Hitting the stride

With the machines working like crazy the last couple of days, Joey, Dave, and I are finally getting in a groove. Dave and Joey are running the excavators on the west side of M Hill. I have started an alignment on the east side. Looking at the weather the next few days, I am going to be lucky to be on the leeward side of the hill.

Here some shots from the last couple of days:

Dave and Joey building a wall.


Before and after of the trail I am building.



Not much daylight left.

Rapid City

I am currently working in Rapid City, SD for IMBA Trail Solutions. Dave Dessel of Trail Arts and I are here to run machines on the Cowboy Hill Project.

The goal of this project is to create about 12 miles of trail by early next spring. We have definitely been pushing the weather envelope on this project. Dave and Joey Klein were hotel bound as a wet and windy blizzard blew through Rapid City. I was "stuck" at home in Fort Collins in sunny weather.

We finally got firing today after more design and chainsaw work. Here are photos of the trail partially done and the machine train that we have going.

Ginny Trail work day

This past Saturday I worked with the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas and 30 volunteers to start the implementation of a plan for alternate option lines on the Ginny Trail that I created. The focus of the work was to create elevated wooden structures in an area that remains boggy after snows or rains. The second work location was an area that was for a fun double black feature. The Diamond Peaks Mountain Bike Patrol was nice enough to buy all of the volunteers and City staff lunch for the day.

Here are some photos of the day:

When in doubt...chain it off

My head is not completely in the game right now. The current project has me a bit stressed about how slow it is going.

I am probably over-reacting to what the machine is really doing, but I am putting safety first.

Closet Tree Hugger

I never knew I was such a tree hugger. Though there is a nice corridor to the left of this tree, I have my orders to cut it and six others.

I try to build through a minimalist approach. Sacrificing a steeper trail grade for 20' on the other side of this tree just makes so much more sense. Maybe I should tree sit in it to prevent myself from cutting it down.

A view from the cockpit

Started a new project in Boulderstan, CO this week. Pretty basic trail that will lack some aesthetics due to some highly restrictive trail grade requirements. The restrictions are forcing me to rent a pretty cool attachment for the SK500.

Today I got the flat 1300 feet done. Tomorrow and Friday, I start to hit the steeper cross-slopes. Monday, a small crew shows up.

Bobcat Ridge-Ginny Trail Planning

Got to enjoy the super beautiful fall weather today and ride my bike at the City of Fort Collins Natural Area-Bobcat Ridge.

This project will entail working with the local mountain bike community to construct alternate lines on the black diamond Ginny Trail. The first goal will be to address the areas that retain moisture during the spring and after rains.

Here are couple of photos of areas that may get alternate lines.

I hate cheater lines!! Already developed on the inside of both rocks in this photo. Goal: remove the opportunity to go around.
There is a line in there, trust me.
Big fat logs make great log rides.

Time to bundle up

Headed up to Curt Gowdy State Park in Wyoming today to do some finish work on that project. This is probably my favorite location to work. High plains, Ponderosas, decomposed granite....wind, chilly temps. Got to the park this morning and it was about 45 degrees at 11 am and it never got much warmer. Good thing I travel with winter clothes all year long.

Today I was installing plywood backing to the trail maps at intersections.


I also had some good light to take some photos of trail sections that I built a couple of years ago.

Roughed in accessible trail

Got to stay at home every night this past week and catch up on the chores that I don't do very often. To help me from getting to bored or successful in the list of chores, I had this very small machine construction project with the Canyon Lake Ranger District here in Fort Collins.

All I did was rough in the 1700' of trail tread for a 40" wide accessible trail connecting Dowdy Lake to West Lake. It was up near Red Feather Lakes. Had good company from the CLRD engineering department on Thursday. Brandon and Steve went nuts on a couple of stumps that another "trail crew" and cut off at the ground.

It was great to bring curvilinear trail construction to an accessible trail.

Here a some photos of my "after". The CLRD is having 200 Boy Scouts import crusher fines and finish the rake down on National Public Lands Day.

Still spunky at 15

Bungee's birthday today

Another user group of pocket parks

I was working on making a teeter at the Spring Canyon Bike Trials Park here in Fort Collins a little more stout today. As I was finishing up, a group of about 8 riders showed up and started using the skills area. Turned out it was the Fort Collins Police Department bike unit out doing some in-service training. Incredible!! Agencies shouldn't just build pocket parks for the public, but the police department too.




Oh yeah, and then the FreeRunners came through...jumping from log to log

Backcountry carpentry

Some of the trails in the Fraser Valley stay wet for quite a while after the spring melt off. Gary and I worked on building what the Forest Service call "bog bridges". If you look in the IMBA book, these structures are called log rides and used as alternate lines to the main trail.

Finding a suitable beetle killed tree


We planed the first couple of trees on their side

How do you move a big tree with two people?


Putting the logs together


A little more dirt on the approach and its done

It is amazing the compliments this basic feature got from riders passing us on the trail the next few days. Nothing like a little spice on a green trail.

Decompressing in FC

Just got home from working the the IMBA Fraser Valley Ride Center for the 6 1/2 weeks.

Got to build some cool things with the Ditch Witch and chainsaw.

Here is a before and after of a small reroute section that Gary of the Forest Service and I did.



























More of the bog bridges/log rides soon.