Five hours on the brush cutter today revealed some extremely well hidden single track in Pato. I made some excellent progress and it fills me with hope that we may indeed get this trail beaten into shape in time. Anyways onward to the photos:
Today I purchased two pairs of pliars. Actually, a set of pliars and a set of wire cutters. After purchasing them, it became evident that they were zip tied into their packaging and I was going to require a set of pliers to cut them open so I could actually use them….. sigh!
I did some mowing today along with some whipper snipping. I cut the long grass so you can actually tell where the track is meant to go while B-rad worked some magic with the Mcleod and cut some benches into the most off camber sections. Through trial and error, I found that my mower (which Ronnie Mclovin describes as a ‘snail on valium’) works much better when you add petrol.
We need to run some more motorbikes over the new sections now to blow the remaining grass out of the way and we will have a freakin sweet track. It is going to be a very tight deadline to have it finished for the club 3 hour, but I’m sure we can make it happen. I’ll probably be out there with the mower in the middle of a paddock again tomorrow afternoon if anyone is interested in helping.
Perhaps, just perhaps, this particular mattock handle will be unbreakable. I’ve broken three of them in the last 12 months and it is becoming a bit passé’. The new one is all fibre glass and bright yellow and weight weenie – it’s the carbon fibre dually of mattock handles.
I also treated myself to my very own Macleod tool. It’s all shiny and new and covered in paint – It doesn’t have a single ding or mark on it at all. This is going to have to change.
I’ll probably head up to Paterson on saturday around mid morning to do some more trail work. If anyone is interested, shoot me an email and we will arrange a meeting time.
I forgot to post this yesterday although I did actually find it rather fascinating at the time. During the last week a tree near the side of the road in Paterson was hit by lighning. It has cleaved the tree completely in two and there is a blast radius of about 30m of exfoliated bark which encircles the scene. It is quite eerie and yet one can’t look away!
Today was the first time the build crew were let loose on Paterson and I have to say it was impressive to behold. We had nearly 14 builders on site and we covered more ground and built more trail than I had dared hope for. Obviously there is still a shite load of work to go, but i am buoyed by todays results. It was freakin hot out there however, it wasn’t too bad while the cloud cover held, but once the sun poked its head out – temps were quickly nudging 40 degrees.
Unfortunately for us, the sun decided to poke its head out while we were out riding. After all the hours of trail building, we didn’t have a lot left in the tank and the heat simply vaporized us. It was ugly and we were all out of water and interest so we got the hell out of there as quickly as possible.
We got some great photos however, which you can find here
T.I.N.A.S (this is not a switchback) berm was armored. I didn’t really get to ride it in anger, but I think the lines still need to be tweaked a little. Its going to be fun when we get it right however. Here you can see Mr Mclovin working his magic.
Happy days,
I just received confirmation that Enduro Pulse have signed on as media partner for the Paterson Kona 24. This is an exciting development for the event and I may have celebrated with a beer and a little dance in the Kitchen.
I also just got an email about a 12 hour race in Armidale in early march which actually has me thinking about getting back on the bike after my current 3 week slump. I’ve never ridden in Armidale and a 12 hour race makes it worthwhile driving all the way out there. I just need to swing the monday off work and then i will be all over it like an ill fitting cardigan.
See you all on Sunday at the build day (except Charlie rides a bike; living 15,000k’s away is a sufficient excuse to miss this particular event)
Today I did some reverse rubbish dumping. I knew of some ornamental concrete bessa blocks which had been dumped near the side of the link road next to an access trail. I had often thought they would be perfect to armor a berm should the need ever arise.
Having seen what happened to the berm track at the world 24 champs last year, it was pretty clear that TINA’S berm at Paterson wasn’t going to be a very successful trail feature by the sunday morning of the upcoming 24. I could just picture the brake ruts and exposed rocks that would be decidedly unpleasant to a tired rider.
So I loaded the long suffering Subaru Outback full of blocks and dropped them out at Paterson ready for this Sundays build day. Somehow I managed to get the car down the rock and clay strewn hill without ripping the rear bumper off (which is only held on by zip ties nowadays) since the blocks had the suspension sagging an awefully long way. There were a few hairy moments when the car started crabbing sideways through some ruts on some form of frictionless surface however we both lived to build another day.
I’ll get some photos once everything is finished, alternatively, you can come and help build it on sunday.
We had a pre-build day build day today. Some chainsaw work and lots of work with the pruning shears. 1 km of bunting tape went up and we ran out about 2/3rds of the way through. Most importantly, all the guys who were seeing the trail for the first time were genuinely stoked with how things were turning out.
Sometimes it is hard to know whether the ‘vision’ of a completed trail you are seeing as you stare at a cow trail in the bush is the same thing other people will see. Or whether they are just going to tell you that you’re stark raving mad and that it can’t possibly be called trail. The level of uncertainty grows the longer you walk around in the midday sun. Thankfully, others could see it as well and I haven’t completely lost my mind.
There will be a full HMBA club build day next sunday which should tidy up a lot of the sketchy areas. Afterwards… lets go for a ride 🙂
This moring we loaded up B-rads ute with some long pallets and my car with a tonne of timber and headed for paterson. Again it was insanely hot so we didn’t get as much done as we would have liked but we did get one bridge pretty close to completion and put in some pretty neat rock armoring on the entry to the bridge.
We didn’t quite get the bridge finished as my piece of shite drill died – its time for something other than a GMC me thinks.
Yours truly testing out our handy work (yes chad; the photo has been fiddled with)
I think this has been one of my longest periods without a new post. With the successive run of 40+ temps and the resultant insomnia from our overheated bedroom oven, I just haven’t had any interest in going for a ride at all. Ideas for the Kona 24 have still been kicking around in the back of my mind however. Lots of things to get done and so little time to make it happen.
Today I managed to get up to Paterson as the cooler temps were much more conducive to swinging hand tools at the scorched earth. There is lots of things to get ready for the major working Bee on Sunday Feb 20th. If anyone has any spare time on that day, please please come along for a couple of hours and help make the radest trail ever!
I spent time with clippers clearing all the skin tearing branches away from the trail today and at one point I was so engrossed in my battle with a particularly virulent piece of lantana that I completely overlooked that I was standing in the middle of a bull-ant nest. For anyone who hasn’t come across these things before, they are about the size of a small cat, can jump further than a grasshopper, have the temper of the hulk and have been known to steal peoples babies while they are sleeping. I remember being bitten by these things as a kid and there was always tears before bed time.
When I realized what I had done, I looked down and my legs had disappeared from the knees down. I was being completely swarmed by them and they were successfully biting me through long pants, possibly even through steel capped boots. In a state of panic, I ran around like a headless chicken swatting wildly at my legs and generally making a fool of myself. Desperately hoping they were all outside my pants…. thankfully they were. Since their nest is right in the middle of the trail, there is going to have to be some kind of chemical warfare waged in the next few weeks because that was an experience I don’t care to repeat.
I also spent some time digging Tinas berm (This is not a switchback). There were tons of rocks to build a nice solid backing and after an hour or so, there is a nice little berm that should really take some of the sketchiness out of an otherwise unrideable little link between two trails. As with every berm, it would be better again if it was bigger so if anyone wants to tackle this little project on the upcoming build day, it will be ready and waiting for you (I’m looking at you Landon 🙂 )
Happy trails!
the unknown rider 