Trails Update: June 23, 2022
“It’s a vacation…”
It’s time for another visit from Rob: The bike-centric engineer/trail builder joined us once again for a full week! You might remember stories of Rob’s obsession with moving big rock… like on Lord of the Squirrels, where he concocted a plan to slide a grand chunk of granite on snow using a “mattock-boggan”.
Rob and I started the week by supporting Benoit and both Michal’s on Hot Dog Alley. We completed a ride-around for the zapping steep bedrock slab and gave some rough sections a generous coat of smooth mineral dirt.
Next, we visited Scott, Camie and Josh at Business Time for some brake rut armouring, berm enhancing and to figure out what to do about the “choke”.
-I swear the tree must be leaning into the cliff now…
-Could the big rock have shifted?
-It’s the bars. They’re getting wider. In 2012, MTB handlebars were almost 10cm narrower than they are now. Plus, that tree’s radius has been growing 2-3mm per year…
While Scott showed me a potential ride around for the cliff section, Rob studied the cliff and devised a plan. Armed with only a 3 pound mini-sledge, he encouraged the cliff to release enough granite chunks along its existing cracks for riders’ heads to pass unconcussed. Alas, 800mm bars would still struggle through… until he realized that sediment had been piling at the base of the choke. Rob scraped the layers away until he reached the tree’s roots (the original tread height).
The choke hasn’t become a walk in the park: you’ll still need some “body-English” or “cycle-yoga” to ride through it... but it is less likely to scratch your helmet or break your fingers.
And so, we’ll skip building that ride-around for a few more years… until the tree grows some more or when we all ride 36’ers with 900mm bars… (eyeroll).
Rob wasn’t the only visitor to join the crew this week: Pat and Renee also dropped by to deliver stories and cookies!
Also on the list for the week: build a bridge near the top of Chipmunk Rebellion. The old FSR crossing had become a creek of sorts making that section of trail extra rough. I took the opportunity, given our proximity, to go inspect another trail in the vicinity…there were mounds of tree litter, abundant branches and snow patches covering Lord of the Squirrels until 1325m. That’s where I hit complete snow cover, roughly a metre deep. I also checked out LESS: full snow cover was at 1290m. Prognosis: I’d make some lower elevation riding plans for Canada Day weekend…
I’ll remind you that the tread of trails surrounded by melting snow is usually saturated with water. Tires, hiking boots and running shoes turn that tread into mud. Please be patient!
See you on the trails!
Dan Raymond
WORCA Lead Trail Builder
