A ladder day

It’s been a while since we have 3 consecutive day of rain. The trail is wet, and we are hopeful that the water drainage is withstanding the test of the tropical rainfall neatly.

We hit the trail at around 9.30am.
With Alvin, Liyana and around 3-4 labour force joining me in the trail.

The labour force is helping out with the transportation of bakau wood and granite chips deep into the trail. Specifically the bridge 1 and yellow space area, where heavy slope reinforcement is needed.

While Alvin took inspection on some new wood, I took the chance to walk the trail, check the trail existing drainage.

The drainage are holding up pretty well, with the 2 slopes after bridge 1 catching some of the rain. very minor problem compared to what it was before the drainage are set in.

The snake bend is getting more like a water park slide. We secure 3 bags of granite to mix it into the fresh top mud. This will be needed for the next few rains to compact the riding surface as much before the berms are fully done up.

We took the time to dug up the ‘Japanese Rock Garden’ slope, buried another big stone slab into the underground drainage, and a quickfix with more granite chips into the ‘1st root slope’.

Further up after bridge 2, the ‘2nd root slope’ is holding up well, giving traction even after 1hr of rain.
The rest of the trail is withstanding the rain pretty well, mud patches appear, seems more of a mix of top soil and mud, therefore not going to be a big problem.

The afternoon is spent laying the ladders that we build on Saturday around mud patches that might erode further.

the first two pieces is placed on top of a big root making a nice ramp, protecting the root and covering the muddy patch of the entry and the exit.

next come the small 1 ft drop. We would want to keep the drop eventually, therefore a ladder is now placed on top of the drop to armor the mud below until the dry season and the pebbles is properly mixed in.

The final big downhill of the course get a good dose of 3 packs of granites, half pounded and badly need manhours to sit the granite chips nicely. A small ladder is secured against the bottom of the slope so to keep the roots of a nice tree from being ridden over. giving the slope a better flow too.

The infamous ‘Log drop’, a 3ft dropoff is going through major rearmoring for the landing.

2 pools of mud at the ‘Log drop’ landing encouraged us to start building more drainage and wooden berms so to cut the contact to the mud to the least. We couldn’t finish it today. to be done tomorrow or on Friday.
Will be updating this posting soon with photos.

Work done

25 manhours – material transports
2 manhours – building new ladders
10 manhours – securing and placement ladders on 3 sections
3 manhours – log drop landing
1 manhour – bridge 2 repair
1 manhour – japanese garden slope and log slope 1 drainage
1 manhour – snake slope armoring