Thursday
On Thursday evening we spent a few hours working on the trail. Present were Alan, new recruit army Mike and myself. We dug out the straights between the berms on the new Red section and filled them with rubble. It rained for a while.
Saturday
On Saturday I arrived at 10am and spent a few hours on my own digging up the last of the old route berm. I turned over the soil in the section too, so that can grow over in the next few weeks.
I was just leaving for a food buying trip when Andy arrived. He set to digging out the top straight. When I got back from lunch the Phil had arrived and they were working on the first berm. A passing rider (Jamie?) also spent a few hours digging. A large lump of rock was built into the straight after the first berm, hopefully there will be enough speed there to clear this. Another part of the return loop was dug out and filled with rubble. Later in the afternoon our mystery helper arrived with a van of rubble and bags of gravel.
The main berms were shaped and rubble was tipped in various places. The area approaching the woodwork was filled with rubble and rocks were placed in the ditch to form a U bend. We all agreed that this was inspired by the rock section at Coed-y-Brenin. Late in the evening Phil and myself shaped the berm before the woodwork and things started to really take shape.
Monday
Bank holiday Monday was a bit of a late start for me. When I arrived Phil and another new recruit, Chris, were hard at work. They’d filled the return loop with rubble and were digging out the last part.
We sorted out the first bridge, dug out the ditch and sorted the berm before the bridge. This had to be moved half a metre to make it line up with the bridge. The berm was reinforced with extra mud and some stuff that Chris had in the back of his van. We went out and picked up some more rubble and used this to line the bottom of the berms.
By the end of the day then the new section was pretty much ready for the final surfacing. We plan to spend Thursday night reinforcing one of the berms and adding a special rock feature designed to discourage riders from riding down the return loop.
Thanks to everyone who laboured over the weekend. It’s great to see the new section taking shape.
Thursday evening.
Saturday.
Old trail.
Monday
New bridge taking shape.
Chilled out pigeon.
Berm on hill.
First berm.
Jump and next berm.
Berm and bridge.
Unfinished bridge and final berm.
Rock U-Bend and onto woodwork.
U Bend.
