and then it all melted

At last a thaw and a chance to do some long overdue stone pitching - which you just can't do when the rocks are frozen into the ground.
Trail building on a big scale i.e. 20km + has to be done by machines, it's just not viable, both in terms of timescales and costs (a squad of good stone pitchers is way more expensive than a digger).
Unfortunately, with this in mind, a lot of big trail builds can tend to have a clinical cut'n'paste feel, so with the cracking team of trail builders we have assembled up at Glenlivet we take every opportunity to let then hand work sections of trail - just to give it that hand crafted feel.
Our team all ride bikes; from jumpy hardtails, to efficient full sus' mile munchers and even the 'odd' 29er and because of this all the crucial bits get the hand tuning treatment with the lads testing it's 'flow' as they go, 'cos they liking riding too!
Rock work is slow, hard work, with a few metres taking all day, but the end result is worth it.
The forecast for the week ahead is looking like a return to wintery, so best crack on whilst we can.