It's a new beautiful day on Berm Peak and it's time to get back
to destroying Rhododendrons! I could have chosen a property
with space between the trees, but no I purchased a laurel
thicket. I used to avoid cutting laurels down and even
put limb sealer on them after pruning. But now I use a death
claw to pluck them from their homes and deposit their
wretched corpses into a heap— where they actually grow back.
But as they do, these trail corridors will become beautiful
flowering Rototunnels. I don't actually hate laurels, but they
are the crab grass of the Blue Ridge and I'm done trying to reason
with them. As for this death claw dump truck thingy, learning
to use it has been like baptism by combat. As soon as I learned
the controls I was climbing slopes and attempting to build
complex shapes. I'm really slow at it, but it's still faster
than doing it all by hand. And as we make our way across this
hill Thumb Bucket trail is starting to look like—a trail.
And this week, at least for a few days, Kevin's back to lend
his expertise. Since he now has experience building trails
professionally, watching Kevin work is fascinating. Here in
the Blue Ridge, drainage is a religion, and to Kevin it's
always an opportunity to build something fun. Seth said
there's just like water coming out of this root, but it's
really just like a water spring in the side of the
mountain. They just come out everywhere and it's just gonna
continue to be a wet spot until you address it. So I'm going to
do a little bit of rock armoring.
If you need to move dirt to build a drain, you might as
well, move it someplace fun. I was just fixing up
like a water drain issue I saw and now it's turning into an
actual rock feature chipper jump. That's why I'm here,
to do that extra. Kevin uses all the resources we pull from
the ground to make the trail more durable and more rideable.
Rocks are actually rare on Berm Peak, but we do come across
them, and when we do, they go up-slope of the trail so they can
be pulled down and used later on. Kevin's Rock Chipper is the
first of many things we'll build with the stone that we're
only starting to find now. The rock chipper is right here,
about where we made it to in the last video. This week our
goal is to get all the way to the East property line where we
will build our first proper switchback. A switchback is
just a hairpin turn that goes uphill or downhill, depending
on how you look at it. Thumb Bucket will have several and in
fact you could consider our first berm a switchback, but
this week we're building one on a much steeper section and so
it will be much more difficult. This week the goal is to
get some downhill, get a switch back in, get a little run where
we have some downhill because so far, we don't have any of
that. I'm just going to be sitting in the machine for as
long as I can, and I'm not even going to try to do any
finishing work until we have something to finish.
Hey.
So what do you think? You think that it worked out? Well, I'd
go with a sharper cut on the exit and then just get it packed in really
good, and I think it'll be just fine. Here I come! hold on hold
on! I'm just kidding. Chefs obviously need to taste their
food, and so too do trail builders. To ride these mini
features on the spot and make adjustments to them on the spot
is just like tasting some soup and determining that it needs
more pepper. Yeah. it's working good. I think we're on the
right track.
Oh dude. As I continue to cut bench across the hill, Kevin
comes in behind me to clean up the parts I can't get with the
machine. As I become a better operator, he'll have less and
less to do, and we can focus on finer and finer points. Until
then this straightaway is a canvas for us to build crazy
wooden crap on later this summer. I can't wait. I'm
already at the switchback, to get up to the next part of the
trail. So we've gone from the berm that's back there all the
way to the other side of the property and then you can see
it leads up to there. The learning curve continues...
To build a switchback berm here, I'll need to move dirt as I
claw the machine up the steepest slope yet. It's scary
and a little stressful, but again it beats doing it by hand.
To articulate what is being done here would be pointless
because I can't. This is me learning through trial and
error, how to get the shape of this thing right. So, I guess
enjoy the time lapse!
Alright, it's getting late so I'm going to pack up but I got
this berm roughed out. It's going to require a lot of
handwork. This is not stuff that I can do with the bucket
not with my skill set, but I scammed some people into
coming over here tomorrow and doing manual labor. Another
digging session in the books and all the tools get put back
in one spot—a rule Kevin implemented. He can't be here
tomorrow to help finish the berm, but someone else will.
It is yet again another new and beautiful day today. I not only
have Joe's help, but also Brian's. Last spring, he visited
to ride out the pandemic with Alex and I then ran off to
California with his newfound soulmate, leaving Alex and I
feeling scared and rejected. Well no, but yeah. Anyway,
Brian's back and swinging a shovel. The goal today is to
get the shape of this berm right and pack it in so it
stays together. In addition, I'm benching a little ways
before the berm, so we have a run-up to get speed for it. Of
course, we're doing this all before the rain comes, because it's
always a race against the rain on Berm Peak.
So we didn't make the back slope or any of this stuff look
pretty yet, but we're going to get in some laps before it
rains and try out this trail. Yeehaw.
But I think for today that little sapling's gotta go.
I've already tagged that a couple of times. Yeah, we're
going to look goofy.
Little girl distant: "Hey! What are you doing to that poor tree?!" We're replanting it—for Earth Day.
If we can make the rest of the trail this fun, I'm not even
sure I'll be able to process it. To have this in my yard is like
the childhood dream I never even thought to have. Not to
mention, We haven't even built a kicker for this landing...
or a landing for this kicker. By next week we'll have Kevin
at Berm Peak full time. Thanks, Brian and Joe for the slave
labor. I couldn't have packed his beerm in time without you
guys. And as for you viewers thank you so much for watching
these videos. There's no possible. Way I'd be renting
excavators or hiring friends full time if you didn't watch
this stuff. Check out the Thumb Bucket playlist to see this
build from the start and consider subscribing so the
next episode will pop up in your feed. Thanks for riding
with us today and I'll see you next time.