When you think about it, purpose-built trails are just trenches. Either fairly shallow ones or deeper ones full of rocks, depending on constructional preference. And who’s good at trenches? The Army, of course.

And so it was that 120 junior soldiers from 24, 25 and 26 Platoons of Alamein Company from the Army Foundation College joined volunteer trail builders from Yorkshire-based Singletraction to work on the Stainburn trail project.

How good were they at trenches? Insanely good, apparently. Singletraction reckons that with the help of the troops they got as much done in a single weekend as they had on their own all year so far. Which is pretty impressive.

The Stainburn trail is just west of Harrogate, and is planned to be a highly technical singletrack loop taking full advantage of the steep and rocky site. Singletraction is working with Recreation Rangers from North Yorkshire Forest Enterprise and are looking for sponsorship to fund work elsewhere in the woodland.

They’ve got a bunch of other projects on the go, too – trails in the Otley Chevin, some with Yorkshire Water at Swinsty, more in Guisborough and of course in Dalby Forest where it all got started. Singletraction offer information and insurance for trail building projects, and they’ve got some handy sponsorship deals which mean tasty discounts for members from the likes of Pace, Hope, Wicked Coffee, PMD, www.hifi-dealer.com and a bunch of local bike shops.

New trails and cheap stuff – can’t be bad. More information at www.singletraction.org.uk.