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With a wet winter and now a couple months of warm temps the brush has exploded here in Socal. Including copious amounts of poison oak. I've spent numerous afternoons and evenings lately cutting back brush and spraying PO. There's nothing more satisfying than coming back a week or two later and seeing that stuff all shriveled up and dying.
We built this 10 years ago on an old road that went through a swamp. I think we came in at about 30 bucks a foot. Built a couple stone culverts and crushed tons of rock on site by hand. What did I learn on this project? You don't build a castle in a swamp. Looked great in the end.Quote:
Originally Posted by panchosdad
The first 1/3 of a mile is done, the kids are enjoying it.
https://vimeo.com/345259250
Now for a pump track feature or 4 and some technical moves for me.
Link isn't showing up on my computer, but will play on my phone...
https://vimeo.com/345259250
I've ridden some tahoe trails and thought, "Did the trailbuilders just drag a rake for all the pine needles one afternoon behind a dirtbike and then put up an 'open' sign that night?" So easy.Quote:
Originally Posted by toast2266
The name of the game when you are trying to build out miles of trail by yourself by hand is to find the natural routes, open hardwoods, natural benches, and where "Building" will be required, route your trail closest to available materials, which in my case is almost always stashes of rocks and good dirt to mine. Cherry-pick the landscape, stay on ridges ect. Being in the foothills vs the spine of the Greens a short distance away makes this pretty do-able. Next project is to reclaim another old, bench cut farm road that traverses under the peak of our little Mtn of Paine. It will eliminate an almost impossible (for me) climb to the ridge that connects us to the pod of trails a few miles north. It will be a buff, screaming fast DH on the return. A little clearing and a small section of hand bench will add another mile of trail. Probably 20 hours total work. Low hanging fruits FTW.Quote:
Originally Posted by muted
I finished one section of new last month and now I'm focusing on reroutes of existing for the rest of the year. Goal is obviously to make what I already have mo bettah. A lot of my first gen stuff is...well first gen. I've certainly learned a lot over the past 15 yrs and the bikes have changed so much that the lines are different too. ...and the chainsaw changes everything!
Built up a landing on this little shark finny thing.
(Edited because I typed the wrong marine mammal trail feature)
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...29c894f43c.jpg
Couple hours with the saw today and the rough in for the addition (which started as a simple reroute...but got out of hand) is complete. Need to establish the lines with a little blow and some raking. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...9b4bacbe14.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...1cf392103a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...2e57c75092.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d46b0d3185.jpg
We have vine maple and blackberry bushes is abundance in my area. What tools do folks like for clearing out vines and bushy plants? Shears seem like a lot of work to keep sharp and non-sticky, and a machete doesnt seem like a great option either... but maybe im wrong?
If you are rolling power tools, a Stihl Kombi with the adjustable hedge trimmer works amazingly well for that sort of thing...
Otherwise a good pruning shear and lopper are effective (Felco, Fiskars, etc.) albeit more time consuming.
Chainsaw, hedge trimmers, gas powered trimmer?
Went on the sheep mountain trail clearing day last weekend, it was long. We went over the top and down the other side and then out the main rattlesnake corridor, which made for about 20 miles and took nearly 7 hours. We probably could have used 2-3 more people and another saw to get through that a little more quickly. Still, 6 of us on bikes with two chainsaws cleared 10mi of trail in a few hours. Would have been much harder with handsaws on foot.
http://jamalb.net/gallery/d/10172-2/..._110623307.jpg
http://jamalb.net/gallery/d/10177-2/...920497_HDR.jpg
Sheep mountain, about 7600ft, which we came over from the other side.
http://jamalb.net/gallery/d/10162-2/...225233_HDR.jpg
More down trees on the way up than I expected. My garmin recorded 2.7mi and it took us 2 hours 20min to get up there. Then it was onto the actual trail we went to clear, called 1513. This had been all but abandoned until mtb missoula went in and cleared it out a few years ago, offering another trail option when you get up to sheep.
View from the top, looking north into the upper rattlesnake
http://jamalb.net/gallery/d/10183-2/...436354_HDR.jpg
The mountain across the valley on the right is mineral peak, and one group went toward the top of that to clear a trail that comes down the side facing us. Another went down the center of that valley to the right, and we descended the ridge in the foreground to the left. Then we all went left to that big valley (the rattlesnake main corridor). Big mountain back there is Mcloed and on the right way in the back you can sort of see the missions.
http://jamalb.net/gallery/d/10187-2/...204485_HDR.jpg
http://jamalb.net/gallery/d/10192-2/...610532_HDR.jpg
http://jamalb.net/gallery/d/10197-2/...443708_HDR.jpg
Also cheap flat pedals with boots in the wet is not confidence inspiring. Also we were the last ones down by a few hours. But there was pizza and beer waiting.
It would have to be electric or manual. I need it for a place "in-town" and would rather not draw attention, even though im pretty sure the neighbors dont mind. Thanks for the advice.Quote:
Originally Posted by ACH
Nice work. Keeping that trail clear is a lot of work.Quote:
Originally Posted by jamal
You can't really do that down over here. The name of the game in the Four Corners region is get the water off the trail as quickly as possible. Ridge lines, old road beds and natural benches larger than 36 inches without a lot of grade reversals don't shed water so good. Poor soil and an arid climate that gets seriously heavy, energetic bursts of moisture doesn't do so good with more than 20 to 30 feet (30 tops is my general rule) of flow down the tread.Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveVt
Latest addition required a ton of saw work on blowdowns. The benefit is the dirt they provide. [emoji106] Its tough to find good dirt in our woods digging by hand.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...544a3e2506.jpg
Cleared some blowdown so these old trails can be riddenhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...9e03cb33b5.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...7810367056.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...2ef8e4803b.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...419adfd63a.jpg
Looks GMG-ish
Looks greasy!Quote:
Originally Posted by evdog
Nice to have rain. Reloamed old trails
Before & Afterhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...054658d979.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a31a113863.jpg
Opening up new trail. Buranus to Mianushttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...00a34c8200.jpg
I’m seeing a theme.Quote:
Originally Posted by LeeLau
:::
Did a little dirt work of my own today.
Attachment 290073
I have a small creek i need to cross on a trail im building. The creek has worn the earth away so that it is only 4'-5' accross, but also probably 4' deep. I cant use power tools. I was thinking about cutting a pallet in half, connecting the halves lengthwise and nailing some 2x4s to the bottom for stability. All the downed trees in the area are rotting or too large to move or cut with hand tools.
Any tips or tricks folks can offer?
If you can get a pallet to the site, why not bring in some actual, worthwhile materials? A couple of pressure treated fence posts to use as stringers, and then use whatever planks your budget allows for to deck it. Cut everything off site and just nail it together.Quote:
Originally Posted by californiagrown
Hill side has been sluffing away for years making the trail narrower and narrower. High use area by hikers and bikers. Built the retaining wall and seeded the slide area. I’ll have to add finished product photos later.
Attachment 294316
Attachment 294317
Agree with Toast. Pallet might be easier initially but it won't last very long and will look pretty ghetto.Quote:
Originally Posted by toast2266
Lee, so much of the work you post up.. makes my ribs hurt just looking at it.. I suck at skinny stuff lol.
Here's a question for you guys:
We need to replace a bridge on a popular existing trail. Span is about 12', and the area is cliffy, so there's no real way to reroute around it. The forest in that area is shit - there's no worthwhile natural material to be harvested on site. Old bridge is made out of shitty natural materials, which is why it's being replaced. The bridge is a 15 minute (steep) uphill walk from the nearest place we can get a vehicle.
Original plan was to carry in some big beams, but after carrying in some smaller beams for another project in the area, I've decided that it's not particularly feasible to bring in beams that are big enough to cover that span. So I'm looking at carrying in some pressure treated 4x4's and building a pair of 4x12 laminated beams on site (thinking we'd epoxy them and then bolt them together). My gut tells me it'd be fine, but the internet tells me its a horrible idea and everyone will die.
Any ideas / experience / predictions of # of fatalities?
I don't think you'll need epoxy. The thru-bolts will be fine.
But spanning the 12' with 4'ers maybe problematic. Can you set posts anywhere along the 12' span...like under the butt end joints ideally.
We potentially could set some posts, but I wouldn't really trust them. The area is super rocky, so any posts we set aren't really going to be particularly well dug into the ground - they'd kinda just be wedged into some rocks. Which is probably better than nothing, but I'd still like the beams to be able to carry the load unsupported.Quote:
Originally Posted by jackstraw
We could also bring in 4x6's and stack them horizontally to create a 6x12 (or 6x whatever). I was mostly gravitating towards 4x4's because they're cheaper and easier to come by.
12' isn't that long of a span. Why not use 2x10s as stringers? If the bridge doesn't need to support horses that should be plenty strong.
Think that'd be enough? I'm not a construction / engineer type, so I don't have a great concept of what's actually needed for this kind of situation. My take has always been to just massively overbuild everything in lieu of engineering.Quote:
Originally Posted by evdog
But yeah, doesn't need to support horses. Just bikes and foot traffic.
I wouldn’t do single 2x10’s for stiringers of that span.
We use 2 x 12's for the decking. What about bolting a couple of those together to make 4x12's? Think that'd do it?Quote:
Originally Posted by zion zig zag
I’m not an engineer, but I think that’d give you a better margin. Is this on fed land? They have to meet different standards but you can find plans online.
Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums
State land, so no specific design requirements. But that's a good thought; I'll look into what the feds say for standards.Quote:
Originally Posted by zion zig zag
Yeah, I've built stuff on rocky areas like that before. As long as it's braced with a 45 and metal ties to the joist/beams it will suffice imo. It's more an extra brace for flex and if it happened to fail that would hold it from a catastrophic failure...possibly. Ideally, you drill into the rock, but I probably wouldn't for a mtn bike bridge.Quote:
Originally Posted by toast2266