Well it is one year now since the fatefull council meeting in Katoomba when the Business Paper presented the plan to formalise a part of the trails at OBR and close the trail at Nichol's Pde. It seemed a reasonably good compromise at the time but the plan was resolutely squashed. There were only 8 riders there that night and we were trounced. We were disorganised and completely unaware of the opposition and disinformation that was going around.

It became obvious that some kind of advocacy group was required to present a unified voice for riders, and after discussing it on the street that night the plan was to create one. Hence about a week latter at the Lapstone Hotel the BMORC was started.

So in a year a lot has been done, but we are still waiting on some hard trail results. A lot of good work has been done forming understanding and relationships with some of the councillors and with the BMCC staff. We have also worked with the community to try and improve the image of mountain bikers and what the general mindset is of a rider with respect to the environment and society. We have greater communication and understanding with conservationist groups I think in both directions. Also I think we have a better riding community now in the mountains that was lacking before.

Well on the 26th February BMORC held a free community BBQ at Knapsack reserve to engage with local residents, schools, families, riders and basically anyone who Kingy could attract and get to talk to. We supplied maps, helped show people around and basically answered questions anyone had about what our concept is.

We had contacted local schools, done a letter box drop of the neighboring residents and posted flyers up on boards. Kingy turned up with a massive pile of sausages where I thought he had over-catered like a madman yet again, but after the many hours we were there they were gone. So by the sausage counter we managed to speak to a large number of people and received some interesting feedback.

Story in the Blue Mountains Gazette about the local Muni riders, as often witnessed down at Knapsack... good going guys!

As if hauling a regular mountain bike along bush trails was not challenging enough, two Blaxland men decided to ditch a wheel when they tackled a 12-hour endurance race recently.

Charles Hardimon and Robert O’Brien received more than their fair share of sideways looks from fellow competitors when they took on the Jet Black Cycling race at Wisemans Ferry on the their unicycles.
Despite the oppressive heatwave conditions, coupled with the obvious challenge of staying upright on the unpredictable terrain, the duo managed to complete a combined distance of over 100km during the two six-hour blocks of racing.

“The hardest part was probably dealing with the heat, as it was for most of the riders, starting out at 40 degrees and trying to slog it up a two kilometre hill,” said Charles. “It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Charles said it had taken endless patience to master the unusual craft in the five years since he traded in two wheels for one.

I picked up on this article while browsing the web for information on Platypus, after reading the article below I was thrilled to find out about a population of platypus in the Sun Valley area.
I thought this would be a great opportunity to assist Tara with her campaign to address the release of sewage into Fitzgerald's creek.
Can everyone pen a short letter or email and send it on to the Sydney Water

Postal address
Sydney Water
PO Box 399
Parramatta NSW 2124 or
email through this portal

http://sydneywater.custhelp.com/app/ask

Thanks for your support

Regards Kingy