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Lambert Park Flood, take 2.
Flood begins 5 pm September 7, 2013. This deluge
was sixteen
days after first flood, and only 7 days after the rebuild of flood-damaged trails was
completed! (Not all of our work was undone. Well-built trail can handle a
little water! See our report from
last week's trailbuilding sessions.) Photo: New washout of the River Trail at Moyle crossing. The
Middle Trail took a similar hit from this same debris flow.
Info on Lambert Park: See our
Lambert trail page. |
Thanks to all
the volunteers who helped rebuild more than two miles of trail!
The rehab project was led by Bruce Argyle, who spent over 100 hours
during the course
of three weeks. If you want to thank him, buy a bike from Mikey at the UMB
store in Lehi!
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Trailwork Progress Report!
Sunday, September 8: Damage
assessment!
Scout and document damage. Begin volunteer
recruitment and create schedule of trail workdays. The bad news: Compared to
the first flood, this new flood involved over three times the length of
trail. Washes are deeper, ruts are steeper. On the south end, the flood
zone is about twice the width of the original area of damage. |
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New damage to Brown Dog. Looking north. Trail
extends
beyond trees, then turns and comes back south. |
New wider area of damage to Corkscrew. Old
channel replaced
by wide destruction; includes trail fork and descent to White Dog. |
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| New washout on Lambert Luge. Minor work only. |
Three-foot deep channel on Luge, with loss of
50 feet of trail. |
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White Dog at meander just above old
doubletrack. Ribbon
of trail from 8/31 workday just visible upper right. |
White Dog at next uphill meander. From here,
3 meanders going
uphill 100%
buried. Damage extends much beyond original flow. |
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Zag, third meander from top. Trail erased
through entire
reconstruction zone from 8/31 and a bit beyond.. |
Zag, top meander looking north. Last week,
this area was
unaffected
trail all the way past the trees at upper left. |
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Armored crossing of rock-bar shows silt
deposits, but
has resisted the flow. Hooray! Looking south, 2nd meander. |
180-degree opposite view, looking north. No
sign of the
nice trail we built. Continuing trail far right side of photo. |
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Remember that armored ravine crossing? Zag
meander #1
at the northern end. |
And here's a spot of resistant trail on
meander #1, an armored
section at the S-turn on the rock bar. |
Tuesday, Sept 10
Tuesday 9/10, 6 am to 3 pm: Trailhead notices placed. Fixed River Trail washout at
Moyle crossing by headlights (early start). Started at bottom of Zag and
repaired trail working uphill. New trail cut to bypass unstable washout on
lower Zag. Thanks to Garth for helping! Flagged uphill Zag and White
Dog. (New alignment required for White Dog.)
Tuesday 9/10, 4-7 pm: Thanks to Christian for helping with the evening
session. Worked upper Zag. Created new meander to avoid fall-line trail on
second meander from top. Only one pass of Zag through the slide area remains to be
worked. |
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| Before: A section of Zag Trail buried under
debris flow. |
After: Trail, fit to ride. |
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The washout just above the first grove of
trees allows no
sustainable trail alignment. So I went around. |
A more sustainable line for upper Zag. Move
the trail more
horizontal, add a turn. Traverse back then turn again. |
Wednesday, Sept 11
Wednesday 9/11, 7 am to 1 pm: Completed last meander of Zag, touch up Ziggy
through wash, bypassed trenched section. Thanks to Chad for joining me for a
couple of hours. You can now ride the Ziggy-Zag loop.
Wednesday 9/11 4-7 pm: Dug out the bottom meander and first turn
of White Dog. Reconstruction of Ziggy above Zag to allow water shedding
without trail washout, and to avoid the former mess of competing trail forks. |
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Zag is now complete. Ziggy has been
repaired through the
dip to the Zag fork. This is the upper meander of Zag. |
Theme for the day: armored gully
crossings. There were four
very deep grand canyons through the upper meander. |
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This washout had a huge rock standing in
air. It's now part
of the rock bridge across the ravine. |
This gully was three feet deep but only two
feet wide. Each
crossing is reinforced with upstream water-breaks. |
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Ziggy trail fork. Curves in Ziggy to avoid channeling
water.
Zag forks at apex of one bend, White Dog at next bend above. |
White Dog rebuilt through first turn. Lots of distance
still to go,
with over 1/3 mile of new trailcut remaining on White Dog alone. |
Thursday, Sept 12
Thursday 9/12, 8-11:30 AM: Bruce and Garth finished the new turn on Brown
Dog, so there's a clear riding path from the bottom of Zag all the way to
Corkscrew southbound. Got wet in the rain.
Thursday 9/12, 4-7 pm: Scouted Spring (still muddy), Middle Spring, and
upper Rodeo. Restored section of High Bench near GoingToChurch bridge (sitting
at trailside due to dredging of canal). Built one traverse and one turn
on White Dog. |
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As the rain falls, Garth prepares to retreat from
Brown Dog.
The route is now open (Zag to Brown Dog to Corkscrew). |
White Dog is now clear through the bottom three
and 3/4
meanders. Nice smooth trail. Looking north (descending). |
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Once again, there were some very deep and narrow ruts
to
cross. Hope they're washout-proof! Here comes the rain! |
And here's where we are. Next up, a dip and whoosh and
dip.
Then White Dog heads back south, north, south, north. |
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Afternoon shift. Scouted trails to get full worklist.
Fixed
section of High Bench damaged by heavy equipment. |
Constructed insane turn. Dip and up, immediate 180 in
tight valley
of huge rocks, dip and back up the other side. "Dogleg Turn." |
Saturday, Sept 14
Saturday 9/14, 7:30 am to 1 pm: Built brand new upper half of White
Dog to connect to old trail near Corkscrew. Added some stunts on alternate
lines for the hardcore, while maintaining lots of smooth cruiser trail for
climbers and intermediate descenders. White Dog is complete! You can now ride
the Ziggy-White Dog loop! Thanks to Bryce, Dominic, and Joe for their hard
work!
Saturday 9/14, 4 to 6:30 pm: Cleared section of Middle Trail including
rebuild of eroded dip and ramp.
Monday 9/16, 6 to 7:30 pm: Touchup repairs on Lambert Luge. |
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Bryce surveys his bermed turn on White Dog. We've made
the trail so it's a better climber (less brutal) and a fun downhill. |
Joe looks for more huge rocks to break up water flow
at
one of the many ravine crossings on the White Dog trail. |
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One of the alternate lines to satisfy the tech
junkies: a two footer.
And you'll love Bryce's fun ramp-and-rollover. |
White Dog is finished. Bruce snaps the Grand Opening
photo of
(L to R) Joe, Dominic, and Bryce. Thanks, Hero Trailbuilders! |
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Second shift, Saturday afternoon. This dip on Middle
Trail was
a rocky ditch that threw you into a rosebush. Big Dig. |
Much of the afternoon was spent raking rocks out of
shallow
debris flows. Oops. Mikey, can I charge a new rake to UMB? |
Tuesday, Sept 17
Tuesday 9/17 8 am to 11:30: Smoothed and widened damaged section of Middle Spring Trail.
Chased off the mountain a bit early by lightning, half-inch hail, and muddy
water running down gullies. I'll get to the upper Rodeo drop-in another time
-- needs to dry a little. (Sun is shining -- this afternoon's session on
Corkscrew is a definite GO.)
Tuesday 9/17 4-7:30 pm: Joined by the Lone Peak high school mountain
bike race team and their coaches. Thanks,
Scott! Buffed northern end of Corkscrew. Rerouted and rebuilt descent to
White Dog. It's now a bermed double-S. Evening riders were raving about
the new White Dog. Kudos to all who helped build it.
Wednesday 9/18 6-7:30 pm: Scout and fill minor erosions from
Tuesday's rainstorm. GPS track new trail segments.
8 to 10 pm: Import GPS tracks into new trail maps
of Lambert Park, label map, link to trail page and publish. |
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This used to be a huge hike-a-bike wash on the Middle
Spring
Trail. Both wash crossings were worked so they're butter-smooth. |
Long sections have been widened (including pruning and
sucker
chopping) and straightened. Looking south on Middle Spring. |
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Scott VanWagoner brings the Lone Peak mountain bike
race
team to Corkscrew. And boy, did they ever
go to work on those rocks! |
Corkscrew is now finished. The race team helped build
a
bermed twisting descent to White Dog, moving the old trail
out of the wash. Riders were raving. It's good. |
Thursday, Sept 19
Thursday 9/19 8 am to noon: Cut path for Spring Trail over levees,
with Spring-to-Rodeo fork in flood channel. Repair upper Rodeo drop-in. Prune
trees back and create path for Spring Trail northbound.
Thursday 9/19 4-7:30 pm: More construction on Spring Trail.
Dug through boulder pile in deep washout, built rock wall and backfilled
switchback, knocked rocks out of trail and smoothed. Pruned branches and cut
trees as needed to improve sight lines. Smoothed unrideable plunge on the
descent. Biggest turnout of volunteers yet. Thanks to the ladies and gents of
the Lone Peak mountain bike race team, and to team members Richard, Brad and
Norah, and to two Jasons. |
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Example of changes made to trail system. We tried to
be faithful
to the original system, but some spots simply could no longer
support trails. The yellow lines are bypassed areas of old trail. |
Two levees cover the upper Rodeo trail fork, with a
flood
channel between them. Ride over levee #1, dip down and up
the other side, then run the levee top to Rodeo. Fun! |
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Richard gathers boulders to build a wall to support
the fill
and berm for a washed out turn on the Spring Trail. Huge
rocks were also placed to protect the path through the wash. |
The Lone Peak High mountain bike team digs through the
giant
washout. They moved two feet depth of rock to create a trail
four feet wide, with a water-control platform of 10 feet width. |
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Jason and Jason work the picks while Brad and Norah
get ready to move the dirt into the right places. A
rock wall supports the washed-away apex of the turn. |
What was once a no-man's land of boulders and erosion
is
now a trail you can ride. This is the steep spot on the north.
We had about 15 workers for this final trail session. |
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| Many of the restored areas are fragile and will be easily
damaged by run-off from cloudbursts. (For example, a quick half-inch
downpour on Tuesday Sept 17 created surprising erosions of trail on
lower Zag.) New water flows will be discovered as they gouge into
trails. These gouges need to be filled with upstream and downstream
rocks to slow the water. Feel free to add some rocks when your tire hits
that new "ditch" across the trail. Deeper cross-trail or
down-trail erosions in the trail surface itself need to be armored with
the biggest rocks that fit. |
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The assault vehicle. Full of dirt, picks, shovels,
rakes and
a cooler of soda. And the bike rack just happens to
secure a wheelbarrow nicely! |
Those are my swollen hands. Left hand, right wrist. And
apparently the
rib I broke seven years ago at the Jackson
Hole race isn't enjoying the
pick-swinging stuff. |
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