When we chose Berm Peak as the new home for this YouTube channel, we did so in part because
of the land.
It looks perfect for building downhill mountain bike trails, given the steep slopes and endless
loam.
But when we actually moved here and started building trail, we made the surprising discovery
that Berm Peak is a pile of dirt.
Just dirt.
After endless digging and excavating, we’ve only found rocks a handful of times.
And when we find a rock large enough to build something out of, it’s a really special
occasion.
So today, we’re paying another visit to the dirt merchant.
Usually, people want neat, pretty rocks for lining flower beds and building stone retaining
walls.
Not us.
We want the messed up pallet in the corner of the yard, the discounted one stacked with
jank.
For this project, the jankier the better.
Our plan is to build a rock garden right here on this off camber slope, which comes after
the pecker jump.
To a non-mountain biker a rock garden is a an actual flower bed designed in and around
rocks.
But on a trail, it’s just a bunch of rocks that you ride over on your bike.
This rock garden is also going to armor the tread, which is getting worn away from repeated
skidding around this off camber turn.
To build our rock garden we’ll need about 5 tons of stone, which is approximately 3
pallets.
I could tow two at a time but decided not to because of our steep driveway.
So we’re making three trips to the dirt merchant, and unloading the trailer three
times by hand.
The poor gator is—squatting just a little bit.
But lucky for us, the jobsite is pretty accessible.
So we can pile our materials right at the top.
This way, we can carefully roll each stone downhill to its final destination.
But we’re also using some larger flatter stones for the bottom around the turn.
These, we can drop off by driving under the deck near
the house.
While unloading the gator, one of the larger stones got away, cartwheeling down the slope
before settling in front of a tree.
We decided to start at the bottom and work our way up, so armoring the exit turn was
first priority.
Having never built a rock garden before, I had to rely a little on Alex’s experience.
Here we’re setting most of the stone to grade, or level with the ground.
As the dirt washes away from rain and riding, the stone will become more visible and prominent.
This means we need to bury everything just a tad deeper than we want.
To make this rock garden challenging, we need to build it so you can’t just ride around
or between every rock.
So we’re eying things up as we move along to cover any gaps or channels.
We’re also accounting for the off-camber slope by setting the stone on high side to
grade, and the stone of the lower side a bit higher.
This will allow us to carry more speed through this section, and make the rock garden a lot
more fun as a result.
After the first day of digging and moving heavy rocks, I ended up with muscle spasms
in my forearm.
But we’ve got an app for that.
As we worked our way through the boulder pile, the slope started looking a little more like
a rock garden.
And around noon Kevin stopped by on his way out for a ride.
We figured, he’s geared up, why not test out what we’ve built so far?
Kevin’s test gave us some really valuable information about the
bottom section.
Kevin suggested building a little ridge around the exit turn to make it easier to carry speed.
So, we put aside some choice rocks for that very purpose.
As we worked our way to the top, I also decided to build a B line so riders could opt out
of the pecker jump.
This B line would create a route around the pecker jump and over the log, as well as an
optional transition for anyone precise enough to catch it.
It took us a day to transport the materials, and another to get the rock garden started,
and surprisingly by the end of the third day, we were almost done.
The only thing left was the tiny rock berm that Kevin suggested.
With the rock garden finally finished, we couldn’t wait to test
it out.
Someone had the brilliant idea to try and climb the rock garden.
After well over an hour of repeated tries, Alex and I both got pretty close to making
it over the log, but decided to save that victory for another day.
After all, we didn’t build this rock garden for climbing.
More-so than anything else in mountain biking, rock gardens are about line choice.
Some lines are all about speed, and some are just plain old fun.
But whatever route you choose through this rock garden, it’s gonna be a bumpy one.
If you enjoyed watching us build this rock garden, subscribe to this channel to watch
us build more stuff next week.
And if you want more content from berm peak, check out our second channel, Berm Peak Express,
for more casual off-topic content.
In any case, we’re really happy to have a rock garden to ride now, and even happier
to share the experience of building it with all of you.
Thanks for riding with me today, and I’ll see you next time.