and i am gonna do a dig day, when i get a spare weekend.
let me know for november…. 8)

Terry
My flickr account is here flickr account I loaded a picture of the bongo with FC trailer. If you still want me to email you a pic then just say. Thanks for the rain cover at lunch, much appreciated. Bongotastic!

b.a don't bother with the email ill copy it of flicker thanks , good luck with the dig tomorrow guys

Good work guys. Really liking the volunteer sections.

With special thanks to the gentlemen with the wonderful little girls who brought us cakes they'd made themselves, here are the results of today's efforts.

A few more metres of trail (didn't actually measure how many 😕 )…

And a shonky bridge over a yawning chasm… 😀

That bridge is far from shonky it would give the Milliau a run for its money in engineering terms.. I know this as I tested the above bridge by jumping up and down on it. A big thanks to the cake kids and their Dad of course.

Sorry chaps, I broke the McLeod on Sunday (I suspect maybe someone else had broken/weakened it 😉 on a previous dig, as it broke almost as soon as I started using it), so you won't have had anything to tamper the hardcore down.
Will Jons(?) girls be making cake for Friday?
Nice work BTW.

Sorry chaps, I broke the McLeod on Sunday (I suspect maybe someone else had broken/weakened it on a previous dig, as it broke almost as soon as I started using it), so you won't have had anything to tamper the hardcore down.

It's OK Paul, we made do with our dancin' feet… 😆

I know this as I tested the above bridge by jumping up and down on it.

I can also confirm the log-ride didn't escape the attentions of the Official Tester either… 😀

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

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..

Good point, the same thought crossed my mind today. We'll have to mention it to Martin.

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, hotwater 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.

It then goes over a bit of a rooty drop…

Twists up through the woods…

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

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

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

I can visualise it almost as a series of reverse mini drop-offs, but maybe that's just me… 😕

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.

I'm available pretty much anytime, maybe see what Martin reckons on Sunday?

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.