danielcoyle profile

Thad - what a heartbreaker. amazing amount and quality of work there. for what its worth, posting it here and showing pics (now that the secret is out and its gonna get taken down) inspires me to build bigger and better (and with continued vigilance.) if you are ever down in Oregon send me a note. i've got work i need you for!

Great topic to introduce. Seems like there is no one, yet, who has contributed with a lot of experience in managing just the issue you are talking about. I also haven't had that experience. I wonder if selecting trails in such conditions for their placement might be a first step if one was to put work in? Trails along the cut line or on north facing slopes, or closer to riparian zones where they might generally get less hammered by direct sunlight all day, every day in the summer? Or might retain a little more moisture a little longer?

The other issues aside, I really appreciate the tree planting idea. That's really going all in to make a trail work. Planting or fostering the native growth of some foliage in key spots that would provide protection from the sun for just an hour or two more a day might extend the reasonable season for riding it by days/weeks/months??? Seems like armoring might be a better short term (andk long term?) approach than relying on establishing new trees. The trees would be more vulnerable to someone just removing them and it would be a few years at least before they had any appreciable effect on trail soil stability. Rock would provide this immediately, be pretty permanent and, long term, would help the trail against moisture conditions once the forest was re-established. So, maybe there is a silviculturist/biker who could recommend some sort of natural/low impact techniques for promoting, strategically, the growth of larger shrubs along the side of the trail that would provide sunblock?

So I did head up to the black rock build day as suggested. This past saturday. Good group of guys (though they could all be axe murderers in their spare time for all I know.) Anyway, the tread up there is similar in some ways but has a lot more rocky material. The tread is almost fall line in a lot of places and holds up. Don't think I could even hope to do anything like that where I am. But, did learn about seasoning the trail and compaction. With the clay soil I have seems it could be helpful to give the vulnerable parts

1. good compaction
2. clean surfacing with a flat shovel
3. plenty of time to dry out before riding

What else? I already "knew" this but was helpful to have it reaffirmed that building a trail that manages speed well and reduces points where riders will need to be aggressive on the brakes is key. Also learned about covering real saturated, sticky clay/soil features and tread with a tarp/sheet to compact. Right now it is just a big hassle to try and compact because the tool or my boots just get caked up and totally disrupt the surface of the target. Excited to try this out. Considering leaving tarps on critical elements like berms to see if this allows them to dry faster by protecting them from rain and allowing gravity to drain them out.

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Ok. That is helpful. I am pretty certain this is a clay loam then. In the pics you will see I did pull out some "gold" looking stuff from the rootwad soil of a downed fir tree and then held it over the trail bed for contrast. I did not know any of the diagnostics in that handbook so I could not confirm whether it is indeed "gold"/loam or not. will do later. the other pic is just showing the beginning stages of piecing together an armored trail bed running out steeply from the end of a skinny element. I dug deep (over a foot) here in the armored section but did not hit the brown/gold stuff.

I guess i will just need to keep folks off it till its drier and do my best to compact it. Sounds like it might be too much to hope for that it would hold up well in the winter (at least not until its had several seasons and lots of compaction?)

looking into visiting with the black rock folks.

WMBC is in Bellingham, 6-7 hours north of you. You should go to some Blackrock build days, especially since you are only 20 mins away. They have a build bay this saturday. The next is in a month. There are a bunch of cool people who know what they are doing digging down there.
http://brmba.org/events/

Watch the 60min IMBA "trail solutions" video on youtube. search google "surface water control" "USFS trail guidebook"

Looking at your pictures, the first thing I would try is getting all the organic off of the tread and away from the side of the tread where it acts like a dam, and leaches organic into the tread = muck.

I think you are going to need to cut the tread in more, and scalp all the brown/ organic off. Have you dug a hole anywhere? What do the soil layer look like?

You want the O and A horizons GONE. Pretty much anything green, brown or black.
KEEP DIGGIN'

The O horizon, as shown above, is the "organic" layer, a mixed bag of leaf litter and other organic bits found on the biome floor. This layer will vary with particular biomes, obviously, with deserts or tundra having very little litter at all.

In the topsoil layer, or A horizon, is usually associated with humus, mostly decayed organics that have been compacted and mixed with fine inorganic particulates such as clay, silt and sand.

The B and C horizons are mostly composed of inorganic rock in different sizes; C will have larger "chunks" than B.
This is gold. You want the trail tread gold and rocks, and nothing else.

Below C is the bedrock.

Great info. Thanks for posting the cartoon diagram. I don't mind digging a bunch, but I am alone so excavating this whole trail to 10-12 inches is a, well, you know. Nonetheless, if that is the solution I will be happy at the very least to know what is and isn't working and why. So, thanks. I do right now dig down just as deep as it takes to remove the organic material/layer and to physically create a bench cut. Usually this is maybe 10-16 inches on the inside curve of a path cut into a moderate slope and maybe 6-8 inches for a trail being cut into a relatively 'shallow' slope angle.

As for rocks, I am learning that, in my area, building close to roads where I can poach rock from the ditches might be my best hope.

That's very different soil you've got there. What happens if you dig down a foot or two?

This is the (not so) elusive "gold" people were referring to. If you can dig down and find it, you're golden.

Wow. Great pics. I don't think there is that "gold" layer here but I will check. Easy enough. I actually think the higher soil layer you have in the pics looks familiar. Like what it looks like here in the drier seasons. but ????

Did you roll a 'worm' with the soil? I bet you could make a kick ass one. From here it looks like you are dealing with a clay loam. It will harden over time, but winter is not the best time to build in areas with clay.

We have a few areas here that are heavy to clay, I try to work on them in late spring / early fall, when you have a bit of moisture but things don't get saturated. If you have riders on those trails at the same time as you are trying to do some earthwork (out sloping, grade reversals etc) you will be fighting an uphill battle.

Thanks. Makes good sense. And, yes, the soil can be rolled up into a worm pretty readily. I do not plan on opening it up for riding until it has dried out a bit (late spring or even mid summer?) However, can I hope to build a trail that will stand up to winter riding if I am using this stuff? Its ok if the answer is no and I have to look for other solutions (like ladders or rock, in spite of how difficult it is to get it here) just want to know what to plan for so I don't dig out a bunch of tread that will get blown out next winter.

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OK, so here is what I am working with on a lot of the trail. When dry it packs well and holds its shape. In the rain, even on very moderate grades with lots of drainage structures it can get VERY mucky. In my hand you will see how well it can bind itself. the dog tracks give some sense of how mucky the trail gets and what even a dog can do to it when it has gotten a little rain.

maybe post some pics if you can, easier than trying to describe the soil

Will do. Thanks. Gonna do some building this afternoon. The soil packs well and holds together well when its not so wet that it is muddy. In the summer it is great and even when its not too wet in the winter (which isnt often). Once it gets drenched it is either hopeless or needs to be more compacted/seasoned then I have the means to manifest.

like i said, though, pictures to come.

if youre relatively close to black rock you might have some of the best dam gold around…that shit there is almost like rubber when its paked down n tacky -- little ball bearings get deadly though when it dries up. Only place ive ever rode where trail days include a leaf blower to blow off all the little ball bearing…

Get Diggers video "The Last Digg " - the tutorial at the end of it has some amazing tips on building for drainage … i'd be depressed building in a zone with no cedar.

Thanks. Will see about getting the video. Checked out the trailer but did not find a place to get/buy the rest in a quick search.

Encouraging to hear about black rock. I am close to there (20 miles maybe) but not sure how similar the conditions are (of course, they can't be dramatically different but black rock is a little deeper into the coast range and I know how much more rock it has).

And,yes, it would be better to have cedar to build with. the fir at least behaves well when making boards and building.