Category: making things

This afternoon I headed out to River Bends and installed the temporary signage mentioned yesterday. Everything went great and I used ~31 of the signs to mark a route from the parking lot all the way through the single track and to the return trails (paved and two-track). Each sign was (for easy removal) loosely nailed to a tree approximately eight feet above the ground; a height which will hopefully curtail casual vandalism.

Needing something to stand on in order to reach this height I brought along a milk crate which was light enough to carry easily and sat surprisingly stably on the ground. It provided both a work surface for applying the arrow decals to the plastic and a one foot step so that I each sign only had to be hammered in a comfortable height above my head.

Here’s a few photos of the newly placed temporary signs on the trail:

· Temporary mountain bike route sign at River Bends trailhead.
· Signs located at the T where one can continue on River Bends regular single track loop or down into the Seasonal Loops.
· Temporary signage at River Bends was placed by nailing over my head while standing on a milk crate. This placed most signs at about eight feet off the ground; hopefully above easy vandal access height.

While walking the trail I was noticing a good bit of damage to the trail caused by dirt bikes. I figured that people were sneaking out on to the trails in the evening and damaging them, but not long after getting started I heard the sound of motor and saw two guys riding on the trail not far from me. I wanted to talk to them and ask them to go easier on the trails, but as soon as they noticed that I was paying attention to them they hurried away.

I personally don’t have much concern for what people do as it’s not destructive or injurious to others. Unfortunately, their riding on trails can’t be ignored as it has resulted in large, loose ruts, particularly on hills and around corners. A trail surface normally transitions smoothly from the compact surface to the softer, leafy forest floor, but the dirt bikes have ripped up corners there are 3-4″ wide grooves 1″ deep full of loose soil along the edge. Not only will this contribute to erosion it makes the trail less safe as corners then have areas that make a front wheel wash out more easily, which is almost guaranteed to cause a fall. There are also places where the outside edge of bench cut is being eroded making the trail more off camber than desired. These trails are built to be sustainable when traversed by foot or bicycle traffic, but they can’t take the load of a heavy motorbike, particularly not when it frequently has a spinning rear wheel chewing away dirt and tossing it around.

Here’s some photos of fresh damage caused by dirt bikes on the trails at River Bends: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4

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When checking the mail today I was somewhat surprised to see this on the front page of the Shelby-Utica News. Last week I was interviewed by Kristyne Demske who wrote the article and this past Saturday while doing trail work a photographer was out with us taking some photos, and this article is the result. While a few quotes seem out of context, I feel that the overall article is good and reflects what we hope to accomplish with the trails. I could probably do with learning to talk to reporters a bit better, too; more concise, better quotable bites, and a bit less wordy.

You can read the complete article online by clicking here, or see scans of the two pages of the article here: Page 1 · Page 2

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After getting the second phase of trails at River Bends open this weekend I set to work creating a map of the trails in the park. Well, here it is. This map lists all of the two track, official single track, and asphalt along with showing the parking lot and the nearest intersection for reference.

To download a PDF of the map, click the image above or here: River_Bends_03-Oct-2010.pdf

UPDATE: The 17-Nov-2010 update of the map can be found here: River_Bends_17-Nov-2010.pdf

UPDATE 2: The 13-Mar-2011 version of the map can be found here: River_Bends_13-Mar-2011.pdf

UPDATE 3: The latest version of all maps of the trails at River Bends can be found at: http://mmba.org/library/maps/riverbends/latest.pdf

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With a total of 39.5 volunteer hours spent during a rainy trail day of bench cutting, installing a new bridge, (which Pete designed specifically for the space), raking, trimming, and generally finishing off the trail, Phase II of the single track trails at River Bends are now open. While the trails are still a bit slippery from the last couple days of rain, they should be quite nice to ride.

Once I was done taking a break after the trail day I then headed back to River Bends and walked the new part of the trail with My Tracks recording the route. This data, combined with stuff gathered on previous mapping trips, allowed me to make this map showing all the park-recognized paths within the park. While just the first revision, I’m still quite happy with how it’s all coming along. There’s now a ridable, cohesive loop of multiple miles of single track.

Now to get to finishing the other loops that hang off of it. They already exist, but need both some cleanup and trimming before they’ll be properly ridable. Right now getting through some parts of them is akin to riding down a corn row.

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Phase II of the multi-use single track trail at River Bends that I’ve been facilitating the construction of is moving along nicely. Since completing Phase I back in June I’d written up this proposal (PDF, page 3 contains a map) for two more phaes of trail, gotten it approved by the township, and gone to work so that it can be completed by winter.

All of the Existing Segment of Phase II was trimmed back (it was quite overgrown) to a nicely rideable / hikeable state at the beginning of September, and throughout the past week I’ve begun work on the New Segment. In River Bends I’ve found that when getting started I like to clear deadfall and rake in the route. (Another photographic example.) After this then a line trimmer can be brought in to remove any small plant growth and scour the ground, and then bench cutting can be done as-needed on off-camber sections of land to provide a flat place to ride. All but ~1000′ of this new segment of trail is now raked, so I’m quite happy with how things are going. Plans are in place to do more work tomorrow starting at 3pm, so with any luck there’s only another week or two until this whole segment is ready to ride.

It was quite satisfying to be taking a break today, standing on freshly raked ground, and seeing trail rolling across the hills as far as the terrain allowed me to see. I think I’m liking this trail building thing. Not only do I get to build something fun but it costs nothing save for labor, supports another interest of mine, and being on public land it benefits anyone in the area who chooses to use it. It’s almost like open source taken to public works.

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