Blog for the Trail Building competition

Thursday Jan 1 2009 first day of trailbuilding/scouting to start off the new year.I headed down to Devils Den State Park in Arkansas to see what I could build there. I have about a 600' vert drop of really rocky terrain with some really steep pitches in some places. I rode there a lot in 2008, and have always wanted to build trails there. There are a couple of major factors that will effect me building down there.
1. it's 4 hours away.
2. I had knee surgery 7 weeks agao, full ACL reconstruction. Hiking up and down the mountain carrying tools turned out to be challenging to say the least.

The benefit is that I cant ride at all for at least until April so it works out ok. I can go there, and focus entirely on trailbuilding.

There are 2 DH trails at devils Den that are shuttle accessed. They are ridden by riders from all over the midwest, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and of course Arkansas. The trails are basically just fast rocky singletrack with some doubletrack sections. They were built as DH trails, and for the most part are pretty much all fall line. When I started thinking about building there, I didn't even know where to start. I could modify the existing trails, bulid a new one, just build some optional lines, etc.. I decided to not change the old trails since everyone really like them as is. I might add a feature here or there, but that's about it. After talking with Addom from Texas who has built there also, we both thought it would be cool to have some new stuff to ride there. So putting in optional lines or maybe even a whole new section of trail is what was decided would be best. There's the potential for some really cool rock rolls, super tech North Shore style riding, and some wide open fast sections too.

My first trip was New Years day, and I started with finishing a double Addom had already started building on the fire road.

Pics of the jump in progress. When it rains here, its pretty much a river right through here. I wanted the dirt to stay on the jump so I framed it in with logs, and filled it with rock.

Here's a pic of the completed jump with transition and kicker.

After that I headed up the trail to look at putting in the new feature we talked about. It centered around a rock slab that could be used at a steep roller. I had to figure out how to connect it to the existing trail system.