Yes it was a horse rider, the only rude local I've come across in over 10 years riding there, I know who she is and have advised local influencers. This horse rider claimed she built the trail first up many years ago, I advised she was the 10th person to tell me that so she must have been part of a team, which I know she was. She is quite vocal I am told but is one of the few horse riders that actually contribute, our problem is she doesn't like anything that gets in her horse's way. She had the audacity to challenge why we used pallets and did not purchase more suitable wood to carry the weight of a horse. WTF? SO that is what we are dealing with. She stated we put the horses into the boggy section and made it nice for mtbkrs, we actually considered the horses as could be seen by the room we left on the side and I did see her negotiate without issue.
It was our crew that put those bridges in, in pi55ing rain, we carried pallets in, cut them up with chainsaws, rerouted the water by cutting in channels and also put all the rocks in the entry point up the hill to stop erosion, that effort took almost 6 hours. Then the whipper snippering took me 8hrs to complete 3/4 of it and my mate did the final bit over another 3 hrs himself. We've also built much of the tracks and cleared pretty much most of what is out there since last Winter.
We are in the process of fixing those bridges which have been thrown in the long grass just next to that area. This horse rider also removed the rocks at entry point if you note only the ones on the flat remain.
Now our crew is one of 3 main different crews (I know of) that have been doing stuff out there for years and like many areas there are only a handful of us donating our time to keep the trails nice. Since last Winter alone I have done over 40 hrs of maintenance and building, my mates have done equally as much.
The area through Boomers too was cleaned by us and I could go on, but one thing is agreed we all love the area.
What makes it difficult in an area this large is people putting up maps in public in areas where anyone can get on. Whilst more mtbkrs is good it needs to be balanced by consideration for sustainability of an area. Just have a look at YY and Lysty, they have funding, dedicated groups to build and maintain trails and both are closed, also look at Yarra Trails, there was no change to them for some 20+ years, then people put maps up in 2008 and now they are stuffed as too few do maintenance. By all means hand out maps to your mates or pm but advertising online may hurt an area. That is just my 20 cents worth, in the end we all do what we want.
If any one here is serious about helping out pm me and I will inclued you in our next working session. We aim to build and maintain for sustainability following proper stds, but we don't publicise that we're doing work.
I just thought I'd let you know things haven't happened by magic out there.
Hope you like the 'marsben' trail we put in on the 2nd half of 2010, and if you think it is hard, it is supposed to be that way and is built to be ridden up not down. we've also mapped out 'parker's' loop off the top of that which should be done soon.
There is more fun to be made out there.
