MTB Trailcare

MTBtrailcare is still waiting for permission to start work at the bottom of Three Hills and Casuarina.  It is taking time and we hear we may have to do an Indiginous Cultural Sensitivity course before we start.

Time for basic maintenance and an emergency repair where the trail saboteur damaged a bridge (one of a number) on Happy Valley.  We trimmed sightlines, including some large deadfall, sawed and removed a fallen tree, cut down or dug out broken saplings - some courtesy of the same vandal and others broken by riders.

Last night there was a QPWS public forum on MTB in Brisbane.  Neither we, nor the club received an official invitation which is pretty poor.  Andrew from SEQTA let us know on Sunday.  Ash, Michael from GCMTB and I tried to go up, but I let the side down by not being able to get away from work in time to make it.  We sat down together to review the local situation and suggested ammendments to the proposed MOU between QPWS and GCMTB and the struggle getting people involved in trailcare.

We try hard to communicate openly with QPWS via this site and directly, so it was disappointing not being able to arrange an early finish.  As volunteers prepared to take time away from work at our expense, it is disheartening to be left out of the QPWS MTB loop.  We appreciate there is a serious QPWS manpower shortage with regards to Nerang, but to be honest, sometimes it feels like our efforts are a problem rather than an asset.

Stagnation breeds apathy and encourages rogue building.  We need to keep up the momentum or the chance to encourage new faces into trail work will fade.  Between the delays and frustrations of protocol and the lack of contribution from lazy Gold Coast riders, it is hard to see a surge in authorised trailcare.  Hopefully re-building the trails near the velodrome trailhead will put trailcare in the face of more locals.