"Whippy" - trail building log

Log for trail-building comp.

Just a bit of a log of our new trail we are building on some private land in North Wales.
Started in November 08, progress has been quite slow (lots of learning to do, and had exams etc), but slowly picking up the pace.

Main building (and planning) is done by myself (Duane Walker) and 2e (Tom Elmore), but we are reguarly helped by others (thanks all!)

Mates got some land (just under half is wooded) with a couple little tracks dotted about.

Started building a new trail, have wanted a nice flowy "freeride" type trail for a while, with nice smooth jump gaps, berms, bits of northshore type stuff etc, so hopefully this new trail will be sweet.

Land is kinda split into 3 sections length ways by 2 fireroads, and the new track will hopefully go from top to bottom.

The other trails on the piece of land tend to be down-hill type tracks, so we are aiming to build a smooth flowy trail with lots of gaps, big berms, drops, northshore (wallrides etc)- just a fun track really!

I know Im late entering this comp, and obviously a lot of work has already been done. Im gonna stick a load of pics of the stuff already built in this blog, but if you wanna read a proper log, see here;
http://www.southerndownhill.com/forum/index.php/topic,175833.0.html

And all the pics are here;
http://minimole.pinkbike.com/album/Llanfair-TH/

Oh, and everything except for the berm has been built after 10th Dec 2008

_______________________________________________________________________________20th March- stuff already built.

Right, as said above, this trail was started very end of last year ( 2008 ).

Basically, as it stands now, you can see most of the trail from here;

So we have a steep roll-in from the fireroad, into the 1st gap (slight left hip), then straight into the 2nd gap, then over a smooth ladder roller thing, then down a smooth bit of singletrack linking up to the middle fireroad.


Some pics as we went along;

Roll-in/berm/1st gap takeoff

Back of berm/1st gap crib;

Berm into gap;

1st gap;
(^havent finished extending landing yet)

2nd gap;

Wooden roller;

Short singletrack leading down to the fireroad;


And some general building shots;

Dedication!

Notching

Shelfing

Yay for stumps!

Cribbing



So thats where we're up to so far, hopefully heading up tomorrow, so should have another update soon!

Duane + Tom.



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UPDATE: 21st March

Tom and I went up again today.

Firstly, finished sorting out the landing of the 1st gap (after extending it the other night);

We hit it a bit later on, and it works sweet You can hit it a fair bit quicker, so you have a lot more speed going into the 2nd gap (no need to pedal now).
After we both did what there is of the trail so far (berm, 2 gaps, ladder roller), we were well happy Flows really nicely, and is just fun to hit

Anyway, we went up yesterday, and this is what we did (before and after) (Tom had done half of it the other week). The bushes/brambles are over 6ft tall in places;

What is it? Well, its for the landing area (obviously not finished yet) for a rrooaaddggaapp




Firstly, some pics of putting up the front A-frame;

Then the diagonal supports (nailed to the stakes) for the A-frame;

Then the middle A-frame;


And finally, a mock-up of the actual roadgap (stringers are just placed on top, but both A-frames are in the ground mega-solidly).

Will have lots more diagonal supports.
Extension of stringers past the front A-frame may or may not be removed, depending on how it goes.
Getting a vaguely steep landing should be interesting. Theres a big pile of dirt at the top of the landing area (see 3rd pic) which will be pushed/raked down onto the fairly shallow landing area to steepen it up.
Yes, Im going to be (very) scared hitting it.


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UPDATE: 7th April

Not really an update as such, just a pic and couple clips from 2 Saturdays ago (I know, I just havent got round to adding them to this blog)

Pic of Tom (in front) and me hitting the two gaps by Ste Price;



Helmet cam of the trail so far;



Helmet cam of our trail, and then hopping onto the roadgap track, and onto bottom section in the woods;




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UPDATE: 11th April


Just a quick update from todays digging (didnt ride at all).


Firstly, its pretty awesome being able to drive right down to where we're building, means we can take the tools and food down, have music etc, pretty handy


After mocking up the roadgap the other week, we decided we wanted to lower it a bit, mainly because the landing area is not steep at all, so would be mega-harsh.

We were initially going to pull the whole front A-frame out and cut the bottom of the legs off, but decided to take the tops off instead, make a new horizontal piece, and refit the 3 affected diagonals.

Depressing Cutting the top off;

All re-done (stringers not nailed on);

Lowered RG (stringers just placed ontop)


Then it was a matter of sorting the run-in area. The path we originally cleared/made was totally off, as shown here (path on the left);

The run-in wanted to go right through a nice wood pile, so we started clearing that. There was a stump at the top/start and bottom/end of the pile (bottom one is visible in above pic), so we decided to go over them with some northshore ladder stuff.

So we set about collecting some logs/putting in posts and supports/clearing the ground etc etc.

The run-in ladder will be in 3 kind of sections, an up bit, along, and then down, joining onto the roadgap stringers- hopefully the runin will give you a good amount of speed

Supports etc, and a few logs mocked up;

And an amazing stitch, showing the mocked up logs, and how it is joined to the rest of the trail (steep runin to the berm/gaps is visible on the far left);


Thats all we managed to do really, hopefully next time we're up we'll carry on with the run-in, start slatting, and then its on to sorting the landing/runout, and then hitting it


To finish;
Lil bird checking out the RG landing;

2e practicin his moovez;


Voila

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Update: 14th April

Tom and I had another good day up there today.
Actually did a bit of riding to start with, which was a nice change


Digging wise, we started by putting in a horizontal support for the start of the roadgap stringers to rest on- managed to reuse the top of the main A-frame which we had cut off last week


Then we put in another support for the very start of the wooden run-in to the RG,



Once this was done, we mocked all the stringers up to sort out how they would all fit together etc, and then put flats on the undersides so they dont roll on the supports. Then nail everything together with numerous 6" nails

Can get a rough idea of how it all looks here;




If we had the last section of the wooden run-in join onto the very start of the RG stringers (ie were we put the support in shown up there ^^), it would be a pretty harsh angle, so we decided to join them further along. To keep it strong (and not have the weight of stringers/riders on the nails), we made a piece which fitted between the two RG stringers, and the two run-in stringers sat on this piece;


Once everything was nailed in place etc, we went and grabbed a load of the slats we brought up a while back, and started slatting the run-in section;



Unfortunately we run out of slat wood before we got to the end of the RG, but we were'nt far off. Cut the slats we did get down to length.
Finished run-in;




So yeah, there you go

Hopefully next we'll finish slatting, sort the dirt berm onto the ladder out, as well as putting some dirt at the very start so you can actually get onto the ladder
And then its to sorting out the landing/runout (will require a fair bit of work ).

We're hoping to put some more diagonal supports on the RG stringers too.


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Update: 25th April


Just a little update from last Saturdays work for now (was lazy uploading pics).

I headed up, and met Ben and Adam there (Tom was err, suffering the effects of the previous nights activities...), who kindly helped do some digging

The landing for the RG was pretty horrible, it was flat for a fair few feet, and then went shallowly down. So we basically dug a hole load of it up, dragged it up to the top, so it went above the level of the fireroad by about a foot, but also making the landing quite a lot steeper.

Does now mean that if you case it it wont do you any good, but ah well, at least it shouldnt be like hucking to flat


Me raking, Adam attacking another stump;

3 nice stumps in the run out;

Looking past stringers at finished landing (you can see where the dirt has been built up at the top);

Looking up the landing;


Hopefully will get another update from todays acivities up later

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Update: 25th April

OK, here we go.
Was a fair few of us up today- Loz, Chris, Ste, Jamie, Tom, and myself. Really good day, lots of progression, nice BBQ etc
Also meant we had some help with digging which was ace

Anyway- roadgap. So after last weeks digging, there were just a few things to do to get it rideable- put dirt/bit of a berm onto the run-in ladder (forgot to get pics), finish slatting, and sort out the stumps in the run-out area.

Tom cutting the last slats to size;

Stumps- there was one right in the middle of the runout, and then two larger ones at the very bottom (you can see them in the pics from last weeks digging). Tom cut the worst of the top stump away (old chain in the saw ) so it was level with the ground, and we just stuck some mud infront of the bottom stumps so you can roll over them.


Then it was to step back and check out the finished piece

(Now has dirt smoothly onto it)

Da builderz (Tom and me)

[PI=pbpic3323415 size=m align=c]pbpic3323415[/PI]

Checking out the gap;




Went and faffed about for a bit, and then came back to hit it

Was kinda worried about stopping in the runout (without killing myself on stumps/trees), and also getting the right speed.

Anyway, physched myself up (:P) and hit it. Turned out you needed a bit more speed :-\ Cased the top of the landing nicely (thought Id ripped the pedal off/mangled the rear wheel) However, stopping wasnt really an issue, plenty of time to slam on the anchors.

Was kinda wierd, when we were rolling up to the edge (and looking at it from the side), it didnt seem that big, but as soon as I was in the air, wowah, its huge! Well, seemed it to me anyway, think its the biggest thing Ive hit.

Hit it a few more times, with a bit more speed

Various pics;

Yay for paps;

We have takeoff;



And a pretty sweet pic/edit (IMO) from Loz;


Lastly, the trail as it stands at the moment


Sorry for all the pics- guess thats what happens when you have 3 guys with dSLRs walking around

And yeah, guess its a bit overhyped, but still, "awesome"


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Update: 1st July

Just a short vid from ages ago;
http://www.vimeo.com/4850134
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So there you go


Duane + Tom