January 12
Worse I've seen these trails.
All in need of some serious trail repair. :ohthedrama:
Unfortunately that side of the mountain becomes a major waterfall essentially. I had it free of water most of last winter with both GJ and Upper cut running free of water for the most part. However SFU gets considerable windfall yearly which causes all kinds of dam effects and water flow issues in the trees on that side of the hill.
If you rode it yesterday that would be the worst you will see it. That was a big rain storm, similar to what took out most of the upper part of GJ last winter. Very little can be done about the massive runoff cascading down that side of SFU without considerable manpower to clear trees and excavate drainage. Something that was never done properly by the city originally, and I'd imagine they have no interest in taking that on going forward. Their focus seems to be the climbing routes adjacent to the hwy over the next couple years, which is great BtW. Unfortunately, as I don't live anywhere near SFU anymore, I cannot take on the repair to GJ and Upper Cut this winter. Sorry to all Strava users of SFU lol!
Edit: I will add it's incredibly dangerous doing drainage work up there, If clearing drains, please do it on the trail. Last winter in that rainstorm the water was literally flowing like a flash flood waste high in some areas, and powerful enough for large deadfall slide downslope at a pretty good rate.
I recall the working on a drainage near the bottom of GJ (during a sanctioned BMBA trail day), but it looks like the water has found a new path and perhaps our buried drainage in that section is clogged.
Regardless, when the rain stops, we will need some helping hands, to do some work up there, time to start planning another BMBA trail day.
Kids on PinkBike are adding "grip" to the GJ bridges by nailing roof shingles… :rolleyes:
Some of them are riding down GJ to "assess the damage"… seems to me they are creating more damage; they could've walked it as it's a shared trail
Personally haven't been up there to confirm the damage, though these Pb kids are posting image of their "handiwork"
:japan:
That was a pretty entertaining read….good luck to them re: excavators lol!
The trail was machine built originally, but if anyone has ever walked the trail you'll find it littered with hallow spots. Basically the trail was just built over organic, stumps, and deadfall. Berms supported with deadfall logs. I guess it's a good lesson to the city on what happens when that shit wasn't cleared away before creating a trail bed. That and the fact that it's boulder clay, good luck, that's a shit tonne of work to fix. I think it's pretty clear the city won't take this on.
Kids on PinkBike are…
Photo link: http://www.pinkbike.com/u/sushifor2/album/Gear-Jammer-Erosion/
_source:_sushifor2
That was a pretty entertaining read….good luck to them re: excavators lol!
My head hurts after reading that.
So here you've got a group of young guys who are eager to help, but need a bit of direction. Looking at the BMBA site, it looks to me like new blood is needed over there (although I'm not on Myspace or anything like that…).
Just sayin… Could be the new BMBA in the making a couple years down the road if they're helped out a bit. Get them to a Builders Academy and off you go with refreshed trails on SFU. I don't know the history with the landowners, so might be off base, but it's something to consider rather than to mock.
I've given them the gist of proper trail building/repairing, informed them that they should at least get permission before they do any work. Looks like they are figuring out ways of contacting the BMBA so there's a step in the right direction. Also directed them to the IMBA site on trail building/maintenance guidelines.
:japan:
2014 NSMBA Trailbuilder's Academy dates should be coming down the pipe in Feb. Stay tuned.
http://nsmba.ca/2013-north-shore-trailbuilder-academy
I don't know the history with the landowners, so might be off base, but it's something to consider rather than to mock.
Yep, you're way off base. There are a lot of experienced, eager trail builders who will rebuild every trail given half a chance (myself included), but because of the Burnaby city policy, it's not going to happen.
Correlation is not causation, but if I was the geotech I'd be looking at the new settling pond at the top of Gearjammer, that's a lot of water, and as we may recall from high school geography most water is ground water and not surface water-so how much of that pond is draining right under the trail line?
It has just been pointed out to me (by the person looking over my shoulder), the lack of tree roots to take up water, and the increased building has seriously reduced both permeability and porosity of the soil up top, increasing runoff too.
So GJ and UC are closed to all except for dog walkers which are good to go, eh? ha….
A miracle has occured directly in the path of a braid I've been blocking and re-blocking on Lower Snake.
To wit - a broken off tree trunk sans branches or any other signs of life has sprouted right up out of the ground fully mature! Astonishing!
Freedom of contract. We sell them guns that kill them; they sell us drugs that kill us.
Update that I was given: SFU, UniverCity, and the City are all trying to figure out where the flows came from. That new pond is lined, so won't add to the hydraulic flows. The most likely potential source was located and repaired, as some long abandoned Telus ducts on the GJ side had lost their caps from age and were directing water that way as water in the last storm could essentially freeflow down those abandoned ducts. New caps and grout were installed. The storm drains on the ring road are also seriously in need of cleaning and clearing and may have caused backup in the system in the rain event during the trail failure. SFU is cleaning and repairing all storm drains in the area. But no new rain hasn't given much chance to test if these were the main issues prior to repair of the trails.
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