Adding some flow to the Gussy

At the north end of the Upper Gussy Trail, where the Yellow (Equestrian Trail) starts I decided to put in an S turn that lines up with the trail as you are coming down the Gussy and if you don't want to ride up the rock ridge as you would normally do this addition cuts across that side ways. It makes a 180 degree turn and then rolls down the backside that lines up with a little rock out cropping for a nice little drop.

When I built the Gussy 15 years ago I didn't have a lot of riding experience and over the years I have really come to appreciate trail flow and now I am trying build that into the trail. Any of you that have ridden Kingdom Trails, you probably have ridden the Side Winder trail and that's something I want to add in the future, too. I have a few places in mind that will work.  

The State Forester keeps telling me that at some point they are going to log the north end of Upper Paugussett and he said the entrance to Gussy from the Brody Road will probably be used as a staging area. The entrance to the Mulikin will also get the same treatment. My plan is to tie this new addition to a huge re-route of the north part of the Gussy. It will parallel the existing trail only be flowier and cut across the Brody Road and connect with the Mulikin.

Heading south (before)



Heading South (after)



First turn (before)



First turn (after)



Second turn (before)

Second turn (after)



Rock in the middle of turn

Wider view of the turn with the rock in middle

Looking towards the roller

Closer to the roller

Looking from the roller in the other direction

Reconnecting to the trail with a little launchie!

I rode the new section on Tuesday and it's rough.  I think I need to go back and widen the tread way and I really want to berm that big turn in the middle, as well at the turn on top of roller.

Upper Mulikin Trail Building (continued)

I had originally planned to go out and do some work early this morning but it was raining.  Went back to bed, woke up later, and thought I would let things dry out a bit.  Ended up heading out about noon and it was steamy to say the least, but I got a lot of work done, but there is much more to do.

First I armored this intermittent stream crossing. Also took out a small tree and clipped some overhanging branches that were ruining the sight lines.

First Phase of the Upper Mulikin Reroute is open for business!

On Saturday, June 30th, 4 Housatonic Valley Chapter NEMBA members and myself met at Pond Brook at 7 AM to work on the Upper Mulikin Reroute. I have been working on this reroute for almost a year but have had some set backs that include 2 broken ankles in the span of 6 months and a wind storm (aka Macro Burst) that knocked over trees on a few sections of the route that required rerouting the reroute.

Jeff (r) and myself (l)
photo credit: Paula Burton

We started working on the hardest section of the reroute first. Jeff, Paula and myself concentrated on the upper part of the trail with rock removal, armoring the holes, and then some benching.

Andy (l) and Nick (r)
photo credit: Paula Burton

While Andy and Nick worked on up and overs on the rock walls.  They had to do two of them on this one section and when I rode them later in the day they were like butter!

Then we all worked together to remove rocks and bench the sweeping climb/descent section.  This was really tough work and a lot of rocks were removed.  Paula, Andy and Nick took off around 10 AM but Jeff and I stayed to connect the top part of the reroute to the existing Mulikin and then do the first section, which enabled us to close off a really bad section of the existing trail.

When Jeff and I were done, we were completed drenched in sweat and dirty from head to toe!

Re routing the Mulikin Trail Continues

Saturday's forecast was for rain all day and the True to Brew Ride I was supposed to go on was cancelled.  However, the rain didn't come to Southwestern Connecticut till about 10:30 am. Rather than ride, I headed out to Upper Paugussett State Forest to continue the work I am doing on the Upper Mulikin Trail. 

I have cut two sections of the reroute and today I did the third. It is probably the longest section, approximately .6 miles and 5 turns in it. It also goes through a break in a rock wall.

A nice rock spine next to the trail will be in the making as well. While doing this work I cut out a ton of barberry plants, which are invasive and harbor ticks.

NEMBA Trailfest Day 2: Benching

On Sunday, we came, we saw, we Benched!

This is on the South Park Trail side looking north east

Looking south west

The whole shooting match

#TrailbuildingSelfie

Riders on the Trail

Who ever was working the other side of the trail sent these guys down it for the first time

They didn't do so hot on the spine line.

The guy on the green bike wiped, too

This corner proved troublesome

but when I rode through it wasn't that bad,

at least I never dabbed

Building New Trail at Collis P Huntington State Park

Additional pictures from Saturday's Trail Fest and Build

at Collis P Huntington State Park

Harold working on the Rusty Bed Springs Up and Over

The ladies were benching

Paula gives guidance on rock features

Found a near by BFR to ramp into this feature

The finished product, you can roll it or huck it!

Benching

Sweet Singletrack

More sweet singletrack

Berming project

The Gnome Berm

Lunch

Great food

Commaraderie

Back to work after lunch

Building more Singletrack

Spineline option

Location Map

Benching Trail at Rockland Preserve

I took charge of the benching effort on a section of trail that really need this to be done.  The soil was really easy to work with and my new Hoe cut bench so easily!  In our group we had John Biehn, his girlfriend Katie, and a couple of freshmen from Madison High School.  We were working on a 150 section of the trail.

 

Some mountain bikers stopped to thank us for all the hard work that was being put into the trails.

We uncovered a rock in the middle of trail that was too big to move and an odd shape, like a corner of a rectangle pointing straight up.  John put soil on the top side that made it into a nice little huck and we ramped the other side for those riding on the way up.

Amazing what 5 people can do in 2 hours with Rogue Hoes!

Another view of the ramp (below).