Ringwood Trail Projects 2020

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
As many know, there are some repairs going on over on 6 bridges trail. Trail can be accessed by the new bridge. If you have interest in helping, Dirty Thursday work days at 4pm most weeks. Masks and social distancing practices are in affect.

In addition to that work, Art and I are doing work on the old race trail. This trail is over 20 years old and much of it was built before we knew anything about sustainable trail building. Being that the race trail was the first trail made for bikes in Ringwood I thought bringing it up to current standards was important. Also, after having the festival at Shepherds Lake several times, it became apparent that Ringwood suffered from lack of diverse inventory and stacked loop design. What that means is that we could use some beginner friendly trails close to the lake with more technical trails branching off of that. Since we can not make new trails, repairing old trails may be our best way to improve the layout of the park. We have completed the first of many repairs or re-routes on this trail today. I know some feel if they can ride it, it is perfectly fine, but many sections have gone past the point of repair and are starting to erode. What we hope to do is repair trail cupping if possible, and/or add drainages or grade reversals when the trail is aligned well. In some cases, the trail is poorly aligned and we may do a complete re-route.

We do have some rock roller lines planned and a great viewpoint possibility, if we can get that approval from the park. I think we are looking at 2 summers in all for this project. Work will continue in other areas as well. Right now we are not looking for any giant work days, more small groups.

new section:
open.jpg


closed old trail:
closed.jpg
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
We started working on another repair just down the trail some. We are adding some dips and mounds to help shed water. It is not completely done, but can be ridden or walked. We may be on this section for a few weeks, so expect changes.
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
We are pretty well into another re-route build on the race course. The old section is still open, but you may need to get off at the transition on one side. The new trail is open, but not done. It may be a bit bumpy in spots.

Don't be fooled by a little clay here and there. Rocks will pop their heads out soon. Just hoping to keep the water off and stop the erosion. I spent an hour today gathering crush from the the bottom of the hill on the old trail. Twenty years of erosion left me a stock pile of small rocks to bucket back up and fill in the low spots.

Good chance that dirty Thursday may go back up here this week, but will not know for sure until Wednesday. There is still more work to be done at 6 bridges, but those guys have been taking a break to do some planning.

new section.jpg


transition.jpg
 

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
We are pretty well into another re-route build on the race course. The old section is still open, but you may need to get off at the transition on one side. The new trail is open, but not done. It may be a bit bumpy in spots.

Nice to run into you guys up at Sterling on Saturday, and as I said then, thank you! Some people will definitely complain about the removal of some rocks, but I rode the one reroute Saturday and you guys are doing awesome work. Those old, eroded sections of the race trail were really getting bad. It would obviously be great if they would just let you guys build whatever you want, but these fixes and reroutes are the next best thing.
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
Just to fill some in on the history of the race trail: Back in the old days of RVCC bike club, they ran several races a year and all the proceeds went to mountain bike advocacy in Ringwood. The club developed a great relationship with the park as a steward. The race course ran up the "death march" which was an eroded road where the switchbacks are now, and then down multiple swamps on the pipeline. Ringwood was know as the fire road course. The current park ranger gave the club permission to do a new trail down to lake as a favor for all their honest hard work. It was a one time favor and he may have gotten into some trouble for what he did. Next time Art and I needed permission we had to get creative with doing re-routes and not new trails. That is how the switchbacks came to be.

The entire race loop was the first and only marked bike trail in the park. This was kind of a big deal back then, and the first time the park stood up for bikers. This is why we have been doing improvements to bring the race trail up to current standards. It is nice loop that circles the park as a main loop trail with many other trails that intersect it. Many of the intersecting trails go from point to point because they were rerouted from eroded hiking trails. Having a bike loop that loops around the park is good for connecting loops. We have chosen to keep the race trail as an intermediate trail that most riders can navigate so that more people can use it as a connector. The hiking group has also been moving to loop planning on their maps. Some of these things may not matter to most of you, but can help new park users. We all were newbies once.

Anyhow, that may be more than you all want to hear, but I thought it is good to share want goes into trail planning and relationships with land management. Now just go out and ride your bike. :)
 

Dingo

Well-Known Member
Would it be possible to highlight the new trail and 6 bridges on a map?

Asking for a friend;)
 

JSS

Member
Would it be possible to highlight the new trail and 6 bridges on a map?

Asking for a friend;)

Here is location of 6 bridges from Ryerson Middle School:
1597412721277.png


Race Trail goes from Sheppard Pond to Skylands fire road. Recent reroutes are not shown in this map, but should be good enough to help you find it. Crossover north from Lot A is also new in the last couple of years.
1597412850003.png


Ellen, thanks for the detailed explanations of the trail history!
 

gmb3

JORBA: Sourlands
JORBA.ORG
Here is location of 6 bridges from Ryerson Middle School:
View attachment 137001

Race Trail goes from Sheppard Pond to Skylands fire road. Recent reroutes are not shown in this map, but should be good enough to help you find it. Crossover north from Lot A is also new in the last couple of years.
View attachment 137004

Ellen, thanks for the detailed explanations of the trail history!
is that an updated Maprika map or just something you edited for this post?
 

serviceguy

Well-Known Member
That map is not updated, the work done on 6 bridges during the last few months actually took the fire road completely out of the equation, there’s a new bridge and some additional trail.
3A7CFAE0-A931-4752-8967-4BAA77AF29A7.png
 

Dingo

Well-Known Member
Here is location of 6 bridges from Ryerson Middle School:
View attachment 137001

Race Trail goes from Sheppard Pond to Skylands fire road. Recent reroutes are not shown in this map, but should be good enough to help you find it. Crossover north from Lot A is also new in the last couple of years.
View attachment 137004

Ellen, thanks for the detailed explanations of the trail history!
Thanks. We hit it today nice trail work! Many thanks for the hard work.
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
Thanks Manny, Steve and Tom for the help last night. Reroute #2 on race course is complete. The gang also added a slight berm closer to the pipeline using dirt ball from downed tree. It rode great on the way out, thanks.

Next Thursday may be going back to 6 bridges area. We will confirm mid week.

bench1.jpg


benchturn.jpg
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
Although not officially open, Double S re-route is done enough to find your way. Just watch for holes. If you are coming from the lookout, look for trail on right by big rock. ;). If coming from the bottom, you should be led right onto it. It is designed to ride in both directions. So, if you do a clockwise loop on 6 bridges, you can use SS to climb back out. However you want to loop things together, there are options for all.

There may be a few more Thursday work sessions to complete finish work, if anyone is able to get out early and work. It does start to get dark earlier now, but you can expect at least one more week at SS location. I will post up again once Art and I return to work on race course.

turnss.jpg


crossingss.jpg
;)
 

serviceguy

Well-Known Member
Sorry I missed all the fun, unfortunately my 'smartwork' days experienced a sudden death right after the storm, I've been back working at the office everyday for the last month of so. I'm due some time off soon, hopefully I'll be able to make a couple more of dirt Thursdays before the darkness takes over (uhm, I just realized that last sentence can be quite ambiguous these days).

I am curios to see what shape SS has taken, I can't really tell from the pictures (tree, dirt, rock...). I remember there were quite a few options being discussed last time I was there with RTC.

Thanks for all the good work.
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
As far as I know, dirty Thursday will go back to Double S this week. Probably start early afternoon.

Art and I have dialed in next re-route on race course. We have no volunteer work days over there planned yet, but if we do, we will let you all know. we may need some help with large rocks.
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
Three of us worked yesterday to bench and get some dirt moved before the rain. Things should be in pretty good shape on double S. You may want to give it a day after the rain stops, so that the clay can set up. Art and I hope to move back to race course Thursday. Since it is getting dark much earlier these days, we hope to be out there by 2pm and wrap up by 5:30. I know that it is too early for most, but if you can get away, we hope to continue during the day a few days a week.

double s top.jpg
 

serviceguy

Well-Known Member
Three of us worked yesterday to bench and get some dirt moved before the rain. Things should be in pretty good shape on double S. You may want to give it a day after the rain stops, so that the clay can set up. Art and I hope to move back to race course Thursday. Since it is getting dark much earlier these days, we hope to be out there by 2pm and wrap up by 5:30. I know that it is too early for most, but if you can get away, we hope to continue during the day a few days a week.

View attachment 140369
Where's the meet up point for Thursday at 2 pm?
 

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