The Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew makes a whirlwind tour of Washington

The Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew works with Seattle area clubs and Washington State Parks to provide more trail opportunities.

During their visit, the Trail Care Crew checked out an exciting new project. This 7.5 acre piece of land under the I-5 overpass is soon to become an urban park, with 1.8 acres designated for mountain biking.
Western Washington IMBA Rep, Art Tuftee, shows off one of the tools in his bag of tricks. This grip hoist made quick work some of the stumps along the trail.
This group is ready to ride! The Crew's time in Seattle ended with an epic ride and breath-taking views of Mt. Rainier.
Lora rides off the end of a 50 foot suspension bridge on the Skookum Flats Trail.
State Park land managers from all over Washington built up their sweat equity by improving upon a newly created renegade trail, and bringing it up to standard.
Besides bench-cutting, there was badly-eroded turn to tackle. We needed to create a switchback, but without rock or useable timber in the area, we had to come up with a unique solution. Pictured here is a 4 foot crib, made out of recycled plastic picnic tables.
The cribs were pre-fabricated above the worksite, and then put in place and back-filled with natural and imported mineral soil.
The bucket brigade in full-swing. A lot of fill material was needed for the turn, and the fastest way to get it there was down a steep slope. Lucky for us, we had 50 park rangers on hand.
The final product took over 150 volunteer hours to complete, but was a huge improvement over the existing trail condition.

As the leaves began to turn this September, Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew leaders, Mark Schmidt and Lora Woolner, were in the Pacific Northwest, creating new trail in Seattle and building switchbacks with the State Parks. The visits were part of a whirlwind week in Washington, where they taught three Trailbuilding Schools and educated more than 100 people in sustainable trail design and construction.

Two of the schools were taught in the heart of Seattle, in conjunction with theBackcountry Bicycle Trails Club (BBTC). Between the two schools, 50 land managers and volunteers came out to learn the basics and get their hands dirty creating a new North-South connector on the Grand Ridge trails in King County.

The third school was held at Dash Point State Park as part of the field training for Washington State Parks. 50 land managers from throughout the state came to learn about mountain biking, and building trails to meet the needs of this type of trail user. The field session included a unique opportunity to adopt and improve upon a new unsanctioned piece of singletrack in the park.