Gisburn Forest Trail Development

stumpyjon

B*gger, trail building's off this weekend because of the snow :evil: , next date is the 21st of February.

cavegod

i was up at Gisburn this afternoon and the snow ain't that bad theres none in the trees,

with regards to the new trails i couldnt find any of the bit already built, but the first quarry has a shed load of stone waiting to go down somewhere. i prsume the orange markers are for the route that will b built?

stumpyjon

Yep think so. The first job for the contractors was crushing 5000 tonnes of rock.

The bit we've been working on is in the north east corner, not sure how it fits in with the existing trails myself yet. Might get up there on Sunday anyway with the bike.

I think the biggest problem is that the gravel piles we're using to surface the trail are frozen which makes it a pig to dig and spread.

delcol

dave_hill wrote:

stumpyjon wrote:

At least it's not a Yorkshire pudding Gateway, all hard and crusty on the outside and full of hot air on the inside

Bit bland and not very interesting...

red rose.......... red rose............


glad to hear gisburn is getting some more trails i went there a few years back and was a tad diassapointed..
there seems to be lot of trail development in the la la la la lancashire area...

Father Faff

Yeh, la la la la is about reet fer Lanca - la -la-la-la-shire. Cum te Yorkshire fer some proper reet hard trails lad.

Oli Hayes

I went up on Sunday for a few runs on the downhill track on my new bike.

There was some snow in amongst the trees but the main problem would have been that the ground was frozen solid, it wouldn't have been fun to dig in! The fireroads were also coated in a nice layer of ice so it might have been a bit of a risk driving into the forest(I did hit the front brake on my bike just to make sure it was ice and yep, it locked up like a good un.....Gustav's will do that though!).

What surprised me the most though was someone had been up and gritted the downhill track! From the run into the first drop down to the double towards the bottom, it was still a bit weird to ride though really.

stumpyjon

I was going to go up on Sunday but Saturday night got the better of me. Was quite looking forward to the digging though (might have taken Saturday night easier if we'd been digging on the Sunday). Might try and get up there next weekend for a pootle.

Oli Hayes

You never know, the weather might return to normal and we'll just get rain instead!

Mancunianfightingcat

Rain in Gisburn Forest - never

Oli Hayes

Here's a map of the proposed trails, I know its not the biggest of pictures but I am useless at uploading stuff to forums! The trail goes in a figure of eight and has been designed so you go past the dh courses on your way round, it starts from Cocklett Hill carpark and heads down towards the reservoir.

Mancunianfightingcat

Oli,

don't tease me like that, make it bigger I can't make it out!

Oli Hayes

I would, if only I knew how....................damn computers!!!!

Oli Hayes

Mancunianfightingcat

nice one Oli, looks good.

I take it the pink bit is the part you've been working on?

Nice to see a lot more singletrack up Gisburn Forest.

When's the estimate for phase 1 to be finished?

Oli Hayes

No idea when phase 1 will be done, I dont even know if the contractors have started yet, I suppose we will find out on Saturday's dig day.

The pink bit is where the volunteer works been taking place, its about 5mm further on the map than where the pink line changes to green, the fire road is where the green line ends on that section.

Mancunianfightingcat

Thanks Oli,

I work every Saturday, are there any build days on a Sunday. I'd love to help out!

stumpyjon

Next build day is this Saturday, the following build day is two weeks on Sunday.

The contractors have certainly started crushing rock, the old quarrie's definitely open and there are piles of crushed rock at strategic places around the forest.

I went up on Saturday and rode the new bit (which we've done), clocked it at just under 1km on the GPS. Was really impressed, very twisty and tight through the trees, some nice up and down, couple of jumps (which I rolled :oops: ).

Mancunianfightingcat

cool, I'll try and get up there then! (8th March??)

stumpyjon

Yep that's the next provisional date, email this guy

Martin.Charlesworth@lancashire.gov.uk

he's really helpful and will put you on the mailing list (also useful when dig days get cancelled like 2 weeks ago, snow ). I'm going up this weekend, hopefully be there on the 8th as well, just working on a passout.

stumpyjon

I've just plotted the whole of the new red route on Tracklogs and it comes up at 13.4 miles with 1770ft of ascent 8) .

sparrowlegs78

Just for comparisons sake...what does the longest route (old red) work out as now..ascent and length?
Caz xxx

stumpyjon

From memory it's about 10 miles and 1200ft of ascent I think.

pdid

stumpyjon wrote:

I've just plotted the whole of the new red route on Tracklogs and it comes up at 13.4 miles with 1770ft of ascent 8) .

Sounds impressive, how much of the 13.4 miles is gonna be singletrack. Looking forward to this being completed.

Would try and make a dig day, unfortunately having a 4 month old doesn`t give me much free time.

stumpyjon

Haven't worked it out but I'd guess from the map (assuming all new bits are singletrack) around 70% to 80% is likely to be singletrack, at the moment I guess it's more like 20%

Oli Hayes

Depends on the contractors really, I hope that they are just building singletrack, fireroads are just boring!

The volunteer built stuff I would have thought will be mainly singletrack, its quicker to build and uses less stone.

I've looked on Google Earth at the trail route and it looks good. When I first saw the trail map and worked out which way it was going I was worried there was going to be more ups than downs, i'm all for climbs as long as there's nice descents as a reward!

Thankfully there will be plenty of decents!

(As the maps not exactly huge the track is a figure of eight, starting from Cocklett Hill carpark and going down towards the reservoir first)

stumpyjon

We'll have to ask Martin on Saturday, it'll be a complete waste if they are building fireroad type trails, fireroads is one thing Gisburn isn't short of.

Looking at the route against the OS map a lot of the new route is through virgin forest rather than using the existing tracks and fire breaks. Even that volunteer built bit that follows the old fireroad has been built as singletrack.

Oli Hayes

I'm sure it will be to be honest, like you say there's enough fireroad at Gisburn already, can you remember which contractor is doing the work?

I'm looking forward to another days graft on Saturday, this time i'm bringing some garden secateurs though, those tiny little roots make digging a nightmare!

stumpyjon

That's what the mattock's for, just need to sharpen up the blade a bit :twisted:



Pair of loppers might be useful though, or a billhook. Used to use Yorkshire billhooks a lot



go through anything, brnaches, roots, boots, legs etc. Used to carry it around in the boot of my car :shock: (my excuse was I ran a small grounds maintenance team and you never knew when a bit of emergency lopping was needed) , don't think you'd get away with it these days.

On tomorrow's tool time will will discussing bypass secateurs at some length

stumpyjon

Another dig day done, and I hurt like hell (but it is worth it). Took some photos today to bore you all with



The bridge and jump (not as clear as I'd hoped) we built last time.

The volunteer laid 1 KM mark.

End of the trail (for now.....)

cavegod

looking good, have the contractors started yet?