I rode the KLX up to the start of the new trail and got to work. The club has purchaced a machine designed to build single-track trails and my job was to go along behind the machine and smooth out the "hump" that is formed in the midle of the trails by the tracks of the machine. Here I am with a McCloud, a sort of rake/hoe that is a common tool of trailworkers and forest fire fighters:
This is the trail building maching. It has a blade in the front as well as a backhoe type digger:
The guy in the front is brushing out the route in advance of the trail machine.
This give you an idea of the condition of the trail after the machine has done it's work. It does take a skilled operator, though.
We were making pretty good progress when the hydraulic pump sprung a leak. Since everything operates via hydraulics, this pretty much brought work to a hault until the pump could be replaced and the hydraulic fluid tank topped up. Big Mike is the club president and also the guy who does all the maintenance on the club equipment, so he took off to get a replacement pump, and I took off for home.
Big Mike, before the pump failure:
