Geeky Trail Building Thread.

Those drains are super cool.

How often do they clog and what tool is best to gut em out after they do?

We had a super fun trail day today. Cody and her buddy Lilly even had fun.

  So fun.

AZ have you gotten her out on a bike?

Yeah but she isn’t into it really. It’s a bummer because she could be pretty good at it too. I need to get her and one or a few of her friends together and take them out riding. Generally, having her peers there changes everything.

my daughter who skis like the wind, hates MTBing..she says it's too scary..

Mtb chicks are the coolest!

ScottyJack wrote

Mtb chicks are the coolest!

Totally. Now what about those drains?

raisingarizona wrote

ScottyJack wrote

Mtb chicks are the coolest!

Totally. Now what about those drains?

THey are a pliable pvc material.  We harden the up and down slope sides with rock to ensure least resistance of any material water moves.  We also rake leaves upslode and down slope in late fall to remove organic material to help water flow.  

One of the first things we do in spring is address drainages.  Again raking upslope and down to clear debris jams.  Often the force of water clears the drainages but if clogged the best tool seems to be the butt end of a rake...  

 Nice. I imagine soil type creates maintenance variables. I was thinking a traditional garden hoe might be good for cleaning the drain.

I was thinking you were thinking that.   Thinking your soils more on the sandy side and more prone to erosion.  Our drainages mostly clog with leaves and woody debris.  

Our soils vary all around Flagstaff from different volcanic stuff to sedimentary sandstone or limestone. Elden is mostly crushed dacite with a decent layer of organic on top. The current project that I’ve been working on for the last three years has some really unique geology and the 6 mile descent will be dropping through the dacite, Kiabab limestone and then around 800 vertical feet of red rock sandstone before reverting back to the dacite. It’s really freaking sweet and the views are awesome.

I did some flagging for our next trail day earlier this past week. Other pics are of completed reroutes we’ve been doing all late this summer.





This one was taken from the same spot as above but looking towards the east, pic above is looking to the west. That’s an old road bed in the above photo, the trail crosses it.

Very beautiful.  

Thanks Scottyjack, I’ve done the majority of routing for this project. It’s kind of my baby and it’s really fun to see it become reality.

A few more. All of these photos are of the Little Elden reroute. If you go to page one of this thread you can see the google earth image I posted. The yellow line down low is LE. It’s part of the Nationally recognized scenic trail, the Arizona Trail. I’m honored to be able to be part of the planning and routing for this. The Heart trail (in red) is the part I’m really excited for. It’s going to be 4.5 miles of ripping descent with jaw dropping views.







This is a repeat from the summer rides thread but it’s one of my favorite spots so far that we’ve completed. I found this outcropping three years ago and right away knew a turn had to go here. The view is subtle but really pretty.

Did some tuning on a section that was put in by a group from Gore a few weeks back and we did some prepping/flagging for our next and final volunteer day for the season on the 20th. It’s been a huge year for us and we got a lot done. I can’t wait for next spring to get back at it!

 smooth!

Outstanding RA!  Congrats on a great build season.  

Thanks guys. We haven’t gotten any snow yet so we could be building like crazy but I’m buried with nursing school. I’m starting to think I need to ditch school and create a trail building co. It’s all I really want to be doing to be honest.



Found this thing right in our trail corridor the other day. I think it will be a sweet trail side, visual feature.


The first photo and this one below are of the section we worked on for our last trail event. It's a more aggressive bench cut climb up through a medium sized wash. It's gonna be a cool climb and a ripper of a descent. The views ain't bad either.