MTB Trailcare

Last week we completed the new start to Three Hills and Casuarina.  Today we closed all of the old Casuarina line that has been re-routed.  Now we have a single entry point for MTB singletrack away from the velodrome.  

We don't know how many metres of trail were closed today.  It seemed quite a lot because of all the old convoluted turns.  The aim was to make the old trail line so similar to the surrounding terrain that it will revegetate ASAP.

We were lucky that Ash went above and beyond again this week; stockpiling soil harvested from more new drains on Three Hills, adding rock and timber to the old trail line to make things easier for the volunteers today.  He even had 3 wheelbarrows loaded with tools ready to go well before the advertised start of 2PM, despite being covered in dirt from 2 hours of hard work he already invested.

Before we started closing the old line, we added another couple of signs to help riders confused by the recent trail changes

Then it was on to the job at hand.  Closing the bypassed section of Casuarina Loop involved the use of some essential and basic closure techniques:  chipping the trail surface to soften it, folding over adjacent soil and vegetation and then raking over as much organic debris as available to encourage rapid revegetation.  Sometimes rocks and timber can be used to slow water flow and further encourage regrowth, plus add a matrix for us to throw soil into.  

Here's a couple of pics that show the progression from hardened trail to closed trail

Here's a sample of how things looked at 2PM today, after Ash had gone nuts for a couple of hours, adding supplies and closing both ends

Let's close this old trail (from top down)

Pick the new trail, old trail and very old trail!

In places lower down we used debris from near the trail and stuff we had stored months ago, planning for this day

In some paces there were huge holes and falline erosions.  We filled them with timber, soil and some stone where appropriate for the trail

So it is closed.  Here's a photo of all the volunteers who helped today!

Now that Casuarina is closed and re-opened, next on the agenda is Three Hills and its falline river of fire road drainage damage.....

Finally, a pic of Ashley showing us how he used a wild boar head to carve drains into Three Hills Arnie style, getting things ready for today's work

It's OK; tomorrow I'll make him ride.  He'll, come around........