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Also been working on a flow trail that's used by all skill levels and all ages for the past few years. Never really able to do more than keep up to wear usually but this year I've had time to fix things properly
Old berm that wore through. Rock cribbed exit and dirt toppedAttachment 326935Attachment 326936Attachment 326937Attachment 326938
Perpetually wet standing water section. Excavated a big hole and put in a water bar using the excavated dirt to top a rock crib.
Then placed two big flat rocks and dirt topped that.
Not pictured as I was running out of light. Small kid sized booter thereafterAttachment 326939Attachment 326940Attachment 326941
Nice work. Are you grabbing those rocks from a nearby creek or something? Id love to have a few rocks available (but not too many haha) to help with drainage.
The dirt has been a blessing and a curse. Its super clayey in a lot of spots which makes it really easy to sculpt, but also totally unrideable for the wet 7 months of the year... especially because it mostly appears on the steeper sections of trail. The rest is super loamy dirt with awesome mineral gold 12" down so dig pits are really easy and efficient though i try to only use the mineral soil for sculpted features and leave the duffy "loam" in as many sections as possible.Quote:
Originally Posted by jackstraw
But yeah, the dirt has been super easy to work with which is why i was able to do so much solo with minimal hours put in. Glad i didnt have to deal with rocky or super rooty soil.
The area I'm in has a good mix of organic topsoil, mineral and rocks. When originally built we spent a bunch of time routing on natural contours and next to or over big piles of mineral dirt.Quote:
Originally Posted by californiagrown
That worked out cos 7 years later it's still a lot of work to maintain but at least the materials are right there.
I dig this thread. You guys have such different soil compared to us out east. Every once in a while we can hit a little honey hole of workable dirt, but mostly we have a lot of roots and granite rock. The amount of granite makes for really fun trial-type riding down here at the beach since we lack vert.
I have so many berms I'd like to add, but digging is next to impossible in many spots...or rather not worth breaking my back for one turn.
ive been missing this thread greatly... damn grad school has kept me away from my shovel far too frequently these days
had a conference call today with city park director and bike park consulting firm, master plan revision time and we get a seat at the table so curious to see where this all goes
great seeing you all out slapping dirt and making people smile, thanks for contributions, keep your shovels dirty
Too wet to ride, but working some dirt on a new section. Speed is high coming into this and it's a wee bit tight. Either a 4' berm or widen this corner out toward my bike.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4c8b186d31.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...746e62f762.jpg
This perpetually wet low spot had bugged us for a while. Fixed
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californiagrown, that trail is a work of art man, very well done.
I have been hitting the backyard hard the last 3 weeks. What started as just a small little transition on the pump track turned into a winding and twisting new line that turned into cleaning up a big berm on the jump line that turned into setting up a long and low into the berm that turned into building a step on step off and alternate line of a couple rollers into a shark fin. Good times.
Pump track addition before and after...
This is first roller extension I put in. I figured I'd just do a quick inside line.....
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...CbFJx2m-X3.jpg
Well.... "quick" turned into this...
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...7zrQz9J-X3.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...8chTD9K-X4.jpg
I had been needing to reshape the big berm on the jump line. It just wasn't riding well and speed was lost.
Much better
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...pq5mxkQ-X4.jpg
Now that more speed was had coming out of the berm, this lone small jump just would't do...
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...SZbtfwd-X4.jpg
So I got to work digging
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...h2KCzHR-X4.jpg
And digging.....changing the little double into a double roller
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...DjK7vWk-X4.jpg
And more digging and fine tuning
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...ZKJGKjz-X4.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...52dgLXV-X3.jpg
Until finally...
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...S8FBHX9-X4.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...6rXk854-X4.jpg
The main pump track now connects to the big berm and double roller to shark fin. I can't add any rollers next to the wood ramp as that is a driveway for folks who store their trailers here. That is the reason for the moveable wood ramp as well.
There are other ideas, but now warm weather is baking everything rock hard so digging will likely come to and end for a time. I guess I'll go ride now.
Before and after, from above
https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Bac..._115338-X4.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Bac..._115139-X4.jpg
We definitely need to come visit you.
Always welcome!Quote:
Originally Posted by Dantheman
That is some commitment. Wow.
Hell yeah CS! that looks like an awesome spot for evening sessions with BBQ, beers and buddies. Looks like some prime doubles to make into campfilre jumps too haha. When you have a lot of time on your hands its easy to get carried away and OCD and before you know it you have something way better than you originally set out to build!
A couple of us are doing some re-routing of our "downhill" trail. Nice to get out and do some work. There's a section that's just kind of straight and fast with three tight switchbacks and we're sending it a little farther out into wider corners and keeping the trail pretty raw, mostly just scraped off organic material and some wider off camber bits without a set line.
Attachment 327578
Nice to get out today without any bugs. One thing I don't do much of is dig and build berms. We've been so focused on building a network we can finally spend some time digging, but shit it is so much work! Then you ride it and it's gone by in a second or two! [emoji3]
Berm into a little step up...in time with more work.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e2b3fbb0bf.jpg
Honey holehttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...75b5176d6c.jpg
I'm really not very good at MTB, but enjoy it, and really enjoyed building this trail this past fall/winter/spring in my free time. Its short, steep in spots, and built to look kind of difficult but not actually have any difficult moves because i kind of suck haha. Everything flows really well together, and and im slowly getting more confident keeping speed up. Pretty cool little 300' vert lap i can do door-to-door from my condo in suburban Seattle in under 25 mins. Video edited to remove the entrance/exit portions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4JmjGQfXiU
Looks fun!
Progress from the other day, basically have 2/3 of our re-routing done. Another couple of work days and it should be good to go again.
Attachment 328210
Steeper and more off camber than it looks going down to that berm.
Bought some rakes to help make loam great again and used it for loam berms Attachment 328226Attachment 328227
Yeah it does!Quote:
Originally Posted by evdog
There's nothing quite like riding a bit of dirt you've had worked from top to bottom! Finally got to ride an 880m long section that has taken over 60+ hours and it was jank good timesQuote:
Originally Posted by californiagrown
Attachment 328241
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Everything is super dry now, so I guess we'll just ride..
https://youtu.be/NvtdaJ_Rt2o
That yard looks ridiculously fun. Did you import the dirt? Doesn't look like you dug down much, if at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by CS
I’m sure all builders can relate...
Attachment 328530
Gold.Quote:
Originally Posted by rip
I'll work on an edit of what I've put together so far at the house... it ain't much, but the kids, wife and I love being able to rip 2 laps whenever we want.
So i found the tool stash of some folks who had built a half-assed jump on my trail. It contained a shovel, a bigass handsaw... and a hand trowel with a 4' long handle. It was the weirdest tool ive ever seen. It literally was a hand trowel that was attached to like a fullsize shovel handle. I have no idea what that could be used for?
Whatever you'd use a regular trowel for, except with social distancing. Duh.
Easier nature dumps?
Paved this section which was getting wornAttachment 328585Attachment 328586Attachment 328587
Stupidly steep section of trail on old classic Cuntbuster
Pic 1 looks uphill
Pic 2 placed big cedar across trail.and dug and hammered it in
Pic 3 back filled with rock falling off the uphill
Pic 4 dug out bike length landing pad before next steep turnAttachment 328588Attachment 328589Attachment 328590Attachment 328591
Restored a couple more trails and brought some old stunts back into playAttachment 328775Attachment 328776
I wish everyone would take 30 seconds out of their ride to move that branch, rock, whatever out of the way.Quote:
Originally Posted by rip
Warning rant - fucking roadies in the woods are the worst offenders. They somehow think the trails are like the pave and the street sweeper just comes along to take care of it for them.
We rode a brand new trail yesterday that has a deep mud hole at a low spot. Its brand new, so not finished. I assume builder will bridge it maybe. So we stopped and took 3 minutes and filled it with deadfall and made it much more rideable until a permanent fix occurs. It's just not that hard, but when your kom hunting I guess it is.
I think a lot of people just assume the work naturally pops up. Also a lot of people are casual users so to them, their forest activity isn't a priority. Plus laziness as let's face it trailwork takes time and does involve effort.
Anyhow I generally keep my expectations for help on trailwork low. They're generally met
Yeah, I'm with you. Sometimes it just gets to me. Yesterday on a fast flow corner there was a 4-5cm front tire grabber stick parallel right in the middle of it. It throws the whole corner off. Countless riders ride by just because. We stop, turn around and get rid of it. Climb back up and hit the corner again. So worth it. I guess it's just a mentality that I cannot comprehend.Quote:
Originally Posted by LeeLau
Time to head out with the dogs and do some more maintenance/build.
Yeah... the local shop owner's 16 year old shredder son regularly complains about corners on the local trails get "clapped out" (mostly from him "schralping" them excessively because that's what's cool on Instagram). We tell him, "you know where we stash the tools." Silence.
If I'm in a good rhythm and branches / eucalyptus bark strips are in the trail but don't interfere with my line, I'll just ride past. But once one of them is, I'll stop and move them, and all the rest of them below it. Once you have to stop once, may as well take out the rest of the trash.
I'm not diminishing any of your concerns and realize they're venting. God knows I do that too.
I get random strangers and friends of mine who I know don't do trailwork offering "feedback" or imparting the someone should do some thing .... schtick.
When the feedback is negative sure it sucks but I try to remember that I do trailwork for me. Because I find it fun. And it it stops being fun then I can always move on to other things that are fun.
Anyhow tldr. Definitely hear you all.
Deeper poo holes for those REALLY stinky dumps:Quote:
Originally Posted by rip
Attachment 328842
Well yesterday was super fun with a devastating end.
This up and over was a BB grind that we never fixed properly until today.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9a510f291c.jpg
Tweaked the rocks beforehand for a little jump into it.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...fe30e79bf5.jpg
Then this...fuck me!
Entrance to the network https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2d2d8827be.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8132570770.jpg
Oh No!!
Is there a new landowner, or did the current one just have a change of heart about access? Is the whole network on that person's/entity's property?