North Face/ Smokin/ JFK Blog

A tenacious gang made about 60m of trail through some pretty tough ground today, an awesome effort indeed!

The run from switchback 5 to 6 is on a very steep side slope, some of the steepest in the whole trail. And at no extra cost it did include a fair amount of rock.

The usual menu was devoured:

Ripping gorse and barberry out of the ground,

Smashing rock with picks,

Lopping pestiferous vegetation near the trail and beyond,

and benching a trail of curvy swoopy excellence with grubbers.

Just another normal North Face dig day, except that for the first time, the end of the beginning is in sight !

Next up we have only 20 m to bench to the switchback: the ground is all cleared and waiting. The switchback itself will be a challenge: situated on that steep side slope, with big surface rocks.

But we have seen far far worse before and overcome it, so very very soon the whole trail will be ridable.

The view from switchback 6 at about 11am:

And a few hours later:

In the late afternoon I was called to a photo opportunity: the last stump in the middle of the trail was to be removed. Fittingly, it was both gorse AND barberry:

And bye bye stump!!

So now for thre inevitable map: only the yellow and dotted bit to go before the trail is ridable:

It will still need heaps of fettling before it is finished, but riding, walking or running the trail will only help pack it down .

Next up, weather permitting, is Tuesday evening, which could be a historic occasion!

Cheers.

The North face was approved to be built as IMBA  "Intermediate" standard.

So what does this mean?

It means if you find Lazy Fern tricky, this trail will be very challenging.

If you find Ridgeline Vertigo and Trickle Falls Ok, this trail will not (and should not) have the anything like same technical challenge.

This is the difference between diffcult+extreme tracks, and intermediate, and easy ones..

The track itself is currently very like Sally Alley to ride. So what end of intermediate should it be built to?

Many people would automatically build a trail to be as tough as they could-  however this does minimise the number of riders who can happily ride it. If we do that, we are not really building a trail to cater for as many intermediate riders as we can.  Given that this is (and will be) the only intermeduiate way down from the top, I dont think we can fairly build it to be as tough as possible in technical difficulty.

However if we built an intermediate trail that is not as tough technically as can be under that standard, the more skilled riders will not have the technical challenge that they are looking for.

To ensure this trail is also enjoyed my the more skilled riders, I think we should build as much fun and flow into the trail as we can, and the more skilled riders will challenge themselves by riding it faster.

In this way their fun comes from the flow rather than the difficulty, and more riders will enjoy this epic trail.

Cheers!

Rob

This evening a team of about 15 worked their way up to switchback number 6, and began clearing above it. Plenty of gorse stumps lie in wait over the next 90m, and there is the small matter of a switchback placed on a steep hill to dig, (what is a 65% side slope anyway??) but it will happen.

The benching below is probably too narrow and too close to the prickles to ride at the moment but widen it we shall  :o)

In contrast to when we piloted through this area in late June last year, the views are now quite spectacular with the clearing of The Menace, and there are plans afoot to create a seat from which to gaze into the great beyond.

Here are some photos in the downhill direction.

Looking towards switchback #6:

The pink tape marker on Switchback #6:

The view out of the switchback:

And a bit further along:

and then:

And even further along:

So we are now approximately here:

Many thanks to those who made it along this evening, it is quite a walk up and it is getting darker earlier..

Next up we will be hacking away from switchback number 5, on SUNDAY this coming weekend… and back again to the lower bit on Tuesday next week.

See you there!

One Mountain bike trail, needs a little work, perfect for those who want to make the place their own special retreat. With a fresh coat of paint it will look like new and be the envy of the whole street!

Today two or three regulars could not be there, and the ground was a gorse field, so I thought progress may be steady rather than staggering. I hoped that we would get near the Heebee, which was planned to be the centrepoint of a switchback number 5.

Well we got to that tree and around it, and semi cleared 30m beyond in mostly great weather. The morning breeze had by then died away to an almost balmy late afternoon.

Big thanks to those who worked part of the day- fitting in track building where they could .

 Everybody who spends some time on the North face really does make a noticeable difference.

With about 145m to go, we should have worked or way right through from the bottom up and the top down in the next 2 weeks, given good weather. . Then all we have to do is make this 1700m as fun to ride as we can, and as it packs down the potential is pretty obvious to anybody who has ridden it !

Phil and Josh drag a barberry stump out of the way..

Zac, Iain and Hugh work their way towards the Heebee and switchback number 5:

Ian clears the run down from the switchback :

The diminishing gap:

Next up is Tuesday evening where the trail is pretty clear. Hopefully great things will be created on the way up to switchback number 6. 

Another mild evening greeted 13 or so trackies as they did their thing up on the side of the hill, high above Karori.

On the uphill side of proceedings there is the pilot track (with enough gorse cut to actually see the ground) and on the downhill direction, a freshly cut benched and groomed work of art with swoopy bends, flowing its way down the hill into the distance. Amazing. There is a real sense of camaraderie and achievement amongst the gang and it is well deserved. We have about about 250m to go before the two ends meet in the middle.

Er correction: Ian tells me there is about 190m to go, allowing for an extension around a well placed tree near Ridgeline, so I have amended the map :-)

We should come close to both switchbacks over the coming Saturday and Tuesday digs, however the bit in the middle is just gorse for Africa (or more accurately, Scotland).

Then we can look at perfecting the trail: perhaps a bit of widening, and I think, a lot of berming of switchbacks :-) :-) And a bit of trail even closer to home...

Here be a map of what there is yet to clear:

And on the way down the hill I stopped and took this:

This coming weekend we will be working on the top section from 10am on Saturday, and then the following Tuesday from the lower end again.

If you have not come along to a track dig day, please drop in and be part of this adventure! There is plenty to do, with lots of friendly assistance, tools, a feed and gloves etc provided.

Cheers!

Nine people clobbered the earth with various heavy tools and made some more trail today :-)  

Gale force winds were predicted and it did get a bit breezy working out on the ridge, but the cooling effect was a welcome change to the clammy weekend work parties that we have had recently.

It seems that most of the ridges on this Face are solid rock (and the valleys much the same) so the lads elected to have a few bendy bits then have the track rise up over some of that solid rock, to then continue it’s downward path into the gorse.

About 45m of the trail was cleared and benched, (and much tinkering of 2 switchbacks as remedial therapy) so we are 230m from joining this trail up (or 250m when we go around the Heebee tree)

The upper 150m will be slow going, as it is a wall of gorse stumps unlike any seen by a sane man or women for generations. After that things are Ok except for a steep switchback (our excuse for the location is that it is not actually on the nearby cliff) and 75m from there to the Tuesday night work is quite “easy”.

Walking up and down the top 750m of this trail, which has only started to exist 4 months ago I can see that the many Pungas that we have passed by are flourishing- they love the extra light and space. One day they should be towering over this trail, and hopefully this winter we can do plenty of planting of natives as well.

Some of these were built:

Martin stands triumphant on top of a pile of rock..

And here is a pic from just above that spot, looking down on the Valley of Switchbacks:

Next up is Tuesday night from 5- these very popular digs will be run up to the end of daylight saving, and after that, Saturday 20th next weekend.

See you on the side of a hill!

This afternoon Ian and Rob went for a wander up the pilot track for the 4^th stage, as the middle part of that track had not yet been defined and marked. We knew where it had to go, but we had not been there yet. The top two thirds of this trail runs through a valley of trees, with very little undergrowth, so we thought “how hard can it be?”.

Taking up where we left off last time we marked our way uphill to where we thought the middle switchback would be, which seemed to be immersed in a clump of gorse the size of Hamilton.

Decorating a tree with enough pink tape to make the spot obvious we then back tracked to the middle of the valley and then upwards to the higher part of the previously marked trail and whittled, sawed, snipped and hacked our way through the vines back across the hill. Tarzan would have loved this place.

Once again the track traversed the hill through tall trees until yet another imposing wall of vegetation was in our sights. Fortunately this was right where we needed to join the lower track, so all we needed to do was clear 10 square metres of dense gorse, stinging nettle, blackberry and enough vines to make a swing bridge to Petone.

So now the trail is fully marked and piloted and can one day be cleared, benched, and then completed. Lots of small surface rocks in the valley should make an ideal foundation too. There is plenty of opportunity for clearing the prickly nasties along the lowest 50 metres and planting natives where the track parallels the small jump on Ridgeline Extension. You can see it below, and how it relates to the other trails, marked in orange with no name:

This lowest section of the “North Face” project is about 400m long, and drops to the picnic table from the 4wd track above Allington Rd. 

We choose to build these tracks.

We choose to build theses tracks in the next years and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.     

:-) :-)

This Tuesday evening started with ominous weather but cleared to a wonderful evening on the side of a hill. 

About 16 People, young and olde, men and women, had a tremendous time making more trail.

A small squad (who lets face it, just like to suffer) toiled away at the Uber Switchback while others benched trails and still others attacked barberry and gorse.

With almost complete success.

The Barberry That Ate Godzilla was still resisting, but it had been reduced to a shadow of its former self, and a large rock it had been using as protection is now gone.

The trail now has a bench all the way to the fluffy bush, a true landmark in the track building climb up the hill.

From there quite a distance has been nicely cleared with just a few stumps left,  and a bit of very rough pilot track cleaned up from there. (who could have built THAT he asked innocently).

With at least 100metres being cleared top and bottom each week, the meeting of the upwardly and downwardly mobile cannot be far away.

Thanks again to all those who came along to be part of action!

From the map below you can see the ever shrinking pilot trail, and the ever growing cleared benched stuff.

Next up we will be working down from the top end this coming SUNDAY from 10 am, and we will be resuming hostilities with the gorse again next Tuesday at 5.

p.s. I have a pair of Giant fingerless gloves without an owner, please let me know who you are!

Glorious sunny skies meant a tremendous view from the small valley where we were working today.  The yachts did their thing on the water, and most Wellingtonians probably lazed in the sun.

A thirsty gang cleared almost 100m of trail and benched 80. Two switchbacks were created, (numbers 3 and 4 on this section of the trail) along with the usual inventing of swerves and rollers, with a step up and bit of a hole dug to keep the riders amused on the way down.

Cheers to Brad for his first dig day, and to those who dropped by for an hour or two in the middle of their ride. The North Face thanks you J  .  I think we had 10 people busily doing stuff today.

This part of the track is more open and a bit flatter than most, (in fact we invented it in this small valley just for the fun of the ride) and it should be good for a bit of a sprint one day for those with the energy!

We now have about 310m to clear to where the Tuesday Nighters are at the moment.

Next Sunday we will be hacking our way through a gorse avenue towards the Big HeeBee just near Ridgeline.

These were taken late in the day (when I remembered that I had brought my camera.)

Many people were hiding in the shade..

We started about where the chilly bin is lurking..      Martin perfects this piece of trail.

Jono lanscapes his table top.

The view into the third switchback on this trail.

Zac belts some rocks with his tremendous endurance.

The run from the third switchie into the fourth one features this rise: one we did not have to build for a change!

Here is the corner itself :-)

And we have managed some swervery on the way out.

This is the run to the next ridge, which is only a mild thing, not as bad as it looks!! (although do not quote me on that).

And the yellow bits are the clearing yet to be done, so that work from above and below meets up.

See you next Sunday @ 10am (working from the top), or this Tuesday @ 5pm (attacking the clearing from the bottom).

cheers