Awaba Cross County Trail Log - Next build day, Sun July 12

[W.bat]

Hey wow, that looks so good. Congrats to you guys. Out of interest how many crew do you get to a build day? Is there one on around the ourimbah 8 1/4hr date? I live in Margaret River and am over for it and would a. love to help and b.b.b.b.b.b.b. love to ride it.

Where is it off the expressway?

Well done, that looks the best I've seen in oz. Exciting!!!!

 

[sammydog]

We have been surprised with the build days, getting between 20-30, even in some less than great weather conditions.

We haven't thought that far ahead for build days, we normally only think ahead one at a time, but keep an eye on here. People are free to go ride it now, even outside the build days, but with about only 2km's on offer it currently doesn't offer much variety. Some of the trails now they have been ridden also need to be tweaked, but thats all part of the process.

Trail is literally a few hundred meters off the freeway, unfortunately with the way the exits line up, its a 5-10 min drive from the Freemans Waterhole exit.

Here is a bit of a map that should help.

 

[Trevor_S]

Looking great ! Well done !!!

Love this stuff, looks full bench, nice grade reversal etc

Some of it looks like it might follow the fall line

I guess photo's can be deceiving though ?


Love the rolling crown switch back, great job !

I am envious, not a rock to be seen and moist soil.. lucky bastards

I have a rolling crown switch back to build in 2 weeks, not looking forward to it, shitty soil (lots of cricket ball / football sized rocks !) , very very very dry.. RAIN.. PLEASE

 

[sammydog]

Looking great ! Well done !!!

Love this stuff, looks full bench, nice grade reversal etc

We need to slightly widen those particular benches, but they are pretty cool to ride as is. Seem to function well in the rain as well.

Some of it looks like it might follow the fall line


I guess photo's can be deceiving though ?

The photo is deceiving in the first one, the second one is a case of following the fall line. The section is short, under 10m and we are still to install some logs to break up the flow of water and divert it away from the trail.

The third picture....that is really deceiving as you are actually crossing the hill more than anything. It isn't falling near like the photo shows.

Love the rolling crown switch back, great job !

I am envious, not a rock to be seen and moist soil.. lucky bastards

I have a rolling crown switch back to build in 2 weeks, not looking forward to it, shitty soil (lots of cricket ball / football sized rocks !) , very very very dry.. RAIN.. PLEASE

With that one, a lot of time has been spent on it, and I think we need to probably cut a little more out to improve the turning radius.

One thing I would have loved though is more rocks for the retaining wall side. Was an absolute pain bringing them in from elsewhere. There is no shortage of rocks in awaba, they just never seem to be near where you want them.

Pretty happy with that corner though. We are going to put gravel in the drain on the inside as well so that it doesn't eat peoples wheels.

 

[Trevor_S]

Can I ask what radius you used on the RCS ? and after building it have you found it too tight ? or too easy ? and what trail difficulty is it on ? ie Intermediate ? Easy ?

I am about to start a RCS and not having too much experience with them, I set it out with a 2.5m radius, as per

http://www.imba.com/resources/trail_building/pdf/switchback.pdf

but am thinking it might be too tight ? (get stuck in on this Saturday to getting it well under way)

 

[sammydog]

I will measure it on the weekend.

It is an easy/intermediate trail and I think at the moment it is maybe a little too tight. That said it is rideable and plenty of people are taking the tight inside line.

 

[sammydog]

Latest pics from yesterdays build day. Another 300-400m of trail was scratched in. Really just needs to be ridden in, and another bridge needs to be build by the bridge crew.

The first part of the loop constructed is starting to bed in really nicely. Still some fine tuning to go, but its not a bad ride and there is heaps of fire roads to explore to make the trip worthwhile.

Trail works to date, in green.

Moving Away from the DH trail finish area.

Crossing the low point next to the DH finish straight. We need to keep an eye on this to see if we need to armor it for the wet. Pretty dry at the moment, despite wet areas elsewhere.

After the bridge, about 100m down the hill from the Uber Berm on the DH trail.

Did some exploring on firetrails within the permit area and came across these trails. They are actually Fireroads that have grown over, so we will map these and add them to the next stages of the network. Bit of a climb to get up to, but well worth it.

 

[sammydog]

Short notice, but there is a build day on tomorrow (23rd).

Plan is to complete the two bridges and cut in more single trail.

Meeting at 8am in the carpark area.

The following picture is one of the bridges that is nearing completion.

 

[Trevor_S]

The following picture is one of the bridges that is nearing completion.

Would love to here more about this bridge, that's a long span .. and how you did it with the galvanised steel etc. Looks great so far... we tend to do ours using koppers logs as bearers and treated wood for the treads, so I am keen to know more, especially how and why

 

[sammydog]

Here is some shots of a similar bridge we built on the DH trail.

After these shots a side rail that angles out, was added.

Why the use of scaffold?

Basically as you noted, we have some big spans which are unavoidable given the depth of the waterways we cross. These don't flow often, but when they do a lot of water passes through.

This made it important to avoid any structures in the creek beds, and with these materials we are able to keep things well out of the creek banks. They are extremely solid and should withstand bushfires in the event we have one.

 

[sammydog]

Pretty productive day today from a small crew. I suspect the cold, windy and eventually wet weather turned people off.

We started off rerouting the first section of trail, instead of dropping straight into the creek, the trail now is about 200m longer and winds its way down the slope. Much more flowing trail, unfortunately no pics. The line out of the creek has been reworked as well.

We then moved onto the new bridge. Its finished and the first part of the loop is completely rideable, in a loop.

Line into the bridge.

Few shots of the finished thing,

The line out,

The temp after lunch, I thought we were only a week out from summer, I don't remember temps like this during winter.

 

[sammydog]

Helmet Cam Footage

One of the build crew (Refreshinglygood on farkin) got out and took some helmet cam footage of the trail from a SS'ers perspective.

It was a pretty overcast day so the quality isn't as good as he had hoped, but you get the idea until we have an alternate film date. For whatever reason though, it is clearer in the youtube site (when viewed in the higher resolution option)

Footage Is Here

 

[Mattydv]

When's the next build day?

I know a lot of xcers that aren't going to nationals etc. and are keen to get out and get this trail running sweeeeeet.

 

[sammydog]

As it turns out matty, it was decided today that the next build day would be on the 24th (Sat) starting at 7:30am. We are hoping to push through the next leg of the trail through to Frog Mouth Road. We will also be looking to get a significant chunk of the next section in as the terrain flattens out a lot and the trees thin. Looks like we should be in for some quick construction, and fast riding trails.

I'm looking to possibly do a few hours tomorrow and next weekend, if you have nothing better to do, send me a text and I can pick you up when I head out.

 

[scratchy]

Looks great Sammydog. There is a log begging for a log ride at the 2 minute mark. Looks like the ground there is pretty smooth.
What did you use to record it on? GoPro?

Bangers didn't like the music though.

 

[sammydog]

One of our club members (refreshinglygood on here) recorded it using GoPro i believe. He wasn't happy with the outcome as it was a dark day, but I think it gived the idea.

That log is going to get the log ride treatment, it is about 1m heigh (maybe more) and just as wide. About 15-20m long. You can see the same log from the other side at the 1:13 mark.

There is another tree, slightly smaller at the 4:10 mark that will also cop the log ride treatment.

Next stage of trail design and there is a huge log that will probably form an advanced log ride/bridge. For those who have ridden awaba, it is directly above the new XC bridge.

 

[sammydog]

Next Build Day is on Saturday 24th January, starting at 7:30am. The amount completed at this day will determine if the next section (or two) are open for the Feb 1 club round.

The two sections to be worked on are the yellow and green lines, up to Frogmouth Road on the map below.

Got out today though with Grubby and Mattyv and rough cut in about 500m. (yellow line) This section is meant to be ridden from the top of the map toward the bottom.

The next photo's are from the points referenced on the map.

Photo 1 - Fast flowing (I hope) slightly DH section

Photo 2 - Fast flowing (I hope) slightly DH section

Photo 3 - Fast flowing (I hope) slightly DH section

Photo 4 - Swooping Left Hander into a shallow gully

Photo 5 - Climb out of the gully onto ridge top

Photo 6 - Sbends down the ridge

Photo 7 - Second Gully crossing that needs a small pallet bridge built, similar to the first small bridge on the existing trail.

Photo 8 - Climb out of gully to DH finish Line. Needs to be benched.

Photo 9 - Climb out of gully to DH finish Line. Needs to be benched.

 

[sammydog]

Time for a few pictures of the new sections. I'll do it over two posts.

From the DH trail heading towards Frogmouth Road. This trail includes the new bridge, some fun uphill swtitchbacks (six of them) and a long flowing benched section. Its the green line on the map.

Climb up to the new bridge

The new bridge

Climb after the bridge which gets pretty close to the DH trail after the last switchback

 

[sammydog]

Leading back to the DH trail from Frogmouth Road. Its the yellow line on the map.

 

[sammydog]

Next build day, Sunday March 1.

Start at 8am and look to extend the trail network to the north. Next bridge is ready to be built, some benching on the run in and the couple of hundred meters joining the bridge to mt faulk road.

Probably some benching of the current loop to be done to fix a few issues exposed today.

Some race pics in this thread.