Better, more sustainable trails
One of the most interesting trail projects we had this summer was up in Golsfjellet. Golsfjellet is a beautiful mountain are with some really nice natural trails. Most of the trails are above the tree line on mountain plateau. You can see higher mountain tops all around the area and it gives a beautiful contrast to the view.
Our goal was to improve the riding experience and make the trails more sustainable to withstand more bike and hike traffic. Some sections of the trails have suffered from erosion due to water running on the trails. Deep trench with grown in vegetation doesn´t give you the best riding or hiking experience.
We assessed all the trails and decided which parts of the trails are going to be fixed. We didn´t want to change the nature of the trails too much nor make the trails easier or less technical. Better flow was one of the main goals. This project was planned to be made by hand, no machines will be used.
In many places the trails are straight on the fall line and water has eroded the trails. This is fairly typical for non-built hiking trails. In places like this our goal was to guide the water off from the trails and fix the eroded sections. In two, more steeper place, we ended up re-routing the trail by building a new trail and closing the old trail. We didn´t use any imported material and most of the fixing was made with a technique called bench cutting.
On some places the trails were narrow and fairly deep and risk of hitting your pedal to side walls were high. On these kind of places we didn´t want to make the trails too wide. Gentle cut for the sides and opening some sides to let the water to run off from the trails were our choice of method. Removing some of the pedal catchers like stones from the sides was also on the to-do-list.
Some of the trails were fairly ingrown and there were lot of small vegetation that needed to be cut. On the lower section some of the trees were blocking the view to see behind the turns. We also cleared some of the branches from the trees so riders would have clear sight behind the turn. This will improve the safety and lower the risk of a collision with a hiker a cyclist on the faster downhills.
On more wet parts of the trails we built few “stone bridges”. Stone bridge is a really nice option to use in a bit more wet section. Stone bridges usually look nice and it gives the trail a bit more character. In my opinion it´s a nicer way than a wooden bridge. Raised tread construction will be used on some of most wet places.
Some of the things we fixed are more visible and obvious. Most of the things we did are quite settle and small, most of the people who rides there will not notice them. That´s the beauty of all this. Trail is better, more flowy and more sustainable without changing the trail too much.
Picture by Lars Wraae Jensen
