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

[jackstraw]

Ah, sorry man. That hurts. Dogs are the best trail building buddies. They never say, 'can't make it today'.

[LeeLau]

First trailwork of the year. Attacked wet spots, checked that water wasn't running down the trail (it wasn't) and looked at problem sections

[t.odd]

thanks guys, definitely a bit of a (quiet) hole in our lives.

work is looking good there, lee!

[jackstraw]

Once again I went to cut a blow down and it was already done![emoji106] One was left that I was able to cut.

The one that was cut before I got there had another old bigger one just beyond it by 10'. The person who cut the fresh one left the old one. Not sure why, so I cut the old one off to the left side and tuned up the up-n-over section to make it smoother for an air. It was a bb grind rolling it.

[jm2e]

Man that sucks. Sorry to hear.


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[LeeLau]

Finished up the swamp monster

[t.odd]

looks moist!

[evdog]

We could use some of that moisture down here! We've only had one notable rain in the last 9 months.


Enough waiting for rain to dig... Local rangers I work with ok'd two pretty big projects. Not ideal with dry dirt, but we've pushed ahead anyways.

First project includes two sections of trail. We brushed one section and have finished two out of three re-routes. The second section will be a lot more work. These are trails in an urban canyon system that run along the rim of a finger canyon behind homes. They are in a new trail plan that has been in process of getting approved for ages. Rangers have gotten tired of waiting and want to bring them up to standard now.








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[evdog]

The other project is a new trail to bypass a busy road that accesses part of the park.

It is almost done and turned out pretty cool because I was able to use terrain and vegetation to block most of it from view from the road.

Also cool because we had an unusually bright moon during early evening last weekend so I was able to get tons done by moonlight despite having other commitments during the daytime. 2nd/3rd pics taken using night sight mode.








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[evdog]

Upgrade project continues, we did another short reroute yesterday to replace this short section that drops steeply down and then climbs steeply back up. The dirt sucks here and the edge of the trail has been breaking away. It's a bit hard to see but half the original tread has been broken away on each side. The final build still undulates but not as much. Now we just need more rain to pack it down.








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[evdog]

This is trailwork related so I'll put it here, but it could just as well go in the rant thread.

I got a text a couple days ago asking if I could help our local group's paid trail crew with a project they are doing in one of our local parks.

They got approval to build a boardwalk underneath a bridge. Until now trail users had to cross a stream, ride along some gravel for 50 feet and then cross back with an immediate climb out that is moderately steep and rocky. The first crossing usually has a couple inches water while the other before the climb is a few inches to half foot deep. I don't clean that climb out all the time. Lots of people have to get off and push. Wet tires make it tough.

The boardwalk they are building bypasses the two crossings and goes across a slope of rip-rap rock next to the bridge pilings. They spent 10 days or more on this bridge so I'm guessing it cost $20k in materials and labor. All to avoid getting your wheels wet and 10 seconds of hike a bike. For that investment you'd think they could make the bridge cool or interesting. But instead it's flat, straight, and boring.

I've been the trail org's lead volunteer in this park for 15 years. Despite my role the trail crew organizes projects like this directly with the rangers behind my back. They actively avoid anyone else's input and don't even show the courtesy to tell me when they've got a project going (until they need help). While I'm tempted to tell them to piss off, I come out as a means of damage control. Their work can usually be described as something a land manager will love but no mountain biker will be excited to ride.

This time, they had laid out the bridge decking so it was all staggered instead of flush. Most of the way across this offset was only an inch or so, no big deal. But at the end of the bridge where there is a turn, they used some longer boards and staggered them all half foot or more rather than lining them up flush, and configured them so there was a big rectangular shaped platform at the end rather than offsetting them so the bridge deck would have a visual curve that would look somewhat natural.

The entire bridge looked out of place to begin with, but this part looked fucking terrible. Like, what the fuck are you thinking you fucking drunk idiot terrible. I didn't get a pic so it might be hard to visualize. I was told it's close to end of day, we need to screw these boards down and then we can come back and fix it another day. Right. We both know that'll never happen. I told him fuck that, start screwing the boards in Ill move them to where they need to be, up against the rocks and forming a somewhat curved shape. Looks more natural, and allows for riders to take a line over the rock. Even he agreed after it looked better after. WTF.

To cap off the stupidity, they went with a fence rail the whole way across the straight flat section, but ended it at exactly the spot where a rider could go over the edge if they lost control at the turn getting onto the bridge. It's a 3 foot fall onto a jagged rock if you mess up here. He thinks no railing here is perfectly fine.

$20k for something that is completely unnecessary and pretty well bungled. Mind blown. I'm sure our group's director and board with love it.



There was an opportunity to make this boardwalk cool with some turns and tying it into the rocky slope a bit. But that was too much to ask (if I had been asked) Instead let's keep it flat, level, and boring.




This is the admittedly tough climb out. It's far from unrideable. But apparently it was too tough. I am positive the main motivation for building this entire boardwalk was to give riders with a more direct approach to this climb. Before the bridge, you had to climb out of the creek bed. That is what made it a challenge.




This is the end where the boards had been staggered. They are all flush together or against the rocks now. This gives riders the option to ride over the rocks on the inside, on a lower line and a higher line. The way the boards had been staggered before left gaps between the ends of some boards and the rocks.

And as mentioned, this turn is the one spot, more than any other, a rider is likely to ride off the side of the bridge. But it was decided the railing did not need to be installed here.



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[raisingarizona13]

/Users/joshlangdon/Desktop/Upper Cactus Derby.jpg

[evdog]

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From yesterday, finished off one end of the trail project I&#39;ve been working on Now I just need to finish the other end, about 200 ft.</p>
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[evdog]

<p>
Worked on a different project today in the same park. A couple of us went out with the ranger on Monday and cleared the brush for this re-route. Today we went out and bench cut it in. Got the whole thing done. Except we need to build a small bridge over a concrete culvert that descends at a 30% slope. It turned out pretty well but man do we need some rain to firm up the tread. The old line went onto private property which was the main reason for moving it. But it was also way too steep.</p>
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[HotSchmoo]

So I guess I'm mostly asking Lee Lau, but also anyone else who has tried this.
How has the re-loaming of trails worked out?
Is it worth the trouble in any way?
Does it only Work on lightly used trails?

[LeeLau]

So I guess I'm mostly asking Lee Lau, but also anyone else who has tried this.
How has the re-loaming of trails worked out?
Is it worth the trouble in any way?
Does it only Work on lightly used trails?

It only works on lightly used, low angle trails.

You first have to fix the underlying issue whether it was a low spot, water flow etc etc. Reloaming restores the feel

[evdog]

We finally got rain. A nice long soaking rain from Tues night through Thursday, then some pretty heavy rain overnight. Gave things much of Friday to soak in, then went out for a bit. Gotta take advantage while you can. Never know when it&#39;ll be the last rain for the year. Right now extended forecast only shows one day of rain in mid March.

The dirt here is normally rock hard, but with the rain I could easily shave it down with the flat shovel. This section was a bit too off camber and people were already migrating the line to the right. It&#39;s nicely benched now.



Worked until 9pm, got a few projects done.



Wasn&#39;t alone out there



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[evdog]

Full day out in another area today. We have done a ton of work upgrading these trails over the last few years and the drainage worked great. So instead of fixing ruts and repairing storm damage I spent most of my time cleaning sediment out of drains. Built up a couple drains as well with small grade reversals/rollers.





This section is a bit too steep to be sustainable and develops a rut every year. It has become incised well into the slope and with dirt crumbling off the steep back slope the trail gets off camber on the upslope side. I cut that down to flatten it, and cut the back slope back to be less steep. It is still too steep but will do for now.



I used all the excess dirt to build up a small berm around the corner. Until now it was a pretty flat turn. This will let people roll through with less braking so hopefully the tread will hold up better.



Beautiful day out there. Mid 60s with a nice breeze.





The original line drops down on the right. We had been talking about building an upper line on the left which would have a nice 6-7ft drop at the end. My friend went out and built this on his own a couple weeks back. It is burly, with not insignificant risk of tagging your handlebar on the rock to the left.



Looking up from the bottom. There is a rut out of frame that both lines drop you into. We will need to deal with that as well.



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[jm2e]

<p>
What do you use to move dirt like you did for that berm? I have brought buckets out, but they are a pain to carry in and hard to hide. Have thought about a tarp style bucket.</p>

[evdog]

What do you use to move dirt like you did for that berm? I have brought buckets out, but they are a pain to carry in and hard to hide. Have thought about a tarp style bucket.

I actually use the heavy duty re-usable plastic grocery bags from Vons/Safeway/Albertson's. You can fill them up pretty much all the way and they hold. Just gotta be a bit careful not to cut them with the shovel when filling them up. I like them because you can stuff a bunch of them in a pack easily. They're light and take up minimal space. They usually last a day or two of trailwork, then you can use them again to line a small garbage can. Buckets work better but as you said they can be a pain to carry around. I used to leave some stashed out on the trails but they always seemed to disappear.

[evdog]

Trail day with the City this morning. Had more people than expected show up. We were going to clean up a rutted section of trail just beyond a bridge we installed a couple months back. It was the only bridge I hadn&#39;t gotten around to cabling in place.

The bridge was gone when we got there, swept down stream during Thursday&#39;s storm. We found it 200ft away, pinned against a palm tree.



Fortunately we had plenty of people to carry it back to the crossing.



The area of today&#39;s project has never seen trailwork before as far as I know. There was a long rut meandering down the tread for 200ft. We dug up the tread, levelled it and built two big drains in front of rolling grade reversals. And bunch cut another section that was badly off camber with rain ruts crossing the trail sideways. With the extra people we finished the original projects for the day in 2 hours. So we walked over to a different trail and fixed ruts and added drains there. Only took an hour or so. So we finished early. Nice to have this stuff fixed up. Lots of clay in the dirt so it&#39;s really hard to time working here. It&#39;s rock hard when dry but goopy mud right after rain. We hit the sweet spot 2 days after rain where there was just enough moisture for it to be workable but not sticky.





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[evdog]

Got lunch, had a nap at the truck and then headed back to my other project spot and did some digging there for a couple hours.

Pic of a berm I built up the other night in the dark.



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[evdog]

Went back today to clear drains on another couple trails.

This curve seems to be problematic for people. I cover up off trail tracks like this a few times a year. So I added a bit of berm on the outside and cut it back more on the inside to make the turn look less &quot;scary&quot;.





This slight jog in the trail was also problematic so people were straightlining the curve and it looked like shit. So I dug a hole and stuffed it with white thorn cuttings to encourage people to stay on the trail.





Hiked out a different trail in the dark. Saw this light from afar a couple nights ago and figured someone was hanging out up there. Trail goes right past this. Upon closer inspection it turns out it is there to illuminate their art work



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[evdog]

Todays project was installing a bridge over this concrete drain that runs at about a 30% slope.

I missed documenting a few (most) steps but we used telespar posts on each corner and bolted the stringers to them.

There is a persistent seep on the low end of the bridge so we used the full 14ft stringer length rather than 12ft to bridge over part of that.

And we built a French drain underneath it to give the water a place to go. The extra length meant we didnt have enough decking but were able to scrounge some extra 2x6 to finish it today.

We tapered the board width at the end. Gives the illusion of a change in grade. Need to go back and stain the last decking pieces.

That is the old death trap of a bridge on the right, in its long time place.





Almost done.





Finished product





Rider came by and got first tracks as we were about to leave





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[evdog]

From late last week.

Headed back to the other trail network. This section has shitty dirt and needs work after every storm. Ruts form easily.



There was still a bit of moisture so I formed a couple berms. Looks nice, but won&#39;t last long especially if riders skid through here. But the berms will help them not need to do that.





Fixed up this other section. There is an old fall line moto trail that crosses here. Some riders turn down the moto trail rather than stay on the MTB trail, which causes the tread to collapse. Re- benched this and embedded a couple big rocks to help support the tread.



This rock is a big reason riders bypass this section. It partially blocks the trail here making it hard to climb up to the next rock feature. Someone tried to shore up the tread here but it won&#39;t last long as motos are already damaging it. I plan to split this rock in two and bury each half here to form a much more solid base.