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Building new downhill flow trail at Page Hill - 11/3

2K views 14 replies 7 participants last post by  JDM 
#1 ·
We're holding a trail day at Page Hill on 11/3 to build a new trail. We'll hold registration from 8 to 9 am in the parking lot on Murray Hill Rd., work until 2 pm, then CNH-NEMBA will provide pizza. Please park either in the lot or on the same side of the road as the lot.

The work site is a couple miles from the parking lot. I recommend bringing your bike to get out and back. It will also come in handy for testing!

We'll provide tools, some light snacks, and water. You should bring work gloves and additional water.

The goal for the style of the new trail is best described by the IMBA Flow Country model. We're looking for creative input on the detailed design of the trail. Please contact me if you want to help out with design.

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#4 ·
This project would almost certainly benefit from being machine built, but the plan is to start out with hand building. Our current MOU with the land manager doesn't provide for mechanized construction. We have had some conversations with them on the topic, but not yet submitted a formal proposal to use the technique.

The top half of the trail is under the power lines with a prevailing slope of around 20 to 30%. We're shooting for a trail slope of ~7%. There will be some benching, but it will be a lot easier than the hand benching that we've been doing in the nearby beech forest. Also there are some decent areas of natural bench and natural humps and dips to reduce the work of building the tread and jumps. The bottom half of the trail is back into the beechs, but follows along a ridges. We'll be able to rake-n-ride most of it without having any drainage problems.

I'm ready for the project to be an iterative process. If we find that progress is painfully slow without a machine or that we're not satisfied with the result then we'll try harder to bring one in. For now I'll be happy with a trail with some fun jumps and berms that is designed with only the downhill direction in mind.
 
#6 · (Edited)
I'm hoping that we can design in the good behavior.

If a trail is a fun climb, and the alternate climbing options aren't great then people will climb it.

There are three other ways to get to the top of the hill where this new trail will start. One is a direct doubletrack and the other two are meandering, two-way singletrack.

Also, we will aim to include a few short sections of a fairly steep grade that are fun to ride down, are still sustainable, but really stink to ride up. We'll especially try to include some of these near the bottom of the trail.
 
#11 · (Edited)
We're shooting for about 1 mile over the 350' of vert (~7% avg grade).

All the trails at Page Hill have started out with a number from the long-term master plan and we've 'discovered' a name as we build. For now this trail is still stuck with being called trail #10.

If the trail comes out really awesome then maybe it can go all the way to 11 ;)
 
#13 ·
We're shooting for about 1 mile over the 350' of vert (~7% avg grade).

All the trails at Page Hill have started out with a number from the long-term master plan and we've 'discovered' a name as we build. For now this trail is still stuck with being called trail #10.

If the trail come out really awesome then maybe it can go all the way to 11 ;)
I think a proper name would be Donny's Downhill but I could be biased...

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#12 ·
It is also worth mentioning that all the trails are leaf blown now. Also, we were able to finish off some benching and rock work on the top of Spring and on the Dude Abides. Both of those trails are riding really well now.

Here's how I would recommend riding the trails right now. This includes the little bit of new trail that we just built.
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#14 ·
It is also worth mentioning that all the trails are leaf blown now. Also, we were able to finish off some benching and rock work on the top of Spring and on the Dude Abides. Both of those trails are riding really well now.

Here's how I would recommend riding the trails right now. This includes the little bit of new trail that we just built.
View attachment 845076
Many thanks for the all the hard work! I'm up that way once in a while to visit the in-laws and will be sure to swing by. How many miles is that suggested loop JDM?
 
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