MTB Trailcare

With a deadline in place that will stretch our building abilities to the limit, Ash and I went out today to sort out two issues we see as key to the final outcome.

First is Way Point 57 near the bottom of Casuarina.  Having been given the OK by QPWS  to re-route this dangerous bend, we wanted to flag out the approximate new trail line for QPWS inspection.  There are 2 issues at WP 57; poor drainage/erosion and collision danger.  For downhill riders, this bend starts slow and gets faster progressively.  At about the time you realise you are fully commited, the line of sight disappears and the surface turns to loose blue metal.  Lovely.  In addition, water flows along the trail adding height to the bermed outer slope (sorry I guess; I made that berm out of the erosion channel), into the drainage system we made en-masse one GCMTB club trailcare day.  

The goals here are to avoid falline trail, improve the sight lines and encouage a riding speed that is enjoyable, but without breaking ruts and head-on risks.  Here are a few pics starting at the bottom and moving uphill.  First the way it was (actually we had already cleared some lantana and cat claw vines before I took the first pic) and how the lower entrance to the re-route will look

The line after the lower entrance is uphill to the right between the larger trees

Looking back or exiting the section going down looks like this after basic clearing

To avoid possible flood damage we will route the trail above these trees and start a more gentle climb following the contours leading toward the tributaries that feed the main creek

This pile of lantana became too tall to add to (over head height) and expanded along the creek.  It would be nice to totally remove the debris, but Nerang will reclaim the remaining eyesore pretty fast over the Summer to come.  There is still lanatana work to be done higher up, but we removed as much as we could and should stop scratching some week soon

The trail will turn to the right across the falline past this large (?) Grey or Bancroft Gum

and then fairly tightly to the left around this (?) Tallowood (which is quite close to the old trail) before angling back to the large fallen tree in the background.  That fallen tree is approximately the upper limit of the new trail before it joins the original line

Looking from the current trail you can see the roots of the fallen tree ahead.  The trail will be just downhill of it

and will re-enter the original trail here if you are riding uphill

It should be an interesting new alternative to the old corner, safer and has double the turns = double the fun.  Building outcome to follow in a future trail news....

Having flagged WP 57, we moved up hill to the section of Pete's not yet completed.  To finish this bit of trail, a fairly large, dead tree trunk had to be removed from the line of the trail.  Many times we have talked about leaving it and building on.  Many times we have worried we may not see the best trail line while it stands.  Today, to see if we were correct to wait, plus to take a job away from the time-stressed rangers, we felled that tree at ground level using hand saws.  It made a big noise

Now the tree is gone, the line is visible and it is not where we thought it would , but lower.  Neither are the planned rollers/jumps going to be where we thought they would be

The tree fell exactly where we planned.  No trees were harmed in the filming of this felling.  The next pic shows the lower half of the trunk.  The rest is way down there and over the roller in the distance.  It made a big noise - oh, I said that already

Time to go home