The Geeky Trail Building Thread

[raisingarizona]

This build is stupidly beautiful. I can’t wait for its completion.

 

[Brownski]

Hey RA, how do you guys document/ communicate your plans? Is there a daily plan or just a master plan that you chip away at as much as you can? I feel like since the word “geeky” is in the subject we should be getting more topos or something equivalent as we proceed.

Beautiful work by the way

 

[raisingarizona]

Hey RA, how do you guys document/ communicate your plans? Is there a daily plan or just a master plan that you chip away at as much as you can? I feel like since the word “geeky” is in the subject we should be getting more topos or something equivalent as we proceed.

Beautiful work by the way

Thank you sir!

We keep our FS contact updated weekly via email. The Heart and Little Elden Project went through the NEPA process two years ago after we did the initial routing which was very basic and not detailed but it gave us a very large corridor to work with. We didn't have any plans to work on this area until the FS proposed the project idea to us 3 years ago. Since then I've spent the majority of my free time out there figuring out the best possible alignments. Our group has signed agreements with the FS and we basically decide on the day where we are going to be focusing our efforts.

We sign safety meeting forms and record our hours. We are somewhere around 230 volunteer hours already for this season.

 

[raisingarizona]

I’m having one heck of a season so far! On Tuesday we start on the Heart Trail project.

 

[gorgonzola]

Some serious bench cut, all by hand?

 

[raisingarizona]

Some serious bench cut, all by hand?

Haha! Good eye, nope. That section was hand finished machine build.

 

[raisingarizona]

I’ve got 12 days of building in over the last 14! I’m loving it.

 

[gorgonzola]

Nice, one of our local tracks is 90% machine built/hand finished - the previous trail boss owned an equipment rental business and along with some pro design (dirtsculpt dave) made for some great build progress. Unfortunately politics mucked it up a bit and halted progress and we even lost some mileage with (bogus?) E&S regs and nesting ground limitations. Hopefully things seem to be getting back on track and the next phase is supposedly approved to start this summer - pro build vs. volunteer so it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out

North Range Loop Mountain Bike Trail, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania

Flowing singletrack with no rocks, and endless rolling hills. Near Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

www.mtbproject.com

 

[raisingarizona]

Nice, one of our local tracks is 90% machine built/hand finished - the previous trail boss owned an equipment rental business and along with some pro design (dirtsculpt dave) made for some great build progress. Unfortunately politics mucked it up a bit and halted progress and we even lost some mileage with (bogus?) E&S regs and nesting ground limitations. Hopefully things seem to be getting back on track and the next phase is supposedly approved to start this summer - pro build vs. volunteer so it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out

North Range Loop Mountain Bike Trail, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania

Flowing singletrack with no rocks, and endless rolling hills. Near Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

www.mtbproject.com

Ugh.....politics.

We have had our share of that with this project as well but we keep pushing forward regardless. Man it's crazy how much of that there is with trails. I tend to build with bikes in mind and apparently that isn't appreciated by some of our more vocal local hiking community even though they obviously don't have a clue about sustainable trail building. Oh well, I won't stop no matter what. Gotta keep on with the fight.

 

[raisingarizona]

We finished up .5 mile of new tread on the Heart Trail project last week and got a bunch of new trail done on Little Elden during a volunteer event yesterday. We spent two 10 hour days building this rock armored wash crossing.