Parklands MTB Trails Project Update 30/01/2018
Hi Folks,
We’re happy to say that we’re nearing completion of the project. While everyone was distracted with the shiny new green and black trails, Trailworx and QPWS have been busy cutting in the new blue trail, the skills area course and has started on the remediation on some sections of Road Rage.
The new blue trail is shaping up to be a pretty fast track with long straights and streamlined berms. There’s a few surprises in the form of a few skinnies, jumps and some rock features (not gardens). It’s still really soft but a bit of rain and sun will produce that good hardpack surface that the Parkies dirt is great for.
The skills area course will come up pretty schmick with multiple options to tune the difficulty level as you go along. So starts of easy and lets you bail out before hitting the more difficult features. It also offers different options and ramps up towards the end where it meets the end of the new blue trail.
The concept of these trails is skills progression. So they are designed to build up a novice rider to one who can tackle the majority of trails around Parklands and elsewhere. Going along Rookie Road to the start of the skills course and onto the green loop will build basic skills and fitness. Then onto the trickier parts of the skills course and mixing runs of the blue trail, further building skills at speed and fitness from climbing up that fire road. Then it’s onto the black track to further build skills with jumps, rocks and drops.
The skills area course and blue trail have been added to Trailforks but are marked closed.
As for Road Rage the anthill/quarry section is getting a new line while the existing line has largely been left in place. We tried to achieve the balance of fixing up the unsustainable bits and adding a bit of new stuff while still trying to maintain it’s character. After this section has been completed there will be more fixes closer to the car park end on the switchbacks.
Tomorrow the trail care container will be dragged to a new location to make way for seats and mulch around the skills area.
At this stage we’re looking at a mid February practical completion.
Read more for pictures!