Rocky Soil Ideas?

[flapjak]

Ok guys, me and my friends have been building DH tracks for the best part of 2 years now, basically the soil we have to work with is pretty hardpacked and has stupid amounts of rocks and boulders in it. Up until now we just slog it out with pickaxes (painful) and i was wondering if anyone has any special techniques they use for dealing with heaps rocky soil.

cheers jak

 

[trailsnail]

What I have to say is probably not IMBA standard, but it works well when I have used this technique.

As a general rule when building you never want to place logs on the lower edge of a trail as they collect a build up of silt and sediment creating mud for tyres to sink into.

I have been building constantly for about 3 years or so now and have found that when a trail is extremley rocky a solid log on the lower edge of a trail is actualy one of the best things to do, probably the only time you would consider it.
You will probably end up finding a tree on the lower edge of your trail to rest your log against.

Once you have your log in place just build up/armour your trail with some of the flatter and larger rocks in the area you are working on.
you will need to bed these in firmly.
Then fill in any remaining gaps with smaller rocks untill you have a smoothish even surface and cover over with dirt, clay, just no plant matter or black soil if you can help it... although sometimes you will need to just use whatever you are working with.
Compact it down firmly. (A firerake works well for this)

If built right and with water flow in mind you should end up with an armoured section of trail that hopefully catches sediment, but will have rock below to stop tyres sinking in. (A genuine best of both worlds scenario)

also if you are working in extremley rocky areas sometimes a full wheel barrow is not the easiest thing to navigate through rough trail areas.
I made myself a stretcher for shifting rocks/dirt. a person at each end moves alot of soil in a very small ammount of time, just choose a strong fabric.
I ended up using shade sail/sunscreen material and two lengths of aluminium tubing for mine.


I hope this can help you out.

 

[flapjak]

cheers for the quick reply mate. yeah we do use logs and rocks to support the lower, off camber side of the tracks, but ive never heard of a firerake. might have to get myself one and see how that works out

cheers jak

 

[outtacontrol]

We use a mini excavator irate:

 

[Ridenparadise]

and use it well at Douglas where you can transport rocks in/away etc on a commercial scale.

In really rocky areas routing the trail carefully is obviously important (ie using the rock where you want it and avoiding deposits where you need soil...), but trying to find a way to fill in the gaps after erosion, allowing for water moving through the rock as well as on the surface and continuing to work on the trail to prevent it being degraded to unrideable scree takes as much time as actually making it. And it hurts slamming rock with a mattock, or stone with a shovel. The only tricks I know are trying to find the cleavage planes in the rock, using a mattock carefully and levering it all out bit-by-bit. A crowbar could be needed in some places.

The stretcher trailsnail describes works really well when moving local produce across country onto trail, like you have to when trails start breaking down after heavy rain. It's a great maintenance tool for a small gang when repairing, armouring, filling in and reshaping trail as has to happen over time. Sometimes a trail has to be built rough and then modified over time.

 

[flapjak]

yeah that stretcher snail thing actually does sound like a good idea for shifting dirt. me and a mate went out and bought a whippersnipper yesterday aswell which carves through the knee high grass much better than shovels . another problem we have is separating the medium sized rocks from the good dirt we want for upramps, but i was thinking maybe an old cooking sieve might work

 

[cluster]

another problem we have is separating the medium sized rocks from the good dirt we want for upramps, but i was thinking maybe an old cooking sieve might work

if you just need a top layer of dirt for upramps (1" deep or so) just rake aggressively (fair amount of pressure) from further back down the track with a plastic rake in small sections, you'll usually find all the good dirt ends up on top of the trail surface and the rake holds the small/ medium rocks. then just flick the rocks off the side when you get to the ramp, and "shave" or scrape the dirt together onto the ramp.
hope this makes sense, it's a bit hard to explain but it works if you can figure this out.

 

[Ridenparadise]

If there are areas of soil between rock bands, they will be vulnerable to wheel and weather erosion. Not all rock forms a good riding platform without modification. In these places, soil with embedded stones can provide longevity, but there must be water to make it work. Similar for upramps (you mean for jumps?) although gravel may be better than stones depending on the amount of clay in the soil. Ideally the stones and soil are harvested from the trail base under construction. Sometimes it can be a matter of bent backs and hand sorting of the stone from the soil for prolonged periods.

 

[trailsnail]

Good point, get your soil from where you are working.

Nothing looks worse than holes near trails.

 

[FLOYD1]

I use a sledge hammer to break and shape rock and to compact smaller rocks into bigger rock holes, works well when you have a rock that sit right on line and you cant dig it out. Just smash it flat smooth line made, nuf said

 

[flapjak]

that slegehammer idea actually doesnt sound half bad, just bashing the smaller rocks down to make a flat surface, could actually save sometime i reckon. Yeah for our 'upramps' (jumps) we do use the raking-furiously-at-the topsoil technique, but theres always a few annoying little rocks that get in there. probably just me being too perfectionist i guess

 

[trailsnail]

We usualy bash stubborn rocks in after the rain when the ground becomes softer.
But that sledge hammer idea sounds like it would work well in the dry also.

Thanks for a great tip.