# Building with stone



## radair (Dec 19, 2002)

This is an old Passion thread I started a couple years ago. I realized there were still a bunch of features I hadn't documented, so I'm adding on.

Seems like a way to breathe some life into this forum. Read on: http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=524080#poststop


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## bitflogger (Jan 12, 2004)

We do a lot with stone that may not always be evident to the riders. We have been limited by state park rules, and working in a place where the mud can be very bad and greasy, so we've done a lot of paving and made rock bridges for stream crossings. In a different area of this park we are building turns with pitched stones.

I can post photos or re-link other threads sometime, but have to get to work right now.


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## imba_pete (Aug 9, 2005)

*Stonework Photos*

A few from the IMBA archives...


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## imba_pete (Aug 9, 2005)

*More Photos*

A few more.


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## hankthespacecowboy (Jun 10, 2004)

that's some sweet stone work! I'm rather intruiged by the idea of pitching for armoring steep climbs.


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## ACree (Sep 8, 2004)

If you like stonework, check out the Colonnade project up here in Seattle. http://www.bbtc.org/colonnade/

Nearly the entire trail is being constructed out of rock, so it's somewhat slow going, but the parts that are done look great.


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## fat_weasel (Jan 9, 2005)

ACree said:


> If you like stonework, check out the Colonnade project up here in Seattle. http://www.bbtc.org/colonnade/
> 
> Nearly the entire trail is being constructed out of rock, so it's somewhat slow going, but the parts that are done look great.


That's beyond rad. Every city should have something like that!


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## mergs (Feb 14, 2004)

*Jersey Rocks*

Good golly.... I love rocks. And that is some amazin stonework above. Here in north Jersey we have rocks, and then more rocks, so we try and make use of them. Here's some nice stone work in my neck of the woods (Allamuchy) done back in July:

before









during









about half done









close up









Coming on 3 months later, as you'd expect, its holding up great and settling into a bombproof tread!


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## jdog (Oct 7, 2005)

I have ridden this section. When I came upon it I was in awe..

What great work! That entire re-route really makes that climb all the better. 

The work at the top is even more fun. Perhaps the best stuff in the area. 

j


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## Skookum (Jan 17, 2005)

Here's a little bit of BBTC work that was done on Middle Fork Snoqualmie Trail. The forest service recently re-opened this trail back to mt. biking and this is some work to fulfill an obligation the club promised in order to regain access.










Oh and check this out..

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=247991

Alot of times if i'm doing trail work on a bench trail where the bottom side has blown out for whatever reason (sluffing downhill making a huge dip or gap). A good technique is to go harvest some rocks from the area. i shore up the blow out where the rocks will be cradled in without falling out. Then i build it up to within 4 inches or so of the grade of the trail. Then i cover the rest in soil. You can't tell it's rockwork, but you've essentially made that section bombproof. Alot of times we'll have tree's fall over and destroy trails and it's a great way of patching it back up.


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## rideit (Jan 22, 2004)

That is some fine work. Keep at it, as long as they will let you!


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## Skookum (Jan 17, 2005)

rideit said:


> That is some fine work. Keep at it, as long as they will let you!


No the club here is doing really good. After years and years of alot of work and not much to show, the relationships that have been established through advocacy are paying off. And we're all in hopes that this is going to be just the tip of the iceberg.

This is all legit work, the Collonade is a city park built by mt. bikers for mt. bikers fully sanctioned by the city of Seattle.

And the trailwork is done through the forest service by the club.

Here's an example of what i was talkin about, Ranger Creek Trail.

Big tree smashing the trail, making a huge dent. Chainsaw action.









Harvest rock, shore it up, bring in and level the soil. If you follow the line of the tree you can see how big the dent was after we bucked that log off of it.









A month or so later in late Spring, my pal doesn't even realize this was a spot where hours were spent fixing the trail.


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## bikedestroyer 23 (Oct 7, 2006)

that berm is simply amazing!!


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## radair (Dec 19, 2002)

White Mtns (NH) NEMBA's latest big stone project, a rock-armored, bermed switchback. This spot has the most stunning abundance of huge flat stones I've ever seen. Two of us have over 50 hours in this, with maybe 20 more to go. It's great to have such good material to work with, not typical for this area.

The berm will eventually wrap around to the right of the hemlock that the Pulaski is leaning against.


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## seenvic (Sep 9, 2003)

We did some armoring on some seeps that would just never dry up. We use clean concrete. It gets dirty and looks like rock. It's free to us. We don't have much in the way of natural rock readliy available. We estimate 100,000 pounds of "rock" are on the 25 miles of trail we built at this site in 7 months. This is in South Carolina.

This one is 108 feet long. We call it the Great Wall. It took three guys three twelve hour days to build.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v446/seenvic/Great Wall/BVonGreatWall.jpg

Here is a shorter one. A before. That's IMBA BOD member Jay Franklin smoothing it out. https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v446/seenvic/Great Wall/armor12.jpg

And the first rider coming over it. 
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v446/seenvic/Great Wall/armor1stwheels.jpg


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## seenvic (Sep 9, 2003)

tried to get the pics to show up in the posts.

didn't work. and now can't get rid of this one.


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## brado1 (Oct 5, 2004)

seenvic said:


> We did some armoring on some seeps that would just never dry up. We use clean concrete. It gets dirty and looks like rock. It's free to us. We don't have much in the way of natural rock readliy available. We estimate 100,000 pounds of "rock" are on the 25 miles of trail we built at this site in 7 months. This is in South Carolina.
> 
> This one is 108 feet long. We call it the Great Wall. It took three guys three twelve hour days to build.
> 
> ...


there you go Bill, Merry Christmas! need to get down there soon!


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## sick4surf (Feb 4, 2004)

Here's a short section of trail that we armored with broken concrete. It's pretty well locked in tight by the wood surrounding the section. You can see a section of geo textile and RR ties in the background on the left that was a failed attempt at "controlling" erosion. The trail used to go to the left but we re-routed it towards the right on a more gentle slope.

We finally fixed this sandy washout in a steep section that had been a problem for years.

We built two thirty foot crib walls that were about 2.5 feet high to stabilize the side slope and added the concrete armoring in a steeper than normal section to prevent tires from grinding away the sandy upslope.

The concrete was free and this section of trail was near RR tracks that just happen to have a pile of old ties they were about to discard...it's all recycled.

This was a small section that we used as an experiment to see if the concrete armoring would work...we are planning a long repair as in the pix from Seenvic but need to figure out the logistics of getting the broken concrete to the remote area.


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## sick4surf (Feb 4, 2004)

Here's a pic of a rock wall switchback we just finishing in Manhattan's first legal mountain bike trail (Highbridge Park).

I supervised a crew from the Green Apple Corps which is a division of Americorps...it took us about 6 days to complete. All those rocks had to be transported to the site by hand...uphill...with tree carts.


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## Mudd (Apr 22, 2002)

Awesome pixs'!


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## Trigger (Mar 14, 2005)

bitflogger said:


> We do a lot with stone that may not always be evident to the riders. We have been limited by state park rules, and working in a place where the mud can be very bad and greasy, so we've done a lot of paving and made rock bridges for stream crossings.


Same deal here in Central NY. Lots of muddy sections of trail, we spend a lot of time hauling rocks to solidify terrain. This mud hole was at the base of a sweet rise in the trail...catch a little air and land in a foot of mud at the bottom. We dug it out, filled it with some big stones first, then dumped a bunch of gravel and small rocks on it from the creek bed. It's held up all season and is still hard as can be....great landing zone now.


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