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

[LeeLau]

Mr Clownshoe.

Ironhippy has basically hit the nail on the head. Note that my method works in this scenario

- Trail and surrounding area already has lots of organic content
- Trail cannot be too steep (it does work on steep trails but tends to get washed away thus requires lots more work)
- Trail cannot be too busy. 20 + riders a day is about right for carrying capacity of a loamer before the loam gets worn away. If a trail gets snowed under more generally it reloams more. If a trail is north facing it reloams more (SW winds blow tree needles and leafy debris onto N trails).

Generally speaking for loamers, loam-wear happens because water flows down the trail or people brake. I try to address water damage with the standard grade reversal. Excessive braking i try to address by sending a steeper section onto a small uphill that bleeds off speed (eg what your crew did with Midgard)

Where there's trail wear and it gets excessive I do what ironhippy suggests. I repair using mineral/gold soil and rock. Then I layer the red-rot/loam on top.

The work involved is usually in finding the gold soil, the rock and the loam. First prep the wear location. Find a location close by ideally with a mix of rock, loam and gold dirt. I'll excavate the moss, the loam, ferns, salal etc and put it aside somewhere close at hand. Dig down to gold mineral soil and if there are rocks separate that out too and put somewhere close at hand.

Then do the standard stuff to repair the worn location but layer the big rocks, then small rocks, then soil then organic loam on top. The slow part is renaturalizing the work area after Im done but my personal goal is to keep the trailbed narrow and green so I'll use the moss, salal and ferns for that purpose after.

For mild wear sections where roots are exposed I'll just find mines of organic red rot or better yet, old rotten logs and scatter that onto the trail then break up the material so it mulches into loam over time (a few months of riding does the trick). I find the loam then makes the roots really slippery so they come into play when it rains so it serves the purpose of making the trail ride like ass when things get wet. This keeps people honest so I don't have to lecture riders to stay off loamers in the wet. And if someone has old school tech skills and can ride it in the wet - well more power to them

Hope that helps

[Clownshoe]

Thanks Lee!

I’ve got a quiet section of trail that I think this technique will work on

[ironhippy]

Thanks a lot Lee, that's really good information.

I'm pleased that my trial and error techniques matches up pretty well with what you describe.

[LeeLau]

Before. After.

[LeeLau]

Before. During. After. Dug a grade reversal on trail upslope and used rock and soil to repair downslope. Covered all with loam

[LeeLau]

Del

[LeeLau]

Del

Reloamed

This was ugly. Original line was to right but water seeped thus exposing the rock and throwing people off to the left. So the entire area started looking like ass

Widened the low point on the left and used the excavated moss, Salal and ferns and replanted on the exposed rock on the right to narrow the trail back up again. Then covered that right side with green. Then raised the entire left side that's close to the sump using rock. Mid progress as am covering the rock and mineral soil with random chunks of loam.

Finished product. Loam over the rocks on new trailbed

[LeeLau]

And then threw some dirt on old bridge and rode in some rock lines

[jackstraw]

More maintenance...
Most importantly got the skinny back open

[t.odd]

Lee,

I’m very interested in your re loaming techniques. Can you expand on them?

It looks like you’re mainly using “red rot”, which I’m assuming is in endless supply where you’re working.

Any suggestions or tricks you can share? Are you just dumping buckets of “loam” onto the trail or is there more nuance to it?

I’ve got my eye on a couple sections of my trail up the highway from where you are that I’m going to try this on.

I've used that technique on some trails here and there, depending on how much traffic they get you can get away with just thr red rot or other duff that's been worked out of the tread...or rock armour holes loosely and then just load up the duff and red rot on top and work it in a bit.

edit-replied before seeing the next page of replies! hahah

[Clownshoe]

Ha! Thanks Todd.

I think the key variable here is that the trail is lightly used.
The busier trails in our valley wouldn’t last a day with this technique.

[t.odd]

Ha! Thanks Todd.

I think the key variable here is that the trail is lightly used.
The busier trails in our valley wouldn’t last a day with this technique.

for sure...anyone else recall the first few years of Kush? JB kept refilling the tread with red rot from all the decaying logs, man that was a glorious time! hahaha

[VTskibum]

After really dry past few weeks got a good soak. Nicked a few mud puddles, cut out some downed trees, and extended what was a semi natural berm bit more to hopefully get some good exit speed.




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[jackstraw]

Making adjustments on the brand new .9 mile trail. Good addition to the network. Good amount of sidehill dbl fall line stuff.

[LeeLau]

for sure...anyone else recall the first few years of Kush? JB kept refilling the tread with red rot from all the decaying logs, man that was a glorious time! hahaha

It was pretty good ... till it wasn't. Kashmir other is still loamy in many spots. Which goes to show how a few climbs here and there don't hurt

[evdog]

No more dirt work since rainy season abruptly ended a month ago. It's all brushing now. 2nd time through this trail already, stuff is growing like crazy.

[LeeLau]

Just enough moisture to do trailwork still. Built up this worn out roll so it won't be quite as janky. Dumbed down some corners. CUT our random deadfall

[jackstraw]

It's funny to read discussions about needing moisture for trail work. That doesn't even enter our minds out here. All that will be changing for me in a couple-few months.

Couple small adders yesterday. Little natural hip qtr pipe. Transition is tough, so added some logs as a band aid.

Brown dog is the up and then head left. Blonde dog is on top of the down. This is an ultimate "high five" moment as this boulder has a line heading up and down the other side. Our trails are the epitome of a small intestine.

[evdog]

It's funny to read discussions about needing moisture for trail work. That doesn't even enter our minds out here. All that will be changing for me in a couple-few months.

It's good and bad. Bad in that trail needs work and you can't dig. Good in that I'd probably never stop digging if the dirt didn't get so bad, so now I ride. Of course in a year like this I'll spend the next month brushing so I can ride.

[evdog]

More brushing.... hitting the worst spots. Lots of handlebar height thistle mixed in with mustard and other brush.

[jackstraw]

The bees hate you

[evdog]

Hahaha. There's plenty left for the bees!



From yesterday.... Started work on another trail. More thick mustard mixed with thistle.


First pic, part way done. Had to cut 5-6 ft back on the high side of the trail. Every mustard stalk I cut would pull more stalks over when removed.




All done




Continuing on




Next thick patch

[jackstraw]

New trail getting tweaks. Bob is pretty freakin awesome with his stonework.

[raisingarizona13]

Looks good Jackstraw. I love me some rock work.

[jackstraw]

Yeah, it's a little rock drop into dirt/rock berm for a 180. Once I got the speed correct it was perfect..err, once I was fast enough!

He's done some amazing rock work on another trail he just built also...he is a stone mason by trade...great guy to have as a builder also [emoji106]