Jack 'n Jill continues

Jack 'n Jill continues

Nymboida local Clayton has been helping out on the trails lately.  Clayton and his brother Sebastian both enjoy riding them so why not help us build new stuff ? Few hands making lighter work 'n all.  Clayton has been out several times, Sebastian the once so far.  Clayton especially is coming along and getting stuck in, so a great big thank you to him.

Phase I

Clayton hard at it

As always, the trail construction stalwart Toni is supervising, making sure the final finish isn't compromised. Her eye for detail makes the trail look professional and reflects in a smoother ride.  I tend to leave the finish a little "rough"

As always, pictures speak louder than words

Sebastian taking a break under Toni's watchful eye

Tree log crossing coming along

Plenty of obstacles on this trial, it's a little harder, with jumps, berms to "rail", logs to cross, tree stumps to ride over and plenty of other great obstacles, combined with some stepper trail, it makes it a fast, thrilling descent.

Berm is finsihed

More trail features prior to construction

and finished

Phase II

The photo's above are all of Phase I.  This can easily be accessed from Glenn's Ck Rd and will be open quite soon.  Phase II has had the corridor cleared but has not yet been roughed out prior to construction starting. Lots of back breaking pick work to come as the side slope is quite steep.

Top of phase II, side slope is 28% !

The noise !

Ear Plugs ?

Currently we have an influx of Cicadas.  The noise !  Apparently they are very bad once every 5 years or so, this year seems to be it.  They were bad back in 2009, five summers ago, so that seems about right. Definitely above 90dB !  Out in the bush the noise is so loud, ear plugs are needed

Cicada Skeleton

more trail !

More trail....... those are the two words every ardent mountain bikers likes to hear.

Jack 'n Jill !

We have started building the new trail, tentatively named "Jack 'n Jill", as Phase II (we are currently working on Phase I) requires you to go up the hill, albeit no pail of water at the top... who puts a well at the top of a hill anyway ?  The name also fits in with the nursery rhyme theme for the trails on the southside of the property.

(L)Toni - (R) Clayton

Clayton Young made a brief appearance to learn the skilled art of "finishing" the trail, taught by the zen trail finishing master, Toni,.  He seemed amazed at the amount of work that was put into a trail, always wanting to take the "easier" path or just "scratch 'n ride"... au contraire, the trails should be there for a long time and will be ridden often so the last thing you want to do is make them "ordinary".

The trail progresses

Phase I, II and III

Jack 'n Jill Phase I has been roughed out 98% (one corner to go), the build is well under way and finishes with an access to Glenns Ck Rd.  The trail corridor for Phase II has been selected. This part of the trail  involves a long climb on a hand built, rolling contour trail ie LOTS of benching and terminates at a temporary connection to Red Riding Hood.  Phase III has yet to be decided !

Toe Bone - Maintenance

One of the sins I committed when first building was to build a structure that relied on the fasteners for it's strength.  This is verboten under IMBA trail building rules to which we are trying to stick to, the years also showed why.  The decking started to come off.  So out we went to redo it properly.  We felled timber for the decking by using coppicing of local timber right beside the structure, we debarked then left them for several weeks to "cure".

New stringers curing and decking being detached

To fix the problem we had to pull up all the decking, lay stringers beside the current ones, using an Adze to smooth out the difference in the stringers and then reattach the decking.

New stringers atatched, Adze work done

Competed structure, done just before the Social Trail Ride.

Structure now looks great ! The "Log Bridge Ride of D'eath" indeed !