Mapleton Community Ride Summary
Overcast and not too cold most of us arrived just before 7am and were good to go by 7:15am. Just after we left a few others arrived… I should have made the summer time starting time a bit more obvious as a few people were still running on the winter times – remember to double check the meeting and ride-off time on the calendar event.
The early starters continued along the fire trails from Delicia Road to Lookout Road and popping out at the trail bike parking area about 1km up from the Mapleton Forest Day Use Area where the meet up would be for the later group. Once everyone had caught up we all took off down the Magic Mile (Turpentine Track) which takes us all the way near to where Cedar Creek Road meets Mapleton Forest Road which we followed back to the cars apart from a few who had started the ride in Yandina. Finishing up at the cafe and finishing the short and sweet 17km ride. Need to find a way to add another 10km without making things difficult I think.
QPWS have been busy broadening the fire breaks by clearing the undergrowth about 10m either side of the fireroads. 
This makes the route open and a bit less foreboding to people who would haven’t wondered around in dense forest before. Also the newly recognised Turpentine Track (we’ve always known it as the Magic Mile) is shaping up nicely with access being restricted from trail bikes so work can get underway to tidy it up. We may need to organise a few trail care days up there to help out the rangers.
All in all a nice day for a quick spin around Mapleton and it’s good to see the trails and facilities being well taken care of – we’ll be sure to send a thank you to the local rangers.