MTB Trailcare

We went back out to Three Hills today to work on the lower end of the new trail.  Again our purpose was to refine the drains and trail lines subtley and add as much of the excavations as possible to the growing mound through our feature trees.  Here's how things went

Small changes in trail depth can become effective seepage drains.  That means subtle drains that offer a place for moisture in the tread to seep to after surface water stops running.  They have to be wide and long.  Most of the lower, exit sections of these drains require only the original surface to be skimmed-off.  After time, if water is not regularly running over them, the roots of grasses shaved off will grow back leaving an effective path for small and large amounts of water to shed from the trail, as required

It was a dusty day digging and we had to add some final tamping on dark

There is an important reason for the obvious time gap between the pics above.  Our session today included a meeting with Michael, GCMTB liaison and Howard Taylor, Senior Ranger for Gold Coast City Council (GCCC).  Howard is also our Nerang representative for the Qld Outdoor Recreation Federation (QORF), helping develop a Qld-wide MTB trails strategy

Without getting into details, things are about to change in Nerang.  Money, lots of it is available for a trail system that wiill be built by professional builders, starting soon.  Behind our scenes, the big players have been working on millions of dollars of investment into Nerang as an international MTB destination.  

There seem to be a few issues.  First is we all need to be on the same page.  That isn't simple with State Government, QPWS, GCCC, Commonwealth Games, QORF and us minnows all in the fish bowl.  Then there are the illegal trail building jerks who, despite knowing they are doing the wrong thing continue trying to ruin all our chances for involvement in the future trail system.  

However, the tide has turned from what we heard today.  Within months there will be professional MTB trail building in Nerang.  It will not be a quick hit, but a project our government believes is worth backing internationally into the future.  That means maintenance of trails will be part of the budget.  We will become helpers rather than it, when IT all starts.  It all sounds really tasty.