trail work

With much of the wooden structure hand build with saw and hammer.

We took a jigsaw and power drill to see what we can build out of it.

Nik and I meet for the afternoon.

Our task today involved doing up a small 2metres long section, connecting a new entry ramp to the straight roller line.

We spend the first 30mins figuring how to get things done, jigsaw, generator, powerdrill, the correct drill bit needed etc etc. In no time we are carving the planks to custom fit shape so to fit the wierd triangle section needed.

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Jeff pop by in the late afternoon, and we tie down some stuff on what to build and when.

Is definitely getting interesting…

2 metres link bridge – 6 man hours

It’s a full day work at Kent Ridge.

Alvin and Liyana met up with me at the North Shore section early.

Apparently with the help of Liyana, he got the roller coaster straight started yesterday.
Leaving today with completing the V ramps for the ‘Roller Jump’.

With the recent thunderstorm, we are lucky to have fallen acacia trunks for building the lower sections of the ride. We use the first of the trunk today.

We are thankful that Jeff had pre-layout the ramps a few days before, giving us less to think about and pure carpentry to work on.

While completing the V-jump in the morning, the afternoon is reserved for the rest of the trail work needed.
We worked on the long awaited Motherbridge exit. Getting the last diagonal bar on to the ground. and took some time getting the incomplete berm after the motherbridge done up.

With the help of 5 cement logs bracing the small cliff, the missing berm is now touch up, slightly narrower then before but alot smoother.

Dangerous bakau wood lining the berm earlier are now taken off or saw off.

The motherbridge section is finally completed. We can now plan for wood to be shifted to the North Shore section.

North Shore V-jump – 5 man hours

Mother bridge exit – 3 man hour

Post Mother bridge berm – 3 man hour

Much as we are trying to make sure everyone get updated with info, we got to zip this until this New Stuff is almost ready. And yes we are there.
We just received the new batch of woods for the stringers, and trail construction kicks in again officially today.

We finished the Y-junction today, with Alvin and me braving the thunderstorm banging away nails after nails sending the trail ‘to the wall’ and created a small dropoff in the process.

And YES we have been banging away a NS freeride sections aka New Stuff aka New Section aka North Shore, for the past 2 months.

The section main ride is done, with intermediate riding in mind, a newbie ride will be in place soon while the crazy sick jumps and skinny will come after that.
This section is still scattered with nails, planks and beams. NOBODY should ride it until the shore is ready, and yes we might have forgotten to bang in some planks, and we don’t want anyone riding on them assuming all the planks are nailed in.

8 man hours – Y-junctions with banking made in.
1 man hour – manual transports of stringers and post.

Alright, is about 2 months since we’ve done real work on the trail.

The past 2months were spent waiting for the rain and sediment to weather the trail, giving a good foundation before the heavy riding expected.
While Alvin and gang worked the new long downhill section with proper anti-erosion barrier, I spent my time nursing a bad wound and getting things done up for the tarmac riding lovers.

As fragile as any other forested area (secondary forest in this case), repopulation of open section become priority these 2 months. Personally do hope trail user can take precaution not to damage the repopulation effort when the park is finally open.

The XC trail is certainly ready for riding. We do have critical missing bits, signages and trail howto are still going through fabrication process. Just like any parks and area that involved public usage, these are must have. In the process of getting the bits together, GPS mapping is done up. We are certainly thrill with those new GPS, great foilage penetration.
Fern hill is ready, it should be the highest point for the XC trail.

Along the fern hill is certainly the nice newbie ride route, and yes we are certainly catering for as much riding as possible.

Today we started work on a new section, a section not for the faint-hearted. We are sure it’s going to be something new for most of us. Will update everyone further when it is near completion, ‘crash test dummies’ will be welcome then.

(for the record, this section is started around 5 days ago by Alvin and gang, certainly a major headstart in reviving trail construction)

stay tune, next some photographic evidence ..

Finally injury caught up with me (non trail or bike related),

While Alvin and Liyana work the day with the 3 workers, completing and bench cutting sections of the uphill section of the fern hill, I took the time off to test out our Virtual Maps sponsored GPS tracking units so to mark the trails.

I caught up with the gang around mid afternoon, this time with the camera instead.

Just noticed we never captured photos on how the work is done.

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work done

18 manhours – fern hill upslope

5 manhours – mother bridge downramp

questions on ‘when will we see the trail re-open again?‘

I got to say, I really have no idea.

We are adding extension to the trail, re-routing some part of the trail, re-addressing certain muddy section so there’s a better solution to the ever muddy pool, some new challenges, and of course MB200.

3 pallets of wood is now in the process of stacking around the dropoff, MB200 is almost complete.

The sandbags are now removed from the staircase, that means we will not be reusing that temporary section anymore.

Until the trail is ready.

24 manhours – material transport

6 manhours – Project MB200

We are finally back with more workforce for the trail.

We have a big turn up of 8 labourer from Nparks, together with Alvin and Liyana. Mas gave his bit in helping out with the trail, fixing the trail as he explore it first time.

We added 2 drains along the route, 1 of them nicely hidden between bridge 1 and 2, the other just after the yellow open space staircase.

With the workforce available, granite chips are brought in from the trailhead to fill whichever muddy gap that we can find. the whole trail should be totally ridable, traction speaks, except 2 sections, the Snake Slope and the ‘mud slide’ just before bridge 3.
The snake slope is still filled with loose granite chips. the curve 1 of snake slope get the much needed berming. We made it out of mud/sand/clay/granite chips and some sprinkle of cement. Riders can rail the curve alot better .
Although much work is done on berm 1, the 4 logs around snake curve still give most riders a hairy descent. More clay and cement when we get the chance.

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The ‘mud slide’, get a temporary fix. Granite chip mix with mud, spread on the slope. with the curvy landing getting de-mud. We should be able to work on this later on Saturday.

20 manhours – mud puddle and drainage

2 manhour – snake slope berm 1

20 manhours – material transport