(These are scott's words..)

Hi folks,

I know it is short notice but If anyone is available this Saturday afternoon to do a little bit of track work out at the new site it would be appreciated. 1 pm Saturday.

Unfortunately last weekends dig was rained/snowed out. Apologies to anyone who turned up. 

So whats happened I hear you ask? well so far we have marked out the entire Northern paddock of the sanctuary site just under 4km to be precise. We have also had a contractor in to rough the track in and place soil in areas where we will have berms and jumps etc. A big shout out to Josh and crew at Iconic landscapes who have been doing the machine work. 

We will gradually move through the next two paddocks marking and getting the rough in completed. What we need now is to get as many hands as possible on rakes and  shovels to smooth the track and sculpt the features berms, table tops etc - the real fun fun part!

Over the next couple of months we will try and have as many days out there as possible to get the track completed. 

I know that Saturday sports are starting up now and people are pushed for time (myself included) but the committee and I would like to start this weekend. So if you are available Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours come out to the site with tools in hand. Bring your bikes as well you can pretty much ride the whole 4kms. It would be good to see how it flows to fine tune berms etc. Besides riding the track is the best way to bed it in.  

I will be out there from 1pm (even if it is raining). 

Things to bring:
tools - rake, fire rake/mcCloud tools, shovels wheel barrows, mattocks, pruners.

WH&S
Broad brimmed hat, long sleeves and legs. Closed in shoes.  Gloves are handy as well. Water bottle (snack)

Please don't assume that there are stacks of people already involved so your help is not required! So far there are a small number of people doing a lot of heavy lifting with this project, so if you can lend a hand it would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all,

My ridding buddy has escaped to Melbourne. I am looking for riding buddy(s) to take on Anderson and the Oaks on a morning ride. Having ridden Ando and Oaks on my own, I realise that it’s not much fun and 4 hours is a long time to be riding on your own!

I have average fitness, (Ando still has me doing some walking take a quick break at the gate of the Oaks to fill up water and off I go again. If you’re up for a social ride and want some company please let me know!

I realise that the Oaks is still under construction but I am happy taking the detour!

Fixing up some of the old trail down towards the moto stuff for use in the fiddy Kay

We need whipper snippers shovels and rakes but mostly man power.

If you can't make it Saturday but have time through the week or on Sunday what to do is

1)Trim grass in the new sections and get the trail back down to dirt.

2) Pack in and bench a few bits of the new sections and get the start of Kempy's come back down the to the fire rd.

3) Rake sand out of the little berms through the Esberg Section

4 General Track rake and branch trip.

We ran this back in October 2013 on the same course and are keen to do it again.

We think a 'Mini Gravity Enduro' is an apt description.

The general idea:
- all trails are XC trails (DH bike not required but possible with hard work, a XC hard tail would also be fine)
- there will be un-timed mainly uphill sections and timed mainly downhill sections
- the timed sections will include some uphill, but not much
- there will be about 4 timed sections that will be maximum of 1-3km each

The idea is you can ride the un-timed sections with your mates and brag about how good your run just was. Don't be afraid if you are a more XC oriented rider, this format is just about good fun.

Start Time: Sign on from 9:30am, we start up the hill at 10am.
Cost: $10 (+ $20 day license for non-MTBA members)
Categories: - Mens/Womens/Juniors. There'll be a separate hard tail category.
- Also there's a B category that will only do stages 1 and 2 (same as juniors). This would be suitable for those that are newer to MTBing or don't want to climb the big hill.
Starting: Standing start, self seeding, with 30s gaps between riders.
Overtaking: If you are caught by a rider get out of the way as soon as safely possible.
Timing: this will be different to other events because of the spread out timing points required. It's based on synced watches/clocks at the start/finish. The raw start/finish times will be put onto a card that you carry then collated at the end. Depending on the number of helpers we get you may be timing yourselves or each other.

For those that know the forest and track names:
Stage 1: North Shore - the last downhill we use for many races (~1km, 65m elevation drop)
Stage 2: Highest point in goat track, down the steeper section then across the dire road down Owen's Rest and to the car park (1.4km (~80m elevation drop), my time is about 3:20mins)
Stage 3: Head South East from the highest point in forest down to start of John Doe, Down John Doe (there's an uphill pinch here) then down the old 'race track' to the dam (~3km, ~160m elevation drop)
Stage 4: North Shore again, same as stage 1.

Un-timed link sections: To make life easier for marking out we will do the un-timed uphill transport stages as a group. This will make the event take a little longer but will make for a more social time, be more welcoming for beginners and make it safer with everyone together, especially for juniors and beginners.