My name is Andrew. I'm the instructor leader for crew 30.
Today we're out here in the Southwest
part of Craigs Branch with the SummitCorps
building mountain bike trail in the Northwest part
of the New River Gorge National river.
Our section is rather steep and because of the
water retention that we have to deal with,
we have some strong rock armoring
that we need to take care of today.
We're building a rock retaining wall, so the first
thing we need to do is make sure that the
tread is established at a point.
Then we'll find where the water is going to drain
and make sure that that area is low enough
so we can cut into it to meet rock.
Then we have to locate rock.
Sometimes it can be very difficult,
in our case today. We had to transport it a good deal
but the guys were very happy to do so.
Once we find rock large enough to retain the trail,
we bring it over and we dig out a segment the size
of each rock. We don't like to dig out the whole segment at once
because we don't know if we can fill it all in with the rock.
After we put in the rock, the most important thing of the whole process is
setting it. Making sure the rock doesn't move ensures that
no erosion will move any of the rock underneath
or any of the dirt.
Once the rock is set, we fill it around with dirt and
even some gravel, smooth over it and make the tread rideable.
By making sure that this rock armoring is
done in an efficient and proper manner,
we're ensuring that these trails will not only be rideable
but in excellent condition for 50 to 100 years.
So our kids, and their kid's kids can come out
here and have fun. And these trails
are just another excuse to come out to the
New River Gorge National river and the
Bechtel Family Summit Reserve to enjoy the outdoors.
Alright on rock. Pebble, stone, rock,
SummitCorps! Yeah!
