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Trailwork Report
Ken Burton Trail, Saturday,
February 2, 2008
by Steve Messer, OTB
Mountain Bike Club.
We had a pretty small turnout today for our trailwork day. Originally
we had planned to work on Valley Forge trail, but because of snow we moved it to the Ken Burton Trail instead.
It was a small
showing.... five of us were at the meeting spot at Windsor and Ventura.
With the recent rains and known landslides across the Brown Mtn fire road
it was quicker (round trip) to ride up than to drive. We loaded up the Bob
trailers with tools and headed up the hill.
Hans
took a Bob with tools and a heavy rock bar, and I took one with two
mcleods, two polaskis, clippers, and a saw. We figured they weighed around
50 pounds each.
Dragging that up to the top of brown took about
1:20:00, half an hour longer than my usual time up there.
But it was the ride down the Burton with 50 extra pounds
of rolling momentum behind you that was fun... Hans and I made it down the
trail in about 17 minutes to the clearing just above the last few
switchbacks, where we'd be working.
Riding the switchbacks with a
Bob was a new experience, but I was able to clean the entire trail (at
least on the way down). It was pretty sweet taking the switchback with the
big step... the trailer bounced off a rock and made it around no problem.
Hans was
towing a trailer with no suspension; the Bob I towed had that inch or so,
and I could tell it made a huge difference. The non-suspended trailer was
bouncing wildly all over the place, but mine seemed to track pretty well
and got bounced quite a bit less. I'm sold on the suspended
bobs!
We got straight to work at the bottom of the trail,
widening and rock-armoring one section that we had built last November. On
a recent ride most people had to walk that section so the extra foot of
width will make it much more doable. Shortly after we started Steve from
Cole Wheels showed up and helped out as well.
Just after we
started:
The
During Shot:
The
After shot:
There's
a pretty obvious patch of mud across the trail where the spring had been
feeding from below. We "paved" that with rock so that it wouldn't become a
mud-hole.
All the
rocks we used were brought up from the bottom, helping to clear a path
through the river rock along the edge of the river at the
bottom.
After a few hours that went by really quickly, we
headed up the trail to do some more tread work and water diversions.
Climbing with the 50 pounds was tough, and I only made one of the
switchbacks. The trailer would get hung up on the inside of the turns, and
it was really tough just walking it up the 15 - 25% grade around the
switchbacks.
The
tough one was tougher on the way up (not me in the pic):
The climbs and even some of the rocky sections were
easier than expected with all that extra momentum, as long as there was a
little room to build that momentum. I'd say we were able to climb about
90% of the trail... The adjustable geometry of the Bionicon definitely
made it easier to keep the front end down even with all the weight in the
back...
We stopped again near the top to do some more water
diversion, before cruising back out to the top of Brown Mountain. We'd
decided to climb out instead of trying to deal with the 7 or so river
crossings... the river at the bottom was flowing pretty strongly after the
recent rains and snowmelt.
Great
day and a lot accomplished. Not as much as we'd hoped with the small crew,
but the soft moist dirt made it pretty easy to move and things went
quickly.
Thanks Hans, Jeff, Greg, Steve, and Mitch.
Would I tow a 50 pound trailer down a tight, steep,
technical single track with 24 switchbacks again? In a heartbeat!
Up it? Maybe ;) Both ways, it was a good
time!
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