Trail making
Yesterday while here visiting my parents, I was looking around for something to do. I walked out in a wooded area where I used to play as a kid. A few minutes later, I was starting the construction of a mountain bike trail.
The geography around here is dominated by swamps. Because of this there are many drainage ditches running along the various fields surrounding my parents’ property. Along two sides of their yard there are wooded areas with these ditches running along the edges.
The neat thing about these ditches is that when they were dug many years ago the dirt was piled up beside the cuts. Later the trees began to cover them. So here in the woods there are nice little moguls — some up to four feet high.
I began clearing some of the undergrowth and removing some small trees allowing me to open a path along the moguls. After taking this path along the ditch for about 30 yeards, I turned away from the ditch into the woods.
Things slowed down a bit then because of the myriad of thorny vines. There were large green ones, old dry black ones, small vines with thousands of small thorns, and some with thorns about an inch to an inch and a half long. What was fun suddenly lost its enjoyment!
Still, I got another 40 yards down and was starting plans for completing a loop. Once I got that loop done, the plan was to build a ladder bridge over the ditch into another wooded area about 100 yards by 40 yards. This could be a pretty awesome MTB trail!
I was very excited about getting back out there this morning. My nephews said they would help me and I figured we could finish the first loop and build the bridge leaving me something to ride when I return in December as well as opening the new area for further trail building.
I woke up and it was raining! Did I mention that there are a lot of swamps around here? There also is no hint of a draught here! The ground is saturated with water. It is just way too wet to get out there. So, I guess I’ll just have to keep planning in my mind until I get here for Christmas.
Tags: Mountain Biking, Trail Building
