MTB Trailcare

We spent the Easter weekend completing the link from lower Pete's to original Pete's.  There are some really soft sections that need a week or more of settling to cope with riders, but after that, Pete's is going to be the best fun way back to your car from the upper trails.

We got a lot of flak for closing lower Pete's for so long.  It still needs work to help it survive future Gold Coast weather events and we are committed to that work.  

Hopefully our addition to "lower" Pete's will compensate for that trail closure....

Here's what happened to bring Pete's closer to completion, with before and after pics, starting at the top and heading down

Before up top

After

The original Pete's line looks better than the new line after we added water bars and top-dressed the old trail line to give plants a better chance of re-vegetating and reclaiming the line.  The old trail line may look good in the following pics, but looks don't change the fact it is a falline and unsustainable section of trail

Over the fire road from the last pics is the alternative trail:  not many pics here as they have been posted before I think.  You will have to try it yourself (if you haven't already - not happy with poachers, Jan).  Word of advice from the builders for when you do try it - get stuck in.  This trail wants you to try to outdo it in the fun stakes......

We had far more work to do down near the merge to "lower lower Pete's".  That section was a real challenge due to deep, black soil and almost no stones - a drainage and sustainability nightmare.  We harvested heaps of soil by making fairly deep rolling grade dips.  Making deep rolling grade dip drains is very difficult on gentle grades unless you can build industraial depth drains to get water away without sideslope to help.  At the bottom of the new "upper lower Pete's" we stored dirt in a pile and will use it to assist revegetation on the old Pete's after it is closed

How the weekend started at the bottom

What looks like a gentle and fun, but boring line would not survive the onslaught of riders and had to be contoured

Where this section of trail joins "lower lower Pete's" we had to protect a number of exposed roots and more that may be exposed over time.  Rock rollers were manufactured around the roots.  These would be the foundation for a rollable double jump

The rollers through the trees at the bottom should be a great fun double for better riders

We were happy with the how the last bit of trail at the bottom turned out.  These pics do not show all of the work done down low.  Lots of stone was embedded into soft trail.  You can see some in the the next pic.  

We managed to harvest and store more stone for future works and repairs

We keep slamming stones into vulnerable bits of trail until it becomes solid and remains solid over time.  However, immediately after each tamping, the tread is like some jelly life-form.  You press your foot down in one place and it moves like The Blob in another..

Maybe that's why the spirits of our broken trail tools arose to protect this trail

Think twice before you poach this trail.......   Or you meet the trail guardians

Do you dare to wait

to have fun?

Just in case you think you can take the trail guardians on; they are already evolving

Happy Easter from mtbtrailcare.com