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The plan for the weekend was to cut some new trail to provide connections to the triangle area. The triangle once contained an optional loop, something that we inherited when we took over the trail in 2009. The optional loop had a lot of issues that we wanted to fix by complete redesign. Part of this was to incorporate it into the main trail using new bridges over the river.
Originally we’d planned on using the hill on the entrance to provide a run up to gain some air when leaving the bridge. Our discussions on Thursday evening suggested that this wouldn’t work. Part of the problem was that the boggy area on the way in would benefit from being built up with a load of rock that we had found in the triangle. This would be too bumpy to carry the speed. So we abandoned the jump idea. On Saturday morning then Jez and myself started moving the rocks from the triangle to the bridge approach. We were soon joined by Tony La Porte and two new trail builders: Sarah/Sara and Sean/Shaun/Shawn. It’s great to see new people and it makes a big difference to our progress.
Jez and Sean/Shaun/Shawn harvested rocks from the undergrowth near the Ladder Lane track. We managed to move some large slabs from the triangle, including one that was so large that we broke it into two to move it. I was looking at the layout and worried that the down ramp was now wasting hill to give speed that we would then chuck away on the rocks. There was enough space to add another pair of bermed corners, so Sarah and myself cut back branches and undergrowth to find the best line. Mike Jeffries, Nigel Gregson and Kristian Price joined us. We tried a new trail cutting technique – Tony used his rotorvator to loosen the soil. It was really easy to the then dig out the soil. This was used to build up the berms.
Phil arrived from work at 1pm and liked the new route. A slight change was made to the last bit which brought it out higher on the hill, allowing a run up for the rocks. Meanwhile Jez had discovered a new source of rocks near the track. There were some big slabs buried in the ground too. We started digging these out and transporting them in the power barrow. By the end of the day the approach trail was all dug out with the berms in place and we had a few metres of rock slabs in place. A great day of progress and thanks to everyone who was there.  
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