Dirt Art: Harcourt trail plan

It would be great to get a better idea of the specific area planned for the trails. On the mountain itself (Mt Alexander) has some of the greatest potential of natural terrain, gravity fed trails of almost anywhere in the country but as many know has been historically controversial.
 

golden path

Banned
Watching with great interest. There are already tracks everywhere up there and it's got great potential. Castlemaine locals are a funny bunch of mud bricking hipsters though, and tend to resist anything new, even good things.
 
There have been quite a few trails come and go up there on the mountain. Some good, some not so.
The topography and natural terrain up there represents some of the best oppurtunity for longish gravity fed trails around.

The long running saga about riders damaging endangered moss being well known leading to threats of $50,000+ fines from PV.
Back in the day, I was confronted by a ranger who demanded my ID. Upon requesting as to what authority or jurisdiction he had to do so he proceeded into a chest puffing rant about me destroying resources etc. I pointed out its an interesting scenario, a mountain with the top clear felled for a huge ugly transmission antenna, multiple operating quarries scarring the place, a whole section of the western base cleared for non native plantation yet cyclists being threatened with huge fines and demanded to produce ID for riding a bicycle off road.................
I even offered to spend the time for him to show me exactly where I had ridden on or near this supposed endangered moss to which he all but admitted he knew where I had been riding and that it wasn't anywhere near anything of concern.
Pointing out I had ridden my bicycle there under my own steam and he had driven his big diesel 4x4 clearly left him questioning his initial stated concern of "destroying resources".

From my experience most of the riders that have used the area in the past are from the Bendigo area and not so much Castlemaine.
It seems all the new legal trails are to be constructed down in the area where the pines previously were and not on the Mountain itself.
While there are some reasonable rolling hills its a shame the great elevation of the mountain itself seemingly won't be used.
The proposal states the parking area in the oaks will facilitate some parking and a toilet but the plan is to have trail users park in Harcourt itself and ride out to the trails. Hopefully once up and running it will provide both some fun trails for riders and potential increased income for local areas.
All in all, great to see some progress with official trails being accepted in the area and funds being allocated.
 

golden path

Banned
Endangered moss, lol. Probably not much of it on the actual bare dirt tracks. And the handful of feral pigs up there and wombats etc probably eat the shit.
 
Endangered moss, lol. Probably not much of it on the actual bare dirt tracks. And the handful of feral pigs up there and wombats etc probably eat the shit.
Hehe, too true. I have seen pigs, big cats etc up there.

The old top to bottom flow downhill up there is still my fav all time decent.
It would be brilliant on a good "Enduro" bike these days!...........
 
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