Hello Fellow Monkeys,
A good portion of you know me and have ridden with me over the years. I haven't said much about what I've been up to lately. As most of you know I'm always searching for new spots to dig and build fun stuff to ride. Up until now it's all been on private property or bandito style.
In April I reached out to a few members of a local trail organization www.vast-network.org (please feel free to register), since then we have had one meeting and a few trail work days. The first meeting 5 of us got together and discussed a plan for a pumptrack to go in at Carvins Cove parking lot in Salem,Va. Skip Huffman; some of you may also know from the Watershed area, has been my main contact. He did a wonderful job of professionally laying out a proposal for Roanoke City. The proposal has been submitted and is currently under review and we are hearing positive things from our City contact. This is only a first step and introduction into this type of riding, baby steps right?
I will post the work days when we begin work on the pumptrack, it would be awesome and greatly appreciated if any of the monkeys could make it out to lend a helping hand. Once it's approved I'll do my best to post a picture of the pumptrack layout. I think everyone will be really stoked on it!
Progress: Since I started this, I knew I was getting myself into some politics and have been concerned how well I'd be able to stay moving in a positive direction. I've stayed consistent trying to rally as many locals as possible and get excitement going for future projects. We have started a group message board here: http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/LAMBCREW/ Please sign up, it will help us a lot, and feel free to comment, there is already discussion.
Yesterday I was rewarded! The trail crew had a workday this passed Sunday, we cut some backslope/berms along a existing trail at Carvins Cove named Songbird; this trail already has some berms and quite a number of rollers/grade reversals, it has really good flow to it. We were also able to work on one of the first legal trail features. We were unable to complete this feature on Sunday because we got hit with a really bad hail storm and had to get out of there for safety. Here is where my reward comes in, for the first time I was allowed to go out on the trails and do legal/official trail work on Monday afternoon. A local and myself went out with the intentions of finishing rock work we had started on Sunday onto a log ride across a creek. This log ride will also help take traffic out of a mucky creek crossing.
Here are photos from Monday and the finished log ride. The log is easy to ride and many people should be able to ride it with no problems, it's a first step. I'm expecting positive reviews from the locals. Baby Steps!
The rocks shown against the sides are not for support mainly just looks, although I'm sure it will help some but not necessary. The extra rock was left over from rocks collected so I went ahead and surrounded the work with it. I also transplanted a few ferns to see if they would root for looks and hopefully future stability. The main rocks/tread are buried vertically into the ground.
This shows the rock work/tread best that we worked on Monday.
This is showing how the rocks step down away from the log. I have about a 1-2" lip from each rock to the next rock.
This trail rides well from both directions. Both exits going either direction are really fun, so it made sense to make the log ride ridable from both directions as well. It rides almost equally as well from both sides, you can go a little faster from one direction. I'm happy that the log doesn't just slow ya down, you can actually roll across it at a fairly good pace not interrupting the flow of the trail.
The next 2 shots are just showing some backslope we cut on Monday so when you come through this section of trail you get set up right into the log nicely. I always feel the more berms the better!
Last but not least a few ride shots of Matt testing it out.
This was very rewarding on the grounds that we were able to go out and work legally on something of this nature.
My goal is to have Mountain Bike specific trails in this area. Once we grow we can branch out into other areas and help other groups get projects/trails rolling in there area as well.
There is definitely a lot more to come and I will continue pushing to help create more opportunities for Mountain Biking in Virginia. I already have a opportunity lined up after the pumptrack to pursue the first local Mountain Bike Specific trail and this area should be able to be shuttled as well for those who like that type of access. The trail I used for an example is Greenslick in Pisgah National Forest. We have also used Black Rock Unit's proposal as a template to help design our proposals.
Please sign up for the LAMB message board and VAST. We are trying to get the LAMB group rolling. I greatly appreciate any help and support from all you Monkeys thanks for your time and sorry so long winded. I hope to see you all soon.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions through PM or email at ICastle36 (at) cox.net or just post here
A good portion of you know me and have ridden with me over the years. I haven't said much about what I've been up to lately. As most of you know I'm always searching for new spots to dig and build fun stuff to ride. Up until now it's all been on private property or bandito style.
In April I reached out to a few members of a local trail organization www.vast-network.org (please feel free to register), since then we have had one meeting and a few trail work days. The first meeting 5 of us got together and discussed a plan for a pumptrack to go in at Carvins Cove parking lot in Salem,Va. Skip Huffman; some of you may also know from the Watershed area, has been my main contact. He did a wonderful job of professionally laying out a proposal for Roanoke City. The proposal has been submitted and is currently under review and we are hearing positive things from our City contact. This is only a first step and introduction into this type of riding, baby steps right?
I will post the work days when we begin work on the pumptrack, it would be awesome and greatly appreciated if any of the monkeys could make it out to lend a helping hand. Once it's approved I'll do my best to post a picture of the pumptrack layout. I think everyone will be really stoked on it!
Progress: Since I started this, I knew I was getting myself into some politics and have been concerned how well I'd be able to stay moving in a positive direction. I've stayed consistent trying to rally as many locals as possible and get excitement going for future projects. We have started a group message board here: http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/LAMBCREW/ Please sign up, it will help us a lot, and feel free to comment, there is already discussion.
Yesterday I was rewarded! The trail crew had a workday this passed Sunday, we cut some backslope/berms along a existing trail at Carvins Cove named Songbird; this trail already has some berms and quite a number of rollers/grade reversals, it has really good flow to it. We were also able to work on one of the first legal trail features. We were unable to complete this feature on Sunday because we got hit with a really bad hail storm and had to get out of there for safety. Here is where my reward comes in, for the first time I was allowed to go out on the trails and do legal/official trail work on Monday afternoon. A local and myself went out with the intentions of finishing rock work we had started on Sunday onto a log ride across a creek. This log ride will also help take traffic out of a mucky creek crossing.
Here are photos from Monday and the finished log ride. The log is easy to ride and many people should be able to ride it with no problems, it's a first step. I'm expecting positive reviews from the locals. Baby Steps!
The rocks shown against the sides are not for support mainly just looks, although I'm sure it will help some but not necessary. The extra rock was left over from rocks collected so I went ahead and surrounded the work with it. I also transplanted a few ferns to see if they would root for looks and hopefully future stability. The main rocks/tread are buried vertically into the ground.
This shows the rock work/tread best that we worked on Monday.
This is showing how the rocks step down away from the log. I have about a 1-2" lip from each rock to the next rock.
This trail rides well from both directions. Both exits going either direction are really fun, so it made sense to make the log ride ridable from both directions as well. It rides almost equally as well from both sides, you can go a little faster from one direction. I'm happy that the log doesn't just slow ya down, you can actually roll across it at a fairly good pace not interrupting the flow of the trail.
The next 2 shots are just showing some backslope we cut on Monday so when you come through this section of trail you get set up right into the log nicely. I always feel the more berms the better!
Last but not least a few ride shots of Matt testing it out.
This was very rewarding on the grounds that we were able to go out and work legally on something of this nature.
My goal is to have Mountain Bike specific trails in this area. Once we grow we can branch out into other areas and help other groups get projects/trails rolling in there area as well.
There is definitely a lot more to come and I will continue pushing to help create more opportunities for Mountain Biking in Virginia. I already have a opportunity lined up after the pumptrack to pursue the first local Mountain Bike Specific trail and this area should be able to be shuttled as well for those who like that type of access. The trail I used for an example is Greenslick in Pisgah National Forest. We have also used Black Rock Unit's proposal as a template to help design our proposals.
Please sign up for the LAMB message board and VAST. We are trying to get the LAMB group rolling. I greatly appreciate any help and support from all you Monkeys thanks for your time and sorry so long winded. I hope to see you all soon.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions through PM or email at ICastle36 (at) cox.net or just post here
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