20 September 2009
The day breaks and it's another cracker, a bit more of an Easterly than normal and
as per the weather forecast it freshened! We had a new family pop out - Jason with
Amy and Emma, as well as the usual suspects... Scolly has arranged for his project
team to assemble to start planning on the Skills Area development, but as a warm-up
Shailer makes everyone work on the first corner of C1, which is only rideable by
those gifted with extra legs or lung capacity. An hour soon made short work of it.
Thanks to the rock breaker softening and widening the radius, there is a better
turning platform and we raised the entrance and lowered the exit. Great stuff, now
for a bit of well timed rain and more sun and it will be rideable in no time.
After a short break, the lads got on their bikes to have a gander at the new track
extension made by digger at the hands of Colin and Shailer on the Eagles Nest. Lisa
rounded up everyone else and loaded the quad bike with trees for planting in the
River Track. Shailer led the lads through the Chicken Run, 4WD extension, and then
a short steep climb up the 4WD track to the start of Eagles Nest. Colin was explaining
the good work he had done on the 4WD track, including the turning bay. We then progress
up the Eagles Nest and it's all good, another magpie is waiting for its doom in
the trap, we said goodbye to two last night. We then let Percy off the leash and
he careens down the 4WD track. We all follow and soon enough with brakes squealing
and rotors burning we all arrive safely at the bottom. A small and tantalising diversion,
on foot, (with great protest) to view the Secret Track. We spy Amy riding across
the river to us. We then do a couple of hot laps of River Track and then sit down
for a bit of planning for the Skills Area.
It's all looking good and should be a great summer of riding, digger action and
maintenance. Thanks to everyone who has contributed and we hope to see you on the
trails soon.
12-13 September 2009
The glorious weather continued through the weekend and Colin has moved copious amounts
of dirt to extend the Eagles Nest track to an awesome 252m. There are plenty of
nice corners, wiggles, dips and the odd giant berm. One more weekend session and
the Eagles Nest will be completed. We believe we have also found the old benched
track that heads around the front of the mine shaft, which we will re-open to give
us access to the next two areas we wish to build on.
Alistair also came out on Sunday to continue to work on the Long Cut and he and
Lisa did a great job at the entrance to the trail in the time they had to give.
We were a bit tired to go for the planned night riding over the weekend, but Shailer
rode all the trails on Monday and the newly created work on the Eagles Nest is good
to ride and will only improve when the softer spots harden up after a rain and summer.
11 September 2009
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Another gorgeous spring's day, no wind and a school visit to Haven. We had 11 year
12 students and 3 teachers pop over for a bit of riding, trail building and bike
maintenance.
Thanks to Darren for setting it up, we hope to see more of you and your classes
over the years.
The "groms" moved two of our water containers to the top of the hills in preparation
for irrigating our natives over summer.
While one group was riding, the other was working on the double berm section on
the as yet unnamed 4wd extension track, and after lunch they worked on the rock
garden which is now rideable for all skill levels.
Thanks to Colin and Lisa for giving up part of their day to help out.
Shailer and Colin enjoyed riding the tracks at the end of the day, after parking
the digger at the start of the Eagles Nest for a weekend of digger action.
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8 August 2009
Another fine day and Alistair got stuck into his track straight away, the rest of
us finished up the good work that was almost completed on the corners from last
session. It was good to see the Allen family pop out and see the progress and we
managed to touch up a heap of areas. We also had a visit from some pals from Lisa's
work, they had a spin on their bikes and managed to get all the way up to Eagles
Nest looking for us. At the end of the session we all went for a hoon down to the
River Track to ride the berms and whoop dee doos.
It is very pleasing to state that we now have a rideable trail to the 4WD Track,
which gives access to Eagles Nest (not finished yet) or down down down the speedy
4WD track to the trails near the Creek, which have seasoned really well over winter
and riding extremely well. The River Track will eventually wind it's way back to
the start of Chicken Run, but for now it's the "road" (un-metalled, single lane
dirt) and that in itself is a fun ride back to Haven and Chicken Run.
Shailer has been working on his Secret Track and he is very pleased with the progress,
with it being about 75% complete. This is the first track he has built from start
to finish.
The last weekend of August, which was unseasonably warm, saw Lisa and Shailer plant
the remaining plants we have had donated - the ECan EEF (Environmental Enhancement
Fund) grant, the allocation from Trees from Canterbury, and the numerous donations
from Deb & Lindsay, The Library guys, Lisa's mum, Dave & Lou, and our neighbour
Lou. Thank you all very much. We were keen to get everything in the ground before
spring took too much hold, requiring us to irrigate more than we would like. We
were stoked to have it completed and they all look pretty happy, and to top it off,
we had a great patch of rain the following Monday to help them on their way.
So there are only a few spots left to tidy up or fine tune as we learn how to build
better and better trail, by the beginnings of Summer, we should have a good network
for riding bedded in, and a have a heap of new tracks on the drawing board or commenced
to get stuck into over next Winter. Scolly is pulling together a team to plan for
the construction of our Skills Area, which we hope to get started pretty soon.
We are probably going to look at Summer as a maintenance period as opposed to hardcore
digging, so that everyone gets to ride too!
Stay tuned.
We look forward to riding with you all over Summer. Come and be part of the Haven
experience.
18 July 2009
Another session of touching up areas, particularly corners, in the existing loop,
and the club hired a rock breaker to get at those hard to reach places. Alistair
has been doing a great job at dealing to the rockier sections at Haven with his
trusty cold chisel, however we needed to open up a lot of corners and we were keen
to see what a rock breaker could do.
We are pleased to say that the rock breaker is awesome and we have gotten rid of
a number of protruding rocks and derailleur killers and have widened all of the
corners, particularly the off-camber rock which should make the riding more accessible
for all skill levels. Shailer spent about 20 hours over the weekend attacking rock
and whilst he was as beaten as many of the rocks, its much faster than a bar and
a sledgehammer. Thanks to Craig for coming out and getting stuck into the corners
with the rest of the usual suspects, they are starting to really shape up. It was
good to see Marty come out and lend a hand, he had a lot of fun on the rock breaker.
Thanks again to HirePool Hornby for looking after us, you guys rock! (hur hur.)
Alistair has been coming out more regularly and has completed the benching on 4wd
extension, and is now getting his teeth stuck into the Long Cut, which will be a
meandering trail that takes you up to Eagles Nest, the short cut is to take the
4WD Track.
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14 June 2009
After a misty day all of Saturday, Sunday turned out to be beautiful. Clear sky,
sun shining, no wind. Alistair turned up at 9am as usual, with Justin arriving half
an hour later.
We all got stuck into the chicken run extension (naming rights anyone???) and managed
to push it through to meet up with the quad bike track (formerly known as the 4WD
track). Absolutely awesome work by everyone! The track needs a bit more benching
and grooming with Colin's section still under development, but it is looking fantastic.
In the week since we got the trees from the ECan grant (all 547 of them!) we have
managed to plant about 100 of them. If anyone wants to come out and help plant some
trees at any point, let us know. The sooner we get them in, the quicker we will
be biking through native bush.
Lisa.
March to May
We had a number of dig days that got rained out, or were just sort on numbers.
But, trees were planted, more progress was made on the River Track and lots of work
has been undertaken on the Perimeter Track - especially by a few burly men and a
strong woman taking on a rock!
Becs.
15 February 2009
To the tune of "Hot Summer Night" by Meatloaf...
It was a hot summers day and the broom was growing
There was sweat pouring out of my head
When I squeezed the throttle the blade started spinning
I heard the sound of the digger cutting through the hot still air
Anyway... it was way too hot for work so we (Lisa, Alistair and I) headed down to
the valley and watched Colin building the river track with the digger (yes, he was
grinning like a little boy). Shailer was doing a great job of supervising.
All in all it was a productive day and the River Track is started to take form.
Scolly.
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