PORC

[jamiepfaeffle]

COUNTY APPROVES NORTH PARK FREERIDE TRAIL
The Allegheny County Department of Parks and Recreation approved the first official freeride trail in Allegheny County. PTAG would like to thank the county parks director Andy Baechle and county manager James Flynn, Jr. Years of hard work, cooperation with the county, and campaigning and support for a freeride trail by PTAG have made this a reality. This is just a start and with time, careful planning, continued cooperation with the Parks Department, we will able to design and install other freeride trails in North Park and possibly other parks.

The approved trail has been formally recognized as the “Dr. J” Trail. It is in the vicinity of Pie Traynor field near the swimming pool behind the Harmar Shelter. The Dr. J trail features a rollover to the entry drop (5 drops in all), 3 skinny bridges and bridges over drainage ditches to control erosion, 2 jumps and a banked turn. It was built in 1 month’s time by Jamie Pfaeffle and Nick Pointon. For a novice or intermediate freerider, it is fairly challenging and fun. The county’s approval is conditioned upon making changes to comply with IMBA specifications and maintenance as well as upkeep to be performed by PTAG at its own cost. IMBA has a set of guidelines for construction of freeride trails to maximize fun, minimize risk of injury, and ensure sustainability. These specifications were also implemented at the Seven Springs Freeride Park. The county has not placed any addition limitations on trail development other than compliance with IMBA guidelines and installation through PTAG. PTAG has no plans to make the trail any less fun and we hope to make it more fun that it already is. After the trail is in place, there will be regular PTAG inspections and maintenance to ensure it is safe and sustainable.

PTAG and the freeriding community in general ask for your help to ensure continued success of this trail and guarantee that further proposed freeride trails in the vicinity of the Dr. J trail will receive the county’s continued support. As part of the executive order approving the Dr. J trail, the county also officially recognized freeriding as a sport and style of mountain biking.

We still need to do more work on the Dr. J Trail. PTAG’s proposal to the county involves 1) re-routing the entrance to help minimize erosion, 2) make a better landing zone for the large log drop, and 3) make a better exit onto the trail below which is used as a return to the top of the trail. The proposal also includes several new banked turns, drops and jumps and there is room to make more changes particularly towards the end of the trail.

Pittsburgh area freeriders have a voice at PTAG and thus with the county. This is a big step for the county, so we need your help and cooperation to make this a success. Consider becoming a PTAG member to support your local trails. If you would like to work with us, we invite you to help make the Dr. J Trail more fun than it already is. Your support and help are needed to keep this moving in the right direction and to pave the way for more freeride trails in the future. It took a year of multiple meetings with the county parks director, county lawyers, and county council members to get approval for this trail. Your patience, involvement, and support were, and will continue to be the key to this success.

If the weather cooperates, we will announce work days this fall to map out new freeride areas and fix existing problem areas. Any help designing and building is welcome. PM Jamie Pfaeffle to get on the email list for work days and design updates.

Faithfully submitted,
Jamie Pfaeffle, PTAG
Nick Pointon

[Gregg3333]

Congrats to all involved!!

[gearhead313]

great news to hear! glad some of my sweat poured into it

[PaMtnBkr]

That is great news! Maybe now we can get Roaring Run Watershed Assc to let us do some stuff there?

[Justin]

This is good news for sure. I should be able to help out on upcoming work days.

[manhattanprjkt83]

Jamie,

This is awesome...Work well done...

So do we really need to wait for work days to do this kind of work? IMO the best stuff gets put in when a couple guys go out with shovels and get creative, dont make this thing to official...

Give me the green light and i'll get the best trail builders in the north east to go out and sculpt some lips and make that place rediculous...I know some guys.

- Bill

[manhattanprjkt83]

Jamie,

This is awesome...Work well done...

So do we really need to wait for work days to do this kind of work? IMO the best stuff gets put in when a couple guys go out with shovels and get creative, dont make this thing to official...

Give me the green light and i'll get some of the best trail builders in the north east to go out and sculpt some lips and make that place rediculous...I know some guys.

- Bill

[manhattanprjkt83]

one thing that probably needs to be mentioned here...I know we will be determining the go forward plan for the trail later this week and Sunday but if we plan to do lots of heavy dirt work eg berms, sculpted lips and what not, we really need to think about asking that people dont ride dr j. when it is extremely wet. Again it is totally dependant on the character the trail takes on but riding in mid winter mud over nice lips will destroy them. BMX guys dont touch trails in the winter for this reason.

If we go the direction of more woodwork/drops then this will be much less of an issue, but lots of hard work can be ruined in a few days on freshly built dirt. Remember these trails arent bike park trails they have not had any time to mature and harden up. Just a thought.

I would love to see some creative woodwork should the county give us a bit of $$$ to purchase lumber. This is a great thing we have here...

[chromagnus]

suggestion.

you dont have good rock in the NP area to armor, but the idea of using heavy pavers to lock berms together and maybe for the lips might work.

You need heavy rocks brought in, but you would cut your maintenance over the lifespan of the trail. A heavy paver placed in the berm will hold if done right. I dont think you can expect people to stay off it and i dont think a dirt berm will hold. I dont know where the solution comes from (in relation to the proper stone), but i have to believe that smooth rock armoring ( i mean well constructed with equal thickness stones or prefabed pavers) will solve the problem of berms and such being destroyed. This is the time to think about a solution and maybe even try it on one lip and berm. Then if it works go from there. OK breaks over....back to work.

[manhattanprjkt83]

Completely agree Dan, some new approaches to the area need to be taken to ensure that the trail maintaines those touchy items. I think we can colaborate on this type of stuff after we take a walk and come to a consensus on what needs to happen. Paving stones are awesome in fast berms...errrr A-Line

Jamie,
Are there any restrictions the county puts out there for building materials? I am hoping we arent limited to natural materials but it wouldnt be the end of the world...

Some really wild skinnies, that arent to far off the ground would be fun, i already broke one derailure this week, whats one more.

[jamiepfaeffle]

Yes we (me, nick and PTAG) have considered use of wood and pavers such as Turfstone (used at I-5 Collonade). Agree that erosion can be an issue with dirt lips and berms in muddy weather and with riders. I personally want features that will be durable and require less maintainence. Need to get together and make a plan for the trail. Manhattanprjkt83, GTC and Jett45 have volunteered to help with design. All needs to be to IMBA spec. We are working on a design plan and then will have some work days to get all involved with construction. More to follow when plans are more together. PM me if you want to help with design or construction. Planning a work day this Sunday to address one existing unsafe drop redesign if anyone wants to come out and help move big trees and rocks we will start at 9A.

Faithfully

Jamie Pfaeffle

[manhattanprjkt83]

We had a little design walk/discussion last night out at the Park and I am pretty enthusiastic about the terrain we have available to us, and the ideas that are out on the table. Once this trail is complete it should be a rip roaring good time. Is it a completely technical gnar dh trail? No. North Park simply doesn’t have the amount or rock or natural tech to make it that way. The idea here is to make a fast jumpy, droppy, freeride trail with some new school influence to keep everyone on their toes.

Right now we are talking about:
Re-route of the entrance
Natural Step up kicker into a big berm
S berms built with paving stones high and fast
Wood ladder drop to a natural transition
Dirt Spine like move over a massive fallen oak (multiple moves over this)
Polishing the existing bottom trail and cleaning up landings.

This trail is going to be about the work we as a group put into it, the lay of the land is great over there.

- Bill

[Deluxe]

Those sound like great ideas, but make sure any proposals are submitted to Jamie (Bill I know you are aware of this, so this post is more so for the general viewing public). I want things to be done procedurally correctly to avoid disappointment, but more importantly to ensure we can obtain Andy's approval for more runs in that location. If you haven't spoken to Jamie already, please coordinate with him directly on these proposals. It is a very simple process (and to avoid "layers" of bureacracy, they do not need to go through me or Rodack, but Jamie Pfaeffle is the County and PTAG point of contact for freeride trails in North Park).
BD

[jamiepfaeffle]

Deluxe - as mentioned before we are forming a new design team to involve freeriders who have expertise in building freeride trails. Kirk has offered to help and he hasthe expertise as he helped build Seven Springs. Design team members are on same page in terms of proposing and approving trail with PTAG and County. Our goal is to re-design trail to be more fun, designed and built per IMBA spec and is at the beginner / intermediate level. All takes time hope to have new proposal and plan in place to start construction in Spring. Anyone interested in helping please PM me.

Jamie Pfaeffle

[RLB]

Just got back from the work day, had a good time and it went much faster than I had expected.

couple shots from last week.



really looking forward to getting the new entrance line in, I get much slower this time of year so I will be able to make most work days

[jamiepfaeffle]

UPDATE ON FREERIDE TRAIL RE-DESIGN

Yesterday six of us moved some pretty big logs and rebuilt the drop next to the rock. The rock is no longer in the landing zone, and the entry and landing zones for this drop now per IMBA spec. Trail is completely open. Next step will be to work with design team to come up with a plan for 1) new rerouted entrance and exit to trail 2) address erosion issues of existing trail and 3) put in some new features.

New entry route was part of proposal submitted to county last February. Will organize some days to work on this and will work with design team on re-design plan for rest of trail. Stay tuned for more.

Faithfully,
Jamie Pfaeffle

[manhattanprjkt83]

Thanks to everyone that came out yesterday, that section is looking pretty impressive as it stands, Dave and I plan to get the bridge put together and beef up that bermed corner so you can hit it going mach 5.

Plan for the section Jamie showed in the picture is a drop you can take as fast as you like, into a large berm, with a kicker coming out so you can either roll the kicker or boost the kicker and clear the entire bride/stream setting you up for the next corner. Gotta love the wet season, moving dirt is always a bit easier.

I'll keep updating this thread with progress as it comes along.

[manhattanprjkt83]

Yesterday was awesome, finalized the design of the trail and are going to end up putting some really fresh new moves in on the hill...

On the lower section we are looking at one of these bad boys with a dirt lip, curved wood deck, dirt landing...Just like this but waaaay smaller (about 4 feet off the ground). Something completely new to the area:

[gearhead313]

knowing that those hips are needed is nothing new Glad something hawt like that is going to be put in!!

[manhattanprjkt83]

yeah you are going to start seeing some pretty killer stuff pop up on that hill, we have the guys with the right experience/insight saying what should go where...keep an eye out

- Bill