Making the most of more fine weather and ideal digger conditions, we got a digger again this weekend.

Pleasantly surprised to get a brand new digger in all it’s scratch free and freshly painted glory. – 27 hours on the clock, we usually get a digger with around 3-5,000 hours.

I decided to extend the Long Cut which we started at the beginning of the month.

I was feeling a bit better about the approach to the entry so gave it a go, it ended up pretty good, although it was a bit of work breaking through the old bench of the 4WD Track which had a fair amount of rock, from here it was a gentle climb and traverse along and around the contour – plenty of tangle-weed and old Elderberry trees to knock down.

I was going to cut in a corner but then remembered it was the Long Cut – from my vantage points I couldn’t really see where the track was and how big the basin was. I ended up climbing on top of the digger and saw that there was still another reasonable sized gully to cross before we reached the envisaged boundary, so on I went.

The beers were earned that night.

Sunday and back into it, pushing the traverse along, and finally got into a narrow rocky section, this was going well and I was through but then got myself stuck that required the expert skills of Shane. Yay. The weather had turned a bit too, with quite a bit of rain.

The Track is in there somewhere!

Still plenty more track in there but can’t see it from here.

After this I spent the rest of the day raking the track then clearing the 4WD track of the rank grasses, fresh broom and many loose rocks. I also filled in the wheel sized holes that were there. The good news is that the track is ready for bikes again. A very fast and loose downhill and pretty impossible uphill – it is extremely steep – have fun!

It was dark by the time I got to the bottom of the track, so I was glad to get back onto the road and pack up.

It’s been a great year for trail building at Haven MTB Park – you should come out and see what’s going on.

The Digger has many signs of battle now and just under 50 hours on the clock now!

Happy New Year
Mr Haven

The Last Diggerage of 2012