Bump for tomorrow (Wednesday)

I'll be heading over and working there between 5 and 8 pm. Current forecast for 6pm is 20 degrees and sunny with light NE wind. I'll be continuing to build the track just below the OCC so literally within 30 seconds walk from where we are parking.

Any queries, call me on 0274 571 074, or you can catch me at work on 325 9537 up till 2:45pm.

Directions: Once you are in Allendale (3km past Governors Bay), follow the signs up Bamfords Rd to Living Springs (2km), then around to the left to the Outdoor Camping Centre (a further 1km). Park where our R&R Sport stickered Caldina is, jump the stile and I'll be just below there.

Next planned sessions after this are:

Saturday 7 March (morning)
Sunday 8 March (afternoon)
Wednesday 11 March (evening)

Love to see you there

Anyone else keen to come over this evening?

Sorry Craig - have a work committment 5-7pm this evening. A shame, as last time I worked over there there in the evening I really enjoyed the display of playful flying put on by the resident kereru in the gully that Zanes runs down. I'm certainly planning to be over one day this weekend.

No worries PK. See you at the weekend

Well, Rex and I had a very productive few hours there this evening and knocked out another 30m of trail. Forgot the camera so no pictures sorry. We're just getting into the rocky section with another 100-120m or so to go to reach our MTB cattlestop at the OCC.

We're heading over both days this weekend so if you are keen let us know (xc@paradise.net.nz or 322 7886) and we'll send you a map and let you know if the plan changes because of weather or whatever

Good weather planned for the weekend so hopefully will get in a couple of good days trailbuilding

Tomorrow (Saturday) we will be there from around 9.30 am to 1.30 pm and on Sunday from 11.30 am to 3.30 pm.

We will be parking in the OCC (directions in one of my previous posts) and continuing working on the track just below there, just a few metres from the cars. If sufficient people turn up a few of us can go and knock off a couple of jobs in the forest (Zanes and Pines).

The trails should be dry by now so feel free to bring your bikes and do some riding too.

Hopefully we'll see you there

Another good day in the office. A bit more challenging with very rocky ground and hot conditions but with a good team we managed to get 30m of trail benched. Considering the rockiness I am really pleased with this. Tomorrow we will continue linking today's effort with what we did on Wednesday evening - about 50m of less rocky and less steep ground. We also have some jobs in the forest that I'd really like done tomorrow.

So again, if you are keen let us know, or head straight to the Outdoor Camping Centre and meet us there (we'll be there between 11:30am and about 3:30 pm). Head across the MTB cattlestop and we'll be along the track just a few metres.

Next time after this is Wednesday (11th) evening, pretty much the last opportunity we can dig before the three big events. We are aiming to mark out the course for the events next Saturday. If it doesn't take long then perhaps we can do some more digging then.

April we put our feet up.

Another shot from the same spot. A few hours later.

Lots of people out riding today. The Canterbury Mountainbike Club paid the track a visit and then several of them came to lend a hand building for a while. In total we had 14 different helpers and we LINKED UP THE TWO ENDS OF THE TRACK!!!

There were several other people over there getting a bit of pre-race practice in too. One guy did 10 laps

If you want to do some practice laps too, you can access the course from 900m up Bamfords Rd. Park under the macrocarpa trees and cross the road to the white gate. As always, ride at your own risk. Zane's takes a while to dry out after rain so bear that in mind if heading over.

Here's another shot of the rock carrying net in action

Because of the weather forecast for later tonight and tomorrow I went over and spent a few hours there tonight and managed to get thru a few of the fix-ups I wanted done before the events. In a very short space of time the heavy rain turned Zanes from a dustbowl to a hydroslide which makes working interesting. Therefore, tomorrow's (Wednesday) session is CANCELLED.

I will aim to mark out the course and do a few more fix-ups etc on Saturday but otherwise am not expecting to be able to do any more track work before the events

For those who are getting in some riding there before the races please note that Zanes takes a while to dry out and is very slippery when wet. After tonight's rain I would guess it would be at least Thursday or Friday before I'd be riding it again if you want to stay on your bike.

We've been getting several riders each day doing laps, which has really helped bed in the recently built stuff and also shown me (from looking at the ride lines) where bits need tweaking

Well, it's been a while since we posted in this thread so I thought I'd give an update. Jordan and I spent a few hours there today continuing the ongoing recent efforts of improving the drainage on Zanes to make it more rideable during wetter times. With only two of us, we didn't get the bottom section finished as I'd hoped so will have to get back onto that job next visit.

We have great plans for another big loop on the upper forested slopes at Living Springs to link in with both the Summit Rd and our existing lower loop. This however can't start until we have some drainage and bridge issues sorted on the lower loop. Depending on the number of people turning up to the next few sessions, we should hopefully get onto starting the top loop this spring and early summer. As some background to that future work, back in June we had a planning meeting with some of our trailbuilding crew and Living Springs and decided to go ahead and develop the proposed singletrack loop on the forested upper slopes of Living Springs. Depending on the number of helpers, it still may take 3-4 years to get the whole loop completed. This would add several km of singletrack to what we already have there and would not only create a brilliant race course, but also some of the most fun local trails Christchurch riders will have to play on and will include what will be by far the longest singletrack descent on the Port Hills, most of which will be in native forest!

XCwife spent today doing a bit of digging and a lot of playing with her new Canon toy. So below are some results of that.

Man, I'm weary now! But in a good way. A combination of a big ride yesterday and a long day trailbuilding today. Today we had a really productive day with 7 hard working blokes who removed stumps, cut up and removed some felled trees, dug long toe drains, installed box drains, built boardwalk (boardride?), installed bridge rails, lowered an existing bridge, did some armouring, and started to install a map/noticeboard at the Bamford's Rd trail entrance.
Thanks to all those fellas, you're fantastic!

I didn't take many photos today but below is Graham working on the particularly wet area that we drained and boardwalked today.

We got some great feedback today from all the people riding around of how all the new improvements are riding and a heads up of other bits and pieces that are requiring attention. Hopefully we'll get onto the fallen/leaning trees and drooping vines etc soon. We hope to also finish installing the map/noticeboard soon and have a large map up, along with other information.

A reminder that these trails are open to ride anytime and have been entirely built and maintained by volunteers... riders just like you who put their hands up and say "yep, I'd like to put something back into the trails". If you want to be added to this valuable crew of fine individuals then email us at xc@paradise.net.nz and we'll keep you posted with when we're heading over.

For those wanting to know the condition of the trails at present, the lower loop is pretty dry the whole way round. There are just a couple of minor wet bits down Zanes but nothing to worry about. The track coming down from the Summit Rd is however really wet and chewed up at the moment so best to avoid that until we are more into summer. All the new drainage work on Zanes means that it is pretty much rideable within a couple of days of rain now. So enjoy!

And here is a picture of the boardwalk section we installed a few weeks back on a really wet area. You can see the wet soil above, under and below the boardwalk and yet the track either side of the boardwalk is hardpacked dry soil now Before we installed this boardwalk and toe drains this section was almost unrideable it was so muddy.

Last weekend Greg, Graham and myself headed over and installed the map/notice board at the Bamford's Rd entrance, then walked around the lower loop clearing all the overhanging vegetation and making note of any other areas that need a little loving before next winter.

It's great to see so many riders using the trails

It's really dry over there and even after rain it should dry out much quicker now with all the drainage work done over the last few months.

And the team have now put in over 1800 volunteer hours!

With riding conditions getting better and better as each week passes why not head on over the hill and check out the forest trails of Living Springs.

For those keen on helping out, our next main session is Saturday 17 October. Another couple of sessions tweaking the lower loop and we should be able to make a start on the 6km upper loop that'll link this in with the Summit Rd. Much of this top loop will be within the regenerating Bush Block on the large area of land up from the main camp complex. There is already some pretty amazing forest up there, but with it being destocked soon the forest is likely to just keep getting better and better over the coming years.