MTB Trailcare

This weekend we got back to clearing line for the new trail.  If QPWS are able to provide a mechanical excavator it will need a clear trail line to follow, so we have been concentrating on this task.  Where we started this weekend is relatively uncomplicated contour trail, but the 150m below the intersection with current Three Hills is tricky and that is where we were headed.  

Here we climb more sharply, cross a seasonal stream line, rise onto a rocky knoll, then drop towards the main creek before climbing an omega shaped climbing berm.  Above the switchback was a fallen tree trunk hung up on an old casuarina.  It had to come down and that was a complicated task, but it was done successfully.  On the line of the swithchback was another dead trunk that we also felled.  The root system is alive and it had started to grow new suckers.  We will encourage the tree to regrow alongside the lower, rock-wall part of the turn.  But not in the turn.

In the following pics think of looking down and then up the trail line from the same place, starting at the lower end where we left off last week

In the next pic there is a very blackened tree in the middle.  Just to the right of it is the thin, dead, black trunk that has fallen and is hung up, as described above.  In later pics it is on the ground where it was dropped.  Along with other large timber sections, it will help prevent shortcutting across the tight turn

Riding down should be a stony affair immediately below the switchback and that means riding up will also be a stony challenge, as it should be on blue trail

Riding up it will be nice to see the creek at the base of hill one come into view.  Riding down on the planned rock-wall turn, the creek will be right in your face (on the left) and add a psychological challenge to the tight turn.  You can see where we had to remove some dead standing timber in these pics, but it is all cleared now.  Those pics were taken too late and too dark to be added

Next weekend we hope to have the line cleared to the Three Hills intersection, leaving just the connection to Exit Trail before we start building in detail.