Go Snake

Carrying on from our evening session a couple of weeks ago, we cracked on with adding some curves to the ‘Black Track’ today. We had a few returning members join us today too which was great to see. Bill, Matt, Lindsey and Gary all coming along to get involved once more.

The felling is still taking place on sections of the trail but it seems to be a little hit and miss where he is working, but the section we have been working on has no trees left so by that observation I’m considering the work complete. We have therefore taken the opportunity to add some flow to what was a very straight, but fast section.

Before

Before

Bearing this in mind we didn’t want to kill the speed element too much, so changed our original idea a little. We reduced the size of the curves, which also meant we weren’t building into the really soft ground too.

We started by clearing the organic material from the surface until we hit the solid ground below, which fortunately wasn’t too deep. From here we built up with crushed rocks, dusted with some reclaimed aggregate from the original trail, and finally capped with a nice layer of new aggregate.

There's solid ground under here somewhere.

There’s solid ground under here somewhere.

There were some challenging roots to remove along the way, but most of them proved no match for the Silky saw.

Whilst the guys were busy building new trail Lindsey raked off all the felling debris from the rest of the trail. It’s now much clearer, reducing the risk of sticks in wheels and mechs.

 

Taking shape

Taking shape

20140928_122300

Latest Trailbuilding Tech, sticks!

The old line is invisible now

The old line is invisible now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The whole area is nice and open now the trees have gone, with some good views across the forest. The only downside is that you lose the sense of speed whilst riding, without the trees whizzing past.

Nearly there

Nearly there

 

 

 

 

Job done. Now to see how it settles in.

Job done. Now to see how it settles in.

 

A really productive day once again. Many thanks to the team today for their hard work, and to Sean for suggesting the idea in the first place. Cheers Bill, Matt, Sean, Mark, Lindsey, Gary and Andy.

Next stop will hopefully be Les’1.