Home Mountain bike trail system

[Fenlason]

This will be the start of the trail running from The Knoll to Dot's Hill.

Obviously this is where one of our bridges will be needed. This is at the edge of the cut area.. and there are little fingers of woods through the cut area. In some cases the wooded sections are the better trails, in other areas the cut sections are better.

[Fenlason]

This was a cool tree on the trail from Just a Bunny to the trail Somewhere. Laurie wants to put a ramp up and through the tree. It is pretty big.. that crotch is 6+ feet off the ground. It would be really cool to ride through the tree.. but it would take quite a bit of lumber.

[Fenlason]

I did a bit more clean up from our recent storm. 40 something trees cut up and moved today..close to 80 so far.. and still probably only a dent.

[Fenlason]

We also did more work on our most recent trail. We have it fairly roughed out all ready. Branches pruned.. some trees cut. downed stuff cut and moved.. and off the rest of the "debris" moved. I did not get to leaf blowing yet. [It was getting dark on the drive back out of the woods as it was] This end of the trail was raked with the fire rake.. a hundred or so feet needed this before using the blower.

I am guessing this trail will be relatively easy. [one never knows until the leaf blowing is done. It is amazing what good cover of leaves can hide] It seems to be fairly flat also. [One of our few none hilly trails]

[Fenlason]

I got that next trail leaf blown. There was still a bit for stuff on the ground to cut and move… old downed trees. There was some old debris from when there was some logging [almost 20 years ago.] I went out and removed all the little stumps.. and did some earth work. While we might do more.. I think mostly all it needs is to be ridden in. I think this trail will be a blast. I was at first looking at it as a way to get from here.. to back over there… riding it in the uphill direction…. but working on it today. Starting way over at Easy Out…. riding down Alice [a generally gradual downhill] to Mad Hatter. [A little faster downhill, but still not steep] Then to this trail. [again generally gradually downhill] to the Start of Just a Bunny, down Lovely.. across the brook… then up the other side. It should be a fun rip.

[Fenlason]

[Fenlason]

We have continued to work on the trails.. a combination of new construction and clean up. Some places have been hit hard with that last storm. Some of the carnage.

[Fenlason]

[Fenlason]

[Fenlason]

More new construction.

A couple of neighbors over there is a "hidden" field. It out a ways from their farm.. way out in the woods. It is slowly becoming engulfed with Pine. There are some neat stands of younger pine. A few years ago when we made Just a Bunny we skirted into the edge of a section just a little, and people have loved it. Our last newest trail on the other side of the field goes through it on that side, in a longer section. A while ago I flagged a nice loop through the bigger part off Just a Bunny. I am guessing it will be somewhere between 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile.




It curves and winds though the pines like this.. One "just" prunes the branches [and pick them up and move them] and you have a scenic, awesome, fun trail.

[Fenlason]

We have 2 new trails that go through these Pines, 3 in all. An older, Just a Bunny just barely skirts into them. One we built a couple of weeks ago, runs through a section on one side of the "field", and then the above newest one winds through a 1/2 mile of it, on the other side. Each time I have ridden through either of them at night, I see rabbits.

We did build another connector trail. When first scouting and flagging the 3 Amigo trail I had come out on Waterfall trail, which wasn't exactly where I wanted to be. For 3 Amigos I back tracked and rerouted. We did later go back and look at the Waterfall trail option. Crossing Waterfall trail we could work through to Gandalf's Revenge. The upper part of G R got wiped out when the area was logged. The lower part is there… some of it is gone forever.. other parts need to be reclaimed. There were a couple of segments as far up as we had reclaimed, that we were not using. For the most part..the lack of use.. was the upper end of that was so-so to get to. Anyways.. this new connector trail works through to connect to that part of Gandalf's. This will allow us to ride from the Chute.. all the way down to Jurassic Park, Or of course.. all the way up it.

This time of year with the ground starting to freeze up, we don't get to complete trails… or don't try to. The new connector goes through some logging areas.. and debris is kind of frozen in the ground… but it is an excellent time to do other work. With the leaves down..and other vegetation dead, the roughing out work is much easier. We have quite a few trails flagged or started, I am not sure how much we will get to, before snow slows us down.

[Fenlason]

We got shut down from trail building early this year. We had significant snow cover before Thanksgiving. Some years we have been able to work through to Christmas [or after]. In someways it isn't a big deal.. [well actually in all ways it isn't a Big Deal] for I am "forced" to go back to working on some house projects, but I do miss it. We were on a roll…. making great progress. We also had a bit of other work in the "pipeline". The recent additions were awesome.. and I was looking forward to more of it.

Looking at the photo's on our FB page doesn't help. I was going through stuff.. kind of reviewing what we had done. We did not do much in the middle of the summer this year, and this springs work was harder to discern, but this fall. It looks like we made 15 new trails. That seems huge. Some of them were only a few hundred long, but they were great additions and add fun and flow, and good connections from one trail to another. Some like the recent trail through the pines are 1/2 mile long. Some of these trails will need some more earth work, but all are quite rideable.

I do know we did a lot of work on existing trails.. a little "polish" here and there. We also did a lot of work on the existing dual track, Ditching and installing culverts etc.

It is more painful for me to walk in the snow now… but we might try to make it out to do a little work on some new trails. We have some stuff flagged, and if the flags aren't too buried, so that we can follow the proposed route, we can get a little head start for spring.

[Fenlason]

We did get out for more work.. hmm not long before Christmas we got out for a day. There was a thin coat of snow and ice.. and it hurt like heck. We have since gotten kind of buried in snow. We did rough out a trail we had at first flagged out a year ago.

We made so many new trails late in the season.. I tend to forget about them. Looking at the photo's Part of me is real anxious to get back to work on them. We will have a lot of clean up come spring. We have had a lot come down in some of the storms. Otherwise much of our work might go like this past year.. the majority of our trail work waiting until fall. I am.. or was hoping for a good race year… and endurance racing and trail building kind of clash.

I did just buy another new trail tool. I had ordered a new pair of loppers. I really wrestled what to get, but ended up not entirely happy with my purchase. They are excellent quality [Felco].. but they are a little small. They seem more work than my old ones. Ben Meadows.. a place I have purchased other tools just sent me a $1.00 shipping offer… sooooo A pair I wanted. they were out of, so I went bigger.

[39Ratrod]

That is such a sweet trail system you have. I really dig the skinny logs. Wish I rode more than I do. When I was in my early teens-early 20's it was my LIFE!

[Fenlason]

Thanks.

I don't know why so many pictures are missing.

As spring arrives. The Skinny Farm will be the first thing I get to work on again. When it's too wet to work in the woods. I can get my trail work "fix" working on that. I was also in the midst of a project there.