it throw the chain a bunch. Mostly on weird cuts and small, annoying stuff where it skips around a bit. I've gotten better about figuring how to run it so it doesn't drop a chain, but I've never (or at least very rarely) had a "real" saw throw a chain in identical situations. I've started running the chain a bit tighter, which helps a little bit.Quote:
Originally Posted by jackstraw
I also notice that the chain stretches out really quickly. I find I have to retension it pretty often. Probably 3x more quickly than my saw with a .050 chain.
The other issue I've had is just that the bar is super thin. I bent it pretty easily when I tripped and fell on the saw. On the upside, I could bend it back just as easily.
Yeah, I guess it is tough when comparing to a combustion saw. These saws don't have the balz of the gas ones, but they work good enough for my needs building trail. If we were building sanctioned trails we could probably run the gas if needed, but we're not sanctioned. The instant on/off, no idling, and just quiet is so freakin nice. I was using sawzalls before, so this is heaven comparatively.Quote:
Originally Posted by toast2266
Yeah, for sure. The discretion factor is really nice.Quote:
Originally Posted by jackstraw
12 days of dry weather. Flagged lines earlier. Now packing away at the groundwork
Before and after. Will have to cut away some downed treesAttachment 301459Attachment 301460
More before after and the morning light showAttachment 301461Attachment 301462Attachment 301463
I love dig stoke and trail porn but for whatever reason I can't upload photos from my phone to my pc and I can't log on to TGR with my phone so I can't contribute to this thread, sorry.
If you want to check out the project I've been working for over three years now you can see on my IG acount. thanks!
https://www.instagram.com/raisingarizona13/?hl=en
Man, that's a lot of hard work by the looks of it. Bench cutting for days? Nice work!Quote:
Originally Posted by raisingarizona13
I'm headed to Sedona in the spring, so I may hit you up for some intel. With wifey who doesn't ride, so will be limited.
We have switched over to ski trail maintenance and clearing this time o year. Some trees to cut and throwing a lot of branches plus burning last years brush piles.
Still gotta clear the super glades then punch thru that upper connector trail for the grand tour trail.
Spent the weekend scratching around in the dirt.
A shitty run in.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...1b8e3f5da3.jpg
To a decent sized drop
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...fd621ee8a0.jpg
To a decent sized jump
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...398d15e093.jpg
To some rolly pumpy stuff where the terrain gets flat. Still a bunch of work to do on that part.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...211b81b9ad.jpg
Attachment 301898Attachment 301899
A couple pics from my summer, looking back I have a pathetic amount of pics. Was too busy building I guess, 50-60 hrs a week until I crashed and broke my arm. We made good progress on the hill, almost completed a blue jump trail, built a skills park with inner pump track, and knocked out some rad hand built which I of course have no pictures of. This was all after about 3 weeks of clearing snow due to the huge winter. Stoked to heal up and get back after it next spring.
Was able to finish a nice addition today. Maybe half mile or so. 3 guys, chainsaw, blower, hard rake, and regular rake. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...88a6c8f2eb.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4e612462dc.jpg
Man, just saw your latest stuff! Heavy lifting. You guys are killing itQuote:
Originally Posted by raisingarizona13
thanks man, and others that commented or checked it out. We started the planning for the project in august of 2016 and put shovels to the dirt last June. It's been an epic but we should have her done by next June!Quote:
Originally Posted by jackstraw
Nothing has come easy with this build. It's all rock, there have been days and sections where you spend 4 hours doing back breaking work to open up 10 feet of bench. That top section that we were working on since mid September was literally giant slabs of dacite and we had to spend a week and a half just jack hammering it out. I love this work but I can't lie, I'm really excited to wrap this project up now.
Rode this in for 2 yrs and just a little bermin' is all she needs.
Clock is ticking for build season...here come the bugshttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...d2bd72d49d.jpg
Never built a trail, but during this Rona downtime I have been working on a biking/walking path around our 10 acres. Rented this box scraper today and dragged it around a bunch. Worked okay but dirt/grass/pine needles would completely choke the box every 20-30 yards and I would have to stop and clean it out, yeah it was f'ing hard work. It's a start, but lots of digging left to do. Be pretty cool when it's done though.
Attachment 325754Attachment 325755
^that's cool!
Did a little reroute today to bypass a wet area. With more traffic these days our trails get packed down combined with tire erosion they become water holes. Lines you assume are high enough rear their ugly head after a bit.
Started building an extension of the climbing trail at one of our local trail networks. Playing in an excavator is fun, but can't say I'm really looking forward to sitting in that thing all week.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...db1ec3a662.jpg
Depends on the ground. If you’re butt is chewing a hole in the seat, the days can fly by. But, yeah get a bunch of good podcasts to listen to if it’s easy digging. Boring shit for sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by toast2266
Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums
Very true.. cut bench and grub across a 35 deg slope and it will definitely not seem boring.
Attachment 326161
Hopefully this before and after set will Stoke out any builders out there.. probably the worst section of rock we had to build thru.. lil Jerry has no idea of our toil and tribulation.
Attachment 326162Attachment 326163
Sorry for some of the weird formatting and the repeat, this upload process is a pain
No dirt, but deadfall. My mo is to make a skinny or in this case a fat when deadfall hits the trail. Made round pavers [emoji3] for the damp section...and to test the battery. She can still cut quite a bit for an old battery. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...da6c2a109e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4b9139e087.jpg
We have a city owned 350' vertical forested hillside above an abandoned golf course about an 1/8th of mile from my place. I spent this past fall into early winter building a cool little trail with some blue/black level mandatory jumps and drops and awesome steep loam sections. It was totally built from scratch by me and my dog. I put a good amount of thought into keeping the trail fairly hiker friendly (as that will likely be the majority user group even though it is obviously purpose built for MTB), and i really made an effort to keep it looking natural and not disturbing more than i needed to e.g. minimizing and hiding my dig pits, making sure that anything i built was polished and not left halfassed, recovering things in stockpiled duff, and replanting removed ferns. Its a beautiful bit of PNW forest in there, and i wanted to keep that vibe.
Well, the first extended dry spell coincided with the Covid19 stay at home order which meant that i was able to ride and test everything for the first time... but also, so were a couple other folks in the neighborhood as everyone was out and about exploring the neighborhood forests for the first time. Unfortunately, those folks decided to put in a janky hip jump that blocks the mainline of the trail. They dug FOUR dig pits for the one jump (two of which in the mainline), but managed to still make the lip and landing of organics and clay so they are just mucky and soft. I had built a couple drains in this section and they destroyed those and have essentially turned this section into a bowl that does nothing but collect water. I dont want to be an asshole, but these kids took a moss and fern covered section of trail that looked beautiful (which is important for the neighborhood Karens to enjoy the trail), and built a janky half finished jump and created a mud bog.
Im giving them another week to fix their shit, and then im going in to totally redo what they did to my trail. How can i get the message to them to fix their shit and/or dont build shit on "my" trail? Leaving a sign for them seems like an asshole move. Or, should i just accept that i built an unsanctioned trail and now have to deal with idiots not knowing trail ettiquite?
Triple posting aside....try to find out who it is and mentor them.
I find usually if you undo their shitty work they get the message and go elsewhere.
We have a somewhat similar situation going on. A guy is going hard building jumps on our trails and then posting on FB. We found him and he's a nice guy, but we asked him to take it down a notch and to kill the FB shit which he agreed to do but that cat is out of the bag. F'n FB sucks. The issue with jumps on rogue trails is the liability factor for the landowner. Natural stuff is fine, but once you start building manmade structures and the owner or conservation commission (which is the mix of what most of our trails are built on) is made aware then some liability creeps in and shit gets shut down.Quote:
Originally Posted by californiagrown
We have two five mile single track sections through town. Both on city property. One on a creek and the other on the river. Each one is 'managed' by a different volunteer group. Both groups have relationships with the city. They do joint park cleanups and an annual "Rec Fest". Kids build stupid shit all the time. They just go in and take it out. But they have a little tractor with a back hoe. I don't know how they get around liability though. The river section has a pump track with a bunch of wooden features. They've built jumps and berms all along the trail. Fun, but I keep waiting for a Karen to shut it down.
Californiagrown, tough to go it alone. If you have some other riders you can make a coalition with, seems like the way to go. At least it's working here. I can put you in touch with the guys who run these groups in my town if you want more info.
Having dealt with that before the best way to deal with it is to talk to them. At the very least you've tried.Quote:
Originally Posted by californiagrown
How do you get in contact with them though? I totally agree that just talking to them would work the best and they'd probably respond really well. I don't want to leave my contact info on an illegal trail, and i'm not going to just camp out on the trail for days on end interrogating anyone who passes by if they have been digging there till they finally come back though. They apparently brought in their own shovels too, because my stash spot hasnt been touched so i cant leave a note there either.Quote:
Originally Posted by LeeLau
Ill probably just have to suck it up and hope i catch them in the act so i can talk with them. Ill post pictures later to try and make up for the anti-stoke.
I made a BS email account and had it forwarded to my email. I used the BS email account address to post a notice on the trail. Very non-confrontational. "Thanks for the work! Is there any way we can work together?" Sympathies to you for doing the right thing; all you can do is tryQuote:
Originally Posted by californiagrown
*I dont know how to rotate the pictures*
Top 4' drop into berm. I need to rework the landing area this week to make it steeper. I put those stairs in climbers right for hikers and actually had an older lady thank me for the consideration a few weeks ago.
Attachment 326824
Attachment 326825
Loamy Forest
Attachment 326826
Sketchy clay chute into creek gap with uphill landing. This stays wet and snot-slick 7 months out of the year, but there is no other way to cross this creek.
Attachment 326827
Cool little hip jump using two big downed trees. Super smooth and flowy. Worked out really well.
Attachment 326828
Berm into a little 5' double with loam chicane turns just after
Attachment 326830
Attachment 326829
The unfinished hip jump i was whining about, with 4 different dig pits
Attachment 326831
The trail continues on for anther quarter mile or so, with no built features, but is pretty steep and fall-line.
californiagrown! Really nice artful work. I like the narrow footprint of your work - ie the cleanup of where you did your build so the trail stays narrow without lots of debris all over. It's the little touches that make it so worthwhile.
Quite the contrast between your minimal impact and the new work that has more impact.
Yeah, I agree. That is some great looking new trail. It looks like you had great soil to work with as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by LeeLau
Been doing a lot of trailwork since ski season shut so abruptly
Reloamed an old trail. Fixed up the exit bermAttachment 326931Attachment 326932Attachment 326933