It’s Autumn on Berm Peak, and that means pretty colors, cooler weather, and better
visibility through the woods.
For the first time, we’re able to see large portions of this property where there are
normally leaves blocking the view.
Now if you haven’t been following this build since the beginning, I suggest you watch the
Berm Peak playlist below because there are a lot of names and zones you’ll need to
remember for any of this to make sense.
Up until now, all of our work has taken place at the top of the yard in Stumpthorne.
This is where we built the flight deck, Woodpecker trail, the infamous maim frame, and airbag
trail which is just way too much fun.
But this week, for the first time, we’ll venture further down the slope and break through
the outer reaches of Moonshangle Thickets.
Moonshangle features some of the most interesting terrain on the property.
It’s steep, it actually contains rocks, and is covered in thick shrubs called rhododenron.
This kind of Rhododendron stays green and full year round, flowering in the Spring.
Any clearing we make through the rhododendron will quickly grow into a new canopy, which
will someday bloom into a solid tunnel of flowers.
It could be a few years before our Rhodotunnels mature, so better to lay the groundwork as
soon as possible.
The new trail will be named Rhodorooter, and will start at the pucker plank on the flight
deck.
It will then follow Berm Peak Express briefly, before winding its way down the ridge into
Moonshangle.
If we can make it a little ways across the top of moonshangle this week, we’ll already
have the longest, fastest downhill run on Berm Peak.
It’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of videos to make it to the bottom of moonshangle,
but here to help with that initiative is a new addition to the Berm Peak Ranger District.
This is the Gator, or as we call it, the Git’r.
The Git’r is for gittin’ stuff, like packages when trucks can’t make it up the driveway.
In the yard, we use it for hauling brush, logs, dirt, lumber, or any number of things
that would eventually destroy my back.
Now the gator is much too wide to fit through any of the downhill trails, nor would I want
it to tear up the tread.
But it can squeeze through our service roads, like Berm Peak express, which will get us
close enough to the trails to haul supplies.
And as we work our way down the slope, we can drive the gator along the newly operational
Berm Peak Forest road.
Many trail systems have forest roads, or fire roads to get vehicles through for supplies
and rescue.
The Berm Peak forest road makes use of an area that was already mostly cleared.
Since it runs along the boundary of the property, you’ll even find old fence posts complete
with barbed wire, some of which is running directly through trees.
This gives us some indication of how long these posts have been here.
Between the Gator, the new forest road, and the seasonal visibility, we should be able
to cut our way to the bottom of the Moonshangle before Spring.
But we’ll be doing it in steps.
On each section of trail, we’ll plant a flag line, and adjust it until we’re happy
with the route.
I always try to avoid live trees, and make use of the topography for maximum fun.
Once we establish our flag line, we’ll clear the brush along its path, saw dead trees out
of the way, and then at a later date, work the dirt for erosion control and ride-ability.
Needless to say, we’ll also be building features.
Kevin wants to use the natural slopes created by these two stumps to build a small double,
so I’m going to give him the keys to this project and let him have at it.
Sean and I are helping him transport some dirt to build the lip and landing.
Now that kevin has his dirt, Sean and I can focus on clearing corridor.
We’ll check on the Kevin Jump later.
I’m glad to have some friends helping me this week because I’m only working at 60%.
I got a whole bunch of little punctures in my thumb last week from a handheld tree saw,
which has caused my thumb to swell up like a sausage.
But my infected thumb wasn’t the only casualty last week, we also lost a reciprocating saw.
I know what you’re thinking.
Seth!
You’ve been using that saw in the dirt and that’s why you smoked it.
But I actually took it apart to see if that was the case, and it appears, the motor simply
burned out from heavy use.
I never really gave this thing a chance to cool, and continuing to run it on low battery
probably kept the motor from cooling properly as well.
But that’s neither here nor there.
I replaced this saw—with the same one, but I’m gonna be careful this time.
I already installed a 12 inch bone crusher on it to keep it out of the ground, and you
just watch.
This time will be different.
Over the course of a few days, we made our way through the outer reaches of stumpthorne,
across the berm peak forest road, and down the ridge into moonshangle.
I even cut a little bench around an off camber turn to keep all the dirt from eroding down
the hillside.
We’ll need to do a lot more of that in certain places.
I also helped Kevin a bit with his jump, but I was a little skeptical if it would ride
like he had hoped.
It looked really sketchy, even by my standards.
But, this jump is Kevin’s vision and I told him he could build whatever he wanted here
so long as he rode into the trail the proper way—on the pucker plank.
Back when Phil came here to build the maim frame, Kevin went up to attempt this roll
in, and wouldn’t do it.
Kevin is known to send just about any feature with total reckless abandon, but to him this
pucker plank is a different kind of scary.
Different riders have different specialties, and steep planks that fire you directly into
the ground just aren’t up Kevin’s alley.
But today, he needs to face his fears.
After finally getting Kevin down the pucker plank, we made our way through the trail to
see if his jump would work.
After a few attempts, my suspicions were confirmed.
We worked on it for about an hour to try and make things work, but everyone kept completely
missing the landing.
And so we decided to leave the Kevin Jump project for another day.
It was time to shred Rhodorooter from top to bottom.
Rhodorooter is far from finished.
But even in its unfinished state, Rhodorooter is really fun, and it’ll eventually be a
minute plus downhill run complete with jumps and rhodotunnels.
So buckle up, this Winter just got a lot more fun.
Thanks for riding with me today and I’ll see you next time.