If you’ve been following the Singletracks.com series on trailbuilding, you’ve read Choosing Your Line Part 1 and Part 2 and Trailbuilding 101. Congratulations, you’ve learned a lot about trailbuilding and you’re almost ready to head out and start digging. But you need something to dig with and some friendly people to help, right? Otherwise you’d just be that crazy guy digging alone in the woods with your hands. This article goes over the most useful trailbuilding tools and gives you strategies to expand your network of slave labor, er I mean friends.

Gather Tools and Building Supplies

Always use the right tool for the job to increase efficiency and reduce the chance of injury. Here is a list of tools I often use; I’ll provide details about what tools are needed for specific tasks in future articles.

1. Spade
2. Square shovel
3. Buckets
4. Wheelbarrow
5. Cutting Mattock
6. Pulaski
7. Chainsaw with sharpening and filing tools
8. Hoe
9. Rake
10. McLeod (pictured above)
11. Axe
12. Hammer
13. Battery powered hammer drill with 3 batteries
14. Folding saw
15. Pruners
16. Gas powered trimmer
17. Dakine Trailbuilders Backpack

It’s always a good idea to use protective gear when building new trails. I wear long pants, 8” steel toed boots, safety glasses and gloves whenever I build because you never know when or where you’ll encounter a nasty thorny bush, poison ivy, poison oak or just plain crap falling on you.

Find Building Partners

Contact your riding buddies and let them know that you are building a new trail. In all likelihood they’ll be stoked and will want to help you build. Many hands make light work and it’s always good to have company on those long trail building days (plus there’s safety in numbers). Friends can also help you brainstorm new trail ideas too. Having others to bounce thoughts off of will help you decide which ideas to embrace and which to kick to the curb. Just make sure you bring along creative, positive helpers!

If you don’t know many people who ride, don’t worry! Just by getting out there building and riding you will meet people. Get the contact info of people you meet on rides and expand your network. Social networking sites like Facebook can help organize your contacts. Don’t be shy about talking to other riders on the trails. Mountain Biking is a sub-culture where the passion for riding breaks many social barriers and there’s always something to talk about when you’re with other mountain bikers. At the beginning of the season, I didn’t know most of the people I ride with and build with now. I regularly plan build and ride sessions through Facebook and expand my circle of friends nearly every time I ride. The Singletracks.com Facebook page might be a good place to start finding local mountain bikers in your area.

Friends help make trail building more fun and it’s up to you maintain the positive vibe. Keeping the conversation light and positive helps the time pass more quickly. Ideally you will establish a core group of friends that can bring their own tools and will help you build regularly. Be sure to clarify your plans for the trail and ask them to consult you before they make modifications to the plan. When people work on your trail they are investing time and effort so they should be likely come back to build or ride because they have invested “sweat equity”.

Call Before You Dig

The last thing you want is to cut through a fiber optic cable or be electrocuted while digging. You don’t know what lies underground until you call 811 (United States only) or your local “call before you dig” hotline. This is especially important if you live in an urban area.

What’s Next

Now you’ve learned to:

- Gather the Right Tools and Building Supplies
- Tell Your Riding Buddies What’s Up
- Expand Your Network
- Call Before You Dig

Now you’re ready to start learning how to build!

Stay tuned for the next article in the Singletracks.com series on trailbuilding. Next article will outline perhaps the most useful method of trailbuilding: benchcutting.

About the Author

Kevin Johnstone is an avid mountain biker from Ontario, Canada. He has been building trails across Canada for 4 years. He has worked with the worlds #1 bike park builder, Jay Hoots, to build a mountain bike park on the Sunshine Coast of British, Columbia, Canada. He spent 2 seasons improving the trails at Kelso Conservation Area in Milton. He is currently building downhill specific trails. Kevin can be reached by private message at Singletracks.com.

*Disclaimer*Kevin Johnstone and Singletracks.com will not be held responsible for the consequences of illegal trailbuilding. Always get permission and build legally.

Hey everyone, just a quick reminder that Joyride 150 opens tomorrow. In case you didn’t read my previous post, Joyride is Ontario’s (and Canada’s) first indoor bike park with something for everyone inside the 90,000 square foot mega-complex. Pack your bags and your bikes and get out there for some fun!

Bob_the_builder and I will be out there ASAP. The courses are well thought out and expertly built and this is the place where you can ride to your heart’s content all winter long. Check out the Joyrides website and get details. I’m sure once you check out Joyride you will be as stoked as I am!

Cheers

Last week I wrote about locating and planning for a new MTB trail and this is a continuation of that article. Click here to go back and get caught up.

Walk the Area

Walking the site is integral to choosing a line for your new mountain bike trail. Walking will help you decide which areas are most suitable and will help you see topography and land makeup at a closer scale. Look for natural features such as rock gardens, ridges, and humps. These features are useful for building technical sections, jumps, rollers, and berms and the best trails link these types natural features together. Take your “dream trail” list (see previous article) out with you to help you remember all the features you are looking for. Mark areas of interest on a map, GPS, or even mentally. If you have more than one possible build site, walking the area will help you decide which site to use.

Look for Natural Features

Natural features play a key role in how I personally build trails. Making use of natural features saves you lots of time and effort when building your trail and it usually makes it more fun too. Different features are desirable for different trail types and uses. If you are building an XC trail, look for natural benches and humps to help you make a fast, flowy benchcut trail with many grade reversals. If you are building a FR/DH trail, look for ridges and humps with proper spacing to build jumps and berms, rock slabs, rock gardens and natural benches that make full use of elevation changes. Spotting natural features takes practice and a trained eye so next time you’re out for a hike or slow paced ride, look around and try to identify a few natural features and envision what you might build with them if you were building a trail there. Here are some natural features which are useful for trail building:

1.    Ridgelines: Staying atop ridgelines allows for trails with reasonable grades and good drainage.

photo by AK_Dan

2.    Benches: These are natural steps. Building trail along these is easy and creates well drained trails with suitable grades.
3.    Humps and bumps: These deposits of soil from 1-20 feet tall can be turned into rollers, gap jumps, tabletops and berms with just a little shaping. A short, steep incline or decline is often useful as the lip or landing of a jump.
4.    Rocks: Deposits of rocks can be used for rock gardens or rock armouring.

photo by trek7k

photo by RowdyREBEL

5.    Rock Faces: Slabs of various clines are useful for a high grip, zero maintenance, permanent, and fun trail features.
6.    Exposure: Building a trail relatively close to a steep hillside or cliff gives the user the sensation of speed. Just be careful not to build your trail too close to the edge!
7.    Scenery: Building your trail next to lookouts, streams, big trees or other aesthetically pleasing features enhances user experience.
8.    Building materials: Building a trail close to useful materials such as rocks and rot resistant wood such as cedar decreases the amount of materials you need to haul in and makes the trail building process faster and easier.

This picture shows a big rock garden some friends of mine built. The rocks were found close by then rolled and dug into place.

It’s tough to see from this angle, but this is a BIG tabletop. The lip is on the bottom right and the landing is on the bottom left of the frame. I saw a big ridge and thought it would make a good tabletop. I carved out a lip on one side and smoothed out a transition on the other. I envisioned this line and it turned out better than I expected.

It’s also a bit tough to see on this one, but the launch ends on the upper log on the right side of the frame and the landing is on the bottom left. This is the set up jump for the tabletop in the previous picture. Again, I envisioned this line and the final product vastly exceeded my expectations. The downed log provided a natural backing for the jump. The length to the naturally steep transition also works perfectly. All I had to do to build this line was benchcut and add some dirt to the lip. For those who aren’t familiar, a benchcut is a trail cut into the side of a hill and I’ll expand on the benchcut method of trailbuilding in a future article.

Next Up: Choosing Your Line Part 2

About the Author
Kevin Johnstone is an avid mountain biker from Ontario, Canada. He has been building trails for 4 years across Canada. He has worked with the worlds #1 bike park builder, Jay Hoots, for a number a build sessions spanning 2 years. He spent 2 seasons improving the trails at Kelso conservation area in Milton. He is currently building downhill specific trails. Kevin can be reached by private message.

Before the Shovel: First Steps

As a trailbuilder with 4 years experience, I have worked on more than my fair share of mountain bike trails. I believe it’s every mountain biker’s responsibility to get involved with trailbuilding at some level plus it’s great exercise, you’ll meet cool people, and you’ll be giving back to the mountain bike community. Best of all you, and your friends get to ride your new creation! Getting involved with trailbuilding is easy if you look in the right places. I intend to show you the quickest and easiest way to start building the trail of your dreams. This article identifies the steps you need to take before you put a shovel in the ground.

Identify a Need

Chances are you have trail envy. You’ve seen or ridden trails far from home that you love, and you want to bring the best elements together into one super-trail close to home. Don’t be afraid to dream big when you picture the ideal trail. Grab a pen and paper and list all the features you’re looking for. Start with the genre of trail you want to build and then add more specifics. Here’s an example:

New Downhill Trail
-    Road to shuttle/ride/hike up
-    At least 500ft elevation drop
-    Flowy
-    Rock gardens
-    Lots of jumps: step down, step up and gap
-    Some berms
-    No uphill
-    Some pedalling
-    Some steep sections
-    Within 30 miles of home

These are just some examples of characteristics you might want in a trail. I will expand on definitions in article 2 entitled Choosing Your Line.

Now that you’ve identified the key features of your trail, contact people in your community with extensive knowledge of existing trails.

Contact the Local Experts

In order to find an area to build trails, contact your local mountain bike club. If your town doesn’t have a mountain bike club, go to the local bike shop and find out who knows the trails best. Once you’ve found your local expert, tell him about your riding interests and what your area is lacking. Say that you would like to get involved and build a trail to suit the needs of yourself and other riders like you. This is a good way to find out if there are already trails in your area that meet your needs and can help identify areas that are good for building.

Be open to helping the club meet their existing trailbuilding goals, especially if you are a novice trailbuilder. Often mountain bike associations will host trail build days. Attending these build sessions will help you maintain a good relationship with your local club, meet other people with similar interests, and learn basic trailbuilding skills. If you’re unsure as to whether you are ready to build a whole new trail, sponsored trail build days will help you decide. Mountain bike associations appreciate suggestions for trail improvement. Maybe they will use one of your ideas in their next build day.

Once you’ve attended some build days and improved your trailbuilding skills, ask your local association to give you some projects pertaining to your interests. Many mountain bike associations have long lists of trail maintenance jobs that need to be done as well as volunteer hours to fulfill. For many people, involvement in local build days is all the trailbuilding they want to do. For others, trailbuilding turns into a passion matched only by their enthusiasm for riding. These impassioned builders need a trail to call their own.

The desire to build trails comes from an unfulfilled need. Your local expert might not show any interest in pointing out areas on existing trails suitable for the modifications you have in mind. It is common for mountain bike clubs to hesitate in allowing trail features such as jumps, berms and steep sections, features that many riders enjoy. A good solution to this problem is to ask to build a new trail specific to the needs of riders like you. Now you must find a suitable place to build your dream trail.

Identify a Suitable Area to Build

First, ask your local mountain bike association if they can recommend an area to build in that will suit your needs. If there are trails in your area similar to the one you have envisioned, ask if you could build in the same area. This keeps trails centralized and allows others to more easily enjoy your work. If you don’t get an answer from one person, look for someone else who can help and be persistent. Ask your local mountain bike club, bike shop, riders and perhaps the best resource, other trailbuilders.

It is very important that you don’t build a trail anywhere you don’t have permission to. This includes private land and protected areas. Unless I have permission from the land manager, I only build on crown land. Crown land is a Canadian term meaning “taxpayers land” owned by the government. Crown land is public land with certain laws governing its use. Find out where the government owned land is in your area by going to library or geography department of a university and looking at zoning maps. You will likely find a number crown land areas suitable for your new trail. (note: US laws are often more strict regarding public land uses) It is always a good idea to contact the crown land manager in your area before building. Crownland.org is an excellent resource if you live in Canada. Google maps is another good tool to use to identify forested areas and topography using the satellite and terrain tools. Remember, illegal building hurts our sport and can lead to jail time!

Now that you have identified one or more areas suitable for your new trail, it’s time to brush up on your trailbuilding knowledge.

Review IMBA Trailbuilding Strategies

IMBA has a number of books packed with useful trailbuilding strategies. These books will help you envision your new trail. It’s good to read this before you go scout out the area because you will have a better idea of what natural features to look for.

Now that you have one or more possible places for your new trail, it’s time to lace up the boots!

Stay tuned for my next article: Choosing Your Line.

About the Author
Kevin Johnstone is an avid mountain biker from Ontario, Canada. He has been building trails for 4 years across Canada. He has worked with the worlds #1 bike park builder, Jay Hoots, for a number a build sessions spanning 2 years. He spent 2 seasons improving the trails at Kelso conservation area in Milton. He is currently building downhill specific trails. Kevin can be reached via private message.