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

[jackstraw]

Yeah, that looks super fun! Kind of like our granite back east. And I'm with you on the chunky stuff. Quite annoying to ride and work with.

[SkiLyft]

Working on a fun feature.

Building the landing that will join two trails and share one landing.


Bomber is the left trail, blast-off is the right side. We should be able to put in the two wedges this weekend!!


This thing is like 20-22feet across!



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[evdog]

Looks awesome! Where are you getting the dirt from for all these features?

[evdog]

Got out a few more times this week


Extended this berm. Trail was built for climbing but more and more are using it to descend, quite a few take the turn too fast and ride off the trail below the turn.




Muddy problem area, and like usual people think they can avoid the mud by going wider and wider. Wrong.




I've ridden past this pile of broken concrete next to the trail many times without a second thought. Given the mud, I got an idea.




On the way out, I stopped for an hour and did some re-purposing. Not every piece is perfectly stable but they should suction into the mud. Turned out pretty well. There wasn't enough to bridge all of it but I got about 2/3 of it including the worst parts.

[LeeLau]

Another paving session on Lower CBuster. So many mudholes dumbed down over the course of a mediocre ski season. This time with help from Sharon, John and Kevin

[jackstraw]

It would be fun to meet up with any of you guys and do some building...and riding! I'd be stoked to do that

[evdog]

Road trip trail work is a thing! I've been joining these guys for weekend campouts over the last year along with a group in Idyllwild. Good times with good people working on killer trails.

[evdog]

We had a couple storms the last week or so. The spot below has been a trouble spot for some time. Last year I dug a deeper drain off to the side and cleared it out to allow plenty of sediment to flow through. There was some damage after January storms but after the most recent one a big hole got carved out below. I'd put a bunch of rock in the bottom as a band aid and decided to try some pavers to make a ramp.




It's a 5 min walk in which doesn't sound like much until you're carrying a paver. Heavy and awkward enough to be a pain in the ass.

Finished product:




Came back after the next storm to find this. Much of the dirt washed out, including all dirt from beneath the angled paver at the far end, which became displaced.

I think there must be much higher water volume getting dumped down from above following a recent construction project nearby. This wasn't even a big storm - maybe an inch of rain over 2 days. Water looks like it got shot over the bump, coming down directly on the pavers.

Didn't see this coming, figured the pavers would be enough to hold in dirt below...




Put it back together and dug the drain above much deeper again. But also cut it much wider. You can see in the top photo the trail turns just before this, and I'm sure this shoots water straight down the trail onto the pavers rather than getting pushed off into the drain. So I'm removing all material from that corner so water should shoot off to the side. Pic below is just getting started. I cut off the whole corner from the shovel to where the drain goes out of sight. Will probably go back and cut out even more. I built up the bump quite a bit too.

I'd love to re-route this whole section but once you get beyond the immediate brush there is tons of poison oak. And it's kind of a cool trail that changes after each storm. But that's also part of the problem. No where to easily get water off the trail. It generally holds up pretty well considering the volume of water that flows down here, but wherever there is an obstruction or change in elevation the tread just gets churned up by water.

[evdog]

Moved on to some more fixes in another area. This trail is an unappreciated (and unnamed trail) but being a connector sees more traffic than most. It was getting rutted due to lack of drainage work.

Not sure why we need two different entrances. But with a rut down each of them I put a big drain at the bottom that should get most of the water off the trail.




Another new drain part way down. You can see the rut and how people are starting to ride up above it next to the trail. That's how our trails go from narrow to six feet wide.




After:




Then moved onto another section just beyond. This section is old trail and has no where to drain water since its a low spot. I tried to divert water down the side of the trail a few years ago, but it needed more work again. This time I extended the trench down the side and built up the tread which was getting eroded and rutted. Have a bit more to go on this next time I'm out.

[evdog]

Went to a couple organized trail days last weekend with the city


The first trail day was to re-route a section of trail that crosses a gully that got blown out by erosion in the last two winters' storms. The gully more than doubled in width and depth with walls now collapsing, so the bridge that had been there was no longer long enough. Someone was nice enough to bolt extensions to either end as the gully widened. But it was time to do something about it.

The re-route is about 100m long and contours around the slope above the stormwater outflow. There was only an 4ft wide channel above it, which widened to 8ft once enough people tramped in and out of it. The old bridge with extensions removed was relocated here.

We had enough people to get some drainage work done and to re-route another section of trail up slope to reduce the climbing grade higher up.



Before - the jungle we'd be cutting through. Went a lot faster than expected




Also before - sketchy bridge before disassembly. Original bridge was 12ft long, each extension added 3ft.




We used the side braces as footings and anchored them in place. Bridge was heavy enough it took six people to carry it up and set in place.




Adjusting the entrance and exit was about the only tread work needed aside from a couple drains. This pic is at similar angle as the first (jungle) pic




The other re-route. Trail turns uphill at the fence so moving it uphill earlier makes for a better grade.

[evdog]

Second trail day was to give some love to a section of trail in one of my local parks. A few drains had filled up sending water down the trail. Lower down there is a channel depositing water onto the trail but nowhere for it to go.

We cleaned out drains, added some new ones, and filled in the ruts.


Before - rut formed and getting worse each storm.




After - same section, pic taken from a bit further up trail with one of the new drains. Tons of poison oak in here so we had to be deliberate about where we put new drains




Water flows onto the trail here at the corner. As the tread on the right eroded people started migrating the trail to the left. We re-benched that to provide a better surface and dug a trench down the old tread to keep water on the low side.




Better shot of the trench. Can't get water away from the trail anywhere here so try to live with it.




We tuned up a re-route built last year, extending the berm and re-benching the runout.




Good day out there. We got about 500ft fixed up.

[springsproject]

Laying pipe to make it less wet. No good ways to avoid mud around here, but there are some things we can do to mitigate it. Before adding the pipe the water was running down the trail, at least it has someplace to go now.

[evdog]

Built a re-route in a local park with rangers last week. Nice flowing singletrack to replace a steep, eroded chute. Turned out nice. Top to bottom:








Included an appropriate berm on the lower part - to shed water off the trail, of course

[evdog]

From today.... put some time in on a new trail I've been working on. It's basically a series of rock rollers all the way down this slope.


This one is interesting. You could turn and pedal up through the gap but looking straight at it with a bit of speed it could be a bit of a wall ride.




Built a transition out of rock




Looking at it from further back. It might work, or it might be a bad idea. Need to get out with the bike and test ride it so I can figure out what it needs to finish it.




Most likely the bike will just slide off it due to lack of speed. Which might work since there is a 90* turn right after that leads into another slab.




Was able to get this section built. I thought a ladder bridge might be needed here due to a couple rocks blocking the line that seemed like iceberg tips. Turns out I was able to move them and build a ramp down from a 2.5ft drop which will make a better entry into the narrow chute immediately after.




Someone already found the trail and rode around this feature rather than over. Added a dirt transition to make it more obvious.




Said person also decided to do some work of their own. This view looks down at it from behind. There is a gap between rocks where the sand bag sits that needs to be bridged. They put a big rock in place to bridge it, but looks like it will shoot you off to the left where the rock is very off camber to the outside.




Makes more sense looking from below. You have to turn 30* as you crest the apex so the rock is going to have to be repositioned to the left.




Final roller I worked on. There was a two foot gap between the upper rock and lower rock. Dumb dumb had tried to fill it with a few sand bags. I removed those and filled with dirt, then found a nice flat plate rock to put on top.




Looking at it from further back. Roller is on the right and leads you onto this big slab with a 90* turn and the bottom. And it's off camber the wrong way, so it will take careful braking to make the turn. Especially since it's a bit slick with graffiti and paint.

[jm2e]

Running out of time for trail work with the leaves, bugs, snakes, heat coming in soon, so we’re ramping things up on a couple new trails.
Did a bunch of raking and cutting, and a little bit of rolling through the roughed in lines. Neither of these will be good for regular laps until next winter.

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[VTskibum]

Winter decided to end pretty quickly, time to get pump track running.





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[raisingarizona13]

Three new trails volunteers helped us build in Kingman, Arizona that we finished over the last month or so.

Mars Attacks. Blue DH.
https://www.pinkbike.com/video/583061/

Land Of the Lost. Blue Bidirectional.


Happy Place. Black Diamond Directional.
https://www.pinkbike.com/video/583104/

[evdog]

A couple more sessions on the new trail recently.


Did a bit more work on this one with a berm to help make the second turn




Then decided it needed a little more. Berming the closer rock helped a lot. Run the front wheel way up on the rock and your rear wheel follows on the dirt. It's actually pretty smooth.




Builds like this sometimes need bigger rocks to bridge between slabs, and those usually have to be hoisted up onto said slabs from wherever you find them. I had help from a friend getting a few of these bigger rocks into place




And here. Then spent a bunch of time stabilizing them and filling in the gaps with more rock




The two pics above lead into this roller. Found some nice plates to make a transition. The roller gets steeper the further you drop




The runout. I've got a short berm to help make the turn around the rock below

[evdog]

We tried to move this one but could barely get it to budge with one full size rock bar and a shorter gorilla bar. Whoever messed with this rock got it wedged in pretty good and in the totally wrong spot.




My friend brought out a come-along and I brought a couple bottle jacks and a recovery strap. The jacks helped get the rock unwedged. The come-along wasn't strong enough to pull the rock up and out like we hoped but it did a great job of holding it in place while we continued to lift it up with the jacks.




Once we got it lifted up, we anchored to a different rock and pulled this one to the left. Ended up tearing up the gears in the come-along but again it held the rock in place while we wedged a number of bigger rocks underneath to support it. We were able to move it the rest of the way with rock bars.




There was a short game delay after encountering this guy while looking for rocks. He didn't want to move




Final resting spot for the big rock




I found a better plate to bridge a bit of a hole at the top. We'll see how well that one stays in place




Looking at it from the other side, the line is now good. You can turn right and drop off either of the two rocks after the transition rock. I think the nearer of the two might be too tight of a turn but I'll have to try it to find out




Worked until after dark bridging a few wet areas and gaps near the bottom. Rocked this one in with a nice plate to bridge over top of a drain




Filled in a few gaps on this series of slabs




And then found a nice one to bridge the drop off the end. There is a wet area right after the slab that I might still need to rock in. We'll see how it holds up




There are still a couple berms I want to build to help with flow, but the trail is fully rideable now.

[jackstraw]

Three new trails volunteers helped us build in Kingman, Arizona that we finished over the last month or so.

Mars Attacks. Blue DH.
https://www.pinkbike.com/video/583061/

Land Of the Lost. Blue Bidirectional.


Happy Place. Black Diamond Directional.
https://www.pinkbike.com/video/583104/

It's funny to see drone footage like that. 99% of where I ride is under a canopy. I haven’t ridden terrain like that since Taos. Looks super fun!

[jackstraw]

Evdog! That rock work was sick! Massive effort. I've thought about using a come-along but never had to. Two 6' digging bars worked for what we would try to move, but that thing was a monster and you pushed it up! Damn! Freakin awesome!

I've been doing some local maintenance and need to do some on the only climbing line that is full of tight switchbacks. Erosion is killing it from idiots riding it wet and ebike mania. That is one thing man, ebikes can hammer punchy tight Ups. There's virtually no rock in SC to build sustainable tight lines. Soil turns bulletproof when dry, but we're in the wet season.

[jackstraw]

Some day I'm going to go for a ride and not stop to do trail maintenance...maybe. That way I won't destroy good riding gloves. It's so strange. I tell myself out loud..."ride! No stopping." Then I see a tree down or whatever, stop and clear it and shred gloves cause I'm an idiot.

[jm2e]

Some day I'm going to go for a ride and not stop to do trail maintenance...maybe. That way I won't destroy good riding gloves. It's so strange. I tell myself out loud..."ride! No stopping." Then I see a tree down or whatever, stop and clear it and shred gloves cause I'm an idiot.

These are my daily driver gloves until things get really hot.
But I don't like tight gloves. Like my shoes and my undies. Keepin it comfy.

[evdog]

I saw these Milwaukee gloves at home depot last fall and decided to try them. They actually hold up pretty well unless you are struggling with granite boulders. But work with tools and anything not very abrasive, they are great. And under $7. When I ride out to do trail work I just wear them.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwauke...8902/303635833


For rock work I use something more like what jm2e posted. I think mine are Firm Grip from HD. They've been falling apart pretty quick lately though as the stitching gets shredded by rock. They used to last most of a season. Those full palm mechanix might be the answer.

[evdog]

Evdog! That rock work was sick! Massive effort.

Thanks! Tools made it easy. The rock was wedged pretty good which is what made it hard to move. We could barely budge it with rock bars alone.

The bottle jacks did all the heavy lifting. Biggest challenge was setting up a stable surface to jack from since the underside of the rock was curved. It was definitely a bit sketchy, but got better once we found some nearby rock to shore it up from below.

I did a couple laps down it on Tuesday. Rides great except for 2 spots I mentioned where berms will help. It's easier than I thought, but definitely action packed with features right after each other. It was nice doing mostly rock work though. Most of the trails here require a ton of bench cutting. It's not bad where the dirt is nice but some of the slopes are all clay and cobbles.