We had the digger out twice this month and have gotten stuck into turning of one of the first tracks planned into reality. Three years ago, Shailer mowed a track down the first hill, named it Homeward Bound, we had a bit of a play and then moved onto other priorities. Now we are back!

With the weather playing up a bit, it was touch and go with hiring the digger, however apart from a slightly wet day on Saturday, the ground was very dusty and it didn’t slow Colin down a bit.

We were aiming at building a fun, flat track with wide and bermed corners; the idea being an easy climb up and a grin inducing trip down. The first session went extremely well with the ramp up to the track and the first couple of corners going well, the topography make the idea of the track more than possible, with no rock and mostly topsoil, easy digging! Whilst discussing the finer points of corners, the perfect radius and berms, Colin suggested we build tear drops and the idea stuck, so Homeward Bound has become TearDrop.

The second session was a bright and sunny day with dust being blown in our eyes all day, we completed another four corners and we were both excited by how well things were progressing. This was our first attempt at using the digger on a steep slope and all went well, although we are both cognisant that the soil type is not what we normally face @ Haven.

We came back again at the official Dig Day which was another inclement day, but not as wet as the last session, we were both keen to get stuck in and Colin was soon motoring through our corner, berm, traverse, corner, berm traverse plan up to the top of the hill.

Lisa was off spraying and scrub cutting, and the Scoltock family popped out to lend a hand, with Bradley using Shailer’s toy dozer to help move the soil; Simon had a go with the digger and tended to the Haven bees with Becs and Nathan going for a long walk around the tracks.

At the close of Saturday, we were about 3/4 of the way up the hill and we were very confident of reaching the top, the plan coming to fruition nicely, as we were climbing the land was becoming steeper and shorter however, we had room to dig around the ridge of the hill to extend the fun.

Sunday, like the last session last time, was hot and sunny, we managed to squeeze in another three corners which will make lots of fun in climbing to the top. All up we have 11 corners, and will be back for one more session to make the radius on each corner as perfect as we can and build nice, consistent and reliable berms. Exciting stuff. Stay tuned for even more exciting developments to be released soon @ Haven MTB Park.

May 2010