Jack 'n Jill continues

Jack 'n Jill continues

Nymboida local Clayton has been helping out on the trails lately.  Clayton and his brother Sebastian both enjoy riding them so why not help us build new stuff ? Few hands making lighter work 'n all.  Clayton has been out several times, Sebastian the once so far.  Clayton especially is coming along and getting stuck in, so a great big thank you to him.

Phase I

Clayton hard at it

As always, the trail construction stalwart Toni is supervising, making sure the final finish isn't compromised. Her eye for detail makes the trail look professional and reflects in a smoother ride.  I tend to leave the finish a little "rough"

As always, pictures speak louder than words

Sebastian taking a break under Toni's watchful eye

Tree log crossing coming along

Plenty of obstacles on this trial, it's a little harder, with jumps, berms to "rail", logs to cross, tree stumps to ride over and plenty of other great obstacles, combined with some stepper trail, it makes it a fast, thrilling descent.

Berm is finsihed

More trail features prior to construction

and finished

Phase II

The photo's above are all of Phase I.  This can easily be accessed from Glenn's Ck Rd and will be open quite soon.  Phase II has had the corridor cleared but has not yet been roughed out prior to construction starting. Lots of back breaking pick work to come as the side slope is quite steep.

Top of phase II, side slope is 28% !

The noise !

Ear Plugs ?

Currently we have an influx of Cicadas.  The noise !  Apparently they are very bad once every 5 years or so, this year seems to be it.  They were bad back in 2009, five summers ago, so that seems about right. Definitely above 90dB !  Out in the bush the noise is so loud, ear plugs are needed

Cicada Skeleton

more trail !

More trail....... those are the two words every ardent mountain bikers likes to hear.

Jack 'n Jill !

We have started building the new trail, tentatively named "Jack 'n Jill", as Phase II (we are currently working on Phase I) requires you to go up the hill, albeit no pail of water at the top... who puts a well at the top of a hill anyway ?  The name also fits in with the nursery rhyme theme for the trails on the southside of the property.

(L)Toni - (R) Clayton

Clayton Young made a brief appearance to learn the skilled art of "finishing" the trail, taught by the zen trail finishing master, Toni,.  He seemed amazed at the amount of work that was put into a trail, always wanting to take the "easier" path or just "scratch 'n ride"... au contraire, the trails should be there for a long time and will be ridden often so the last thing you want to do is make them "ordinary".

The trail progresses

Phase I, II and III

Jack 'n Jill Phase I has been roughed out 98% (one corner to go), the build is well under way and finishes with an access to Glenns Ck Rd.  The trail corridor for Phase II has been selected. This part of the trail  involves a long climb on a hand built, rolling contour trail ie LOTS of benching and terminates at a temporary connection to Red Riding Hood.  Phase III has yet to be decided !

Toe Bone - Maintenance

One of the sins I committed when first building was to build a structure that relied on the fasteners for it's strength.  This is verboten under IMBA trail building rules to which we are trying to stick to, the years also showed why.  The decking started to come off.  So out we went to redo it properly.  We felled timber for the decking by using coppicing of local timber right beside the structure, we debarked then left them for several weeks to "cure".

New stringers curing and decking being detached

To fix the problem we had to pull up all the decking, lay stringers beside the current ones, using an Adze to smooth out the difference in the stringers and then reattach the decking.

New stringers atatched, Adze work done

Competed structure, done just before the Social Trail Ride.

Structure now looks great ! The "Log Bridge Ride of D'eath" indeed !

Social Ride

Not as many showed up as rides past, presumably the storms in the area scared many away with Grafton and Coffs being hit hard by hail and rain.  We only had 12mm and a little rain.  The tracks were as good as we have ever seen them, the 100mm over the last 10 days or so has soaked into the once dry ground and left the tracks damp and wonderful to ride.

The riders that did turn up had an awesome ride.  Best of all we had several children turn up and they enjoyed themselves immensely.

Here's young Ryan Gilchrist catching some air coming downhill.

Ryan, with Geoff (Dad) in hot pursuit

Enjoying the sweet trails

Saul being followed by Geoff 

Bregje enjoying the trails

Nymboida local, Clayton having fun

Social Ride (17 Nov) is still on

We're good to go ! 

We only received 10mm of rain, we groomed the rest of the track this morning and it is in great condition, so it should be fine unless we get a huge downpour tonite but the weather radar seems clear

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR283.loop.shtml

Social Ride ! November

Social ride is on again !

The wonderfully awesome Nymboida social MTB ride is on again.  Put the 16th June in your calendar for a great ride.  

Where: 41 Martin Rd, Nymboida

When: Sunday 16 June, 9:30am (weather permitting !)

Check back on this site for updates in regards the weather

You can get a great breakfast at Jax Cafe in Nymboida on Sunday before heading out to the ride

Previous Rides

In the past we have had rides that where a great success, with at least  30 to 40 riders attending. lets hope we get a greater number this year.

Photo's from the 2010 ride

Photo's from the 2011 ride

Make a weekend of it ?

If anyone wants to come out Saturday afternoon and stay Saturday night at Nymboida, we really can recommend the Canoe Center for camping or cabin accommodation, annm awesome spot.  If you are wanting slightly nicer accommodation, the Bullimah Country Retreat is a wonderful place to stay

You can get a great breakfast at Jax Cafe in Nymboida on Sunday before heading out to the ride.

update

Time for an update... not much has been happening on the trails, we've done a bit of maintenance, not that much was needed as mostly we use the IMBA Sustainable Trails deign philosophy, as while I like building, trail, maintenance is not that much fun.  Build it properly the first time and maintenance is kept to a minimum.

We have been putting most of our effort into clearing lantana.  We have put in a huge effort this year, as we've had a wet (easy to pull out of the ground), cool (makes it a little more pleasant to do the hard work) winter.  While there is not much impact on the trail itself, aside from keeping the lantana from encroaching on the trail corridor, it makes the ride nicer as you can see the forest where it is the lantana was dense. We think we've put in a great effort, plenty more to go of course !

New Track (name to be decided by Toni)

I have spent some time scouting out the new trail to be added to the southern section.  Finally have it marked.

trail head for new trail

You can see from the photo above why we need to spend some time clearing lantana :)

Trail corridor cleared and marked

Red Riding Hood

Following the "nursery rhyme" trail naming theme for the southern trail network,  we have taken the plunge and called Steve's track that he had unofficially named Grass Tree Ride to Red Riding Hood.  Two reasons

1. Fit in with the Nursery Rhyme naming convention
2. that name specifically because of two gnarly structures; the "big bad wolf" ie huge see-saw that will bite your arse if  you don;t pay attention and "grandma's house", some "north shore" way up in the trees :)

In order to fit into the hub and spoke model of trail building we also need to extend it slightly to meet up at the Dam Spillway Trail Hub.  If we don't we fall into the newbie trail building trap of the trails looking like a bunch of spaghetti has been thrown on the ground.  There will be four tracks meeting at the Hub point.  Goldilocks, Red Riding Hood (after the extension) , the bit to Glenns Ck Rd and the new as yet unnamed climbing trail. 

Trail Hub at Dam Spillway. looking down Goldilocks

Social Ride update - canceled

Ride is cancelled

As everyone in the local area will know we had plenty if rain on Wednesday night.  I was initially quite hopeful the trails would have dried out by now but unfortunately after an inspection late this morning they are still too wet unfortunately.

We hope to reschedule at a future date.

Social ride is on again !

Social ride is on again !

The wonderfully awesome Nymboida social MTB ride is on again.  Put the 16th June in your calendar for a great ride.  

Ride Flyer

Where: 41 Martin Rd, Nymboida

When: Sunday 16 June, 9:30am (weather permitting !)

Check back on this site for updates in regards the weather

You can get a great breakfast at Jax Cafe in Nymboida on Sunday before heading out to the ride

Previous Rides

In the past we have had rides that where a great success, with at least  30 to 40 riders attending. lets hope we get a greater number this year.

Photo's from the 2010 ride

Photo's from the 2011 ride

Make a weekend of it ?

If anyone wants to come out Saturday afternoon and stay Saturday night at Nymboida, we really can recommend the Canoe Center for camping or cabin accommodation, annm awesome spot.  If you are wanting slightly nicer accommodation, the Bullimah Country Retreat is a wonderful place to stay

You can get a great breakfast at Jax Cafe in Nymboida on Sunday before heading out to the ride.

The trails torrid times...

We had an incredible amount of rain across January, February and March and while the tracks have mostly survived, there has been some damage

Bridge washed away in the floods

A friend (Phil) was visiting not long after, so he lent his brute strength to disassembling the bridge and dragging it the 50m back up the creek to put it back in place

Disassembled, dragged up the creek and put back in place

That just meant we needed to put it back together

Coming together

Decking re-attached

and then re-build the approaches

Approaches done !

The bridge was the biggest project but a few of the other trail features were damaged, some of which have been repaired, some not...

and lantana out the wazoo, all that rain and Sun has given not just the garden a growth spurt and we have started with a serious clearing program but it's hard going and very tiring.  Another week if we keep at it.

Toni beside one of the many piles of cleared lantana

The trails all need a rake over, fallen trees need chainsawing and clearing and there is more lantana that has encroached on the trail corridor that needs pulling.  Another week of dry weather and we may be able to ride them again. they are still soggy in places !!!

Skills Park

Skills Park

Well, Steve has done a great job on starting the skills park.  Currently there is currently a circuit allowing you  to circle round, practicing lots of different MTB skills that can be used later on the trails.

Overview - burning pile of branches in the middle for marshmallows on a cold night !

Up and over the the chimmneys,

you can see why it;s called that when you look from the side !

Ladder bridge

then across the ladder bridge, with a tricky little right hand turn and drop off for the truly skilled !

Ladder bridge

Then a right turn and over the log ride

Log ride

The log is shaped with an adze, the shingles we hand cut before I left for Cambodia from another log.

From there you can go straight ahead on to "Goldilocks" and ride the southern trail loop or turn right and do the rock garden

You then loop back around  and back to the start at "The Chimneys"

We have bigger plans to eventually expand the area