me too. Rode it this morning for the first time - you good folks who have created this have done a great job - it's going to be a favourite. Thank you!

Many thanks peoples, the track diggers really do appreciate the nice comments :-)

If you had ridden it late this afternoon, the track would have been just a little bit better

Here is a copy of the Blog entry on our website:
http://makarapeak.org/northface?mode=Po ... bmi=323380

Today was a day for digging holes and making berms. And clobbering rock.

The exit of switchback 4 was lowered and the dirt used to make a table-top further along.
The entry to switchback 5 was widened, (no small matter as the bank is solid rock), and the track below which was a bit narrow and scary was widened, and flattened.
The dirt was used..on the exit berm of the switchback.

Extra swerves were added (although that almost goes without saying!) and the dirt was used.. on the exit berm of the switchback.

The left hand kink half way between switchback 5 and 6 was.. bermed.. and a great deal of time was spend by frankly possessed people chipping rocks on the slightly fierce switchback 6.
The entry is now 50% wider and the rock was used.. on the exit berm of the switchback.

A small roller (a dip then rise in this case) was made before this corner (another swerve created ), and dirt from that was used .. on the exit berm of the switchback.!

Careful readers may have noticed a pattern forming.

Much fettling and landscaping was also done further down the track, so every time your ride the North Face it should be different, and better.

We had nine people help out during the day, apologies for not listing all your names here: but cheers to the guy who interrupted his ride to help out, his time helped to create some really nice wide smooth clear single track..

We are just over half way down in our Perfection Process, so in a “couple of months” the 1620m of North Face should be Perfected, and all we can do is wait to see what winter does. But there are plenty of other things for trail pixies to do...

Loads of people were out riding North Face today, I imagine a stack more will be riding it when it has a proper start and a proper finish (and an extra bit in the middle).

The next North Face dig day is Saturday 17th, drop by and help for a while if you can- if not say Hi on your way by

Photos up tomorrow.........

Work was done here, as well as a lot of areas lower down:



Here Jono surveys the rock carving on the entry to switchback 5:



The exit of the corner has more inslope, is wider, has a bigger berm, but now has more room on the inside for the "more sensible" riders:



And further down the trail was made a lot wider. The existing (second cut!) had pretty vague edges and a lot of soft dirt about, creating the illusion of a very wide trail.

This was fixed by the use of picks, grubbers, shovels and wheelbarrows.



If you ride down this trail when there is a Perfection Process dig day, you might just get photographed. ( if you told everybody you were actually painting the house, well- you were out on yer bike) :



So next week we will keep Perfecting North face, this time on Saturday.

We might be chipping away near these arrows!



It is a tribute to everbody's tenacity/stubborness/fussiness that so much of the trail has been refined, and so many bits have been attacked a few times until The Consensus was satisfied.

Awesome work guys, i had a sneaky peak this morning - loving the "pump track" style rolly sections up the top!!!

Could well become a Makara favourite

The Perfection Process on the lower half has barely been started, so who knows what will be created there

Saturday 17th April, we will be back down to the SMOKIN
trail.
This track has been mostly built by loads of people the Tuesday evenings, and during Easter.

A group was to be attacking the trail this week, however that was not to be, so now is our chance to get the lower part of the North face Project ridable though to the Ridgeline Extention/AMP intersection

This will add 375m to the 1620m of North face, with a bit of 4wd road linking the two. ( yes we have plans to fix that later!)

Progress should be pretty fast: if you are keen on making flowy trails, benching, clearing or ripping large stumps out of the ground we have a job for you!

The top 75% of the track has been built and it is massive fun to ride..

Here is a map:



To get there you can ride down North face, then the 4wd track, clamber up the 4wd track from Allington road, climb up the road by Ridgeline, or even scramble off the side of Ridgeline Extention near the jump ( but watch out for the stinging nettle, please use the other hole in the scrub!)

We will be there from 10am , drop in all day or for a few minutes, or even just to say hello. Walkers, runners and Mountainbikers are of course all welcome

Tools, lunch, friendly advice and heaps of laughs all provided!

Cheers

Rob

Makara Peak Tracks!

..and we have nice weather organised.

Bring your bike!!

If you are riding North Face today in the sun, stop for a moment and admire the view!

Then swing down to Smokin for a look-see

Robbie wrote:If you are riding North Face today in the sun, stop for a moment and admire the view!

Then swing down to Smokin for a look-see

I should make it today

That was some great trail building!!!!
Absolutley wrecked now...But i still had enough in me to race a car down the road on the way home ...

Thanks to all the people who gave us praise as they rode past

You can certainly fling that big bike through the new twisties at a great rate!
(Shame the video never quite happenned).

A lot was done today, I should attempt to measure it. And yup both my shoulders ache, and not just the one I used to bounce off a tree with.

A couple of hours next Sunday benching the last few metres of SMOKIN' and that trail will be S W E E T !

Tomorrow the lunatic amongst us are doing a little scouting on the JFK section of the North Face project...

Here is a copy of the blog appearing at the usual spot: www/makarapeak.org/northface :

Smokin on fire

Gorse stumps and prickles were removed, trail surface was cleared then benched, corners were devised rollers and berms created, and I guess 60m swoopy flowy single-track was made.

All the usual North Face Project stuff that has been going on since last October.

But the best bit is that this wee trail is FANTASTIC to ride !!!!

As with all of North Face, riding the trail Smokin Fast is not for the unskilled nor faint hearted, however more sensible riders will still have a tremendously good time.

Next SUNDAY we will be spending a few hours finishing the last 10-15m and then go do something else. Ride our bikes mebbe?

We may start a little later than usual so we can watch the Women’s race down the main North Face trail

Fotoze.
These were taken at about 3pm, couple of hours before we halted proceedings:



And the track goes along here:



And then here:



And though here:



And then along here:



And then around here:



And then along here:



And through here:



And then up here:



And around here:



And then where these guys are digging away!



The trail ends just a few metres beyond. It is ridable, however the last few M are not totally beautiful yet.

Cheers,

Rob

MAKARA PEAK TRACKS!!

Awesome ride today - all the way through Smoking (yesterday we carried the bikes for the last few metres). So much fun! Thanks to all involved.

Scouting JFK

The trail we are currently calling JFK would join the North Face track to Smokin.

This is not an official track yet, however we went scouting today to see what was actually on the ground out there. We had bush bashed through there once before, but that was to just find the Grassy Knoll and see where it was, and to take some measurements of heights and distances down to the road and up to North Face.

The next step after we have scouted the whole area is to have the pilot track approved by the good people at the WCC (as after all they do own the land), and we will need to have this process finished by October if we want the mightily enthusiastic Tuesday night digs to get stuck into it once daylight saving kicks off again.

The trail would be about 600m long.

We bashed our way through about 100m of scrub: mostly tall gorse trees and natives, looking to see where the main ridge was. This would be a limiting point of the trail.

We did not quite get there, (it was a lot further away than the maps would have us believe, which is good) then we backtracked a little and climbed up directly up the side of the hill to the sunny Grassy Knoll, and came up with some awesome ideas for using this area for some huge sweeping turns while we sat on the grass watching riders navigate down North Face.

Linking the trail together from what would be a few sweeps across the face of the hill also seems to be quite straightforward. He said hopefully.

Time will tell!

Here be a map, the RED stuff has been scouted, the red dots are a good guess about how the trail could do two huge sweeping turns down the grassy knoll, and the dark red dots are an indication of how the trail would sweep down the hill..



Meanwhile, next Sunday we need to spend a few hours on Smokin, and the main North Face trail, so we might start high (after the Women's race) then work our way down after lunch.

Cheers!



Rob

Makara Peak Tracks

North Face and Smokin’ Sunday April 25th

Today we have a women’s MTB race where part of the field will be tackling the main North Face trail in anger

We also need to do a few hours work on Smokin’ .. So the plan is this:

Step1.
Watch the women race down North Face, (or sleep in or go for a ride etc) then assemble half way down the main trail at 10am.
Step 2.
Perfect this trail until lunchtime.
Step 3.
Eat lunch, generously provided
Step 4,
Wander down this trail to Smokin
Step 5:
Clean up and bench the last few metres of this trail.
Step 6..
Mission complete