[Skookum]

Always good when i can sucker uhm i mean talk some dirt workers into building quality track for the groms. They came out yesterday and were a real great help in dialing the path working the rock retaining, shaping and grooming the trail.
Also make sure you get over to Recycled Cycles and say hi to Andy and help support a unique and important local bikey store.

For a short stretch of trail, it will allow riders to warm up. It will also provide an example of a trail that drains properly, and is built with wheels in mind where the bike can track well. This leads to a comfortable trail to ride and a trail that will last a long time.
A big reason why mountain bikes do trail damage is because other user groups build trails with corners that slope out, and some riders skid to prevent going off trail.
This is a huge reason why we as mountain bikers need to be involved. Tell BBTC club officials we want to be more involved in the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of trails. Please take more time to learn these build techniques that this trail provides, get more involved. So we can have killer flowy trails that rock, not sucky lame problem trails.
We have great opportunities coming up at Duthie Hill and i hope others can carry the baton from what we've done at Colonnade. And there are other projects on the precipice of being great or mundane. It's critical to be in the process early and often.
When it comes to trail construction, we get what we ask for, as well as we work for.

Thanks again guys.

 

[fuzzycatnuts]

Nice work! Cant wait to see all the progress, who exactly were these 60 people helping build up the park?, not mountain bikers I assume..


We are getting a bobcat for a week, starting on june 23, Could use a hand as far as fine tuning berms, jumps, and landings. p.m. me if intrested in helping out that week, with the bobcat we could get a lot done in a short amount of time....
I will be running it tues-thur and Mike W. will be in charge the rest of the time.

Thanks
-Kim

 

[Skookum]

Cant wait to see all the progress, who exactly were these 60 people helping build up the park?, not mountain bikers I assume..

Seattle Works and just like dj's if you want good XC trails you have to have mt. bikers in the planning stage. The folks at Seattle Works did a great job doing tasks under the direction of 11 of us who were able to be crew leaders for the 4 hours they were there.

That's alot of manpower but you can't expect people who don't know anything about mountain bikes to do anything technical. That's why having Andy, Scotty, and Pip there to get the trail dialed. i explained what i wanted and why, and i showed them a few tips on rocks and basically they were off to the races. If i had tried that with non riders i would have gotten half the work done and would have had to go back and fix screw ups.

While any help is good, mountain biker help for mountain bike projects is like gold.

 

[DBR X6 RIDER]

Thanks, Tim!

I think the quote of the day came from one of the volunteers that was asking what I was doing when I was piling rocks near the pillar. I explained that I was setting up a foundation for a berm and he immediately asked "what's a berm?". Pretty amazing seeing that many volunteers that might not even know why they were carting dirt, rocks, gravel and logs to spots that they probably couldn't fathom riding a bike on, over and above. All the same, the crew leaders gave the peeps @ Seattle Works clear guidance and they just seemed to go and go and go. They deserve way more credit than anybody out there in all honesty.

We're easy...tell us to build a trail somewhere and we're likely not going to resist.

Lots of progress made, but it looks like there's still a way to go before the "done" stamp can be inked-up. A few more days like Saturday could change that.

 

[fuzzycatnuts]

Seattle Works and just like dj's if you want good XC trails you have to have mt. bikers in the planning stage.
While any help is good, mountain biker help for mountain bike projects is like gold.

For sure. I was wondering about the people from seattle works, community service or volenters.

 

[Skookum]

I think the quote of the day came from one of the volunteers that was asking what I was doing when I was piling rocks near the pillar. I explained that I was setting up a foundation for a berm and he immediately asked "what's a berm?". Pretty amazing seeing that many volunteers that might not even know why they were carting dirt, rocks, gravel and logs to spots that they probably couldn't fathom riding a bike on, over and above. All the same, the crew leaders gave the peeps @ Seattle Works clear guidance and they just seemed to go and go and go. They deserve way more credit than anybody out there in all honesty.

We're easy...tell us to build a trail somewhere and we're likely not going to resist.

Lots of progress made, but it looks like there's still a way to go before the "done" stamp can be inked-up. A few more days like Saturday could change that.

Yah and that's the beauty of bringing in the volunteers, because i bet there are a few of them that grab a mountain bike and give the trails a try. All of the riding stuff is so non special to all of us in the way that we've seen this stuff on other trails, but it gives people the opportunity to see all of what we already know.

Supporting these projects goes such a long way in recruiting new riders, but also showing people the awesome things we do which will go a loooooong way in dispelling the bad things that people say about us.

Anyways i took some pics and did another write up on the trail update thread in the Lounge.

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2958954&postcount=52

For sure. I was wondering about the people from seattle works, community service or volenters.

They are all volunteers. Yah it's a non-profit group of people who sign up and go do various volunteer work in the city. Pretty damn cool, locally there are alot of orgs including the BBTC that has alot of volunteers.
Also there are alot of kids doing volunteer work with the new rules for kids to do a certain amount of community service before graduating. It's alot better when the parents stick around and work, the kids get way more enthused about the work, and less apt to screw around. Some parents always seem eager to just dump off their kids so they can go shop or something cheesy like that, then i feel like i've just turned into a glorified unpaid babysitter.

Yah it was funny when i asked Mike Westra about Seattle Works, his answer to me was, "Oh they're just a big group of do-gooders." Haha i think he was having a "Joker" moment or somethin....

 

[PeachesN'Cream]

Sure, lots of progress in a short time blah blah.

But lets talk about the truly amazing thing. There were a bunch of cute girls there hauling logs and such! It was awesome!

Okay, seriously the help Seattle Works provided was great — I've never seen that many people working all at once. And while bikers know what they are doing construction wise, it was cool to see what a large organized group can do in a short span of time.

 

[Skookum]

But lets talk about the truly amazing thing. There were a bunch of cute girls there hauling logs and such! It was awesome!

This is true, unfortunately when you're leading crew it's difficult to find time to enjoy the scenery....

Okay, seriously the help Seattle Works provided was great — I've never seen that many people working all at once. And while bikers know what they are doing construction wise, it was cool to see what a large organized group can do in a short span of time.

i don't mean to discount the work Seattle Works did. i enjoyed the company and appreciate the help of all the volunteers that showed. i hope i'm not coming off as not appreciating. At the same time what i've said above is true and i'm hoping to enlighten our fellow riders of their value, i'm not trying to bag on the help of Seattle Works.

 

[PeachesN'Cream]

Hehe, I was more covering my ass for making a sexist comment. I know you appreciate the efforts of Seattle Works, as do I. They got a lot done...

and some were pretty nice on the eyes...

damn, gotta dig myself out of the sexist comments again.

New poster and all, don't want to give the impression of being some sort of horn dog... well any more than the usual dude at least.

 

[DirtMcGirk]

When is the next dig/work day?

 

[Skookum]

When is the next dig/work day?

Tomorrow. Check out www.bbtc.org and look up the recreation page. There will be work party times.

We'll be wrapping up work in couple more months, so we greatly appreciate any help. Alot of the cooler features on the first phase of Colonnade (Limestone Loop) were completed in the final months. Getting people to come out and help gives us the opportunity to add the goodies.

It appears as if the BBTC is continuing the momentum and moving with future build projects, so working at Colonnade is an excellent opportunity to learn invaluable techniques and skills. Along with establishing relationship with the clubs man on the ground Mike Westra and various trail builders you can learn from.

 

[DirtMcGirk]

I didn't get this until tonight. What sucks (in some ways) is that I was out riding the jump lines today while you guys were working.

Now I feel like the asshole.

There's been a lot of discussion among the monkeys about what's going to happen in the section by the Slayer drops. Know anything?

I am always willing to dig. This weekend is bad as it is my 7th Anniversary, so the wife might get bitter if I was out digging dirt as opposed to digging her. However, I will gladly come out and crunch work hours this week.

 

[Skookum]

i'm not really sure what the deal is with the drops. But yah no reason to feel guilty, but if you want to help dig, get in where you fit in. What i said before is true, all the help we get for the home stretch is appreciated and super important for all of us.

 

[fuzzycatnuts]

The line after the slayer drop is still being worked out. Basiclly we need to figure out how to make all the lines coming down into that area safely come tougher and point riders back up the hill. We got the slayer drop, the joyride drop zone, the step up to step down that will come after the wallride on jump lines 1&2, and the extention of the 3rd jumpline (my line) all ending up in the same area.

Mike, me, and other crew leaders will be working this out as we go. Hopefully we will get most of this done the week that we have the bobcat, starting on the 23rd of this month. Any help we can get that week shaping some of the berms, jumps, retaining walls ect... would be great.

3 months left to go on this project, I hope we can finish the things bbtc told the city we would do. Then its on to a even better spot Duthie Hill. Once we have proven ourselves at these spots, perhaps, I hope, we will get a real mountain to legally build on, that will be like the north shore, but even better.

"I have a dream"

 

[DirtMcGirk]

Watch having a dream, tends to get people shot.

I am down to help that week, just let me know when and I am do. I always feel the inherent "damn, I am an ass" when I don't help work on the spots I ride a lot.

Question: are you going to be reworking the landing and ramp up area at the end of lines 1&2? It was getting a little crunchy on Saturday, was going to clean it up on my own, but I always like to ask before I touch someone else's work.

 

[fuzzycatnuts]

Go there on saturday and sunday, find Mike and ask him about that.