Rake N Ride! and then figure it out later.Quote:
Originally Posted by jackstraw
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Rake N Ride! and then figure it out later.Quote:
Originally Posted by jackstraw
Yup. Gonna use the blower, rake, and chainsaw. Aim for all the boulders and features, go around them and then go back and incorporate into the trail later. This area has to have B-lines anyway, so it should work out fine.
My favorite trail system is 100 percent rake and ride. Cady Falls NurseryQuote:
Originally Posted by californiagrown
So is my backyard trail build, I bench cut just the spot that needed it.
I find rake and ride especially trail with out any "borders" like guide stones, tend to be flowier than 99 percent of machine built flow in this area. Why every new trail in the Stowe Area has to be machine built is beyond me, except Serenity and Adrenaline which I ill freely admit is well beyond my skinny skill.
We opened two new ones yesterday. Pretty psyched to blow these ones out. In the little bit of digging we were amazed at the quality of dirt! That never happens in the granite state! Tweaks will need to be made like usual.
Nice little natural airs mixed in. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c8949dd42b.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b0daeac0d5.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4c4b83c15a.jpg
Got the skinny plane cut too. More friendly for the masses.
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Three more finished up this weekend. I was part of two of them, not the slow tech line, but that one is fun. I think we're done for now except cleaning landings and tweaking. Pretty happy as the two we finished are primarily Downs with very little pedaling.
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A local Mason and rippin mtn biker built this trail. This turn is awesome. Super tight and techy rock berm. One specific line and if your on it, it flows perfectly, otherwise not so much. Could not get a good pic from perspective going into it. My bike is off trail behind the corner. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8a223f205e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b78ccd2bf5.jpg
Great stuff in here lately!
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More from the project in Kingman.
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Anyone ever use a home foundation water barrier to help keep trail/pump track from getting water across the trail tread?
Few roller troughs of my pump track are adjacent to a big hill and getting hammered by water and subsequently bad frost heaving.
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I don't but I'd love to see a photo of the problem spot. Can you build in some culvert piping to get it to drain?Quote:
Originally Posted by VTskibum
I've used buried perforated pipe to pull water away from a pump track and put it further down the hill. Worked ok-ish.Quote:
Originally Posted by VTskibum
Ultimately, I find the problem is that pump tracks generally need to be pretty damn dry to not rut out, and no matter what I've done, there's always gonna be some moisture hanging around during wet weather.
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Steep uphill from grass to right of picture, so groundwater running into low spot and now major frost heave. Somewhat inevitable given location, hoping to minimize it to keep it a bit drier. Kicking around a trench at grass-line go divert water or the foundation barrier at edge of grass line here.
Zoomed out, middle roller next to grass where all the water flowing into troughs.
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We've experimented with a few things on local trails. In a couple spots we buried French drain perforated pipe (without fabric cover) and it works well at first but eventually silts up. This doesn't work as well in clayey soils (i.e. my backyard french drains don't work well), and a lot of pump tracks have a significant amount of clay in them. Adding filter fabric and drain rock around the perforated pipe really helps for french drains, provided the soil itself around drains.Quote:
Originally Posted by VTskibum
For trails:
Other spots have mined out chunks of rock, buried them in the drain line, and filled in with dirt. Works ok (water follows the rocks but can't stay and puddle since the rocks are impermeable), doesn't require maintenance, but only works where there is rock (or where you want rock). Finally, the hackiest way is to simply bury a ~4-6" branch across the trail. Like the rock trick, the water will follow the branch. The advantage to this is when it starts to get kind of rutted or silted out, you can just lift up the branch, clean out the slot, replace the branch, and put in the most sandy soil you can find nearby.
We use standard foundation drainage systems all the time to deal with persistent seeps adjacent to or directly under trails. Plan your drainage, dig it out, lay down your filter cloth, position your perforated pipe, fill with drain rock (or whatever rock you can find), wrap the whole thing with the filter cloth, and cap with dirt. Works a charm. Attachment 439385
I can't tell from that photo but are you using one of those cloth sock things around the drain pipe too? So filter cloth around the actual pipe, and more filter cloth around the entire thing?
I've read rounded river rock drains best (lots of space between rocks) versus crushed gravel type rock (less space).
Round rock (like pea gravel) will never consolidate. It will drain better (think riverbed) but it's terrible for roads / paths. Crushed rock will consolidate but still retain some space. For a pump track, I'd use crushed. You want to order crushed washed though - if you get unwashed it will have a bunch of fines mixed in that will inhibit water flow.Quote:
Originally Posted by altasnob
Drainage is just a lot of work and material to make sustainable and every trail can have its nuances. Or it's a lot of maintenance. Santa Cruz Trails on insta shows some build techniques.
A builder here just rerouted a berm turn that someone else built. It had pipe drainage but would silt up and was a constant puddle. He apparently went out west and took a trail building class or something...idk...maybe worked for a builder. I've yet to meet him and we just worked on a new build together just never at the same time! Anyway, he killed it. Turn is so much better and drains well.
Got some rain last week, so it was time to get out there. Cleaned out all the drains on a couple trails, re-established some bench and fixed up a few rollers.
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A ride around was forming around this drop that has a flat landing so I reinstalled a rock transition.
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Then re-established this rock hip jump using dirt from a hole I dug in said ride around. The rock roll above leads right into this hip so hopefully people will abandon the ride around to hit these.
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And another roller to touch up. A hole was forming below the rock where front/rear wheels touch down.
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Also made it back up to the mountains recently to work on my restoration project.
The area burned in 2013 and was under closure order that ended in 2018 right before another big fire hit. So has seen zero maintenance and minimal use since the first fire.
Picked up an electric chainsaw recently hoping it would work to cut out thick sage along the trail and some manzanita on a couple re-routes I want to do. That was good timing, as a few trees had blown over the trail.
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It did a pretty good job on this bigger tree, required a cut from each side to get through it.
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I was stoked to get up the hill and work on some re-routes, but when I saw the dirt still had moisture I dropped that plan and worked on drainage instead. It's usually rock hard with loose sand on top, so you can't work on it when dry. Was able to re-establish drains down about half of the trail. Will take a few more hours to finish it, so fingers crossed we get another storm soon. Trail has held up pretty well despite lack of maintenance. I filled in or widened the ruts as well. The trail we used to climb up was obliterated by the fire and subsequent storms so this trail will now be climbed and descended.
Drain to the right with a dirt roller to make sure water goes off the side
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Before
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After:
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Removing material that had filled drains and using it to fill ruts instead
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In a few spots where there is room to ride above the rut I opened up access to that rather than filling the rut.
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More drains. Before:
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After
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Headed back to the mountains this weekend for more work on the restoration project. Dirt had dried out a bit but could still be worked in some areas.
Only had a couple hours the first day, so I finished digging drains on the lower part of the trail I worked on last weekend. You can see the ruts above and below the drains. This trail has always had a nice rut down the steep parts. It's pretty fun surfing over it from side to side, but the drains will keep it from getting worse. In both cases water was continuing straight down the trail.
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Second day I got into the re-routes I want to do. The goal is to make the trail flow better while also making it climbable and more sustainable.
This is the trail right now, straight down a drainage. Not fun to ride down, eroded and/or full of sand, and too steep/loose/eroded to climb.
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So, re-route around it to lessen the grade while adding a nice rock roll as a downhill line
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Climbing line on the left, rock roll on the right
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A bit of tidy up on a section above the re-route. Needs more work, but dirt here was too hard to do much shaping.
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Future rock roll. I brushed out the entrance, just need to clean up the runout
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Third day
Dug into another re-route not far below the first one. The main goal with this one was to create a climbing route to bypass a couple steep sections that suck to push up. It also removes a couple janky turns and climbs in the downhill direction and replaces with trail that flows better.
This one is twice as long and had a lot more brush to remove.
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I got about half the tread done, focusing on the steeper side slope sections first. This section still needs a wider turn but the upslope was rock hard, so I made do for now. The shoulder is very soft as is. Might need to dig down further to widen it.
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Entrance to that same section viewed from the other direction. Nice rock pinch. The trail used to turn right where I now have it turning left. After the pic I made a ramp onto the rock on the RHS of the pinch so it can be rolled going downhill.
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And a shot from further back. There is a big rock slab to roll down half visible at the bottom of the shot. That will be the downhill A line, which joins up with the original trail middle right. The trail drops down steeply just out of sight beyond that. The climbing re-route will bypass that section.
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There are a lot of stumps I still need to dig out of the tread. And beyond that, just a bit of benching to be done.
Nice work Evdog!
Last week when I was in Rincón we apparently had 60+ mph winds up here and our trails got hammered. Huge blowdowns all over the place. Maintenance is so tiring when you're trying to build new, enhance, or reroute sections. Oh well...
Strong work Evdog, most people don't want to do the drain work. It's definitely not the sexy trail work but it's effective, for a little while anyways.
Ain't that the truth! After doing trail work for years I've developed a strong appreciation for sustainable trail building design/techniques. The trick tho for me is how to build exciting trail but as sustainable as possible or at least the most maintainable as possible in relation to the land managers available resources. That's always a funky and challenging equation to formulate!Quote:
Originally Posted by jackstraw
Usually just use perforated 4” pipe, and don’t bother with the sock. If we have good access I’ll use clean 3/4” drain rock (crushed, but without fines)) that I appropriate from a nearby highways stockpile. Otherwise we just utilize whatever is on site. You’re not wrong, river rock maintains better voids (so drains better), but angular rock provides a more stable base for relatively shallow burial.Quote:
Originally Posted by altasnob
Thanks! Yeah drainage in Socal is super important. Our dirt in most places is very erodable. Trails built by people who don't design well for drainage don't last very long. This trail had gone probably 15 yrs with zero maintenance, and would have been very rideable were it not so overgrown.Quote:
Originally Posted by raisingarizona13
Cleaned up a couple yesterday. More to go. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b3c04d3cfb.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9105d31626.jpg
Anyone tried using low top gaiters while doing trail work to keep dirt out of your shoes? I've tried on the newer high top / sock Five Tens and didn't like the fit on any, and was thinking I may as well just get a set of low top hiking/trail running gaiters instead. I was thinking it would definitely need a durable strap that goes underneath, and ideally good coverage over the tongue area too.
I wear dirty girl gaiters over my riding shoes all the time. 5.10s seemed to just funnel sand and rock into my shoes. With the gaiters I get very little until they start developing holes in the sides. For trail building I usually wear taller boots and long pants if I'm doing tread work. I tend to kick dirt around with my feet a lot and boots hold up to that better than shoes. No need for gaiters when I'm wearing boots and pants.Quote:
Originally Posted by Andeh
More work from this past weekend, I snuck out for a quick overnighter between storms.
Moody day, ghostly quiet out there
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Goal for the weekend was to finish the re-route I started last time along with another one just below it.
Wanted to eliminate a couple steep chutes that are eroded and too steep to pedal up. Replace with the rock waterfall on the left, with a bypass for climbing.
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Couldn't resist building the runout for this rock roll first though. The line is down the edge of the rock from right to left
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The line starts up onto this rock
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There is a nice roll off that rock and then through the gap and onto the main rock roll from a couple pics above. Should be a fun line
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Another roller on the left, with option to roll the middle. I want to move the rocks in the foreground off to the left and use them to back a berm that will shoot riders onto the rock slab I'm standing on.
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This is looking down trail from the same spot. Line will go off the slab to the right, around the bushes and then up onto the big rock behind the bushes.
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Roll off that final rock
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And the exit of the whole section.
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I brushed the whole lower re-route and started digging out 30 or so remaining stumps left from last time. Finished a few sections of bench cut. But ended up calling it early when my boot started disintegrating. Tried to work with it for a while but it was just too annoying, stumbling around like a drunk. Then it started raining.... So I didn't finish all I wanted to do, but still got a lot done.
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Got out in the local hills a couple times this week between storms.
Cleaned up the runout from this slab
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Fixed up some jumps and ramps
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This berm gets worn down every year and the space in front of it fills with sediment. It was pretty much flat so I used the sediment to build it back up, and added material to the runout of the slab.
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The landing of this drop always feels very flat. To give it a better transition I built the lip up about 18". I'd like to build it up another foot or so, but will see how it feels first. The transition is right below the lip, so those that love the flat landing just need to hit it with a bit of speed.
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Ran out of daylight fixing up a rutted section after this. Heard the sound of digging from a nearby ridge as I was packing up. Glad I'm not the only crazy one out there digging in the dark : )
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New trail built recently was super loamy today! Optional steep drop/roll off those rocks, whole trail has a bunch of great rock work.
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It looks like the skiing has sucked out there this winter but I bet it's been killer for trail building.Quote:
Originally Posted by VTskibum
Bit of hit or miss. It’s been so wet around me in PA that you can just pick big rocks right out of the dirt like it was soup. Hard to do any kind of shaping when it’s that saturated.
Think most of the work on this one was done in Nov, but wasn’t able to make it out to help. Did get out to my local and work on some drainage and clearing a bunch of trees that came down bc of the soup dirt.
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Another break between storms so I headed back to the mountains this weekend
With recent rain there was a new lake not there previous weeks. I've been contemplating re-routing part of the trail that follows a ridge top fire break. Now I know where not to put it : )
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Flowing water always shows where a trail's weaknesses are. There is a hole on the far side of this crossing that gets soft when wet....needs a slab rock to bridge it.
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Wish I could incorporate this waterfall section in to the trail. Unfortunately there isn't any good way to connect it.
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The main goal for the first day was to go through the re-route and remove all the root balls that were left in the tread. A lot of them were the remains of burnt stumps with significant new growth intertwined. A total PITA often with multiple sizable tap roots. Excavate around them, cut the sideways roots and then I was often able to break them off.
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With the root balls removed just a bit of tread work was needed to finish most of it
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Back the next day to finish two sections
This...with half dozen root balls hidden in the grass
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And this turn. The rock on the upper end was worrisome as it wouldn't budge.
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It had three big root balls sprouted along its upper edge. Chopped those out and was able to split the rock in half with a gorilla bar. Each half was moved into place to rock in a water crossing above and below the turn
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There are still a few embedded rocks that prevent banking the turn more but it is rideable enough and turned out pretty well IMO. Climbs well and descends ok.
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Finished up the section below it. The "last spike" contained a couple root balls that took into dark to remove
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I'd installed this ramp earlier onto a rock roll. However the split rock below was in the way. The slower line to the right you could go around it to the left. But this ramp would shoot you to the right.
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With the gorilla bar I was able to flip the slab and make a diving board jump out of it.
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A friend who has lived nearby for a long time did some scouting and sent me this... apparently there used to be a trail dating back to the 90s that bypassed a steep rutted section near the top. I was under the impression this would be a good MTB climbing trail
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I tried to find it on the previous trip but failed, so he sent me a waypoint for the beginning. It's definitely not a climbing trail but might make for a good alternate descent. I was able to follow it up to a big granite outcrop then lost it. Will need to look again during daylight.
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As for the main trail I have two big re-routes left that I want to do, then the trail will be fully open. Hopefully just a few more trips to finish.
Some lunch digging before it rained again, sprucing up my backyard access trail w a recycling playground bridge
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Adding some purposefully janky rocks
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Bit wet so not great for riding, but good for digging.
Getting head start for spring, since that’s what it’s been around here so far. Making tables bit bigger
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