Dear Foxpuppet
Rest assured that the substance of your message has reached Barker and that steps will be taken to address some of your concerns.
Thats great news, but if i had not brought it up would this have happened?
I echo your call for better signage.
This is what im going to make contact with HSC about. there are signs there indicating where riders should park ie: at the end of quarry rd. but they are not obvious like the no stopping zones. This area is normally parked out by Joe Public, which is why parking at the end is far better... ample room for about 50+ cars (Parking nose in) and plenty of space to put bikes and riders while organising them.
As it was our first time there, many were unaware of the large parking area at the end of Quarry Rd. We will use this area in the future for parking and briefings.
again this is great news but could have been done in the first instance had someone from the school contacted the council before using this facility for a large school group. I'm not being emotive or rude on this, my wife is a school teacher and when i was telling her about it after last weeks incident this was the first thing she said. maybe the excitement of hitting the trail for the first time was interfering, but i would have thought it was a priority. any school run event has due processes in place, this is just the same.
Of course this will increase the incidence of bikes on the road as they access the trails - you can't have it both ways!
That's fine, once they are organised into groups with teachers/coaches supervision they are going to be riding single file or 2 abreast up the road as the road rules allow, not sitting on bikes across the roadway having a chat or doing skids, mono's etc in between each other and the cars. it's kids on bikes heck even adults do this but in a larger group it's not a good look in front of the residences.
For what its worth, nearly all of the parking you've identified (and in your photo) is legal parking - ie outside the "no stopping" signs. If this is undesireable to the residents, they can hardly blame the drivers/riders.
no that's true, but look at the pic following this, this lady/parent/teacher? was parked in front of the blue crusher run entrance in the no stopping zone for at least 45 minutes and for some of that time had her tailgate open at head height. this is I almost collided with a rider as he rode down the road, i went to go into the blue believing he would go past behind me as i crossed, only for him to duck between myself and her car then come to a full stop bacause another of his mates was stopped on the left of the entrance leaving him no where to go. i almost endo'ed into him. no harm done but it just highlights little things being ignored can have consequences.
We'd like to make it compulsory for all parents to drive nice utes or (vw vans) but its not really possible so you'll have to learn to cope with "soccer mum wagons".
this was a a bit of generalisation to give folks the idea of the size of the vehicles and how bad it looked when turning into quarry rd
Its pretty much impossible for 20 people with cars and bikes to gather for a ride and not have some kind of an impact or get in someone's way. But it doesn't happen every day. The schools groups you've complained about are unlikely to visit OMV more than 3 times a year (each) so don't expect this to be a common problem.
Again i have nothing against the school groups being there, i hope they can get more use out of it, the more riders using the trail, hopefully the more that will turn up when it comes to maintenance of the existing trail and construction of further stages (assuming we get to that with the 6/12 month review)
All the Barker riders have been encouraged to contact Hornsby Council to express their opinions on the trails (universally positive). Hopefully this will outweigh any complaints.
fantastic, positive feedback is what we need and also the more people on the case over signage the better, hopefully the council can respond asap.
Next time you feel the need to vent on a public forum perhaps you should consider that these school MTB programs are driven by people who are passionate about providing opportunities for kids to ride their bikes. These teachers and coaches have navigated a minefield of notes sent home, red tape and risk assessments.
I don't think i was out of line with what i said at all, just described it as it was. i was happy to let it slide last thursday, perhaps i should have just gone up to the teachers at that time. but when i saw it again on tuesday i couldn't stand by, i went straight to one of the teachers from knox to explain about the parking as i have done numerous times to other riders who show up and dont know where to go etc (cant count how many laps i have done there showing new OMV riders around the trail) This facility is FOR EVERYONE and it would be a shame to see it not around for years to come if the first year or is marred by clashes with the residents. they are the ones who see everything, so while riders/groups may think single bad events are of little consequence, we don't know if old Mrs Smith*
names have been changed 
who lives opposite has a little notepad out taking notes of stuff going on or even taking pics.
Parents universally make all kinds of sacrifices and regular, thankless shuttle missions to get their kids on the trail. All concerned are well meaning.
I don't have kids but as i mentioned before my wife's a teacher so i know what goes on. Had they been fully aware of the parking scenario i think it would have been much smoother for you all, but that's been taken care of now so thank you!
No-one deserves to be the subject of emotive, inflammatory ranting.
Again i dont feel like what i said was emotive, inflammatory... it might have been ranting, but the fact that you guys have responded shows that what i said was right and now positive action is taking place.
I wonder if you ever considered posting a comment of support for these kinds of programs or contacting the schools to say something positive.
Like i said before i don't have kids yet, but i get involved at my wife's school all the time, helping out with logistics in my nice van, coaching the snowboard team for interschools (first time last year for a small public school team) course marshalling at interschools for a week... i'm not saying that i'm some sort of hero for that, just i get involved. advocacy for this trail has been a passion of mine as well as volunteering for construction/maintenace when i could. Just give me a list of all the schools you know who will use the facility and i'll go out of my way to give them a run down on what to do when visiting OMV.
Thanks for your reply... whoever this is
Banjo
This is the Car mentioned above. At the time of this pic most riders were off the road, but prior to this they had been blocking the road for a few minutes, a car would come they would slowly move away then go straight back to the middle of the road again. it's the little things we have to be on top of.
and before anyone says it... yes that is my van parked there. I don't park along the road anymore since that thursday but down near the crusher plant.... you gotta practice what you preach.
now enough of this... lets go shred some trail together
