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

[JerseyDave]

Armored spring crossing out on the new trail. Rebuilt the spring box and worked in a stone culvert under the trail. Rock ramp that unearthed a Pony Skeleton. My dog.

[jackstraw]

Finished a new trail and went back to play with this log. Ramp is not quite right. The transition to the log might be beyond my skills. It's tight. But man I sure do dig this battery chainsaw.

[Dantheman]

Dig day a couple weekends back.

[zion zig zag]

Anyone here know of resources to get training (some type of official cert.?) on the use of a SWECO trail cat in the intermountain region? My org has one and the local USFS district has one, but we both lack trained operators. Trying to coordinate some big spring work on FS land and this would go a long ways towards making it happen.

[toast2266]

Anyone here know of resources to get training (some type of official cert.?) on the use of a SWECO trail cat in the intermountain region? My org has one and the local USFS district has one, but we both lack trained operators. Trying to coordinate some big spring work on FS land and this would go a long ways towards making it happen.

What's the upside to those things over a mini excavator? Seems like the mini dozer things are a lot more limited in what they can do, but I've never used one.

Sorry, no idea as to your actual question.

[zion zig zag]

What's the upside to those things over a mini excavator? Seems like the mini dozer things are a lot more limited in what they can do, but I've never used one.

Sorry, no idea as to your actual question.

I have no operator experience on either one, but to my untrained eye I would agree with you on the mini-ex. The SWECO was bought years ago on a grant.

Found a guy named Tony Boone in CO that claims to certify trail dozer operators, I'll try contacting him.

[adrenalated]

Found a guy named Tony Boone in CO that claims to certify trail dozer operators, I'll try contacting him.

If you're looking for a guy that can teach you how to build boring smooth flow trails with excessive grade reversals, he's your man.

[zion zig zag]

If you're looking for a guy that can teach you how to build boring smooth flow trails with excessive grade reversals, he's your man.

Ha. Thanks for the input, I definitely don't want anymore of that around here, we have plenty.

[toast2266]

Ha. Thanks for the input, I definitely don't want anymore of that around here, we have plenty.

Again, not coming from a place of experience, but that seems like it's gotta be a somewhat inherent drawback of the dozer. It's gotta be pretty hard to leave any roots or rocks in place with that machine. I could see them being faster and more efficient for building flat-ish beginner trails, but for anything where the goal is to leave things technical, or even to build more substantial berms, it seems like it'd be pretty difficult if you're only working with a blade.

[pano-dude]

Anyone here know of resources to get training (some type of official cert.?) on the use of a SWECO trail cat in the intermountain region? My org has one and the local USFS district has one, but we both lack trained operators. Trying to coordinate some big spring work on FS land and this would go a long ways towards making it happen.

Get on it and push dirt, that's how we used to learn how to run equipment.

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[evdog]

What's the upside to those things over a mini excavator? Seems like the mini dozer things are a lot more limited in what they can do, but I've never used one.

The city ranger we were working with on a trail build a couple years ago got his hands on a sweco for part of the project. He had some prior experience running one and was able to bench in trail pretty fast with it - much faster than we could bench by hand even with a large crew. I think the sweco was limited to less steep slopes as we had to hand build in between a couple machine built sections. It also left a really wide bench. With that wider bench it'll last longer before needing maintenance but still looks like a bad haircut 3 or so seasons later.

Recently our club rented a mini-excavator to help build some trail in a remote part of the county where we have trouble getting good volunteer turnouts. The mini-ex we got is narrower than the sweco and can build trail more precisely - it can move and place rocks and logs where desired whereas the sweco can mostly just push stuff out of the way. You have to build a little pad for stability each time the mini moves forward and there seems to be more tendency to inslope the bench which adds work for the people doing finish work. That could be related to operator skill but with the sweco it seemed easier to outslope the trail because you just had to angle the blade a bit. I think the mini ex can handle steeper terrain better than the sweco but doesn't seem to work as fast. Again that could be operator skill. I'm sure someone with lots of experience could build good trail with either machine, though I think I'd want the mini-ex where there is a lot of rock to deal with.

[evdog]

The last two weeks it has rained on Weds and/or Thursday. Now it's time to dig! Last weekend was the first trail day at Black Mtn to bring an unofficial trail into the system. Requires some re-routes, re-building, and rehabilitating an area that goes through a huge erosion scar.












This weekend we were building trail near Julian for San Diego River Park Foundation that will be part of the San Diego River Trail. Got permission to use the mini-excavator for this project. One crew cut down danger trees, the other cut new tread. The machine plus myself finishing tread got through just over 300ft of new trail.










Then went out yesterday to work on some of my own stuff. The entrance to this trail becomes a stream during heavy rain. Between that and lots of traffic it has eroded and the big rocks popping up made it unridable for most people. So I moved the stream over to the left side, built up a rock wall to keep it in place and filled in a bench above it. Then added some large rock to the entrance. It should still be challenging to ride up as there will be a couple steps and it's narrow. I had a bobcat for this job too but it wasn't very helpful.

Before



After



The help

[forty]

dirt is perfect for digging right now, gave this berm an exit roller in hopes of increasing speed, goal is to transition this line into more mtb friendly and then build a new expert drop in and 6-pack with steeper lips this spring for the dj kids

[forty]

spent yesterday playing in dirt, chopped 1st roller in half and spread to 2nd roller, reworked berm pocket deeper, hoping to increase exit speed through rollers into jump lines


today my forearms are cramping and few blisters on hands, not in dig shape haha

[evdog]

Spent quite a bit of time digging last month now that we are getting some rain almost weekly.

First few days out were cleaning drains and digging new ones where the trail was getting cupped out. Then moved onto a couple more projects.


Favorite time of day:



Riders were widening this section by going around the rocks on the left. Why are riders so scared of rocks?? I planted some new ones to keep them in the middle and narrow down the trail.



Cleaning up a rut that had formed where the drain crosses the trail. Last work here was 3 years ago.



This section was had a rut forming. Re-contoured it and installed a drain. It's more subtle than it looks here




Draining an infinity puddle




Next I took on a section on another trail that was turned into an eroded mess where people created their own ride around. This is how you're meant to hit the line:



From above. But people ride around it to the left which became rutted out.



Eroded mess from below. The jump is only about 2ft.



I decided to re-route the b-line with a couple berms and then fill in/cover up the eroded part



In progress:





Took about an hour past dark to finish connecting it and tamp the dirt. Haven't been back to ride it yet but hopefully people like it...




Last year we came across a spot where someone chopped out a cholla cactus on Palm Canyon. There used to be one on either side of the trail which formed a chicane you had to navigate or you'd get tagged. Everyone knows this spot and everyone I talked to was bummed that this was gone. Most people get tagged there once, but then you remember it. Some douche felt it necessary to chop one of them out to straightline the trail. Not an easy chore as the thing would have required a handsaw to cut...it was beefy.



So on our most recent ride we moved some rocks into its former place and added some cholla branches to put a bit of the chicane back. Not as much as an obstacle but I'm sure someone will still remove them. And we'll put them back.

[El Kanone]

Nice work


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[evdog]

More from this weekend. Went out and re-worked some turns that were starting to get rutted. Also moved a seasonal stream off another section of trail and raised the tread up to keep it dry. Really fun digging when the dirt is perfect like this! Also dug some drains on another part of the trail that is nasty clay. That part was not fun....

[forty]

suns out, snow is melted, time to dig


roller and berm reshaping, still working on entry speed adjustments for the groms


planning some machine work later spring which will be fun

[El Kanone]

In 2017 I am was hired with a friend of mine to build a trail on private property in Hawaii. This was an incredibly opulent property with multiple homes and guest houses.

It was located on a cliff above a surf break and the plan was to get to the break as well as to get to an overlook out on a point.
The break.

The overlook.

We started out in raw jungle.

Almost two months of very hard work three of us built a pretty awesome trail. All hand dug.












It was a great experience, I lost a lot of weight and surfed every day.









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[meter-man]

Holy fack that looks magical. Wow.

[LeeLau]

I'm curious why you guys are replacing displaced organic material with more organic material?

For me, once traffic displaces the duff it's time to refill with good dirt that will compact and resist the erosion a second time. Totally understand different solutions for different locations but it seems to me that this will be a never ending cycle and a more durable fix would be a better idea?

Never did answer this. .it's a very low use trail so keeping it in character by replacing like with like. .for high traffic trails the eroded sections get mineral soil and then compaction

[evdog]

When other people work on your trail. Why do people think its ok to go in and modify a trail that is obviously being actively maintained?


Digging clumps of dirt off the side of the trail and throwing it on the tread, grass and all. Not sure why someone thought this was a good idea. This section needed no work.



Dirt source. Way to keep things looking nice



Widening the bench. They did an ok job, but this really wasn't needed



Filling dirt in between the rocks that are sticking up. Sure it smoothed it out, but does everything have to be easy?



Filling up the drain I dug a few weeks ago with rocks. Yo Shit-For-Brains, this is a DRAIN. Don't block it!



Adding your own rocks to the rock roll. Original line on the left is solid. But apparently it wasn't wide enough for someone to feel safe, so they added a bunch of loose, unstable rocks on the right. Because rocks that will flip over if you ride on them is much safer.....





This is all after a guy came through a few weeks ago and butchered some trail side bushes leaving a mess of punji sticks and broken bushes.






That little step up is REALLY SCARY, can't blame riders for going around it. Gonna dig some holes and drop some huge ass immovable rocks in them to force riders back onto the original line.

[toast2266]

The grass clumps is the one that really baffles me. I can't see how anyone would think that was a good idea.

I'd be super fucking pissed if anyone did any of that "work" on the trails I maintain.

[Dantheman]

Digging clumps of dirt off the side of the trail and throwing it on the tread, grass and all. Not sure why someone thought this was a good idea. This section needed no work.

I need to get the tools out. There's a local DH trail that's sanctioned but neglected and could use some love. It has tons of potential. I had grand plans to work on it over the winter, but haven't at all due to copious snowfall and injuries. Going to be perfect digging conditions here soon, just need my shoulder to get better.

[evdog]

The grass clumps is the one that really baffles me. I can't see how anyone would think that was a good idea.

I'd be super fucking pissed if anyone did any of that "work" on the trails I maintain.

Yeah I'm debating whether it's worthwhile scraping that dirt off the trail or just letting people ride a line back into it. I have tools stashed not too far away.

I've been fairly militant about removing cheater rocks and blocking shortcuts. But up til recently it's just been random self improvements, not people bringing their own tools out to do shit.