Trail Building with Austin Ridge Riders
Truth be told, this is the first time I have joined Austin Ridge Riders for a trail workday. I have been selfishly working in South Austin Trail Network, which is my home base and convenient to access being right outside the door.
ARR has been working in Brushy Creek since November on an offshoot of ‘Bob Ross’. This fresh singletrack will be called ‘The Bowl’, which is a nod to the terrain. The segment is very short - I would guess about 100 yards - but the quality stretches for miles. Flowy berms, a rock armored water crossing, and a sweet, swoopy bench cut roller through the trees will leave you wanting another lap of this valley. The good news is you can do all the laps because it’s so short.
The purpose of this trail is to bypass the regional trail - a concrete pedestrian path - and improve the safety of the park and the network. In doing so, riders will benefit by being able to ride all the MTB trail in Brushy Creek without needing to get onto the concrete path. Part of this work includes making 1/4 Notch rideable as a loop, as well as some drainage improvements.
Ronan giving the county a tour of the work
There were at least 30 volunteers crawling the hillside, picking up branches, hauling rocks, building swales, and doing stonework. A couple of teams were just down the trail closing off a bypass with a fresh cut cedar fence. I set up a time lapse camera, put on the chest cam, and went on the hunt for Ronan, the Steward at Brushy. He was pretty easy to spot in his hi-vis vest. There were a few different tasks that he listed, and I volunteered for moving boulders with the rock dolly, which is a really sweet name for a dolly. I never would have guessed we could move a dozen or more boulders in a few hours, but that is also because I never realized such a tool existed. I can’t imagine how quick the E-Spank shark fin would have been built with that tool. Cullen, Tony, Andrew, Vince and I took turns liberating boulders or steering the sled and still had enough energy to stand upright at the end of the day.
We placed boulders below the cedar fences to discourage any use of the closed off bypass, and then went to work blocking any possible cut thru over or behind the berms. With the massive crew everything got finished up quickly and the onewheel crew were the first to give it a go. Everything was wrapped up by about 2pm and the exodus began. Enjoy the video below and join Austin Ridge Riders for a trail workday next time you get a chance! It’s basically like the big kid version of playing in a sandbox.
