I’ve been working in the Wissahickon Valley of Philadelphia in Fairmont Park these past two weeks. The Friends of the Wissahickon hired IMBA a couple of years ago to help with their Sustainable Trails initiative. The users of this park include hikers, bikers, dog walkers, and equestrians, and they use the trails year round.
The primary issues are drainage and icing on gneiss and schist rock outcroppings. We’ve been doing some reroutes, some stone pitching, and gutters and culverts to deal with the water. Equipment includes a DitchWitch SK-500 and SK-650 mini skid steers, a Bobcat 328 and 331excavators, two small Canycom loaders, and one large Canycom loader. The skid steers are equipped with either a bucket and a blade, and the exes have either a two-foot bucket, a 12″ bucket, and a 600# jack hammer.
Using the jack hammer, we’re picked away over a hundred feet of rock for the gutters, culvert, and tread. Any material removed for construction had to be either carted out or reused; we’ve managed to reuse most of what we’ve removed.
Construction also includes about 100′ of ADA accessible trail from the parking area to a covered picnic table. The tread will be six feet wide and lined with large boulders to act as anchors and support the tread.
Dewayne
The crew of Talon Trails is now in PA working on a mountain bike specific trail at Raystown Lake, an Army Corps of Engineers’ property. The Friends of Raystown Lake are the customer, and Talon Trails is subcontracting under IMBA for this project. There are three companies using five machines working 10-12 hours a day to help build the 30 mile trail system.
Ryan and Susan are running a DitchWitch SK650 mini skid steer with an auger attachment to drill holes and install sign posts at all the intersections. Dewayne is piloting a DW SK500 to deberm and broadcast freshly cut trail. The soil is somewhat rocky with much slate but not difficult to work at all. Recent rain has made our tasks a bit more challenging but not impossible.
The Friends of group and the ACoE hope to make this a destination trail for bikers from Pittsburgh, Philly, and points beyond. They’re going to have a lot of upkeep but can pull it off with some dedication.
The crew of Talon Trails met in Park City, Utah, for the bi-annual IMBA World Summit, a four day meeting of trail advocates from many US states, Canada, Mexico, and nine other countries. We sat in on several sessions as well as a meeting of IMBA trail builders, their contractors, and interested parties. Of course, we rode every day possible, with Dewayne getting to ride 12 days in a row from a few days before the Summit to a few days after.
Currently, we’re in Waterloo, WI, working on the Trek Test Track. IMBA’s Trail Solutions’ Joey Klein and Dan Hudson designed and started construction on Trek’s first downhill trail with rock features, berms, a step-up jump, log drop, and two bridges over the XC trail. That’s where Talon Trails comes in; we’re designing and building the bridges, which stand about eight feet over the trail. They’ll be unique features in this trail systems and serve them well for a long time.
Posted by admin on 06 Jun 2008 at 9:17 pm under Blogroll | Comments Off
Dewayne flew up to Waterloo, WI, this past week (April 21-26) where Trek Bicycles is headquartered for some consultation work. He spent two days on thoroughly assessing the signage, the filters (in this case technical trail features at intersections,) sustainability, the trail ratings system, & potential new trail.
Two other days were spent assessing some new property that Trek has intent to buy. It consists of some wooded areas, a short riverfront section, and some crop fields. There’s great potential for parking and trail head facilities, maintenance facilities, picnic areas, cool singletrack, and some downhill/dirt jump lines.
Talon Trails will travel there as a company in the summer for two weeks of work that includes designing and building a new black diamond section.
The Spring Creek Greenway Project will eventually be a 50 mile long stretch of trails along the Montgomery and Harris County boundary. Talon Trails has worked with The Woodlands Development Corporation and Montgomery County Precinct One to put in over 3 miles of trail so far and is currently working with volunteers to complete another 3 mile section that will be mountain biking only. We’ve also had to use recycled asphalt in some low lying areas to raise the trail tread up above the surrounding land to provide a dry crossing during wetter times of the year. Volunteers are encouraged to contact us to find out how they can help the project move forward.
Ryan and Susan made their third annual pilgrimage up to Sid Richardson Boy Scout Camp to teach DORBA’s trail stewards about sustainable trail construction and maintenance. The two day class focused on trail building basics due to a lot of turn over in the volunteer trail stewards. A nice new section of trail was added to the portion built during last year’s school.
As you can tell by the title of this update, the staff of Talon Trails has been splitting its time between three different area. December and January had us working on trails in the Spring (Houston) area for the Timberlane Utility District.
In Austin, we did some maintenance work on trails in a subdivision in SW Austin. They have about four miles of existing trail that was designed and built by a landscape company; some of the sections needed a little help.
At Pedernales Falls, we re-routed about 1.5 miles of trail to be more sustainable and less prone to erosion. Teaming up with volunteers from the Friends of Pedernales Falls SP, we were able to address all their concerns save one minor creek crossing that may have to be bridged.
This month, February, we’ve been working in The Woodlands and Spring again building and designing from new trails. In Austin, we started construction on a mile long leg of trail in a subdivision in NW Austin that will give the homeowners a loop trail instead of an out-and-back or having to walk through the neighborhood to get back to their houses.
Now that I’m back from my business travels, I get to work on neighborhood trails in Spring and Austin. The work in Spring was on some Timberlane Utility District greenbelt along Cypress Creek. When completed, the trail system will be comprised of about five miles of trail in this area, and the grand scheme is to have 52 miles of trail along the creek. Pretty cool!
Here in Austin I’m repairing some poorly designed trails that are in a system along Barton Creek. It’s a beautiful piece of acreage and a great use for land that cannot and should not be developed. Most of the work deals with water diversion mechanisms on fall line trail, i.e. trail that goes more down the hill than across. The majority of the users want a more subdued and easier trail experience.
Next week calls for work in another, larger subdivision that measures around 3,300 acres of total land and over 14 miles of trail.
