Without further - Ado

Well, things in CLT are wrapped and it is time to get on the road to the wild west. The last week at Lakewood was a head down type of ordeal. We just got in early and put in a full day until the rain came. Then, wake up the next day and do it all again the next day. Below are photos of some of the amenities, before the landscaping takes place.

The pumptrack and the three options for interfacing with the skillz area.


The rider's view of the beginner logride heading into the skillz area, notice the pumptrack berm turning to the left.


In the woods. This is my favorite little rhythm section on the trail. You roll into the woods on a few rollers and then into a sandy basin and rise area to the "split" either go right and hit the left berm or go left and flat turn across a rock garden to a nice little drop into...THE BERM. Finally flow through an increasing flow set to the climbing terraces and you are out of this little section. What is after that? You have to go ride it to find out. With the rain over the last few days it will take this beast a little while to dry out, then it will be GAME ON!!

Lakewood moving forward...

End of week one and we made awesome progress. We have a finished outer loop on the pump track that got ripped on Thursday and will probably have kids riding the garbage out of it over the weekend. Then, completed the singltrack loop. Now for the spice. On tap for this week is the skills area and some TTF's on the "skills trail".

Hope you have a great weekend.

Upon Request…

Well, been a little bit since the last time, so…Lakewood. Coming together nicely, not really sure exactly where this one is headed. We will be spending the weekend in CLT so maybe things will show themselves after that. Here are some photos from the last couple days. Thanks Patrick.

A view of the before, well technically it is during as we had already cleaned up the site and prepped it for the first drop of REDGOLD…this is why you BUY dirt.




A little tease of the tread for the single track, this stuff was THICK.



Finally, this kids, is a BERM.

Seems like a week

The Stairs. Now on to CLT and rocking a pump track and some skillz to pay the billz.

The Other Project

Well, while working on "club" projects I always seem to have "the other project" going on. In this case there is the other project for the club, then the other, other project that my mom has me working on.



How about a little Thursday night mini-festival to feel out the true vibe of the US National WWC. This place has a nice healthy quantity of trail that is fairly fun and some cool pay to play other sport activities. The place seems poised to set a great national example if only properly executed. This is the other project with the club. They seem to have many other things well in hand, but the potential of a place like this is too much to pass up.



Now, on to the project for moms. With crappy wooden walled steps that were built in an afternoon three years ago degrading, the woman figured out how to get the stairs the way she wanted. Wait until we were coming up, then have a heap of rock and dirt on site, cook a killer dinner and say BBBBEEEEEEEEENNNNNNN, would you mind building some stairs? How do you say no to that. So, we go from macro design and full on tourist development down to private craftsmanship. Then, where does that leave the actual project I am "supposed" to be doing this week? Well, that one nicely falls right in the center of the current bell curve. The next two weeks are sure to be very interesting. Here is to hoping you enjoy it as much as I am sure I will.

Finito'

The private CLT job is done. Roughly 4.5 acres, the pumptrack style loop about 0.67 miles, the technical east-coast loop about 0.25 miles. This was one of my favorite projects. I hope to be back and can't wait to carry some of the skills learned into the next project for the Tarheel Trailblazers at the Lakewood community by the Charlotte airport.

Wrapping it Up....

Well, this little private ditty in CLT is starting to wrap up. Tomorrow is finish and dial for the whole system. Here are photos of a couple of the tech elements and the "filter" into the advanced loop. The foundation was laid for this little banked turn, but due to rain I didn't get finished photos. Check the site this weekend for the photo doc of the best features.

Let the FUN begin !!

Well, the outer loop is complete and now is burning in every day with more and more tires. We also have begun the inner technical loop and knocked out two rock armored sections in about 2 hours today with a pit crew like quickness...hint,hint...things are cranking and check out what we have in store. Another photo session and update to come later this week, then a really good photo essay over the weekend.

Happy 4th

Stolen from members of the Pisgah Brew Crew and the ED9. Candle light pumpage. Kennilworth and kreativity.

The season is upon us...

Well this has been a very busy week, you could say we have been busy bees working on the private project in Charlotte, oh and we also came across two yellow jacket nests as well. The project has hit miles stone connecting the loop. We will be finishing the tread Monday and will be finalizing the design of the advanced section. I hope to have good light Monday morning and should have some great photos that afternoon. On to bigger and better.

Full-clean at the forest edge.

Well, things are clicking along on the outer (flow) trail here in CLT. Today marked a good milestone, we are in the open, about half a day early too. This is where working in conjunction with the landscape company, Landmark Landscaping, has been key. We met in the first couple of days and Mark, the owner, showed me how to operate the irrigation system, so I could mark all of the hidden sprinklers. So, this morning I went out and got myself DRENCHED, but got all the sprinkler heads marked so that this afternoon I wouldn't inadvertently run one over. Now that we are in the open, I have to be especially careful of the visual impact to the landscape and in order to do that we are conducting a "full clean" where I scrape the organic layer off the top, then place that material into the power buggy and transport it back into the woods to help with a few of the closure sites and to fill in some of the borrow pits. Hopefully, Friday I will be able to throw up some finished photos with a few folks riding the outer loop. Then, next week it is on to the FUN STUFF ... bridges and rocks and tight trail, OH MY.