Bruce Ridge ACT

Official Launch Sat 31 October

The official launch of the Bruce Ridge trails is this Saturday. We are expecting ACT Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Shane Rattenbury, to attend and officially open the trails. So it would be great if we could get a huge turn out to show the community support.

Official Launch
Date: Saturday 31 Oct 2015
Time: 1pm-2:00pm
Location: At the main trail head, which is at the Northwest side of Bruce Ridge. The closest parking is at the AIS eastern car park. From the carpark, the trail head is then through the Gungahlin Drive underpass and up to the right approx 500m.
https://goo.gl/maps/iSrqUjBJDZv
What to Bring: Your friends and family, and your bike or trail running shoes.

Any last minute updates will be posted on the FoBR Twitter feed.
 
Large tree down across the road and trail on Davesia Down. It's on the road running east/west along the ridge line just where Davesia crosses on to the south side of the road in to the new switch back section.
 
FoBR Sun 29 Nov Working Bee & Xmas Social Ride

It was great to see lots of people out for the official launch of the Bruce Ridge trails last month. ACT Parks and Conservation Services (PCS) kindly donated some new super heavy duty fire rakes and Kowalski Brothers Trailworks donated some very weighty compactors - now it's time to give them a test run!

Here's the details for the working bee and xmas ride.

Working Bee
Date: Sunday 29 Nov 2015
Time: 8am-12:00pm
Meeting Location: At the gate near O’Connor caravan park - Kunzea Street, just off Dryandra Street (N8 on the old Bruce Ridge map).
What to Bring: Your favourite trail tools, particularly mattocks, shovels, and bush saws.
As usual, please bring food, water, weather appropriate clothing, eye protection, gloves and sturdy footwear.
Planned work Areas:
A few people have been running off the edge of Daviesia Down (descent trail) in a few places, so the plan is to rebuild and berm some of the soft edges.
If time permits, we will move west to the outer loop where one of the tight corners is getting blown out (near muppet shortcut).


Xmas Social Ride
Date: Sunday 13 Dec 2015
Time: Ride 2pm-4:00pm, followed by drinks from 4:30pm.
Location: Meet for ride at the main trail head (closest parking is at the AIS eastern car park). Drinks and food afterwards at the Pot Belly Bar, Weedon Close, Belconnen.
What to Bring: Your favourite mountain bike!


Any last minute updates will be posted on the FoBR Twitter feed.

BTW - PCS have been notified about the fallen tree, so should be fixed asap.
 
FoBR February Working Bee & 2016 Events

Hi All

Welcome to another great year of keeping the Bruce Ridge trails awesome!

Here's the details for the working bee this weekend, and dates for the rest of the year.

February Working Bee
Date: Sunday 21 Feb 2016
Time: 8am-12pm
Meeting Location: At the small carpark just off Belconnen Way, first left about 500m after Gungahlin Drive (D9 on the old Bruce Ridge map).
What to Bring: Your favourite trail tools, particularly fire rakes, mattocks, shovels, bush saws and secateurs would be good.
As usual, please bring food, water, hat and sturdy footwear.
Planned work Areas:
Burin - drainage fixes and maintenance
Belco Switchbacks - fix log roll over, improve/fix drainage
Creek run - trim bushes, improve drainage.

Working Bees & Events 2016
Details of all working bees and social rides for 2016 are listed on the FoBR Forums.

Any last minute updates will be posted on the FoBR Twitter feed.
 
If I can get the time I'll do 4 hours of pruning. The place is a jungle in some sections!!
 
Any news on planned maintenance days? The heavy traffic over Spring/Summer and very dry conditions have taken their toll. Heaps of corners have become thinner and thinner where people have gone over the edge repeatedly bringing the soft/loose shoulder closer and closer to the apex to the point where some of the faster corners are no more than four tyre-widths wide and thinning.
 
Yep, next working bee is planned for 8am Sun 24 April (Anzac weekend - bugger of a date but needed to fit between races and other events). I'm just confirming the date and will send out the spam notices soon.

As we haven't had any real rain for ages the surface is very dry and powdery. Not much we can do short of getting a water truck to cut a lap of the trails!

We have noticed that some corners are being cut - so will need to do some strategic positioning of logs and rocks to counter the stravarseholes.
 
May Working Bees

It's been a great month for FoBR - we got some much needed rain to settle the dirt and picked up an acknowledgement award at the ACT Volunteer of the Year Awards. To celebrate we're going to run two working bees this month!

May Working Bee #1
Date: Sunday 15 May 2016
Time: 12:30pm - 3:30pm (Note afternoon time for people who like to sleep in!)
Meeting Location: At the second small carpark just off Belconnen Way, second left about 500m after Gungahlin Drive (E10 on the old Bruce Ridge map).
Planned work Areas:
Heath run & Daviesia - make sure trails are awesome, trim bushes and improve drainage.

May Working Bee #2
Date: Sunday 22 May 2016
Time: 8am - 12pm
Meeting Location: Kunzea Street O'Connor, near gate into Terrafirma - side of the road before caravan park (M8 on the old Bruce Ridge map).
Planned work Areas:
Justin Time & Terrafirma - improve trails and talk bikes.

What to Bring: Your favourite trail tools, particularly fire rakes, mattocks, shovels, bush saws and secateurs would be good. As usual, please bring food, water, hat and sturdy footwear.
 
Bump - just a quick reminder about the working bee this Sunday. See details ^^^

Hope to see some of you peeps there.
 
May not make the 8am start but I'll be up to put in a couple of shovel hours tomorrow.
 
July Working Bee

Hope you all survived the hardest cycling endurance event (late night Tour de France watching) and have enough energy left for the working bee this Sunday. Here's the details

Date: Sunday 24 July 2016
Time: 8am-12pm
Meeting Location: At the small carpark just off Belconnen Way, first left about 200m after Gungahlin Drive (D9 on the old Bruce Ridge map).
What to Bring: Your favourite trail tools, particularly fire rakes, mattocks, shovels, bush saws and secateurs would be good.
As usual, please bring food, water, hat and sturdy footwear.
Planned work Areas:
Hidey Ho & Happy Wanderer - fix corners, build up berms and improve drainage.
I expect we'll also clear some smaller fallen trees - if they are still there.

Working Bees & Events 2016
Details of all working bees and social rides for 2016 are listed on the FoBR Forums.

Any last minute updates will be posted on the FoBR Twitter feed.
 
Hey - I'm heading down to 'the nation's capital' in September for Kowalski classic and I'm hoping to introduce my boy to the concept of the boys riding weekend away!

He's only 4 so I'm wondering where a good place to ride with him is and since I'm staying at the Alivio park I was wondering if Bruce Ridge fits the bill. It will need to have a decent amount of quite flat and smooth trail.

Any recommendations of where is good to ride for young tackers? He can do reasonably long rides (8km as long as it's almost dead flat).

Thanks!
 
Bruce Ridge is a great place to start. I'd consider most of the trails to be beginner level with some intermediate. Especially on the northern parts facing the GDE, it is where I would take my wife (who doesn't ride).

A loop of Bruce ridge is less than 8kms.
 
For little kids I'd recommend riding anti-clockwise from Alivio to the north side of the outer loop at Bruce and back - there are some flatter sections along Commuted and Log Run which are good for little kids. Also, west from Alivio through Heath Run should be OK too.
 
I was there on saturday. I've only ridden it 3 times but every time I've been there I've seen groups of oldies, young'uns, guys on cyclocross rigs etc. It's a good place for experienced and less experienced riders.
 
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