Oaks Construction has begun

Today BMORC reps met with National Parks to gain a better understanding of the plans and to provide some feedback.

Parks have decided to build the track in house with the assistance of a trail building contractor. Parks reps stated that they were uncertain if they were allowed to disclose the contractors so I will leave that out. Shouldn't be to hard to work out

We raised the biggest concern the Mountain Biking Community had across the board. Was the trail going to be dumbed down? The answer was a yes and no. They are working to the IMBA Guidelines with the aim of a Blue graded trail. The rule of thumb they are working to was to keep it as technical as possible within the guidelines. It is in my personal opinion and others I have heard from that the track is in good hands and has a very good chance it will be far better than before.

Currently if someone does a sneaky into the area they will get a large shock and make the wrongful assumption they have built a fire-trail as that is what it currently looks like. So to eliminate any potential rumours in case they arise. They are currently in the process of raising the ground level to bring the cross fall back. A lot of this area will be rehabilitated back into native bush.

The sad news up front is the Log drops are already gone. Majority of the last 2km will be re-routed and the actual location of the once log drops will now be rehabilitated into natural bush.

There where markings on the ground with plans to make a winding flowing section along one of the existing parts. I was starting to get excited visualising the track to come. They also talked about using large rocks in a lower section to fill the eroded gaps and rock armour the area to allow a technical descent.

It was also brought up the issues of Single direction traffic vs Bi-directional and walkers. Under the Plan of Management it is a shared use track and will most likely stay this way. They do intend to sign post it as a Mountain bike track to discourage walkers but walkers are allowed on the track as per normal. It was also discussed the trail be sign posted to warn users of the potential risks of oncoming traffic. (It is recommended by the mountain bike community that any user wishing to ride the Single track up do so in off peak times)

BMORC and Parks have organised a volunteer maintenance day for Saturday April 12th, more information on that can be found here

Parks and the Contractor are working as hard as possible to get this built. Their current funding deadline for the project was brought forward to the 1st of May. If they can get the first 2km completed early, there is no plans to stop. They plan to continue working on the next 4km.

They are also in high hope of gaining further funding so they can keep going. To help achieve this they need a wow factor for the work they are currently doing and a good response from their stakeholders. I.E. US, the mountain bikers!!! So if you think they are only fixing an eroded track you are wrong. They are out to impress their governing bodies and us. A good well loved track helps gain funding and funding helps provide more track!
Information on how you can show appreciation and/or provided any feedback will be available soon.