Your mountain biking "trailhead" to Oaxaca, Mexico
Category: Trail Work
Items related to planning or having done trail work, or identification of trail areas that need trail work. This includes tools used, proposed trails or trail re-routing, vegetation pruning, or treadwork.
It has been a while since we’ve gotten a crew together to do serious “pick and shovel” maintenance on the bike trails in the hills above San Felipe del Agua, and some of the trails have erosion damage that requires attention. On this Wednesday in early August Larry, Alex, Rafa, Andrés and Phil tackled one of the shorter, more needy trails. This being the rainy season, 1.7 inches of rain had fallen in the past four days. This was a good thing, as it softened up the soil and made it easier to dig new drainage channels to move water off the trail and into the woods. The crew finished their work in three hours time. They hope to return in coming weeks to do similar work on other of the many nearby trails.
The crew that manages the ecotourism camp at La Cumbre, in the mountains just off Hwy 175 a few miles north of Oaxaca city, have been busy making improvements this summer of 2015. They did some serious trail work to grade and widen the single track portion of the route used for annual mountain bike races there. And there is a new observation tower atop the Mirador that offers a stunning view of the surrounding countryside. These improvements follow the construction of a new kitchen and dining room two years ago. Kudos to those responsible for this work!
But, during that work, a new trail was stumbled upon between Trail E and Trail T. Or, more accurately, an old (lost) trail was discovered.
Here is a a screenshot from Google Earth pointing out the potential new trail, as well as the surrounding trails. Active map (and download link for the KML file) is below.
The tread is fairly well established and the vegetation is only slightly grown in. So, with a little trail work, another kilometer of singletrack could be added to The Smoking Section. The exciting part is that it runs across the hill as compared to the other nearby trails and has a gentler grade of <12% as compared to 20% and 18% for Trail E and Trail T, respectively. Also, the area it crosses has some broader sections that would allow for trail re-routing to give an even gentler grade and longer distance. Right now it isn’t rideable, but we’re hoping to get some volunteers out to flag and clean it ASAP. If you’re willing to help, drop us a line via a comment below, the OaxacaMTB.org Facebook page or the Contact Us form on this site’s About Us page.
1) Trail work on “Vela” is done and the trail is ride ready. The upper part is still a bit thick with grass on the tread, but it opens up as you reach the middle and bottom. Get out an ride it as the more it gets used, the better it will roll.
2) I finally got around to trying out my new GoPro knock-off video camera – an MHD (MonoPrice) Action Cam. Earlier efforts using the chest harness were a total fail (unless you’d enjoy watching the trail tread go by with my knees wobbling around). First halfway watchable video that I made is from a run down the freshly cleared “Vela” trail. The video starts on Trail LLL, runs the bit of Trail PC that is used to get to Vela, and then ends as the 1 5meter walkout at the end of the trail where it pours back onto Trail TTT (aka Pista las carnívoras). The lighting is poor, there is a smudge on the camera lens, and I’m not sure I really like the handlebar mount perspective, but this is an experiment for now….
On that note, and with the hope that we will be able to provide a full collection of trail videos eventually, OaxacaMTB.org now has a YouTube channel to share these videos as they are created/provided. That also means there is now a Google+ page to go along with our previously existing Facebook page. We hope you’ll add these additional outlets to your social media lists. Here are the links:
