It's been a long time since I updated the trail status in Nerang National Park. During that time the trail saboteur has gone quiet, presumably scared off after meeting a number of riders who let him know the police were after him. In addition, it has been mostly very dry and all the trails have been good to go. However, things have changed.
The week before Christmas we received an early present in the form of 2 new sections of trail on Three Hills, built by Trailworx. The trail lines were mapped out some time ago and the works funded by a Friends of the Park grant and the Specialized Every Metre Counts raffle. Anyone riding Three Hills Singletrack this week has been on the new trail, because it is the only connecting line from top to bottom. It does not start at the top signpost anymore, but opposite the start of Baileys and Brett's trails.
This is really fun trail and makes for far better climbing and descending. We inspected it in the rain yesterday and it was looking pretty good apart from a few muddy spots at the bottom end of the first hill section. That was after about 40mm of rain. Since then there has been a heap more. While Southport Seaway has only registered another 25mm or so, Coolangatta has had more than 150mm and Nerang would have received something between those readings - a lot of rain for established, let alone new trail.
I will give you some tasty pics on the proviso you wait for a few days after the rain before going to check it out! Trail respect is needed if we all want the best riding after this weather. Regardless whether made by hand or professionally by machine, all trail has limits when new, so please wait and we will all be better rewarded. In the meantime the older trails at high elevation are the go.
To show what can happen when riders disrespect new trail, following is what happened on the very bottom of Three Hills yesterday. This section of trail is not open. It is not complete. It is signposted explaining why we need riders to keep off.
Unlike Trailworx, MTBtrailcare is not allowed mechanised building of any kind. It takes a very long time to build technical trail features that are fun, sustainable and acceptable to the land manager - Qld Parks and Wildlife. 20 hours of work went into the following section of doubles. The plan is for an 8-pack of doubles followed by a gentle shooter into the flowing turns below. There is extremely limited outslope and a bed of clay under fine surface soil. It allows us to craft features only with great care. Drainage and durability of these rollers is dependent on time to cure with the help of wetting from rain.
While the Nerang saboteur may have gone quite, apparently MTBtrailcare has attracted vandals of our own. Every day we return to work our trail signs are removed and thrown into the bush some distance from the trail. It's not as if we are causing inconvenience by closing an existing section of trail - this is a part of the park that never had trail and what we are building is neither complete, nor ready to be opened. It is to replace the badly degraded bottom end of the current Three Hills Singletrack and without rider cooperation the opening will be delayed as we repair stuff we hoped was complete.
It hurts coming back to find this sort of thing: wheel ruts and foot damage too wet to repair (because it all goes to jelly if you try), drains not draining because water is held up in ruts on delicately prepared tread above them, boggy ruts between the rollers on the line less experienced riders will use and skid ruts going off the trail all show how poachers had a sh!t ride at our expense. Unlike when ready for riding, there is no jumping over doubles, only slugging through wet mush.
It may not look like much damage, but with the current weather and attitude of some riders, we expect to waste a lot of hours getting things back to standard when all this rain settles. Unfortunately we have no reason to believe our repairs will survive before we have to repair even more damage. It sucks. Therefore, please pass the message around - this trail construction is not open and needs protection. Please do not ride it. Also, if you know the f***tard who keeps tossing the signs away and making the trail look like it is open, get the message to them. This person(s) is a bloody menace, putting their own selfishness ahead of our desire to do the right thing for the park and ahead of every rider who uses the park. Sorry for the rant, but trail builders feel these insults in our muscles and loss of our spare time as well as in our hearts.