Trail build report: Sat 4th Feb – Resurfacing + 21 tonnes moved

After a mild January the temperatures had dropped below zero and a cold weekend with the possibility of snow was forecast.

I arrived at 9am to meet Brandon hire who were delivering the compactor and found a keen volunteer already there waiting to go. After I collected the tools then we started loading rubble sacks up with limestone chippings – there were the best part of 21 tonnes of material waiting to be moved and almost one hundred sacks available. The destination for most of it was the triangle entrance. Surplus material was going to be moved to known areas of the trail that would benefit from some remedial work.

By 10am we had four people on site – myself, Kristian Archer, another Chris and another Nigel. As the morning went on we were joined by more until we had eight present including Euan, Robin and Rafe with his Land Rover. With so many people we quickly filled all of the sacks and moved onto loading the Land Rover with loose chippings. We had enough people do two jobs at once so a load of wheel barrows were collected and used to resurface a section of old trail near the start (originally built in November 2008).

I did try to dig up some mud but found that the ground was as hard as glass.

In the afternoon we were joined by Jerome, Nigel Gregson, Jez and Phil. Phil brought another fifty rubble sacks which were soon filled. As well as moving more material we also resurfaced the trail exit.

Jez and Nigel used the van to shift sacks to the triangle and also down to a section near the start that we call the back straight.

Light snow fell during the afternoon but didn’t hamper the work.

In the late afternoon the triangle was deemed to have enough material so the last three Land Rover loads of material were used to fix up a section next to the tennis courts.

As darkness fell then all 21 tonnes of material had been shifted. Around 80m of old trail had been resurfaced at the same time. A brilliant result and a demonstration of what a small group of well motivated people can achieve in a day. A large lorry such as this carries 20 tonnes of chippings.

Full trail build diary.