I Did Some Trail Work Today

More Five Deer trail work this weekend, same parking spot, same time if anyone is interested!
I’ll be out of town, and I still have PO from two weeks ago...but will be there next time

 

I was going to ask how yours is healing... My knee was the worst and it’s just about all dried up.

TecNu for the win!

 

Glad you’re healing up Faust!
Mine is still bothering me, I’ve never had such a concentrated, pissed off patch of PO before

 

Well... That blows. Is it time to go see a doc and get the steroids?

 

Nah, it’s not that bad.

 

I think I read somewhere that 5D is an old abandoned section of the PCT?



Anyway, the Green Gestapo (FS) hates when folks build new trails or structures on public lands. If the FS find out that someone is maintaining an existing trail they generally look the other way, but if someone is cutting new trail or building ramps and jumps they might be forced to jump in. So please use discretion.

 

Way to Rule 5 it.

 

I was told by an old school BMX rider up there that thentrail was actually built for mtb..but who knows.
No ones gonna build anything..we were just talking trash
We’ll be happy to just finish the maintenance on it this season

 

Well I’d better HTFU, I taught my husband that rule on our ride last weekend when he swallowed a gnat

 

I've been doing lots of trimming on local trails lately. Picked up an electric hedge trimmer again. It's holding up much better than the last time I tried one. Might work better two handed rather than one handed though : )

 

I was hoping to build a ramp. If we want to do enough digging we could build a ride around at the roots and a ramp. I was hoping last weekend to go do some work on 5 Deer but had some issues at home. Will plan to go back this coming weekend. I think the best course of action is to worry about this downed tree last. There is still a lot of shrubs and overgrowth further down the trail. @Mikie and I rode a couple weeks ago and it still has a lot of work before it is completely ridable. Fixing the tree might be lost effort, especially in the heat.

 

The cut was nothing. My face was scratched and swollen for about a week and a half after. Must have gotten some PO in the blood stream and got scratched on my cheek as well.

 

There isn't a lot of flow, right now in that section. A go around might actually provide more flow. The turn into the downed tree is really off camber and then becomes off camber the other direction due to a ravine. I think a go around would provide more flow but a bridge would be fun and shouldn't be too much work. There are a lot of broken branches and trees around that area.

 

Not sure how valid this is but Rich Bartlett, owner of the Block Shop in Palmdale, told me that the FS gave him permission to do work on 5 Deer. It is not cutting a new trail, more of restoring. The actual trail is going nowhere it is actually solid. It is the overgrowth that needs work. If people are going to work on it, I wouldn't bring shovels and picks. I would bring means to cut back bushes and branches. It did seem that we have cleared all the PO, would you agree @Mikie?

 

Yup! I agree. We were pushing our bikes more than riding through the Amazon jungle and I did not see any PO past where you all trimmed the trail up to.

 

I say let the inmates at camp 9 clear the hog fennel, castor bean and P.O. They have nothing to do but clear out non natives till the winds blow.

 

'Bout an hour and half with Middle Child down at Oakmont. Redlands Conservancy is putting in a new trail, connect the Jacinto Loop to the Prairie Trail. Buddy of mine is doing most of the work, but we were able to do a smidge of it. Trail is cleared pretty well, but really bumpy. Hopefully going to ride it tomorrow, as it really needs a lot of wheels and feet on it now. So if you happen to be in the neighborhood...

https://www.gaiagps.com/datasummary/track/d3f1f5f9bdc43185ad9715a94928a895/

 

I picked up a few steamers last night, a few fist size rocks sitting in the wrong places. Three nights ago I ran across this big chunk of asphalt sitting at the bottom of a pretty nasty drop, it twas sitting in the middle of a hard right hand turn which is tough enough. On my return climb I went to get it off the trail, too heavy to lift so I tried to scoot it off to the side. After more effort than it was worth I got it onto the shoulder. So the danger is gone,
Happy pulling up the front wheel and driving over things that refuse to move trails.

 

Now that rain may finally happen I have been thinking about raking some screed into the water channels. But when it is time to leave I ride my bike and only look at the canyons in the trail. Work - ride - work, I always choose ride
Happy rubber to the rock trails

 

Rain over night and this morning meant it was time to dig. Aside from a storm in early Nov this was our first notable rain since March.

I re-bermed a section that was getting badly rutted. Hopefully a bigger berm will stop people from dragging their brakes here. Rain only penetrated a couple inches into the dirt but a couple rainshowers passed over just in time to tamp the trail down. Rainbow was a nice touch as well!

 

That’s a work of art right there

 

nice work!

 

Looks beautiful!! What trail is that? Simi? OC?

 

SD. Not naming names!

But did some more work today. Someone came in last spring and built a turd of a trail that has berms which are more of a trench than a berm. Not surprisingly the ones that were flatter just filled with water. So now they will be re-built. The one below was the worst one. But all the berms were too narrow, so back wheel drags on the inner lip as you go around the turn. Super awkward. And the sections that traverse the slope have bench cuts that are too narrow so people ride off onto the uncompacted edge and create ledges.

Before & after:

 

I'm not the best berm builder, but whoever built this trail was pretty hopeless. Did what I could to fix the berms they made. They ride well uphill now which is the direction most are riding this trail, but they're still awkward/tight downhill.

Some before & after of 2 berms. First one was the worst on the trail:


This switchback was a mess. Vertical outer wall and a narrow trench with high inner berm that your rear wheel would get hung up on. You can see a second berm attempt behind that was abandoned.




I cut down the inner berm, angled the outer berm and moved all the dirt to the outer berm. Cut down the upper part a bit.




Upper view. I busted up the abandoned berm too. Once some brush grows on it next spring it shouldn't be visible.






Switchback above that wasn't as bad but still had an awkward surface that I fixed.




Both of them are still too tight to ride nicely downhill. May need to realign further




An example of the ledging I've mentioned. Trail was built with a narrow bench that was too off camber and people keep riding off the uncompacted edge forming a ledge. Later riders all seem to end up on the lower ledge due to target fixation or general ineptitude. Trail keeps widening as the tread creeps down the slope. This also happens every time a cobble pokes out of the tread. People in Socal seem to have rockophobia, always riding around the most trivial rock and usually on the downslope side.






And a final section with the ledges removed. There is one more long section that is pretty bad but that will have to wait til the next rain storm to fix. These sections will look a lot nicer when grass grows in next spring.

 

Been doing lots of digging lately.

Did another re-build of the berm we fixed up a couple weeks ago. It was still too tight and awkward. Still a bit quirky but runs better now both up and down

 

Took a break from that area and did some digging at another local spot that always gets hammered after storms. We had a couple big storms. Time to get to work. This trail runs down the bottom of a canyon with minimal chance to get water off the trail. Did some work to get it off where possible.

 

Today we went out and built much of a re-route of the worst section of this one trail.

We are replacing this section, approx 300ft of 18% avg grade, ranging from 12-26%. It has narrow bench, is badly ledged and is pretty much straight. It is badly ledged it has split into two trails in a couple spots where *gasp* a rock has poked out of the tread. We'd have to re-bench this section completely and it would always need annual maintenance, so we decided to re-route it with more sustainable trail which wouldn't take much longer. The reroute has 2 climbing turns and some contouring singletrack averaging around 10% grade. It will be way more interesting and fun to ride.



Upper section, not connected yet to the existing trail



The switchback was very steep initially so we kept digging the upper end deeper and using that dirt to raise the lower part. End result was a climbing turn that flows pretty well both uphill and down. Early testing:



End result, pre tamping. Still need to add more dirt to firm up the back side of the berm but it is rideable for now. Then build the lower berm below it, connect the upper contouring section to the existing trail and block off/cover up the existing trail section.

 

More digging today. We built the lower berm which ties this reroute into the existing trail. And finished the 60ft or so to tie it in at the top. Both still require some fine tuning fine both uphill and down as is. Stoked to have this done. Makes the trail so much better.

 

I postponed cleaning out water bars as I was afraid the one storm would be the only storm. So far the right choice as anything I move will just blow away in the strong winds. Still hope for rain but it looks unlikely.

Beware of PO right now as there are no leaves or berries, but there are juice filled sticks. I think winter exposure is worse than touching the leaves but either one gets me.
I wash with heavy detergent (Tide) anytime I believe there was contact. That seems to work most excellent.