Details: This job was the first of many sections of the Cypress Creek Greenway Project to get the green light. Ryan and Susan did most of the design work on the five-plus miles of trails spread over two locations along the creek. Most of the area is located in a flood plain, and impact on the wetlands was a huge consideration in where to lay the trail. The entire Talon Trails crew was involved in the construction of the trail system, which included rehabbing some old 4-wheeler and social trails to be utilized by the new trail system.

At one of the trail heads, the soil had a high clay content, which did not allow it to drain as well as the rest of the system, so Talon Trails decided to bring in some crushed granite to improve the small section by building a raised tread causeway.  Timberlane was so happy with how that looked, they decided to have granite installed on most of the trail system, which provided a logistical challenge of moving more than 100 yards of material through the woods. Georgia buggies, a.k.a. mechanized wheelbarrows, are a great invention!  

Details: Ryan and Susan made their third annual pilgrimage up to Sid Richardson Boy Scout Camp to teach DORBA’s trail stewardsabout sustainable trail construction and maintenance. The two-day class focused on trail building basics due to a lot of turn over of the volunteer trail stewards. A nice new section of trail was added to the portion built during last year’s school.  

Details: The Spring Creek Greenway Project will eventually be a 50-mile long stretch of trails along the Montgomery and Harris County boundary. Talon Trails has worked with The Woodlands Development Corporation and Montgomery County Precinct One to put in over three miles of trail so far and is currently working with volunteers to complete another three-mile section that will be mountain biking only.  We’ve also had to use recycled asphalt in some low lying areas to raisethe trail tread up above the surrounding land to provide a dry crossing during wetter times of the year.

Details: Dewayne worked with IMBA's Trail Solutions again in the Lost Coast area in the King Range National Conservation Area to help design and construct a natural surface mountain bike trail on slopes up to 110%. Some of the trail follows an old mine road, so we did a road-to-trail conversion which included building optional technical trail features like table top jumps and drop-ins. Also, using a Tekeuchi TB016 mini excavator, Dewayne constructed about nine switchbacks and their connecting trails on slopes up to 100%. The area receives over 100 inches of rain a year, so frequent grade reversals we a must. One particular challenge was designing and constructing a piece of trail that had to ascend about 40 feet on a narrow spit of land. Dewayne was able to shrink the excavator tracks to maneuver the machine in a tight corridor so he could construct four climbing turns and their legs to gain the elevation. Once finished, this approximately 14-mile loop will be a destination trail in northern California.

Details: Dewayne worked with IMBA's Trail Solutions and Terra Firma Trails to help design and build both downhill and cross country mountain bike specific trails at this all season resort. He followed the SWECO trail dozer with a Takeuchi TB-016 mini excavator to build  the back slope and to create rock and log features, as well as build turns and some bench cut trail. The lift assisted down hill trails are rated using the ski slope designations of green circles, blue squares, and black single and double diamonds. Dewayne helped design and build a blue square trail called Hockey Mom, a black diamond trail called Smokejumper, and a double black diamond trail called The Hibernator and also built a portion of a green circle trail called Lupine. He also worked on one descending and two ascending cross country trails that are to be used in the 2008 NORBA (National Off Road Bicycle Association) National Race to be held at Tamarack Resort as well as helped flag the potential down hill NORBA race that same year. Some of the work was done in a tamarack grove and in alpine creek settings on West Mountain. One project included building a couple of multi-use, multi-season trails to be used for neighborhood access for biking, hiking, and even skiing. Lastly, he helped maintain existing trails by reworking some turns, installing culverts at ski slope water bars, and other minor hand work.

Details: Dewayne was subcontracted by IMBA to travel to Waterloo, WI, to help Trek Bicycles with their test trails. The project included re-routing about one-tenth a mile of unsustainable trail to a rolling contour trail of about one mile long with room for man made wooden technical trail features (TTFs.) A Ditch Witch SK500 with a six-way hydraulic blade was used for the 18" full bench contruction. Finish work was done by hand by Dewayne and volunteers. Also, Dewayne designed an outbound leg of beginner trail that connected to existing beginner trail and a skills progression area. Lastly, two log ride TTFs were created. One is a four inch wide single log ride about 20 feet long and a maximum of three feet high. The other one is comprosed of two separate lines that start on the trunk of the tree and progress down a limb on either side of the tree, one being along the ground and the other ending about four feet off the ground. Trek will build a start ramp for this TTF in the near future.

Details: This appproximately 700 acre oak savannah parcel was bought by the City of Austin using public bond money. Many volunteer hours have been used to design and start to build the initial loop, including work by Ryan, Susan, and Dewayne from the first flagging. The volunteer construction work has been going on since 2004, and Talon Trails was contracted by the stakeholders (Circle C HOA, Austin Ridge Riders Mountain Bike Club, Texas Equestrian Trail Riders Association) who are represented by the Austin Metro Trails & Greenways to help expedite the construction. Volunteers have built about 2.1 miles of trail in about 18 months, while Talon Trail SYstems constructed 1.2 miles in two weeks. Since this trail is located in southwest Austin and that area lacks a beginner mountain bike trail, we anticipate this trail getting good bike traffic.          

Details:Susan and Ryan helped tremedously with the Friends of Lake Fannin Wilderness in their quest to add trail to the Bonham area. Susan and Ryan designed the 3.8 mile long course from scratch and oversaw the first few phases of construction. There was also the chance for some machine building using a Bobcat MT-52 mini skid steer thanks to a grant from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. About 2/3 of a mile of trail was built in a week during August of 2006. The trail should be complete in 2007.

    Details: This 185 acre forested parcel was bought by the Community Forest of Burns Lake, British Columbia, and is being leased to the Burns Lake Mountain Bike Association to be used as a mountain bike park. IMBA Canada was contracted to design the park, and Talon Trails was sub-contracted to assist. A progressive skills area consisting of a pump track, a dirt jump progression for beginners and intermediate level riders leading up to a wall ride, and a drop progression at two, four, and six feet were all designed and constructed. A four cross course was designed in the skills area to be built at a later date. Two downhill courses were designed and built, both modeled after Whistler, B.C.'s popular A-Line and B-Line trails. They include tabletop jumps, rollers, bermed turns, wall rides, drops, step-ups, and skinny wooden boardwalks. Also, about 15 KM of singletrack were designed. Hybrid construction (combined professionals and volunteers) was used for most of this project.

    Details: In 2005 and 2006, Susan and Ryan worked with the Brazos River Authority at Possum Kingdom Lake to design a eight mile trail system with hikers and mountain bikers in mind. The goal was to provide a very easy loop that a family could ride or hike in a day. The section of property included some steep bluffs which made staying at shallow gradients a challenge. The highlights of the trail system are four overlooks on the highest point of the hill. Each overlook has signage that talks about the history of Possum Kingdom and views a different section of the lake.

    >Details: On two occasions, Susan and Ryan have had the chance to work with the Youth Conservation Corps of American Youth Works. One such occasion was at the Hill Country Youth Ranch, a sanctuary for children who have been removed from their families by the state. The property sits on the banks of the headwaters to the Frio River and has a schoolhouse, "family houses" that the children live in with hosts, and a few "grandparents" houses where the kids can go to get away from things complete with cookies! The YCC was on site mainly doing cedar erradication and a little trail maintenance. Ryan and Susan taught the group of 10 a class on sustainable trail building and then led them in a week of work as they completed a trail from the schoolhouse to one of the grandparents' houses.

    Details:Susan and Ryan were invited to consult, teach and supervise over 70 college students building trail at Camp Eagle near Rocksprings, TX. The students were spending their spring break contributing to the summer camp and were expending some of their energies building trail. Ryan and Susan gave a breif slideshow on the type of work that would be performed, the rules for safety, and what a completed section of trail should look like. Over five days, the crew built two and a half miles of trail in the rocky hillcountry soil. Susan and Ryan split up to oversee different groups every day. Some of the projects included rock armoring, rock retaining walls and lots and lots of bench-cutting.

Details: On two occasions, Ryan and Susan spent time building trail at this state park in La Grange, Texas. The first go round was in August of 2005, where the duo worked with Texas Parks staff from Kreische and Government Canyon State Natural area. Over the course of the four days the crew built four rolling crown switch backs and 3/4 of a mile of trail. The switchbacks were constructed of sack-crete stacked like rock with fill coming from the new trail tread. The second installment was in December of the same year and members of the Texas Trail Tamers came out to help. One new switchback was constructed utilizing cedar logs and granite fill. Also, two bridges were built, one 20 feet long, the other eight feet. Both projects had small sets of rock stairs built on the hiking only trail.

  Details: This 360 acre private dog boarding & training facility in Hutto, TX, contracted Talon Trails to build this trail for trail etiquette classes for dog owners and as an amenity for dogs boarding at the facility. Features include one wet creek crossing, several seasonal drainages, and an old well and pump house, and slopes up to 45%. Primary method of construction was a Ditch Witch MX-9 mini excavator.

    Details: This 4,300 acre private housing development and its home owners' associations (Steiner Ranch Master Association and Steiner Ranch Residential Owners' Association) in Austin, TX, contracted Talon Trails to build new trail and repair existing trail. Features include seasonal creek crossings; several seasonal drainages; steep, rocky limestone canyons; scenic views, and slopes up to 50%. All construction has been by hand due to the terrain.

Details: Talon Trails was sub-contracted by IMBA to design a mountain bike specific trail on this 80 acre municipal park land in Dayton, OH. The land manager required the winning construction bidder to sub-contract Dewayne to oversee the beginning of the construction of the trail to ensure that it was being built to IMBA standards. The supervision lasted for five days and included instructing the machine operators how to cut trail and the finishing crew how to detail the tread. Features include wet creek crossings, several seasonal drainages, old growth trees, uncommon vegetation to be preserved, a rocky section for more technical trail, and slopes up to 40%. This will be Dayton's first mountain bike trail in the city.

  Details: The Army Corps of Engineers in Georgetown, TX, contracted Talon Trails to clear several large oak trees felled by storms on two different occasions. Work included clearing the trees, moving the debris off the trail tread, and reclaiming the trail that was made around the trees while they were down. One tree was used to build a technical trail feature for mountain bikers in the form of a "rainbow bridge" over the trunk of the tree.

  Details: This was a new connector trail in the 10,000 acre state forest in North Carolina in which Dewayne assisted in building. Mechanized tools used for this project included: Ditch Witch SK-500 mini skid steer with a 6-way hydraulic blade & MX-9 mini excavator, Bobcat NT-50 mini skid steer & Bob Cat mini-excavator, Toro Dingo mini skid steer, PentaMoter Ibex, and a tracked hauler. Rock features were built using rock moved by wire rope and grip hoists.

  Details: As a volunteer trail steward with the Austin Ridge Riders Mountain Bike Club (ARR,) Dewayne was the driving force behind the completion of the loop around Lake Georgetown. As the primary designer and workday organizer, he spent over 315 hours, over 15% of total man hours, to design, build, and help maintain the trail.

Details: The motorcycle trails in the City of Austin park are maintained jointly by the local motorcycle club and ARR. As a trail steward, Dewayne is responsible for recognizing problem areas and organizing workdays to repair these sections of trail. Re-routing the trail in this endangered species habitat is not allowed, so all maintenance solutions must be in-situ. Work includes armoring, installing nicks, and closing down illegal lines around technical trail features, as well as offering optional lines to discourage illegal lines.

Details: (2002-present) Dewayne assisted the U.S Army Corps of Engineers at Canyon Lake, Texas with trail planning, building and maintenance at Canyon Park.