[Closed] Gisburn rocks........;o)

Tony, honestly, it just went after a few bashes, will the FC guys repair it by Friday?.

I think they're still in denial that it's actually broken!!! 😆

We need a rake in the box aswell, it's much easier to get the hardcore raked to the correct slight offset angle (drainage) with a good rake, rather than using the Mcleod..

I fancy putting in some work-hours on the trail sometime, but only visit the area (well, Ramsbottom) every few months from Edinburgh - bit early, but do ya think there'll be owt going on around xmas??

Yeah hopefully, the section above will take a few months, am sure stumpyjon would be pleased to have an email from you.

hi good work fellas , that bridge does look err "rustic" , wish i could be there but work calls , talking of Christmas i will be up for a couple of days work to work off the pud , doesn't look like any more sawing has been done oh the log

We should squeeze an extra day or so in over Christnmas, also thinking about another mid week dig in a couple of weeks (still got some holiday to squeeze in)

Sorry Paul, no cakes tomorrow although there will be tea, coffee, ho****er and biccies.

The broken McLeod has been noted, Andy found it floating around the bottom of the trailer in a couple of inches of water......

Rob - send me an email (in profile) and I'll add you to my email list and keep you in the loop.

hi ,sorry i forgot to send martin a email about the broken McLeod it just needs a spanner to undo the bolts and saw the broken end of the handle

Don't worry, it got fixed this afternoon and returned. Martin also showed up for an hour or so and did some more work on the log, in fact we left him in the failing light with the chainsaw going.........halloween may have come early this year for Gisburn Forest 😯

Got another 35m of trail in today and another bridge, got some serious work done this week. Terry, got an apology, assumed it was you who broke the McLeod in a frenzy of trail building (well with your reputation for maolesting power barrows it was understandable) but Paul owned up.

Ed O popped in today as well with his lad, infact we had a succession of visitors coming to see what was going on.

Good to see you guys, the new trails are looking really top notch.

sounds like you had a very productive day (any pics?) i hope you gave all your visitors a shovel and set them to work 😉 did martin say when he is going to drop the other tree ? and a big well done for all the hard work

Tony took some, said he'd post tomorrow. Martin didn't say when the next tree would be down but we did talk about it. He won't be at the next dig day on the 8th although Nigel should be reappearing.

Didn't sign any new volunteers up today but did get an email address on Wednesday.

Big thankyou to everyone who turned out this week, probably got well over 100m of trail laid and topped off.

Just for you Terry, some pics from Friday... 😀

First off, we decided to take the trail slightly further up the slope than originally planned before swinging into the woods.

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It then goes over a bit of a rooty drop...

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Twists up through the woods...

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And goes over another shonky bridge (courtesy of stumpyjon and B.A.)...

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After another fairly sharp turn round a tree, plan is to run it across the slope along a natural alley through the trees, over a drainage ditch, and then maybe via another bit of boardwalk across a boggy bit and back to the road. Additional features may be incorporated as and where possible. 😉

First job a week on Sunday is probably going to be lots and lots of barrowing gravel... 🙄

tony thanks for the pics , looking good you certainly got a lot of trail laid down well done , have you guys decided where scotts step section is going to be yet or do you think this needs to be a separate section of trail branching off ? i was thinking of a short loop going up the slope to get the height in the steps then a few bigger steps to launch off coming back down

My vote would be to lay a trail and then all features/obsticals to be an optional extra. I know it's supposed to be a red grade trail and it's alot more work for volunteers, but too many people just ride around stuff, which causes a mess and trail creep. Jon also wants to put some logs in to bunnyhop and I've suggested some trials type rock obsticals like this
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Terry, in the last of Tonys pics above, you should be able to make out the bridge. It's quite high up from the trail, so the next problem will be to raise the trail enough, so you can get over the bridge,

perhaps lay a few large rocks leading up to the bridge to raise the level ?, there seems to be a few large flat ones in the wall we are robbing out , i agree that most technical features are built off the main trail making them optional this also means we can make them bigger and harder 👿

The run down through the woods after the new bridge is pretty straight, so we should be able to fit Scott's step-ups in somewhere along the way. That said, the line does lie slightly down-slope, so the overall profile would probably end up as more of a saw-edge (a vertical step up followed by a slope down, then another vertical step up followed by a slope down, and so on) - I guess this might help to keep the overall momentum up, but I'm not sure whether it's what Scott wants to achieve with the steps?

Alternatively, like you say we could build a stepped loop off to one side, providing we can find the space amongst the trees away from the main "alley".

mmm step ups on a down slope doesn't seem to make sense to me ,an extra loop up the slope sounds best doesn't have to be too long i just like the idea as its not something i have seen at any other trail center

mmm step ups on a down slope doesn't seem to make sense to me ,an extra loop up the slope sounds best doesn't have to be too long i just like the idea as its not something i have seen at any other trail center

We'll have to have a shufti next week, see if we can identify any suitable gaps heading up the slope.

Could do with a new wooden bridge over the river just after the "roller coaster" it washed away this morning with all the rain, tried several times to wade across the river but it was above my waist and was very fast white water, impossible to cross without a rope !!

Love the work you lot are doing, some great sections but mother natural has done loads of damage today. 😈

Yikes!!! 😯 Sounds like the FC boys are going to be busy this week...

**** the bridge has gone! err as for the steps I'll draw a picture and bring it on Sunday.

if the wind brings down the right trees it could save some work making log rides 😆
i went to calderdale this morning it was like a monsoon

The bottom of the "roller coaster" was a river, quite deep as well, maybe 30 cm !!

Found the slab this time and rode it, thats not washed away. 😕

hi kingfisher was there a lot of water running down the rollercoaster ? that could be very destructive

tezzer22 - Member
hi kingfisher was there a lot of water running down the rollercoaster ? that could be very destructive

Loads at the bottom, past the bottom of the folks, couldn't see the damage as it was literally a river.

The top section of the paths on the roller coater where getting nicely rutted which made it intresting ath high speed.
😛

 

kingkongsfinger - sorry i got your name wrong i must pay attention , perhaps the heavy rain will have washed all the lose surface mud away leaving a gripper surface

Massive puddle after the main hip jump on the line that comes off the Slab today.

Didn't go down the Rollercoaster today, but the rest of the place is fine. Some parts of the climb up to the Crag are going to need some maintenance before too long as the sand is getting washed out and smaller rocks are being exposed rapidly.

Could do with a day up there to patch up the trails, lots of barrowing to be done for the volunteers, I don't mind doing it.

Could do with a day up there to patch up the trails, lots of barrowing to be done for the volunteers, I don't mind doing it.

Martin's not there on Sunday, off kayaking I think, Nigel supposed to be there though. I did talk it through with Martin about fettling the volunteer section and he seemed amenable to that. He's not been quite so enthusiastic about repairs to some of the other stuff though (I wonder if that was because of stretched resources though rather than not wanting to do it).

Personally I think we could do with carrying out some maintenance on some of the contractor built stuff before it all washes away and / or it starts getting a bad reputation. Maybe a couple of us could plan in a proper survey ride and make some notes of what we'd like to fix. Then talk to Martin so he can get surfacing materials into the right places, then it's merely a case of barrowing. About to send out some emails for extra days tonight anyway.

hi i had a walk down the volunteer section last time i was there and apart from a few corners being cut buy idiots it all looks to be holding up very well, pity the same cant be said for some of the contractor sections

Martin's not there on Sunday, off kayaking I think

Doh, of course he is. I [i]was[/i] paying attention on Friday, honest... 🙄

Agree that a bit of maintenance on the contractor-built bits wouldn't go amiss - as I've said before, I'd be available pretty much any time.

Hi Terry

Scott pointed out where you'd piled some rocks at the start to discourage off piste riding. Paul said people were bypassing the rocky steps at the end of our section as well, dragging loads of mud back onto the trail at the bottom. Doesn't sound like we have to much fettling to do on our section, maybe we can help stabilise some of the other bits. I really don't want it to get the reputation of being rubbish for want of a bit of maintenance.

Hi guys,

Yes, I had a quick look on Friday (whilst driving back towards the gate) at the stone pitched staircase. Quite a few people have ridden down to the left of the staircase, making a bit of a mess and dragging lots of earth and loose material back onto the armoured surface. I dragged up and placed a few large obstructions, but then had to run back to the car so that Jon didn't lock me in. 😳
I'm up for some maintenance days, alot of people only want to build new stuff, but I have a bit of a perfection disorder, like jon 😉 , so I want everything that is already there to be perfect.

Paul

I have a bit of a perfection disorder, like jon 😉

"stone-pitched staircase"

Is that the steep little rocky drop off section in the woods near the beginning of the route?

If so i did notice a lot of tyre tracks to the left of it. I had to stop at that section to prevent my newbie g/f from hitting it, so i ended up walking around it.
Hopefully i'll be back soon and i can ride it this time!

"stone-pitched staircase"

Is that the steep little rocky drop off section in the woods near the beginning of the route?

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Must admit I'll be intrigued to see just where people have ridden - when we were building it, I got the impression that if you went off it to the left, you'd be away down the slope and into a tree! 😯

Don't know what Paul means, I just wanted all the planks on the bridge to be exactly the same length.....

Tony, I've seen your crazing paving trail abse layers, you'd be hard pushed to a get a knife between some of the stones.

Guilty as charged. 🙂

BTW, I agree with you about the length of the planks on the bridge... 😉

Maybe on Sunday someone could consult with Martin as to what measures he's happy for us to take to prevent people cutting corners and riding off piste. At Dalby I've seen secured logs put in place to keep people on the trail, but I'm not sure if Martin would want that on H&S grounds. In some cases, I'd say to armour those lines of least resistance that people are taking. In other cases, I'd say put some secured logs in the way to prevent people riding that line. On the stone pitched staircase, I'd like to put some permanent obstruction in the way, so people have to ride or walk down the staircase. However, there's no point in us putting bear traps in, if Martin then says they have to be removed.

Martin's apparently away playing boats somewhere this weekend, but Nigel might have some thoughts on the matter. Whatever, the sooner we can get a solution in place the better methinks.

Nigel will probably go for sharpened stakes 😈

Agree with Paul though, I think it'll be case by case, some will need the desire line formalising, some will want the mantraps. Secured logs or really big stones are probably the safest bet although now we're a bit more aware we should try and use the ground conditions to coerce people to use the correct line where possible.

im up for a bit of maintenance if needs be , as for people riding on the left side of the staircase they must be mad its got to be far slipper than riding the staircase itself , perhaps we should provide a nice smooth tarmacked optional line , i think a few rocks or piles of logs should be enough in most places

The staircase is a much easier line than than the slithery mud hustle that the cheaters are taking. We'll own that on Saturday 🙂

perhaps we should provide a nice smooth tarmacked optional line