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

The rains have continued, and so has the trail work.


I've been working my way down one of our tech trails re-setting rocks that have come loose and generally just making transitions and entrances more solid.


Before
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After
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Another section below has a jump off a rock into a long fall-line runout. The runout has held up well over the years but this year has gotten rutted. No easy way to get water off it, but I dug it out a bit to make it off camber and drug the dirt to one side to make a berm. Finished about half the berm, will extend it 10ft more next time out.

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From the weekend... Went out to work on features but ended up doing a lot of drains instead. Water flowing everywhere


Stream was flowing right down the trail. Dug a trench to drain it off to the side, which worked pretty quickly.

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More water around the corner. This isn't my trail but took just 2 drains to get the water off it at the top.

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This section a bit higher up is going to get re-routed completely.

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Added a drain and cleaned up a deep rut here

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Made it to the zone I was planning to work on. Spruced up the takeoff of this jump

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Shored up the runout to this feature with an extra couple rocks and added dirt. The runout had a hole developing when the rock ended.

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Re-did the entrance to this rock roll. Rocks shoring up the entrance had come loose. Added some extra rock and added new dirt to the ramp. This is the first of a triple rock roll.

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Went back the next day to work on the third roll of the triple.


Poppies blooming

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This third roll is pretty beat. The runout is rutted with rocks poking through, and the berm below it is almost filled in with silt. Many riders have been going wide rather than right down the middle to try to avoid rocks in the runout.

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I set off to yank just the bigger rocks, but every time I tried to move dirt to fill holes I ended up dislodging even more. Ended up completely re-grading the whole landing and removing all the rock. Then tamped it down. I did the same job maybe 5 yrs ago, so it'll come back into form soon enough.

Rolled all the rock down below to use to build up the berm. Just a few!

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After

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Between excavating out the deposited silt and building up the berm with rock it's now 18-24" tall and should let riders corner without having to hit the brakes hard.

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Hiked out on one of the lower trails. We dug a ton of drains recently. They are working. Now if riders would just use the rock crossings we embedded the rest of the trail wouldn't get so rutted

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Damn evdog, that's a hell of a lot of work, especially solo!!

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Originally Posted by evdog

Now if riders would just use the rock crossings we embedded the rest of the trail wouldn't get so rutted

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Certainly belongs in the Things That Annoy You thread.



Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

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Originally Posted by jm2e

Certainly belongs in the Things That Annoy You thread.



Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

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OMG SCURRY ROX!

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Originally Posted by Andeh

OMG SCURRY ROX!

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You guys have no idea. If there are rocks poking out of the trail here people will do whatever they can do go around them. And our trails keep getting wider and wider as a result. It's really infuriating. Everyone wants more singletrack but then they keep going wider around any trivial rock. Then the trail becomes 6ft wide, then 8, then 10+.

^^ We have same thing on many of our trail systems, others rocks are completely unavoidable around here.

Update, burned in first laps of the season after work tonight.
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by evdog

You guys have no idea. If there are rocks poking out of the trail here people will do whatever they can do go around them. And our trails keep getting wider and wider as a result. It's really infuriating. Everyone wants more singletrack but then they keep going wider around any trivial rock. Then the trail becomes 6ft wide, then 8, then 10+.

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The terrain suits it, so I'm lucky, but we force them into one line within most of the network. We have a few B lines, but most sections don't have an option. Maybe that's why so many ride there once and never come back [emoji3]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by evdog

You guys have no idea. If there are rocks poking out of the trail here people will do whatever they can do go around them. And our trails keep getting wider and wider as a result. It's really infuriating. Everyone wants more singletrack but then they keep going wider around any trivial rock. Then the trail becomes 6ft wide, then 8, then 10+.

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Here's an example from one trail system. This used to be beautiful narrow singletrack. I think it originally was one of the ruts that now has grass in it. Every time there is even a bit of a rut people start riding on either edge of it. Rocks start poking out, and they ride a bit wider to avoid them. Then a bit wider, and a bit wider more. This is 100% bikers. There are very few hikers and zero horses here. Unfortunately in places like this we have no features like rocks, logs or brush to help block sections off.

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Originally Posted by VTskibum

Damn evdog, that's a hell of a lot of work, especially solo!!

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Thanks! There are a few others out there working too. Another guy is a beast and did the rock crossings on that and other drains. It is 100% nasty cobble filled clay at those spots. I've had it pretty easy for the most part. But yeah a few of us vs the hoardes who won't wait until the trails dry out is always a frustrating battle.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by evdog

Here's an example from one trail system. This used to be beautiful narrow singletrack. I think it originally was one of the ruts that now has grass in it. Every time there is even a bit of a rut people start riding on either edge of it. Rocks start poking out, and they ride a bit wider to avoid them. Then a bit wider, and a bit wider more. This is 100% bikers. There are very few hikers and zero horses here. Unfortunately in places like this we have no features like rocks, logs or brush to help block sections off.

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That's why the number one rule of trail building imo is get the water off the trail asap. I try to have it exit every 20 to 30 feet. 20 is ideal and 40 would be my max. Some of the runs in your photos look like they're around 100+ feet without an exit. That's tough stuff to maintain.

I won't spend my free time maintaining poorly routed FS trails around here anymore. My time and my back is too valuable.

The White Cliffs project continues and the system is still evolving.

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Originally Posted by VTskibum

^^ We have same thing on many of our trail systems, others rocks are completely unavoidable around here.

Update, burned in first laps of the season after work tonight.
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Beauty berms man!

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Originally Posted by raisingarizona13

That's why the number one rule of trail building imo is get the water off the trail asap.

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Amen.

There was one spot on a local trail that had accumulated like ~6" or more of silt from the previous atmospheric rivers, so I got out this weekend and cleared all that, plus the drains on both sides before the latest storms hit.
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Of course, drainage won't help when creeks start overflowing and just flood everything.
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Originally Posted by raisingarizona13

That's why the number one rule of trail building imo is get the water off the trail asap. I try to have it exit every 20 to 30 feet. 20 is ideal and 40 would be my max. Some of the runs in your photos look like they're around 100+ feet without an exit. That's tough stuff to maintain.

I won't spend my free time maintaining poorly routed FS trails around here anymore. My time and my back is too valuable.

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Trail widening in the pic above really has nothing to do with water flow. It's the high volume of rider traffic on this climb wearing dirt away. This happens on pretty much every climbing grade. When rocks start poking out of the tread, riders migrate over 6-8 inches at a time. Even with the trail this wide I'm still seeing new tracks going wider and wider into the grass. Unfortunately there are no terrain features here that prevent widening. People will grab rocks from nearby and place them down to block these wider lines but those quickly get tossed off the trail, probably by the same people who never have time to do trailwork. This section is normally dry 350 days a year and only has weeping water like you see here following a series of recurring storms. Otherwise I'd agree on getting water off every 20-40 ft. This was one of the original trails out here and was probably just ridden in. I may re-route it onto a side slope where it can contour better. That way it would have an upper bench wall and downhill slope below the tread to better keep people on the trail.


And yeah in one of the posts above there was a long runout with no drainage, but that is a section of original fall line moto trail that we used as a runout for a jump. The bike trail was built in 2015 so it's taken 8 years for ruts to develop there. Not bad considering how steep it is. I went out a few days ago and did some shaping to make it off camber and added humps and drains to get the water off it.

Before, looking up. You can just see the berm I installed last week near the top of the pic

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Before, looking down

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After, looking up. Trail is now outsloped to the right with two drains above. You'll transfer from the berm higher up to the berm on the left (now upper side) of the tread

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After, looking down before tamping. A couple more drains below. This should hold up as long as people don't drag their brakes through here.

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I also re-established a jump just above this. This is the jump that used to lead into the long fall line section, you'd turn left and go straight downhill upon landing.

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I did a re-route a few years ago right after this jump that took it over toward the shovel in the pic above. This re-route added a berm and another jump lower down and shortened the long runout, but it also made this upper jump harder to line up and land.

I finally went back and widened the landing and turn to make it easier to hit again.

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Storms have continued regularly. Some days too wet to do anything but dig drains. So I've done a lot of that....

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Cleaned up a bunch that looked like this. Had to cut down the edges of all the bike ruts so the water could drain out of them. Tossed clumps of grass and goopy much where people were riding off trail to make those lines extra unattractive

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After....doesn't look pretty but the main path through is now solid not soft, and water is actively flowing over the trail not sitting there

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Good thing I washed these the day before.

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Stopped by my project on the way home from skiing. My tool stash was partially melted out so I took it as a sign that I should clean out some drains and start a rock pile
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This part of the trail goes through a super swampy section. I've been slowly adding ditches and culverts over the years and it rides really nice now. I get a lot of satisfaction from this piece of trail because it was a full mudpit at first, and I've slowly transformed it into a nice dry section of trail over a couple of years. Because this is SW British Columbia, it involved excavating 3 feet of black goo to get to the good dirt underneath, and then ditching everywhere.

This winter the local kids stole a nice piece of PVC from a mega mansion construction site to make a rail slide, then abandoned it in the woods. I repurposed their rail slide to replace a ratty old culvert that had a similar origin story. The broken green pipe is the old one, the blue pipe is the new one
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It was a full length culvert, and I didn't have a saw, or the desire to go home and get one, so I just dug a mega ditch and buried the whole thing. Gotta go back and add a bunch of rocks and gold to finish this bit off, but the ground is still pretty frozen so harvesting rocks and dirt is still a bit of work.
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Got a bit muddy.
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I hope people appreciate your efforts. That looks like un-fun to work in.

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Originally Posted by jm2e

I hope people appreciate your efforts. That looks like un-fun to work in.

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Especially in ski boots! :D

I guess Clownshoe is staying true to his poster name!

I get those pedal maidens off my feet right after that last lap before that sip of beer ever gets close to my lips!

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Originally Posted by jm2e

I hope people appreciate your efforts. That looks like un-fun to work in.

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The photos make it look worse than it is. I find it I get the drains and ditches running while the snow is melting then it’s easier on me later. There’s definitely something entertaining about getting that muddy, especially if I have a couple of beers along the way. At this point only the ditches are visible, and the trail is still snow covered.

As far as people appreciating the work, I totally get stoked when I see the local neighborhood kids riding my trail. I try hard to keep it single black, and to make it ride good on a DH bike or a trail bike. It’s my way of giving back to a trail network that I’ve enjoyed for a couple of decades. It’s pretty inspiring how much work is done by volunteers in our valley and the variety of trails that people are building.

Working in ski boots is kind of ridiculous but it just so happens that I can ski by this spot on my way home from a day on the mountain. I like the novelty of it. There’s usually only a couple of weeks where the lifts are still running, my ski out is still viable, and the bottom part of the trail is melting out. This day I actually went up and skied a few laps but the main focus was going to work on the trail. I made sure I had work gloves, beers, and other necessary supplies for a couple hours of ditch digging.

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Originally Posted by Clownshoe

The photos make it look worse than it is. I find it I get the drains and ditches running while the snow is melting then it’s easier on me later. There’s definitely something entertaining about getting that muddy, especially if I have a couple of beers along the way. At this point only the ditches are visible, and the trail is still snow covered.

As far as people appreciating the work, I totally get stoked when I see the local neighborhood kids riding my trail. I try hard to keep it single black, and to make it ride good on a DH bike or a trail bike. It’s my way of giving back to a trail network that I’ve enjoyed for a couple of decades. It’s pretty inspiring how much work is done by volunteers in our valley and the variety of trails that people are building.

Working in ski boots is kind of ridiculous but it just so happens that I can ski by this spot on my way home from a day on the mountain. I like the novelty of it. There’s usually only a couple of weeks where the lifts are still running, my ski out is still viable, and the bottom part of the trail is melting out. This day I actually went up and skied a few laps but the main focus was going to work on the trail. I made sure I had work gloves, beers, and other necessary supplies for a couple hours of ditch digging.

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Nice, that actually does sound like fun.

I kid but I actually do run to get those dang things off my feet, especially after a ski tour. My feet are getting old, maybe older than I actually am.

Yeah these ski boots are so banged out that they are going in the garbage after this year. So they ski like shit but they’re super comfortable. Also why I don’t mind walking in ankle deep mud

One thing I've noticed about all trail builders...They're addicts, therefore batshit crazy. But hey, its better than heroin!

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Originally Posted by jackstraw

One thing I've noticed about all trail builders...They're addicts, therefore batshit crazy. But hey, its better than heroin!

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Can't argue with that. I worked today until it was too dark to see, then walked the long way out to check out a couple trails to see how conditions were after the storm a few days ago. Verdict - not good. Storm was 3 days ago and I've never seen this much water on the trails before!. Couldn't help but dig a bunch of new drains. Didn't get back to the truck until 1030.

Last storm a few days ago dropped maybe 1.5-2" over a couple days. Gave it a couple days to dry out before coming back out.


The DG is already drying out on top but dirt was perfect underneath. The trail drops down through the gap in the rocks on the right, and there is a catch berm where I'm standing. The line on the left is an old moto trail that goes straight up the ridge.

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I normally wouldn't work on it but it channels water and messes up the runout of the rock roll. So I added two drains above and one right at the bottom of the rock. Should stop ruts from water going forward.

After. The line is through that gap. It's a bit rough and you have to drop in at the right angle or risk clipping a pedal. Added a few feet to the berm as well.

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Looking at it from above

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Added some drains above the rock roll as well. The dirt up there sucks, it's sandy/silt and won't hold together once it dries.

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It's beautiful out there right now. Super green

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And flowers are out

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Trail survey results on the hike out:

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None of these were problem spots before the last couple storms. Unfortunately those storms came mid week followed by a couple days of sun heading into the weekend and people couldn't help themselves but come out and ride. That left ruts in all these wet spots that now won't drain, so riders start going wide to avoid the mud and just turn it into a fucking mess. We've now had a couple days sun heading into the weekend. Can't wait to see what it looks like come Monday....

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^CA is wet!

Couple blowdowns...so another skinny...why not?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...38e2d5eac7.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e5fff3d580.jpg

Back at it again this afternoon.


This section was getting a little tired and overgrown

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Cleaned up the overgrowth and the run-in and re-did the berm

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I love this feature. It's such a mind fuck. You can't go wide or you'll hit your handlebar on the outside rock. You can't go too fast or too tight because it seems like you'll smack your head on the rock leaning inward.

This slows you enough you can't just cruise over the off camber rock behind, and it's so off camber your pedal stroke has to be timed perfectly.

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Fixed up a few other sections and that's it for this trail.

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More blowdowns, more skinny. Almost done with this one.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...28e6a4339a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7875ca0b1a.jpg

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Originally Posted by jackstraw

More blowdowns, more skinny. Almost done with this one.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...28e6a4339a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7875ca0b1a.jpg

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That thing looks sick jackstraw. Are you going to take the top down or leave it natural?

I'll leave it natural. It's pretty fresh so the bark should hang on for a bit which is nice and grippy. It's low consequence, so when the bark does go I may just leave it.

With the number of trees we have its constant maintenance vs new builds and every time a tree comes down I figure might as well add another feature. Windy af today, so here we go again. The tree my bike is leaning against is dead so that one could be next.

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Originally Posted by jackstraw

With the number of trees we have its constant maintenance vs new builds and every time a tree comes down I figure might as well add another feature. Windy af today, so here we go again. The tree my bike is leaning against is dead so that one could be next.

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when I was looking at your picture I thought "looks like there's another one ready to go"

I have trails in an older forest and it's constant deadfall removal. I actually had a string of several years where it wasn't "that bad" and I kept waiting for them to come down at once.

that happened in December, I cleared as many as I needed for fat biking, but the trail currently goes over a number of trees that are going to have to be removed when the snow melts.

Love those skinnies jackstraw

Thanks Lee!

Finished the cleanup and opened the trail close to the original line. Added a little rock so you can bump and land on the skinny transition exit ramp if wanted...or just ride around the skinny exit.

Entering the skinny from this side takes a little back tire hop to make the turn. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2e473064a4.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...fe6126ff80.jpg

Came upon this in the middle of our trail during the morning ride. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b69468e558.jpg
So went back after...and another skinny. Little leverage and some rollers got the job donehttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e8b1acecd3.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a635e9d490.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f75198b412.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...36d7a8c6d6.jpg

Lots of digging lately.

Our last batch of storms was 8-9 days ago and we have gone from most waterlogged trails I've ever seen to bone dry in some areas. Have been trying to make the most of it and working areas that dry out first.


I normally don't work on b-lines but this one needed help. The main line is straight down the rocks on the right side.

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Filled in rut down the transition here.

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No before shot but this section had some rocks poking out and people were cutting inside, widening the trail. Re-contoured it and added more rock on the inside to encourage people to use the original wide line.

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Different area...total mess.


This spot has never flooded before but the last couple storms changed drainage patterns in a lot of places.

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Drained the pooled water, which made for a huge improvement. Unfortunately people had already made a huge mess. Mud will probably take a couple weeks to dry up. At least now a line has been worn in through the area.

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Another spot... sediment deposited during storms finally filled a stream channel completely and sent water down the trail rather than across it. Result - mud pit. All of this was clay/silt deposited by the storm water.

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It was deposited over a layer of sand so it was easy to scrape off the muck. Only took 15-20min to clean this section up. I spread the muck off trail on the grass to block the go around. Not a lot we can do to prevent this from recurring as this is in a flat field with no other way for it to drain now that the stream bed is full.

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I hate working on sections like these. But you have to, or we're stuck with whatever mess is left behind hardens like cement and we're stuck riding over it for the next 8-10 months.

If anyone in SW colorado is interested in joining our trail crew, (or has a son or nephew that could use some hard manual labor:D), we've got one or two openings on our trail crew here in Telluride. 18-27/hr doe, outdoor carpentry skillz preferred. Trail checks daily..

https://phe.tbe.taleo.net/phe02/ats/...cws=38&rid=508

Started working on my 3 year old trail to bring it back to loaminess. Very satisfying

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Originally Posted by LeeLau

Started working on my 3 year old trail to bring it back to loaminess. Very satisfying

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I'd like to thank you for this idea. I've been doing it for a few years out here in New Brunswick after seeing one of your posts.

I dig up a section of trail, fill it in with dirt and then add a few inches of loam on top. The loam helps mitigate any moisture for the rest of the season, especially during the freeze/thaw sections in the fall. Dirt tends to crystalize into annoying frost heaps, but the loam will soak up the moisture and provide a nice surface on top of the frozen dirt.

I also much prefer the look of the loam vs. brown dirt that's out of place in a mature forest.

Lee,

I’m very interested in your re loaming techniques. Can you expand on them?

It looks like you’re mainly using “red rot”, which I’m assuming is in endless supply where you’re working.

Any suggestions or tricks you can share? Are you just dumping buckets of “loam” onto the trail or is there more nuance to it?

I’ve got my eye on a couple sections of my trail up the highway from where you are that I’m going to try this on.