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

Yeah, the trail is in a natural little creek bed from what appears to be a natural spring. There are a million springs here which are nice for the dry season. So this section of trail is alongside a steep slope that drains right into the trail. No avoiding it. I was just trying to avoid the puddles forming by making the trail slope into the creek as well. I think once we get out of the wet pattern and it sets up it will be fine, but just getting to that point with the trail in a sustainable drainage angle will be the challenge. Just too much traffic when the soil is wet enough to be workable.

Could you do a French drain to get water across the trail? Just have a dump truck drop gravel off the bridge. : )

Ha! That road goes to a dead end parking lot at ucsc 100yds up. The water comes from everywhere, so drains won't really help. The trail needs to be built at an angle to drain naturally.

Put the finishing touch on the new trail tonite.

Had a visitor slither past in between coats. Might not have even noticed if it didn't hiss at me on the way past. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...dc0734bb2b.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7ffdccf765.jpg

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Ha. So the only answer is a trench on both sides!

We've had good success about an hour north of you dealing with water in similar soil by doing either:
1) a few sump holes about 6" dia drilled about 2' deep with a battery powered auger. Drill these on the low side of a trail (or inside of a corner) and all the water has a place to go.
2) slot trench along the side of the trail, coupled with a buried piece of 6" corrugated plastic pipe across the trail. You need the trench to get the water to the pipe. Don't use fabric covers on the end because they just silt up.

Both of those require seasonal maintenance, ideally in the fall before rains come. The sump holes need to be redrilled to get rid of silt & leaves, the pipe needs to be cleaned out and the entrance cleared.

I think it's just going to be slick in the rainy season. This is barely a "trail". It's just an access to the trails. You can bypass it by riding the road over that bridge, so I'm not going to spend too much time on it.

I'm done. This will be plenty fine for what it is. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9ded70ba07.jpg

Did a little drainage on this puddle too. Probably won't last too long, but should help.
I dig this ebike commuter for trail work.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...315641de23.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...44ed53a9cb.jpg

Note to self. If someone wants to head down to Fort Ord to do a build kindly decline [emoji23]

"California park warns of illegal trails near 'unexploded' grenades"

https://www.sfgate.com/california-pa...s-19373922.php

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Originally Posted by SkiLyft

Working on a fun feature.

Building the landing that will join two trails and share one landing.
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Bomber is the left trail, blast-off is the right side. We should be able to put in the two wedges this weekend!!
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This thing is like 20-22feet across!



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Blast Off? This trail is sick! I love the use of natural rock integrated into the big, jump features. I need to get there. Maybe this summer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e777eUtN2fA

The last storm didn't seem like it would be huge but it took this bridge out. Looks like a heavy palm root ball came tumbling down and took out footings on one side like a bowling ball. The bridge deck was not affected and still together in one solid unit.

We planned to disconnect the ramps from the center span and use those as a temporary bridge. But after getting one end off and removing the footings we were able to slowly lift the longer section back into place and get it stable. Then we excavated a bit and got the loose end sitting stable. So now we'll try and stake them in and see if this will hold up permanently rather than rebuilding the whole thing.


Before and after



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Originally Posted by evdog

The last storm didn't seem like it would be huge but it took this bridge out. Looks like a heavy palm root ball came tumbling down and took out footings on one side like a bowling ball. The bridge deck was not affected and still together in one solid unit.

We planned to disconnect the ramps from the center span and use those as a temporary bridge. But after getting one end off and removing the footings we were able to slowly lift the longer section back into place and get it stable. Then we excavated a bit and got the loose end sitting stable. So now we'll try and stake them in and see if this will hold up permanently rather than rebuilding the whole thing.


Before and after



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Cool bridge work. It's not often that you see land managers on board with wood work like that.

Hey mags,

Apologies in advance for the thread hijack. I'll delete this if the mods want.

Gravity Logic is hiring excavator operators for the 2024 build season. We have Canadian jobs on the both the East Coast and West Coast this summer.

If you're an experienced machine operator, check out the link below.

We're currently looking for Canadian operators, but if you're an American operator and looking for a job, drop us an email. We have contracts south of the border as well. We're all staffed up for our USA jobs at the moment, but this could change.

Pay is $28-36/hour depending on experience, plus a per diem for days on the road. Opportunity to work up to 60 hours/week with OT after 40 hours.

https://www.whistlergravitylogic.com/careers

I started a specific thread for this so if you have any questions feel free to DM me or drop them in the other thread.

https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...4-build-season

/endthreadhijack

It's that time of year....

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Hero points there.

We all came back from trail ride bleeding, pricker bushes getting bigger!


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Originally Posted by evdog

It's that time of year....

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Hats off to you for that. Hurts my back to think about.


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Mine hurt a little too, but not as much as my feet. Worth it as this section sucked to ride. It crosses a creek bed numerous times and the brush wants to push you off the desired line.

Finished brushing the whole section and also built a re-route to get the trail out of one section of creek bed.

Much better now....

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I volunteer with the city in a series of 3 connected parks and organized a trail day with the rangers on a Sunday. They let us use gas powered tools (often not allowed late Feb to Aug due to bird nesting) and we had 5 power tools out. With 7 people we got 1.1 miles brushed including the worst sections in the park. Lots more to do but this was a big chunk of it.

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Some randoms from the past month
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Originally Posted by evdog

Mine hurt a little too, but not as much as my feet. Worth it as this section sucked to ride. It crosses a creek bed numerous times and the brush wants to push you off the desired line.

Finished brushing the whole section and also built a re-route to get the trail out of one section of creek bed.

Much better now....

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Good grief! Everything I don't want to see when building!

Prime loam berm and hole filling season

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I've always been quick to clear blowdowns, but geez the trees here are big! And on steep grades that make me nervous as to what type of shift will happen once cut. I need to find some arborists to work with. This is the latest one I ran into. There are 4 other big ones down. 2 of the 4 are above my pay grade. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...366f6720a2.jpg

Just ordered a battery powered hedge trimmer, as our wet winter has all the grass, blackberry vines, nettles, and poison oak going OFF. Last week I tried clearing a ~100ft section by hand and it took a couple hours, so the $150 for a trimmer will pay for itself the first time out. I'm sure a weedwhacker would be faster than the trimmer, but I don't want to deal with that in a pack riding.

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Originally Posted by Andeh

Just ordered a battery powered hedge trimmer, as our wet winter has all the grass, blackberry vines, nettles, and poison oak going OFF. Last week I tried clearing a ~100ft section by hand and it took a couple hours, so the $150 for a trimmer will pay for itself the first time out. I'm sure a weedwhacker would be faster than the trimmer, but I don't want to deal with that in a pack riding.

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I bought a battery powered hedge trimmer a couple years ago. And yeah, a big weedwacker / brushcutter works better, but the hedge trimmer does pretty well. Much, much easier than doing it by hand.

I have both, but have only used the hedge trimmer on trail. I don't think I would want to use a weed whacker on poison oak.

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Originally Posted by jackstraw

Good grief! Everything I don't want to see when building!

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Ha! Here is the rest of the quad-fecta, from yesterday.

I didn't actually notice the bear when I took the pic. This trail is way out there and I was surprised someone cut back the branches on this downed tree. I had hauled a chain saw in to do just that. After putting the phone away I looked up and saw the bear, about half the distance from where he is here. Then was too busy hollering at him to take it back out. But looks like I got him the first time : ) He took off down the trail where I was planning to do more work, so I backtracked and did some brushing back where I'd come from. The chainsaw was actually really good for cutting manzanita, white thorn and other thick brush.

Not pictured: the tick that was burrowing into the back of my thigh. Of the four, ticks are by far what worry and gross me out the most.

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I've been running a Ryobi hedge trimmer for a few years now. Love that thing. It cuts through a lot of brush up to about 1/2" diameter pretty well. It doesn't cut thick / tall grass along the trail very well. A weedwacker will do much better there.

A couple things I found by trial and error. Run it at full power whenever you cut. It can jam up pretty easily if you feather the trigger instead. I also found the small 1.5 and 2Ah batteries tools come with to be pretty useless. It doesn't take long to burn through those and the battery doesn't seem to deliver as much power when the charge is down to half or less...which means the hedger can jam easily again. I bought 4Ah batteries and they last much more than double the 2Ah. I'll buy even larger ones next time.

I don't like to use any power tool on PO. If the PO is thick I just whack away at it with a hand rake. PO stems are weak and break easily. If it's not thick I'll cut it back with one of these - https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fiskars-...935K/100041609. Keeps your hands away from the brush. And where the stuff is a persistent problem on trails I ride a lot, I nuke it with brush killer.

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Originally Posted by jackstraw

I've always been quick to clear blowdowns, but geez the trees here are big! And on steep grades that make me nervous as to what type of shift will happen once cut. I need to find some arborists to work with. This is the latest one I ran into. There are 4 other big ones down. 2 of the 4 are above my pay grade.

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I'd highly recommend trying to get certified as a sawyer by the Forest Service. The course is offered infrequently for volunteers but they will teach you how to deal with blowdowns like that. The trick is finding when a course is happening. It's primarily for volunteer orgs that work under a stewardship agreement with the FS but if you make contacts, you can often get in through one of those groups even if you don't volunteer for them directly. Friends of mine in LA had to go up to Sequoia NF to get trained since the Angeles NF doesn't have funding to run the course.

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Originally Posted by evdog

I'd highly recommend trying to get certified as a sawyer by the Forest Service. The course is offered infrequently for volunteers but they will teach you how to deal with blowdowns like that. The trick is finding when a course is happening. It's primarily for volunteer orgs that work under a stewardship agreement with the FS but if you make contacts, you can often get in through one of those groups even if you don't volunteer for them directly. Friends of mine in LA had to go up to Sequoia NF to get trained since the Angeles NF doesn't have funding to run the course.

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That sounds cool. I'll check with the SC trail stewardship to see if they know.

Cut a few today before batteries died. The last one where my battery died is a bit tricky. Ideally could use another hand to finish that one off. Have some opposing forces at play.

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Finished this one off today. Went well considering the various tension and compressions going on. Made a little up n over option for the Danny MacAskill'ershttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3715b8c035.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...bb981ff1be.jpg

Any of you PNW riders, Roslyn specifically, come across Tamarack Trail Builders by chance?

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Time to get this thread going again... Brushing has been non stop the last month or so, but the end is in sight for the trails I take care of. Cleared two trails in the last week or so, two sessions to clear each one. Getting rid of the thistle is especially satisfying.



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Originally Posted by evdog

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Our newest trail is quickly being reclaimed by the underbrush. Couldn’t even see some sections of trail on Saturday.
Went back out on Sunday with the hedge trimmer. That thing is mint for clearing out the weedy shit, but absolute murder on my back. No pics, just suffering.



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Nice work guys, I've been on the hedge trimmer doing the same thing here. It's such a minor thing, but so much better to ride afterwards. Agreed on it being murder on back. I've been battery limited because Amazon was fucking me on delivering the 6ah batteries I ordered, but the replacements finally got here.

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Originally Posted by Andeh

Nice work guys, I've been on the hedge trimmer doing the same thing here. It's such a minor thing, but so much better to ride afterwards. Agreed on it being murder on back. I've been battery limited because Amazon was fucking me on delivering the 6ah batteries I ordered, but the replacements finally got here.

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My back gets sore sometimes. Other times not as bad. On steeper side hills I focus on clearing brush above the trail since it is brush encroaching from above that can push riders off the bench. Leaving more brush on the lower side helps keep them on it. And it's easier to trim brush above.


Andeh, keep us updated on how the Amazon batteries work out. I've been interested to try some but have heard mixed reviews on them. I have a pair of 4Ah Ryobi "high performance" batteries that work pretty well. The non "high performance" 2ah batteries are worthless, last a fraction of what the 4ah batteries last.

Oh, I ordered genuine Makita LXT ones, but apparently the reason they were crazy cheap is they were some shady front company. Didn't even ship the batteries for 2 weeks, even though they issued a tracking number. As soon as I went on chat to complain, miraculously the package appeared in tracking the next day. In the mean time I ordered another pair that cost $30 more but had Prime and they showed up on time. TLDR: don't buy from sellers on Amazon selling way below retail who don't do "Fulfilled by Amazon."

I went with the Milwaukee hedge trimmer attachment that connects to their weed whacker. Its pretty freaking heavy, but the shoulder strap helps a lot. I also have the chainsaw attachment, but have never used that on trail.

Blocked braids

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