Mowbray Park Farm - Wollondilly MTB Club track

crank1979

crank1979

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Wollondilly Trailblazers MTB Club is working with Mowbray Park Farm to develop a mtb track for use by the club and visitors. We've done a lot of exploring, had a few discussions involving riders and MPF staff, mapped out a number of options and started work on the most difficult section of the track, which is a creek crossing with a short descent leading into it and a steep climb coming out.

Rocks to be used for the creek crossing


The down side to the creek crossing. Still to be built up.


Looking up the pinch climb after crossing the creek. This needs a lot of work to the left of the picture to get from the creek level to the flatter section of the embankment.


The creek crossing.


Looking up the pinch climb from the flat section.


Looking down from the flat section to the creek crossing.


Looking down the pinch climb from the front edge of the fallen tree.


Looking down the pinch climb from the back edge of the fallen tree. It's a big one!


Looking down the pinch climb from the apex of the switchback.


The switchback


The top of the climb.


And the club facebook page... http://www.facebook.com/WollondillyTrailblazers
 
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crank1979

crank1979

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Work done today.

Looking up the climb from the creek crossing. The ramp on the left is still to be built.


Looking up the climb from the top of the ramp (not yet built).


Looking down the climb from the base of the fallen tree.


Looking down the climb from the base of the switchback.


Looking down the climb from the apex of the switchback. This has had the grade changed significantly making it an easier turn.


Looking down the switchback climbing turn. Still a bit of drainage work to go in. It's now a much nicer gradient and when bedded in will be a great corner.


Looking up the climb from the apex of the switchback. A fence access point will go in here.
 
crank1979

crank1979

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Almost finished the climb out of the first creek crossing.

Looking across the creek to the climb.


Looking up the climb from the top of the entrance.


Looking up the climb from the base of the entrance, after the creek crossing.


I promised myself I'd take a photo of the section before I started and then got straight into removing a downed tree. :(

Now I just have to do the crossing itself and the downside to the crossing, with a little bit of tidy up work and small drainage solutions to finalise.
 
crank1979

crank1979

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Trail Building Day - Sunday 14th April

We've got a trail building day this Sunday, the 14th of April.

Up to 10 volunteers would be excellent to help move some large rocks.

More info on the facebook event page
 
crank1979

crank1979

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dcrofty said:
Some of those rocks look tasty. Clapper Bridge!
Click to expand...
That's a great idea, and something I have been looking at, but I'm not sure we'll have the manpower or equipment available to do it. At least our rocks aren't 50 meters away! They only have to be moved no more than 10m and a bit of that is downhill.

The higher we can make the bridge, the less problems the donside to the bridge will cause as well.
 
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crank1979

crank1979

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A massive day today moving some big rocks. Big thanks to Mike, Geoff, Chris, Steve, Jake and Paul. We now have the foundations for the creek crossing!

Heck yeah we moved this rock!


Still a bit further to go.


Thinking...


This is where the second rock started!



Video!


I may have overestimated the efficiency of 7 guys playing with large poles. The winch came in handy as well!


Tipping the second rock into place.


Looking across to the climb from the downside after the two big rock have been put in place. The branches have been removed from the water and the rocks now provide solid foundations for the bridge.


Looking up the climb from the support rock.


Looking up the downside across the rock supports. The branches have been removed from the water and the rocks now provide solid foundations for the bridge.
 
crank1979

crank1979

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If anyone has a contact that could supply cheap (read: case of beer or free!) power poles and/or sleepers please send me a message.:wof:
 
crank1979

crank1979

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While waiting for some power poles to finish off the first crossing we worked on a few other bits today.

The second crossing. Looking down the creek trail. This is the proposed riding direction.


Looking back up the creek from the top of the roll down.


Looking up the trail after the rock roll down. Lot's of fun moving that rock into place. A heavy rain isn't washing it away!


I know the other guys took photos and a bit of video footage of the tree covered singletrack. I'm hoping they post it up because I keep forgetting to take proper before and after photos. :)
 
H

Halo1

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Another good day out on the farm:bananalama:

Here is the creek bit before we got started..
IMG_2173.jpg

I will upload the video walkthroughs of those track bits soon.
 
crank1979

crank1979

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Bearers almost in place for the bridge at the first crossing.



I also took the farm boss out for a spin around the proposed loop and got a brilliant reaction. Lots of "wow!"s and a few "I'll have to buy myself a bike" comments, among other positives.
 
crank1979

crank1979

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Many thanks to Steve and Terry for providing some much needed power poles as building supplies.



Concrete slabs for creek crossing. Not the big one we've been working on so far though.

 
crank1979

crank1979

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I had a few jobs planned for todays building session, but the most important one was to modify the planned route in a few areas. After taking the land owner for a ride around he had a few areas of concern. So the best way to fix this was to spend the morning riding different lines! I also wanted a video log of the proposed route so the last hour was spent riding a full lap with the camera.

A small sample of the trail will come up soon.
 
crank1979

crank1979

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A small section of track.

[video=youtube;TpWeXrfjSO4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpWeXrfjSO4[/video]
 
crank1979

crank1979

Likes Bikes and Dirt
The climb at the end of a lap. It's been sped up because it's slow riding uphill in long grass. It'll all be cut in properly when finished.

[video=youtube;hb55sKsxZTQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb55sKsxZTQ&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
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