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

[jackstraw]

That's amazing! So cool.

As I've mentioned, our issues with sanctioned trails is they are just nerfed down to fun-ish, but not super rowdy stoopid fun! And I understand why...cough cough attorneys cough cough.

[LeeLau]

About a year ago when ski season was super meh I took the job of raising a trailbed for a 100m approx section of trail that had sunk. It was challenging, cold and mucky but satisfying.

The OG line had been routed thru a veritable rainforest swamp about 20 years ago and was barely used as a downhill exit so not judging the original builders

A year later there were some puddles developing in areas I had raised that could have used more dirt. I'd dug out drains and sumpholes for water to pool as the surrounding area was so flat and had dug those drainage areas to mineral soil and had mostly already cleaned up the areas so they were fairly rock free.

Coming back to it a year later the crew dug out the drains and got to the hoped-for dirt storehouses right next to the trail! Also there were mineral soil deposits close to or right next to trailside. Work went quickly and effectively.

Gratifying when what you hope for a year ago actually pans out

[LeeLau]

The swamp section before

[bennymac]

Solid work Lee (and crew) - appreciate the work locals put into those networks to keep them going with that much user traffic and that much precipitation.

[LeeLau]

Cleaned up a rock roll

[LeeLau]

Went into a stubborn section of trail where I'd finally gotten the water to stay off. Proceeded to reloam a 200m section

[LeeLau]

Before

After

[raisingarizona13]

I've been looking for one of these for twenty years now. The stars finally aligned this past week .

[jackstraw]

Milled wood features.

https://youtu.be/jeTcmhkoQtk?si=C_T8tUi1r9eM93Hd

[LeeLau]

Cut out a tree on Jankaritaville which annoyingly fell over the trail in 3 places. The root ball was still kn the trail so used the material to build it up and over and sacrificed a chain to cut out the root ball.

Then product tested some reloamed section

[LeeLau]

More work fixing runouts of worn out sections. Material right at hand..

[jackstraw]

We had a pretty good wind/rain event. Well I guess more than pretty good as it caused a tornado! Anyway, we have a great little zone that is super sandy and awesome to ride post rains. I heard a tree was down and went to clear it and someone had already gotten to it less than 12hrs later. Unreal how many people keep the trails going here. Just awesome.

So I went up and cleared the branches off this log to make a skinny that I had been wanting to clean up.

[jackstraw]

With the rain it's dig season, so I went up to do some maintenance and water mitigation. Go to get my stashed Travis tool and it's gone. I am truly shocked. I've ridden past countless tools on trail so I assumed it was pretty safe here. It was close to a road, so maybe that was my bad. Still it was hidden next to a blow down with a bunch shit covering it. Idk, but people stealing trail tools should be shot just like the ones suing ski areas!

[evdog]

I've had a couple entire tool stashes disappear. It sucks. After it happened the first time I started hiding tools really well - walk back a good distance from where ever I had been working, then go off trail a good ways and stash on low side of a rock or on the downside of a thick bush. You'd have to be actively searching to find it. And I still had a second stash disappear. That one had been left there between build seasons, so 6+ months. Now I only leave cheaper shovels and rakes out there, well stashed. I pull out rogue hoes and any other favorite tools when dig season or a major project is over.

We've had a bunch of new builders show up in our area the last few years. Almost every one of them has had their tools stolen, some multiple times. Most aren't smart and leave them right on the trail where they were last used. Fortunately a couple of the less qualified builders gave up building after having their tools disappear.

We don't have a lot of hikers in this area, but there are some long time locals around and dirt bikers. Not sure who is taking them. And yeah, it sucks.

[jackstraw]

Yeah, I was wondering if it was an anti mtb person. I can't imagine an actual mountain biker stealing tools when they're being used to create shit for them to use too...but sure I guess it does happen. Assholes abound.

[LeeLau]

Same same. Had tools disappear. It's kind of par for the course unfortunately

[Andeh]

One of the local guys uses a cable lock for some of his stashes, with a combination lock so he can share it with others. It seems to work ok for keeping people honest.

[ironhippy]

I'm pretty lucky, it's hard for the ATVs to get to the heart of my trail system and it doesn't get much traffic so I get away with leaving everything right beside the trail.

I've left a leaf blower out there overnight numerous times.

[evdog]

After a few years with a CA State Park superintendent that seemed to hate volunteers, and cancelled all events and disbanded volunteer groups, we got a new superintendent earlier this year and trailwork started up again.

We had a few trail days already but today was a new milestone where they let us use brush saws rather than just hand tools.

Previously it was only State Park staff and official (trained) volunteers using chainsaws to cut back chaparral, and the rest of us with loppers. And in typical government fashion, rather than hit the worst areas first they insisted on working along the trail from the trailhead and clearing 5-6 feet on each side from centerline. It did not go very fast. With two brush saws today we went 3-4 times faster, and the chainsaws could focus on cutting just the larger diameter plants that the brush saws skipped. Even the lead State Park guy was stoked on how much more progress was made.















Sent from my Pixel 8 using Tapatalk

[evdog]

Still had daylight left so I stopped in at a local trail on the way home and did some tumbleweed removal. That stuff grows later in the year than our regular brush and by fall it can become a nuisance on trails. It is best removed when it's dry because you can easily chop it and pop the entire mass of tumbleweed out, then roll it down the slope. Also did a bit of brushing to clear some sight lines in a few spots where brush was causing people to ride off the trail to the low side.








Before. Probably more mental than anything, the brush was causing riders to go a bit wide and more than a few were losing a wheel on the soft outside edge of the trail




After. Better visibility should help people stay on trail.





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[jackstraw]

This is a heavily traveled up and down drainage. Certain spots it essentially is the same line that gets ridden over and over again. This section was getting to the point of pedal strikes on roots. Two or three more sections on this trail I'm not too sure how to deal with the water without a major reroute.

[ticketchecker]

This is a heavily traveled up and down drainage. Certain spots it essentially is the same line that gets ridden over and over again. This section was getting to the point of pedal strikes on roots. Two or three more sections on this trail I'm not too sure how to deal with the water without a major reroute.

Yer not digging in NH anymore are you?


Sent from the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen

[jackstraw]

Yer not digging in NH anymore are you?


Sent from the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen

Yeah, not right now. It's a trip digging here. At the moment I really want rock for water mitigation and erosion management and it's hard to find. EC there's too damn much making dirt digging a pia! [emoji16] It's a cool learning experience. And the blow downs are bigger and more complex plus the severe slope angles add to the puzzle.

More erosion control today on my primary Up. (The left looks good and is, but it ends into a drainage just beyond the pic, so the right line is the ideal Up)

[t.odd]

RIP to my favourite trail building partner, Dakota, aka the Black Shark, whom we unexpectedly had to say goodbye to last night. We got her as a rescue about the time I started my trail maintaining/building 12 years ago and she's been my forest exploring partner with a wicked sense for sniffing out trails ever since. The forest away from people was our peaceful happy place since she was reactive of a lot of things for a long time. Was nice to know that when I had my head down in the dirt digging in cougar land, she always had me covered. She's seen more forest in Whistler's Cheakamus zone than most riders and been along for the build and maintenance of many many kilometres of trail in the Sea-to-Sky corridor over that time. She has 2 trails named after her in Cheakamus, I built Black Shark in 2017/18 leading up to the birth of our son, while my wife built D-Railment (Dakota's Choice) while pregnant with him.

She was loyal, protective and loving and I'm going to miss having her along for truck rides to go explore forests looking for old relic trails or opportunities for new ones. Thanks for letting me share some memories, here are a few photos or her and I building BS.

[LeeLau]

RIP to my favourite trail building partner, Dakota, aka the Black Shark, whom we unexpectedly had to say goodbye to last night. We got her as a rescue about the time I started my trail maintaining/building 12 years ago and she's been my forest exploring partner with a wicked sense for sniffing out trails ever since. The forest away from people was our peaceful happy place since she was reactive of a lot of things for a long time. Was nice to know that when I had my head down in the dirt digging in cougar land, she always had me covered. She's seen more forest in Whistler's Cheakamus zone than most riders and been along for the build and maintenance of many many kilometres of trail in the Sea-to-Sky corridor over that time. She has 2 trails named after her in Cheakamus, I built Black Shark in 2017/18 leading up to the birth of our son, while my wife built D-Railment (Dakota's Choice) while pregnant with him.

She was loyal, protective and loving and I'm going to miss having her along for truck rides to go explore forests looking for old relic trails or opportunities for new ones. Thanks for letting me share some memories, here are a few photos or her and I building BS.

Awwww sorry Todd. She was such a good trail dog