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GALLERYTalon Trails had worked on a variety of volunteer trail projects prior to establishing ourselves professionally. Since starting Talon Trails, Dewayne has designed and/or built trail in three countries & six U.S. States. Below you can learn more about our work history, both professional and volunteer.
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Slaughter Creek Watershed Protection Land, TX Spring Creek Greenway Project, TX Steiner Ranch, Austin Stephen F. Austin State University, TX Tamarack Resort, ID Timberlane Utility District, Houston Trek Bicycle Corporation, WI Triple Crown Dog Academy, TX Wissahickon Valley Park, PA  |
PROFESSIONAL PROJECTS | |
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Wissahickon Valley Park, Pennsylvania Details: The Wissahickon Valley was formed by Wissahickon Creek and is arguably the most popular urban trail in Philadelphia. Talon Trails was contracted by IMBA to help reconstruct a highly traveled piece of trail that suffered from drainage problems. Dewayne again ran an excavator to help build a raised tread causeway and its accompanying drainage, as well as place boulders on either edge od what was to become a ADA-accessible trail to a picnic shelter.
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Details: Talon Trails was again contracted by IMBA to help construct a 30-mile trail system on this Army Corps of Engineer property. Work included using a tracked mini skid steer to complete finish work behind a SWECO trail dozer. |
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Stephen F. Austin State University, TX Details: Talon Trails traveled to the piney woods of Nacogdoches, Texas, to assess their current mountain biking/hiking trails. These trails were all social trails blazed by unauthorized users with no plan or attention to sustainability. Control points included a severely eroded gully, a housing subdivision, a ROTC challenge course, a paintball area, a creek, and a major road. A majority of the trail was rerouted for sustainability and better biking flow. Dewayne worked with student volunteers and one professor to balance their needs and the outdoor recreation department's needs while teaching the about basic design and construction.
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Details: Talon Trails was hired by McMillin Homes in San Antonio, TX, to design and construct a limestone chop-lined, crushed stone path to run in the greenspaces behind some of the homes they were constructing and to the community center.
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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. |
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King Range National Conservation Area, California Details: Talon Trails 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 Takeuchi TB016 mini excavator, we 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 were a must. One particular challenge was designing and constructing a piece of trail that had to ascend about 40 feet on a narrow sliver of land. We were was able to shrink the excavator tracks to maneuver the machine in a tight corridor so Dewayne could construct four climbing turns and their legs to gain the elevation.
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Tamarack Resort, Idaho Details: Talon Trails 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. We 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.
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Huntsville State Park, Texas Details: Talon Trails worked in Huntsville State Park helping supervise bridge construction. The first project involved installing an 80-foot boardwalk over a seep that had appeared after recent rains. The structure was built on 10 foot spans with a long five-percent-grade ramp on both ends. Middle height was just over two feet. We designed the project and supervised Texas Department of Criminial Justice labor that the park uses in order to best utilize their time and funds. The second project was re-decking an old bridge, and redesigning entrance and exit ramps for said bridge. The original ramp was four feet wide, and only feet long and was located at a 90 degree bend in the trail. The new ramp is eight feet wide at the base, and tapers to six feet wide, the width of the bridge. It’s also nine feet long, giving a smooth approach to users coming at it from two different directions. The deck was reworked with 4" x 6” planking to make a stronger base, and the original railings were cut off and put back on the new deck. The last project was a small connector trail with a long bridge at the beginning. |
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Trek Bicycle Corporation, Wisconsin Details: Dewayne was hired by trek for the 2008 & 2009 riding season to design & build new trail on recently purchased acreage adjacent to the existing trails. Trek & Dewayne reached an agreement for Dewayne to return for a full season in 2010. Trek Bicycles hosts dealers from all over the world at their facilities in Waterloo to introduce them to and indoctrinate them in the new products each year, and this includes test rides of new bikes on this trail system.Recent work included designing & building a connector trail to get from the new trail head to the old trail system, 2.75-miles of new singletrack, and several features throughout the trail system. We contratced Jay Hoots of www.hoots.ca to help design and build a flow course. Talon Trails was previously 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, we designed an outbound leg of beginner trail that connected to existing beginner trail and a skills progression area.
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Slaughter Creek Watershed Protection Land, Texas 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 volunteer work by Talon Trails 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. |
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Burns Lake Mountain Bike Park, Canada 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.
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Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas Details: In 2005 and 2006, Talon Trails 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. |
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Triple Crown Dog Academy, Texas 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.
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Steiner Ranch, Texas 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.
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Huffman Park Mountain Bike Trail, Ohio 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 Talon Trails 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. |
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The Goodwater Trail, Texas 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 |
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VOLUNTEER PROJECTSDuPont State Forest, North Carolina Details: This was a new connector trail in the 10,000 acre state forest in North Carolina in which Talon Trails rtassisted 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. |
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The Goodwater Trail, texas 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. |
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REI Service Projects Details: Dewayne has been a crew leader for the last five REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.) community service projects, leading crews of up to 12 volunteers in building and repairing trails. Locations have included Barton Creek Greenbelt, Onion Creek Greenbelt, McKinney Falls State Park, Goodwater Trail, and the Balcones Canyonland National Wildlife Refuge. |
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Emma Long Metropolitan Park, Texas 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. |
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Canyon Lake, TX Details: (2002-present) Dewayne assisted the U.S Army Corps of Engineers and the South Texas Off Road Mountain Bike Club at Canyon Lake, Texas, with trail planning, building and maintenance of the Madone Trail at Canyon Park. |
Talon Trails LLC a veteran owned business. All content and images are property of Dewayne J. Buratti. |
