Home Mountain bike trail system

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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Fri May 02, 2014 7:47 pm

It's been a weird spring.. the window of time between having the snow gone, and leaves coming out I think is going to be a short one this year. It is supposed to be rainy this weekend but I hope to get out for some trail flagging.

I found out I can get rough cut hemlock from my local lumber yard. It is a little cheaper than the pressure treated lumber I have been using for bridges. I will perhaps continue to use PT for my "beams" but using the hemlock on for the decking, will solve the "slippery bridge problem"

We also just ordered a Milwaukee cordless sawzall. I at first purchased it for cutting out the small "chicken neck" stumps in the trail. I had been cutting them out with a small axe.. but it can be a bit of work doing it for hours at a time. Using a chain saw is hard on it, cutting into dirt and rock. With the sawzall I can more easily miss some of the rock, and a ruined blade is not so big a consequence. Walking a few miles of trails on arthritic knees will be easier carrying a sawzall, in comparison to the chain saw.

Once a trail is semi made , and I want to remove a few more small trees, to smooth out the flow of a trail, It again will be easier to carry, vs the chainsaw. Last year I remember walking several miles of trail to cut 3 little trees along it.
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Sat May 24, 2014 5:31 am

We only got 2 trails flagged out before the leaves came out. We did walk and explore another area, and built a short connector by-pass. It is only a about 250 feet long. We then switched over to spring clean up, which is what we should have been doing all along, man winter was tough on the trails this year. We had a pretty bad several day ice storm, and other wet heavy snows, and lots of wind, we also had heavy heavy rain on a melting snowpack. I have many culvert washouts, and tons of trees and branches down. We have slowly been picking away at it.
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Fri Jun 06, 2014 8:42 pm

We have continued to work on spring clean up. We have made good headway, but still have some to do. We have also done some "polishing" work. I have had a few places with some small trees I have thought of removing [to make the flow better] At times I have to really think about doing that.. about making a trail "easier" Some of these I have thought about for a few years.. it was time. :lol:

We had some of the trails we "made" late last fall, that were never really finished, we have done some work on them.

Image

This trail is a semi easy trail. [Most of my single track is fairly challenging] In the photo.. the two crossed logs fell as they are.. a nice big X with the center right in the middle of the trail. So I built a couple of ramps to ride over/jump.

I am loving my cordless sawzall.
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
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We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Thu Jun 12, 2014 5:55 am

Image

New trail tools came in Yesterday, just in time for our planned afternoon of trail work. Basically they are just pick / mattocks but the mattock end is 5.5 inches wide and slightly curved. For digging in rockless soil I love my super sharp Rogue Hoe, but much of our trails has rocky soil. Actually a bit of it is this neat stuff, I don't know what it is called but it is sort of like gravel except it is made of small flatish stone. Anyways this new tool is perfect for that stuff.

Much of our single track is fairly technical, but we have been wanting to add some easier fun stuff. Alice is a trail that parallels some nastier stuff. It was made a year or so ago. It is a bumpy trail, with some wheel stopping mounds and dips. One can ride it, but I want it faster, smoother and easier. With riding, it was braking in, but some digging will help it. For the most part I just shave some off a mound and use the shaved earth to fill a dip. I don't make the trail flat [by any means] but the goal is to make the transitions smoother.

This area has a lot of weird little mounds and so far, if it is not ledge poking it's head up, it is that different gravel. It is full of roots and such, so it is still work to dig, but it spreads out well once dug, and will pack well and provide good drainage.

In some places where I have a good sized mound, and I need the fill, I will dig the mound out wider than what I need for the trail [like 3' vs 1'] so I have use that fill. We use 5 gallon pails to move it to where we need it.

[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t1.0-9/q71/s720x720/10464178_723175454410164_2489275823222906038_n.jpg

[/img]

Image
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Thu Jun 12, 2014 5:57 am

Image
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
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We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Mon Jun 23, 2014 2:08 pm

Another new trail tool.

Image

This was purchased primarily to keep our section of Log skinnies "mowed". I can get at a lot of it with anything else I have, except my "hand held", string trimmer.

I am hoping to be able to use it on some of my trails, but it is yet to be seen, if it will be more work or less, than my hand held trimmer.
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Mon Jun 23, 2014 2:15 pm

I have taken a couple of the stand alone sections and moved them from outside the loops, to inside. I also place some mill felt under then, as well as some that were already in the infield. I will then put bark mulch over that.




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glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Mon Sep 08, 2014 2:12 pm

I have continued to do a little trail work over the summer, although not a lot. Mostly a little polishing here and there. Taking out the little "chicken neck" stumps… and jagged rock.

I did fairly recently do some work on the skinny farm. Laurie and I both decided we wanted more. We wanted a continuous "easy" loop that we could stay on. To be able to ride around and around. The current skinny farm was at the edge of our lawn and we had a wooded/grassy area between it and the edge of our property. We cleared further into that area to expand in that direction. We checked the area and and flagged a couple of options, and ended up opting for a 190 foot extention, to add onto our existing loops. One long side was easy.. the two ends were so-so.. We wanted to make the so- so ends easier, and add the 190 foot section off those. This would give us a 400-600 foot long easier loop.

The new addition is mostly 17" wide. It is about 12" off the ground. [some places are a little higher] High enough to feel like you are on something [vs riding a plank on the ground] but not so high that you can't just safely ride off the side, if you mess up.

Once that was made I decided on a different entrance. Our current regular entrance is uphill and has a tightish turn up onto it. The new one went through a stand of evergreens that I pruned up. I made this entrance so that as it connects to the main loop.. you have a Y.. so that you can enter and go clockwise.. or counter clockwise.

It rides well. For Laurie and I it was a little challenge… but also quite ridable.

Now I want to take the infield to the new addition and add a figure 8.. so that one can change direction without riding off the skinnies.
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Mon Sep 08, 2014 2:14 pm

Image
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Mon Sep 08, 2014 2:16 pm

Image
Last edited by Fenlason on Mon Sep 08, 2014 2:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Mon Sep 08, 2014 2:19 pm

Image
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Mon Sep 08, 2014 2:21 pm

Image
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Alan Wood » Wed Sep 17, 2014 11:09 pm

So Glenn are you getting your daily exercise from riding your bicycles or setting up trails to ride on. I do have to admit your trail system is impressive! :thumbsup:
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Thu Sep 18, 2014 5:02 am

Thanks Alan. Yeah some trail work days are pretty physical. Yesterday I was working on a new 1000 or so foot connector trail, and I had a 65 foot bench cut to do. We were going diagonally up a side hill. It was rooty and rocky, and a bit of work.

Image
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
George Bernard Shaw
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Re: Home Mountain bike trail system

Postby Fenlason » Thu Sep 18, 2014 5:11 am

This last trail happened pretty quickly. It had sort of been in the grand plan of the future. "It might be nice to have a trail there sometime". Last Saturday, I had been doing a bit of machine work, on some dual track areas, and just needed a break. I thought we could walk in the area so see what we had to work with. We had never explored that section of woods. Sometimes it will take days exploring an area before we choose a trails path. This trail I wanted to be relatively easy. It is still rooty and rocky, but compared to some of my rather technical trails, not bad. I had a wet area I wanted to try and avoid, but otherwise the line came to be, rather quickly.

We finished the trail yesterday. Now it just needs to get ridden in. :D
Last edited by Fenlason on Sun Oct 12, 2014 4:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
glenn

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
George Bernard Shaw
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Fenlason
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