Hey Hey. HavenMTBPark is well and truly back on Track!
December so far has been lots of fun and lots of work, an equal helping of biking and maintenance. It makes Lisa and I so happy to have left Christchurch for this crazy plan of mine.
More Digger action and this time it’s big and small. We got Ralph from Ralph Ogg Contracting in to clear some broom and scrub as well as build me a quad bike road for when the wood-lots grow up big and strong and require access for logging.
Ralph also re-opened the 4WD track, widening it so you could contemplate taking a four-wheel drive up there. He also cleared the area of broom that his boom could reach for planting out next year. A fantastic effort!
We also got the plans for the River Track’s next stage under way as well. Sidetracked by appalling weather and the Big Rattle, it was all action stations. We spent one day clearing the broom to see what the lay of the land was like and to see what kind of climbing traverse we could make. Although the river took a lot longer to turn thus making the planned traverse track a lot longer, the terrain looked good. The next question was could we get round the cliff and what the digging would be like.
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| Checking out the cliff! Exploration by Digger |
We couldn’t explore far by foot as the area was full of Onga Onga. As you will see by the photos to follow, it went very very well. We had to make a significant part of the track completely with fill as we crossed a steep gulch. The bench was taller than the digger!
Col is becoming very expert with the Digger now, if the rest of the property allows us this amount of latitude, we will be able to make Digger built trails across most of it.
The area we are building in at the moment is a nicely burgeoning native forest of Mahoe and Cabbage Trees. The odd Elderberry and Broom is nicely being devoured by the Muehlenbeckia vine. As well as the ever present Onga Onga.
How could you not enjoy being here. We managed to build in a lot of wiggles and ups and downs to keep the track exciting.
It slopes nicely downhill to allow speed but it should also be a nice trail to climb the other way.
Big ups to the lads at HirePool Hornby for sorting us out each time with an awesome deal.
We just kept nosing along following the contour, Col knew I wanted to turn back and come back closer to the creek, but we decided to keep going until we found the perfect place for a corner instead of trying it on somewhere too steep. We were stoked to find a flat spot, the perfect place for a corner, and fairly rare for Haven! I am super stoked and Colin had his big Digger grin on again. We finished with the corner mostly cut and prepared for the next session.
I can’t wait to be putting rubber to the track, the great thing is that it can be tonight, as the trail is hard-pack and ready. We will put in a few berms when we finish, but this is the way to build!