Rotorua local Mark Upshall has been forced to reduce his hours at work with this whole economy downturn, credit crunch and so has free'd up some time for trail work, he's gathered a bit of a crew of guys and they are out there doing some trail work in Whakarewarewa forest, Rotorua. so if you've been out there riding and see something that needs fixing up, trails overgrown, etc, this thread is the place to post that up. Mark will post up once a week or so with some pics and what's been done. Obviously there's quite a bit of time involved here, so if you'd like to a make donation towards the crew's time it would be much appreciated, just give Mark a call and he'll give the bank account details.

Mark's number is 021 258 2173

So far the crew has worked on: Corners Track, some bigger berms and tweaked sections on the lowest section to make the trail flow a bit better
G-Rock - cleared overgrowth and built up berms, marked out a new section as an optional bypass for the ugly RH corner with the big braking ruts
Eastern Spice - scrub-cut and raked off all the overgrowth in preparation for the Triple Crown
Hot-X-Bun - using a petrol powered hedge trimmer Tony Holden (RMTBC Vice President), Grant Kilby (RMTBC President) & I trimmed back the overgrowth

So if you've got some ideas on trail maintenance required, fire away.

Last section of Rollercoaster. Word is the roadies have been snagging their arm warmers on the gorse.

If you head up Hill Road, there's a link into the Rollercoaster just at the end of the first flat section of the road. That link track is very overgrown right now -- I know most people probably head down G-Rock or whatever, but the link in from Hill Road does have the official "Rollercoaster" sign, so it might be worth giving that a weed-whack.

The other thing I noticed (as of Friday -- it might have been cleared by now) is that there is a lot of debris on Corners, thanks to the recent wet and windy weather. I had to stop and pull a log off the trail, and there were lots of branches and other debris on the track. It did make the riding more interesting, but is probably worth cleaning up if possible.

You guys are amazing -- wish I could help, but with two young children I haven't got much chance to ride at all right now, let alone help with trail maintenance...

- Erik.

james wrote:Last section of Rollercoaster. Word is the roadies have been snagging their arm warmers on the gorse.

Seconded, that overgrowth has already claimed one of my matching trade team armwarmers

There has been some fall on the the lower of the jump tracks, I cleared some of the loose type items off the line, but there is a heavy branch across the base of one of the jump faces

otherwise the tracks seem good, lots of braking bumps and a few corners that aren't prefect, its a nice change from perfect fast groomed trails

Hi Guys,
Thanks Jeff, for all of your help. I'll just add that our efforts are not replacing the trail adoptee system nor the Club working bees. Just adding to the mix of maintenance solutions, there are a few trails that are not adopted.

Today Patrick Avery and I did a very quick walk through of the last section of Corners. This was to check that the work Jeff and I did previously had held up after rain and riders. We walked down quite quickly, clearing drains and dealing to overhanging Ponga brances and getting rid of deadfall, We then met up with Jeff, and started attacking the very end of Rollercoaster (the young pines section) It was quite overgrown and fairly slow going, might take a couple of visits to finish nicely. If this section only claimed an arm warmer, I would consider yourself quite lucky!

I shall go through my phone pics and see what i can use, and post shortly.
Thanks for your suggestions, keep them coming, I will add them to my list.

Mark

would be gud if k2 got fix up to

Some of the double down structures are collapsing a bit too

I say the gaps on pigeon run need a bit of grooming as well, the landings are sketch and some of the lips are a bit ragged especially on framed up one near the end.

On dipper, in the first batch of berms, 1 has cut up with braking. It has a tree just on the outside of the berm,
I think it freaks a few people out so they brake hard & cut up the berm & now it doesn't flow like the others

Top effort guys, must appreciated!

Jeff Carter and I finished tidying up the end of Roller coaster, young pines section and back into the trail yesterday. There is still some thick overgrowth on rollercoaster before the Junction where Pondy merges will try get to that soon.
Thank you for your support and suggestions They have been added to the to do list

And here is another section of the trail after being cleared

Awesome work Mark and Jeff, Rollercoaster is now running sweet

Here is the section that Jeff Carter built to help improve flow as you enter the last section of corners. It has seen a fair bit of traffic already, I have been back and raked once but will have another look soon.
Ride and Enjoy

I mentioned this to Greg and am happy to help - Genesis is really overgrown these days. I can do some clearing this weekend - 021 538 634 - Jon

jdodd wrote:I mentioned this to Greg and am happy to help - Genesis is really overgrown these days. I can do some clearing this weekend - 021 538 634 - Jon

it would be cool if they would let you do it before sunday, as the n-duro is using it again