Dig stoke, who else likes to play in the dirt???

Yesterday was tour de storm carnage. Mostly, it was water crossings of variable depth and breakaway bridges that had been pushed out of place. A couple of them were gone completely, snapped off their retaining cables.



Water - too deep to ride across. Breakaway bridge - gone.

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Crossing - wide and deepish. Got feet wet.

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No crossing here, but the trail on the left keeps getting narrower each time the water gets high. The entire area gets inundated during storms.

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Trail (road) is the now the stream

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Only a couple spots of notable damage in the whole trail network. Generally areas get flooded and a bunch of sand deposited. Occasionally spots get churned up like this. There's already a path beaten through so it doesn't really need fixing.

Not bad overall, the trails themselves hold up pretty well. And we got off pretty easy down here. The mountains above Santa Barbara got 24" of rain in a few days, and most of the Los Padres NF is under closure order for 2 months due to excessive trail and road damage.

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Crossing - wet feet. Breakaway bridge - gone

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Today was trailwork back on some other local trails


Dirt at the bottom of this rock roll has been worn away making it an almost vertical drop. It's not smooth at all and over half the riders I see walk it.

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Paul helped me move a phat rock into place. We buried the base of it then chocked it in against the boulder with some other rocks. Solid. And confirmed a much smoother roll now. Same overall height but people won't freak out thinking it's an automatic OTB

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Finished product

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Lower trails all held up well to the storms from the last couple weeks. We moved on to the upper trail. Forgot to take pics up here. This trail is a PITA, mostly clay soil full of cobbles and lots of water seeping across it. It is soupy when wet and rock hard when dry, ruts and all.


No after pic, but I dug out the deposited sand and clay on the inside and used that to build a berm back up on the outside.

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We dug a bunch of drains and filled them with rock. Hopefully that will work to redirect the seepage off the trail. Nice sunset

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Walked out the trail below which heads down the bottom of the canyon. It was a mess. Not my trail, and the builder has been MIA for several years with no maintenance done. I usually don't work on other peoples trails but couldn't help filling this rut. Riders already going around it on the grass. Guy needs to get up here and fix his shitty trail. One he built in the next canyon over is apparently even worse.

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Only took a couple mins to fill and stomp down.

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I am not digging in the dirt, but making fat bike trails in the snow.

I got lazy in the fall and neglected some storm clean up, mainly because I couldn't bike due too much snow and I couldn't groom due to too little snow. Now I am paying for it.

This one just section of the trail that took 1.5 hours to clear.

https://dgtzuqphqg23d.cloudfront.net...-2048x1536.jpg

Back at it for a bit this afternoon.


This trail gets hammered every time there is a big storm. You might not be able to tell but water can get 6-8 ft higher than the trail here. Lots of sand deposited in spots, lots of debris to clear. Water got up this year, but damage wasn't too bad. Cleared the debris and fixed a bit of tread, good to go.

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Yeah, best to walk across that right now

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Bank got eroded so much this root mass was exposed. Cut that out to help restore the crossing

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Rut was starting to form on this descent

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Have to do this every couple years. Don't mind it, the dirt is really nice to work with

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This section is a bit of work to maintain. Steep sidehill, sections keep landsliding away. There's a rut next to the upper handle in the pic you can see.

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Rut is now fixed

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Again most of the trails were in not bad shape and maintenance was more preventative than repairs of bad damage. Can't say the same for the fire roads though, that is where 90% of the worst damage was happening. Like this....

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A couple projects today at park ranger's request.

Fixed a section that eroded out. Water flows from left to right behind this bit of work. Believe it or not there used to be an eroded channel behind where I did the work. We installed a bridge over that channel around 2011 since the ranger was concerned it would erode further and become impassible. Instead, a huge storm a few weeks later deposited 2 feet deep of sediment, almost filling the channel. Storms the last couple weeks finally filled the channel completely and it spilled over and down the trail, eroding it.

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Before pic... There used to be a trail that contoured across the face of this slope that people would climb up. Riders over the years started riding straight down the face of it. Erosion also took its toll and now the disturbance is 25 ft wide, the climbing trail long gone. So I benched a ramp in mostly for hikers and riders climbing up. We'll leave a line open down the steep face for riders to go down. Not bad for an hour's work.

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New double black DH trail in Kingman, Ghost Pepper. This one should be completed on the 11th during a CRATA trail day. It's legit and imho completes the trail system.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andeh

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.

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Old bump, but just catching up in the thread. Yea, I have a pair of these low gaiters: https://www.rei.com/product/852794/o...E&gclsrc=aw.ds
They're the bomb around here. Definitely keeps the shoes, ankles, socks, pant cuffs clean. They're key for winter riding here, as they keep my feet dry and also keep them a good bit warmer. I wear them for raking days too.
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This one's' still in the infant stages. Got about 1500' vertical to go, but it's coming together.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by evdog

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evdog, how do you like working with the Trailboss vs a regular Hoe?

The trail boss is good for what it is... a portable tool.

Mine is the full fibreglass version so it transmits a lot more vibration than the rogue hoe, and the handle has more flex. Between those two things and being light, it's not as nice to work with as the rogue hoe or any solid tool. Doesn't feel like you can whack at stuff as hard whether digging or chopping. The connector sometimes loosen on you if you happen to grip over them while digging. The Trail boss gets used when I don't have tools stashed nearby, when I'll be moving around a lot, or when I need some stealth. It's a great tool if you need something portable. Being able to swap heads out rather than bring separate tools is awesome.

I definitely prefer the regular hoe for big projects or tough digging though. It's just more solid overall, and when you're tamping dirt the extra weight helps a lot of compact dirt better. I keep a couple plus shovels and picks and rakes stashed year round on one of the trail networks I maintain.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by raisingarizona13

New double black DH trail in Kingman, Ghost Pepper. This one should be completed on the 11th during a CRATA trail day. It's legit and imho completes the trail system.

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Now thats the best kind of 'building' there is.. \m/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rip

Now thats the best kind of 'building' there is.. \m/

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Haha! The White Cliffs just gives it to ya. Seriously, the geology is awesome. I'm really lucky to have had this project fall into my lap. The city Parks and Rec guy has been a great partner and fully supports more progressive, modern trail design.

You should go do some volunteer building in Prescott's Dells.

Years ago I did a roadtrip there and rode with a friend who is a local. Took a bunch of pics. Get home, and I get a phone call from the Prescott trail manager asking "hey, saw your pics - any ideas on where we can put more trails?" They have a crew of volunteers who build but they're mostly hikers. The trails they build are fortunately pretty fun to ride. But some advanced MTB specific trails would be killer. The terrain there is like the White Cliffs x100.

Been a few good days of digging. We're getting hit by storms about every 4-5 days right now which is perfect.


Another ranger request - re-establish drainage on this steeeep trail. The channel on the left of one of the pics is the original trail. It had gotten bad enough people were walking along one side of it widening the trail. Now that channel will be used for water flow to protect the trail.

Cleaned up 4-5 existing drains that had filled and overflowed down the trail, and added a few new ones. Hopefully we're getting the go ahead to re-route it later this year.

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Fixing ruts and adding drainage on a different trail system yesterday. Water was coming around the corner and flowing right down the trail.

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From the weekend...went out to check on another trail I hadn't seen since the storms. It was mostly in good shape, just needs an easy fix here and there.

This roll had a bunch of dirt worn away on the runout exposing a bunch of pointy rocks. The toe test showed they were easy to pop out which means they'd easily dislodge with traffic. So I removed them and added back dirt. Same right above the drop, but with a larger rock that was now exposed about 6" tall. Removed and repositioned it to rock in the entrance to the roll.

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Just around the corner from that is this roll. People are forever trying to bypass it on the right, and every ride here I'm putting back the rocks and sticks to block it.

I don't get it....this trail has no b-lines, and there are harder features above this. So you made it this far, now you have to ride around this little feature? There is a bit of an abrupt drop on the backside but it's not big. Just not super smooth feeling.

Incidentally, the round rock in the center of the pic is somewhat of a b-line already. The intended line is over the rock directly above it, but getting people to even visualize riding that line was a pipe dream.

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So, hoping this will be enough to make riders feel safe on the rock roll I added a couple rocks to the backside as a ramp.

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Another one people like to try and go around, on either side. Some rocks got dislodged and were sitting right on the transition.

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I moved them up to help block both outer lines. It's not a difficult drop. Trying to sneak around either side puts you on a much worse line than just sending it down the middle.

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Yesterday I started working on a trail that needs work, but I've been dreading. It is plagued by sticky clay and endless cobbles. But is getting really beat up since it's a main connector between two parts of the trail system.

I cleaned all the drains and added some new ones yesterday, and cut down the edges of some ruts. That was the easy part.

This afternoon I did battle with the switchbacks.



I wasn't going to work on this first turn, but it has always annoyed me. It's flat, and has gotten pretty wide over the years. It's gotten chewed up from traffic when the trail is wet, and then everyone rides next to the damaged part. From above and below.

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I thought I could dig a bit of a berm that would encourage people onto a single line. The clay was gnarly to dig out, but worked great to build the backstop of the berm. I just picked up big sticky clumps as I dug them out and hand placed them to build it up. The dirt got better the further along I went but at the same time the content of cobbles increased. It could have turned out badly, but I was really happy with what I was able to make out of it. Took about 2 hrs. With the DG we usually have in this area this would have taken 30mins.

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Still a bit of daylight left so I headed up to the next turn. The berm that used to be there got chewed up from overuse and riding when too wet. So again, people were riding on the outside above it and on the inside of the turn.

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This one took less time. Cut down the top and smoothed out the tread back into a nice berm. But the number of cobbles was unreal. I laid them all out on the top of the turn to keep people from riding wide. One more switchback to work on! The other two are in better shape.

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This afternoon, on a different trail system. Same problem, sections of trail that are beat. Cleaned this one up by re-establishing a single line through the mayhem.

Before

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After

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by evdog

You should go do some volunteer building in Prescott's Dells.

Years ago I did a roadtrip there and rode with a friend who is a local. Took a bunch of pics. Get home, and I get a phone call from the Prescott trail manager asking "hey, saw your pics - any ideas on where we can put more trails?" They have a crew of volunteers who build but they're mostly hikers. The trails they build are fortunately pretty fun to ride. But some advanced MTB specific trails would be killer. The terrain there is like the White Cliffs x100.

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I've hiked around there before. There's more rider involvement with trail work there these days I think. It looks really unique and cool but so funky it's probably challenging to get good trail in there.

I have to admit that I rarely get out for volunteer days any more. It's tough to do them after doing trail 8 days straight for work. When I get home my family expects me to be here and present so I'm limited on free time and when I get some I like to recreate a little. Honestly I don't really ride very much. My riding is directly related to building and test riding sections/jumps.

The thing I really like about the Whitecliffs is the variety. There's some dirt single track, there's less challenging slick rock stuff and then there's much steeper and challenging slick rock. It's been a dreamy project to be a part of and I think it's a really well rounded urban interface trail system. It's not very big, I think the park is around 200, maybe 225 acres but it packs a damn fine punch for the size.

Also, the best projects imho are the one that you can be a part of every step of the process. I think for a trail builder it's where you can really shine. Going from the initial design to implementing and overseeing the construction all the way to the final product is really fun and rewarding.

Went out this afternoon and cleaned up the section below what I worked on yesterday. Worked in a clear line down the rest and built a couple big drains to get the water off. I've covered the closed half of the tread with dead branches for now. Hopefully the city has some grass seed to revegetate. Glad to get this section done. It has been getting wider and wider every year.

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Back to the hills. Had some stuff to finish up there before the dirt gets too dry.


This trail is really bad for being too off camber so the line migrates to the trail's lower edge, widening the trail. I re-benched a couple stretches that were getting bad where the trail curved and people were riding off the edge.

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My 5.10s made it part way through this section before giving it up. Has not been a good month for shoes. But at least I'm clearing out the shoe rack at home.

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Moved down trail to fix a few other bad spots.

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Got part way through this one and the rogue hoe gave it up. Was just glad this didn't happen part way through re-benching higher up. That was tough going, hard dirt and lots of cobbles.

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Fortunately this was easier dirt and I finished it up with the shovel. The hoe, once bent back was still able to tamp. But it put an end to the work for today.

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Walked back on a different trail up the canyon below. A friend was working on that one today digging drains for each of the mud holes, which must have been nasty gooey work. This one he filled with rock to make a bridge. It will be interesting to see if riders use the rock to cross the mud. They seem scared of both here.

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Great maintenance evdog!! Your battle is sooo different from my home. Here I just try and keep trails open from lack of use instead of overuse. Anyways, love the trail maintenance porn!!


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That's some dedication Evdog. Good on ya.

Thanks guys! Gotta fix it now or live with it for the next year. Each storm we get could be the last....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hick

Great maintenance evdog!! Your battle is sooo different from my home. Here I just try and keep trails open from lack of use instead of overuse.

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Gotta say, I'd take your problem 10x over mine!

I've always been a firm opponent of dumbing down a trail in any way. But here, if the tread isn't perfect - rocks poking out, a rut, off camber, mud, you name it - people will just go off trail around it. Technical section? You can bet it has a go around. And even our go arounds often have go arounds. For our heavily used trails I tend to dumb them down now since the alternative is having a trail that is widened to 6 or 8 or 10 ft and a blown out, torn up mess. It's like herding retarded cats. When I build new stuff designing it so people can't fuck with it is as much a consideration as drainage and actually making it fun.

Went out this afternoon and worked my way back up the trail I ended on yesterday.


Sections like this are perfect evidence that the "I didn't do any trail damage" crowd are full of shit when they hit the trails too soon after a bunch of storms. Below the dried crust it was thicc, nasty peanut butter mud.

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Friend of mine was out working on another trail nearby and spotted a rattler out sunning itself. Feb 5, that's pretty darn early.

A few years back I saw one the 3rd week of February but it was dead and stiff as a board. So I grabbed a stick and positioned it on a shoulder height rock next to the trail. That was good for some laughs.

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The regional perspectives are good to see.
Here in VA if a trail doesn’t get ridden for a year the forest reclaims it. Most maintenance on existing trails is with saws/loppers/rakes.
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Wife is still enthusiastic about building new trail. So our typical winter loop has me carrying the Sawzall and loppers. Rakes stashed in the woods. Couldn’t do this without the Ebike.
Next weekend will probably be a walk in with shovels and picks.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by jm2e

The regional perspectives are good to see.
Here in VA if a trail doesn’t get ridden for a year the forest reclaims it. Most maintenance on existing trails is with saws/loppers/rakes.
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Wife is still enthusiastic about building new trail. So our typical winter loop has me carrying the Sawzall and loppers. Rakes stashed in the woods. Couldn’t do this without the Ebike.
Next weekend will probably be a walk in with shovels and picks.


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This is the reason I want an e-bike, it would be so awesome for clearing miles of trail! I’m getting less stoked as I age about pedaling miles with a chainsaw on my back, e-bike would be a game changer!


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by jm2e

The regional perspectives are good to see.
Here in VA if a trail doesn’t get ridden for a year the forest reclaims it. Most maintenance on existing trails

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hick i use my wifes commuter ebike lots for fire road access. Saves at least 1 hour of hiking in/ out on dirt roads + effort

Here in NV and Whistler there are now lots of people doing trailwork. The quality is uneven with many of the trails being fall line, throwaways. But a good chunk of the old and new stuff is also of superb quality. All in all we have good variety

Some random work after renaturalizing a trail to keep it narrow after water punched it out and people started widening it

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I bought a mini bike for trail access. I have a 2 mile uphill before I reach my single track.
https://dgtzuqphqg23d.cloudfront.net...-2048x1536.jpg

Have been out there every day for almost 3 weeks now. Dirt is drying out, gotta dig while we can!


This switchback was getting trenched out and narrow. Widened the inside of the turn and built up the berm on the low end. Still too tight to descend fast at speed but the berm will give riders something to bite into. This is more of a climbing trail so that will do.

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Cleaned up turn with beginning of berm addition. Forgot to get a final shot of that but it turned out pretty nice

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Cleaned up a couple more switchbacks above it.

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Back to the local park. The end of a trail crossed this concrete ditch. It's a solid 8-9 feet of vert both in and out plus another few feet once on dirt, and really intimidated a lot of riders. Not to mention sketchy for hikers. Note the "steps" epoxied on to help them. Naturally, a bypass formed once this trail became popular. But since that bypass was ridden in and not built, the line has migrated downslope since it was on an off camber surface.

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The bypass climbs up a slope steeply and then drops back down. It actually flows pretty well and is almost more fun than the culvert crossing. But was getting sketchy on one side and eroded on both with the line migrating downslope, widening the trail.

Before - north side of climb

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After. Preserved a jump toward the bottom but reducing the off camber will keep riders in the center of the tread and stop it from widening again.

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Up top. I cut away a good six inches on the upper edge of the trail. It was even more off camber on the steeper slopes. No wonder the line was migrating to the lower edge.

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South end was worse. Steeper and many riders were riding off the edge damaging the tread further

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Used the excess dirt I removed up top to build up the side slope

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Almost finished product. I in-sloped it a bit to help keep riders away from the outer edge. It was fairly solid once I tamped the outer slope but still needs more rain to help solidify it

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Finished product. I lined the dirt slope and the edge of the trail with ice plant to keep rider's eyes on the ramp and not the drop off.

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A little further up the same trail, fixed a few other spots.

Trench forms, people start going on either side of it.

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After - made somewhat of a berm on the left that riders can hit. This also cut away the top so there is less above the trail to ride on.

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A section that is constantly collapsing as riders take this slight turn too tight.

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For now I widened it to the inside. But I plan to add a retaining wall here to support the trail.

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Strava line removal. I was actually out doing trailwork a few years ago and had a guy almost run me down here as I stepped off the trail but onto his new "line". He was riding the trail repeatedly going for KOMs. Asked him not to shortcut the trail here. KOMs were too important, now this line is fully burned in and bikes won't stay off it. Completely pointless and does nothing but piss off the park rangers and make us look like a bunch of shit heads. I cut away the upper strava line and left a hump, designed to shed water so it also deals with a muddy spot that forms on the left.

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After. Covered with debris and embedded a couple rocks to block what remains of the upper line. We'll see if people try to reopen that.

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Another pointless side "hit" I blocked with a rock and covered with debris. Cut away much of the surface bikers were riding up on and built up a hump on the trail.

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Back to the hills to do a bunch of re-benching of this trail.


You can see how off camber the trail was, in spots I cut the upper edge down 6-8". That's super off camber for a trail that's 18-20" wide.

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When I got closer to the switchback I worked on earlier in the week I used the excess dirt to continue extending the berm

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Finished product

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Not a bad sunset

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Final section took awhile. I'm trying to keep the tread as clean and narrow as possible. So excess dirt is scooped and put in a single pile (you can see just below the bush) rather than broadcast it along the trail when there isn't a berm or other spot to use it.

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Still have a couple solid days of work on this trail to finish it completely. Sections we re-benched in the last couple years have held up very well. This has become the main climbing trail in the network so it sees a lot of traffic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hick

This is the reason I want an e-bike, it would be so awesome for clearing miles of trail! I’m getting less stoked as I age about pedaling miles with a chainsaw on my back, e-bike would be a game changer!


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Yeah, the ebike is killer for trail clearing and maintenance. Probably 70% of the riding I do on the moped is for the purpose of trail work. It's quicker to get in, and it also means I can expend roughly zero calories on the ride, so I save my energy for digging and cutting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by toast2266

It's quicker to get in, and it also means I can expend roughly zero calories on the ride, so I save my energy for digging and cutting.

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Hang on a minute, every e-bike rider out there claims the moped is just as much work as a regular bike. Are you saying they're blowing smoke up our asses???? :fmicon:

We found some dirt at the White Cliffs so we did a short but super fun little jump line.

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Fresh blowdown sent from the heavens. Exit is the crux. Speed or wheelie off is the plan. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e7e82695dd.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...567a2cd2af.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e0c095be84.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e2fc11ecab.jpg

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Got the missus workin on the chain gang.


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Job opportunity at Thunder Mountain Bike Park.
They're hiring a trail crew supervisor.

https://www.google.com/search?q=thun...:1678121304821

Maybe a bit preliminary, but started repacking my pump track after a non-existent winter here. Few spots I still need to work on some drainage, but tarped berms only needed a shovel pack and hopefully some sun baking.

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That some lovingly sculpted turf right there.
What’s the reception been like from your neighbors?


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Have to add disclaimer that I didn't build it, subbed out to a local trail pro, but have really enjoyed his work. I've been doing the maintenance and added a few things to extend and make more alternate lines.

As for neighbors it's really only visible by the house you see in Pic 3 between the split trees and next house to right, but there's a reason there are now so many trees planted. Spoke with neighbor about it before starting, he wasn't thrilled but "we" agreed on planting trees, which I ended up doing after his wife absolutely flipped out. I'm not sure he told her it was happening to begin with. It's been pretty calm since then.

Edit - Should add that one kid down the street comes and rides with us pretty regularly as well as a few adult neighbors who are riders.