Cedar Rock Trail Repair Project

This trailwork report is for workdays that took place in Nov 02 on the lower section of Cedar Rock Trail. The work you see in the photos represents over 200 people hours’ worth of work and this project combined handwork with the use of the Toro Dingo owned by Blue Ridge Bike Club. The two worse enemies of trails are poor design and water. As you may would have guessed they often work in concert in that if the trail is poorly designed you will always have to worry about the water issue. Water can cause trouble to trails in a number of different ways but the most visible and destructive is certainly through erosion. If the trail is designed in such a way that water wants to run down the trail instead of across the trail, erosion can be expected unless the trail surface is solid rock. Solid rock trail surfaces are well illustrated in Dupont on the slickrock sections of the Big Rock and Cedar Rock trail. When the surface is solid rock the trail can run the falline instead of the contour and trail tread grades can be pushed higher than normal. Erosion caused by water on poorly designed sections of falline trail can sometimes be fixed trough the use of grade dips to take the water off the trail and hardening the trail surface through the use of rock. This technique is called armoring and has been around for thousands of years; however it is receiving a fair bit of renewed interest and innovative new ways to apply it are being played with. An excellent article about rock armoring can be found at: http://www.imba.com/resources/trail_building/rock_armoring.html

The photos you will see here are what we are calling “Appalachian Armor” and it blends rock with locust logs as keystones to hold everything in place. Trail Coordinator Woody Keen developed this new armoring technique here in Dupont State Forest and you can find sections of it on Cedar Rock and Burnt Mountain Trails. It holds great promise as a possible solution to steep falline trails but time is the true test on any new technique. It is not a substitution for properly designed trails that contour and have frequent grade reversals however it may offer some help for short sections of trail.

Photos 1and 2- As you can clearly see in these first two photos, water had taken it’s toll on this section of trail. If water is allowed to run any length of trail, it will carry away soil with it and the result is erosion gullies. These gullies were quite deep and getting worse fast. A good start to maintaining your trail tread surface is to get the water off the trail as often as possible.

Photo #3- The key of “Appalachian Armoring” is the locust logs which lock everything in place. The locust logs are dug into the side-hill of the trail thus locking them into place. This burying of the log ends could also be referred to as dead-manning. In addition to the ends of the logs being buried, we also drive rebar through them and into the ground making sure the can not go anywhere. Locust is a very hard wood and native to this area, life expectancy here in western NC is likely 20+ years in this application.

Photo#4 The logs are placed very close together, the steeper the trail the more often you need a log as a keystone. I like to see these every 4 feet, but maybe 5-6 feet will work for a less steep trail. We have applied this technique with good results on sections of trail with 40%grades.

Photo#5 Once the locust logs are in place, the rockwork (and fun) begins. This is classic flagstone armoring though a rock may be stone pitched every once in a while to lock in a flagstone. Entire sections (between two of the locust logs) can be stone pitched instead of flagstone. This works very well and is bombproof but certainly goes a bit slower than flag-stoning the sections. For this particular project, we used broken pieces of concrete 2’’ thick instead of rock. We used the rough side up and blended in some dirt and the end result is quite natural looking. This concrete option is nice when working in areas that do not have rock available. You can make faux rock anywhere with a little concrete.

Photo#6 Here you can see a completed section of “Appalachian Armor” on the trail. You may also notice the Dingo up above this armored section of trail creating a grade dip to turn water off the trail before hitting this new structure. That is trail honcho Ed Sutton running the Dingo. Of course the needed grade dips can be dug with hand tools, but the hydraulic loader makes quick and easy work of this.

Photo#7 Looking down the armored section of trail. Ed is re-grading the section of trail below our armored structure. In the right bottom corner of the photo you can see a bit of the grade dip.

Photo#8 A better look at the machine cut grade dip. Make your grade dips as large as you can, the larger they are the better they will work and certainly will last longer. Good finish work by hand will blend this grade dip in so as to make it aesthetic and natural in appearance.

Photo#9 Looking up at a long section of armored trail. The locust logs almost blend right in. This section is 45’ long and took a crew an afternoon to complete.

Photo#10 Looking downhill at the same section of trail. Good rock armoring is a work of art.

Photo#11 A closer look at this section of trail and the last locust log is a bit more visible. As you can see, the locust log is cross-hatched (using a chain saw) to drain water as well as provide good traction.