MTB Nymboida: benchin' and buildin'

Toni was mountain bike racing on Sunday at the track at Grafton, I was dobbed in as the event photographer

Toni racing at Bom Bom Forest

She did well, coming first in her category.

and now back to our regular programming
I managed to get back up to the track while Toni was at work the other day and get some more benching done

More benching done

and I managed to drag her out to help me build our final obstacle on the new trail. There was a large tree that had fallen, the "Y" where a large branch came off the trunk presenting an opportunity to fill with logs and provide a platform to drop off the downhill side. We needed to build a ramp on the other side. The logs to be used for the stringers had been curing for some time

Logs curing

We roughed in where we wanted them, then dug the footings

Ramp footing

These are set on rock and kept in place by rocks, to minimise contact with the soil and help stave off the stringers rotting.

Final alignment check

Then a final alignment check before we chainsaw and chisel the notch for the other ends to sit in

Chisel work

Toni finishing off the notches after I had used the chainsaw to rough them in.

Ready to attach the decking

Then sit the logs in the notch, countersink a hole about 1/2 way through the stringer, screw in some 100mm batten screws to hold them in place. Attach the top and bottom decking planks, attach the string line to keep one side even and screw down all the decking. We managed to source a supply of recycled hardwood tongue and groove flooring, so we use that for the decking. We discussed using a couple widths, from 300mm through to 600mm and settled on 400mm as a good compromised between too narrow and too easy, we think it's a nice width to use for the decking for this ramp.