Nov
18

Mongrel's Way Point 70

Sunday, 18-Nov 2012 @ 5:52pm

6 volunteers really worked hard on this project in humid and wet conditions today.  It's nice to go home knowing a great job has been done.  There are still things to be done before Way Point 70 is ticked off the list, but riders who passed by today seemed very happy with what they had.  

Watch this space for the finishing touches.  Mongrels has become a fantastic ride thanks to sensible stewardship and hard work as well.  Thank you Bruce for running the show.

If you go back to last week's trail news, you will see how things started on this part of the Way Point 70 switchbacks.  Here's a memory jog for the middle turn, which has been our target over 2 weeks.

Here's what it looks like now and how it got there:

First thing this morning further grade reversals and drainages were the priority high in the turn.

At the low entrance, lots of stone and contouring was added to the large stones we had deposited last week.

A tread of stones offers advantages.  It drains water seeping into the trail, allows drainages to have smooth contours, it holds soil and remains durable with use.  A stone tread also traps silt flowing over it during heavy rain and becomes a hardened trail over time if made correctly.  However, the greatest advantage of a stone tread is that rider impact (force) is distributed through all the surrounding stones, ensuring the trail tread does not shift or erode.  Soil can be added to create a really smooth surface.  

We have found the absolute, most important thing is to finish the stoney tread with tiny stones.  Tiny stones spread the load even more subtley.  And so you get a great surface, whether covered with soil or not.

It is really important that all trailworkers find their niche.  While we rotate tasks to avoid repetitive pain injuries, each of us has our tool of choice.  Until Lynn found the pry bar, she worked hard, but just looked lost

Things coming along

Every great job has to come to an end.  This is what you get to ride.  For the actual riding pics, see the gallery, but give me a coupla days to get them posted.   Here's what we left today

But wait, there's more:

We didn't just do the middle turn.  With spirited workers and a little time, we were able to start the top turn.  

There is a modified entrance into the new section of trail for now.

In the next week or so, Bruce and Mick will join a new section of trail above these pics to the original trail.  They will also close the last bit of the old one, thus completing Way Point 70 in style.

Cheers  Louis


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