Sunday, June 15, 2008
Labyrinth Extension: Underway!
Work has begun to construct a trail between the labyrinth exit at the 2nd Pylon and the top of Spoon Hill. On Saturday, a large turnout of helpful volunteers made their way into the bush to create a link between the current Labyrinth exit and Spoon Hill. This will mean that riders and walkers will no longer have to venture onto the 4WD track to get up to spoon hill. Labyrinth Extension will have the same feel as Labyrinth. Come along and help this weekend. As this is a short and sweet piece of track, expect in finished in only a few weeks.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Why we build trails...
(Photographs -Spoon hill on the upper rocks ridge with great views of wellington harbour and the Orongoronga's. Jungle Gym down in the gully of switchbacks)
Ok, a bit of a catch up and a bit of long overdue background to the WTP.
In brief it all started back in Sept 2004 when I went walkabout with a machete off the side of the Wainuiomata hill during the September school holidays.
I kind of sketched out a line for what was to become 'beeline' and pointed out the track to a few kids in my school mtb club (Wainuiomata High School). A team of kids got busy one weekend while I was away surfing and I returned to a salvo of text messages asking me to come look at what they had done!
Finishing Beeline took about 3 months, Dave Blake put in a wooden bridge, Jordan Blake and Ben Hudson finished off the top entry berm and our first downhill track was born..
Anyway, we approached Hutt City Council, told them we had done a bad thing, they were really understanding and we began to discuss future plans, and what was to become jungle gym..
I guess the WTP was officially established in 2006 - Neil Hickford and I started digging track together mid week, Jim Long joined us building switchbacks below the old road knuckle low down on Jungles and Paula Umbers stepped up as camp mum and the best secretary any organisation could dream of having!
We have since been allocated $250,000 of council money to get the project pumping, now have 4 tracks completed and have many more in the pipeline and planning stage.
We have been lucky to have so much support - volunteers who come help dig are our life blood. We are grateful to Hutt City Council for their continuing trust and support.
Riding good single-track is something like surfing. Surfers drive miles and chase weather systems in search of perfect waves. We are lucky enough to have a huge blank canvas of beautiful native bush to seek out our own lines of perfection. For those of us that live in the valley it's quite literally single-track right out the back door..
Building trails is primal - you change the land forever, and it feels good. Volunteers get the chance to build something that feels sweet as you move through it with a bike beneath you.
I hope our park one day becomes a listed recreation / conservation area with rich biodiversity and bird life. I hope visitors to the park leave having experienced a taste of something special and wild so close to Wellington.
Our trails allow that loose yourself and find yourself again feeling while watching the sun set over Wellington harbour or while finding good rhythm at speed between the trees on one last run down that favourite trail.
If you haven’t been to Wainuiomata in a while - perhaps you should..!
Tryfan Ephraim - President WTP
In brief it all started back in Sept 2004 when I went walkabout with a machete off the side of the Wainuiomata hill during the September school holidays.
I kind of sketched out a line for what was to become 'beeline' and pointed out the track to a few kids in my school mtb club (Wainuiomata High School). A team of kids got busy one weekend while I was away surfing and I returned to a salvo of text messages asking me to come look at what they had done!
Finishing Beeline took about 3 months, Dave Blake put in a wooden bridge, Jordan Blake and Ben Hudson finished off the top entry berm and our first downhill track was born..
Anyway, we approached Hutt City Council, told them we had done a bad thing, they were really understanding and we began to discuss future plans, and what was to become jungle gym..
I guess the WTP was officially established in 2006 - Neil Hickford and I started digging track together mid week, Jim Long joined us building switchbacks below the old road knuckle low down on Jungles and Paula Umbers stepped up as camp mum and the best secretary any organisation could dream of having!
We have since been allocated $250,000 of council money to get the project pumping, now have 4 tracks completed and have many more in the pipeline and planning stage.
We have been lucky to have so much support - volunteers who come help dig are our life blood. We are grateful to Hutt City Council for their continuing trust and support.
Riding good single-track is something like surfing. Surfers drive miles and chase weather systems in search of perfect waves. We are lucky enough to have a huge blank canvas of beautiful native bush to seek out our own lines of perfection. For those of us that live in the valley it's quite literally single-track right out the back door..
Building trails is primal - you change the land forever, and it feels good. Volunteers get the chance to build something that feels sweet as you move through it with a bike beneath you.
I hope our park one day becomes a listed recreation / conservation area with rich biodiversity and bird life. I hope visitors to the park leave having experienced a taste of something special and wild so close to Wellington.
Our trails allow that loose yourself and find yourself again feeling while watching the sun set over Wellington harbour or while finding good rhythm at speed between the trees on one last run down that favourite trail.
If you haven’t been to Wainuiomata in a while - perhaps you should..!
Tryfan Ephraim - President WTP
Saturday, February 9, 2008
WTP: 1, Rocks: 0
This weekends digging was largely based around removing large amount of rock to create some awesome benching on the Spoon Hill Bypass, which is coming along nicely with less than 100 metres of trail yet to be built. This bypass is certainly going to be a lot of fun.
Digging is still on Thursday Nights and Saturday mornings throughout the summer. Come along and lend a hand. Swinging a mattock is therapeutic, honest! There are plenty of other things to do on the trail so everyone is welcome.
Thanks to Pete (VERT) for the pics. You can click the images for larger versions.
Digging is still on Thursday Nights and Saturday mornings throughout the summer. Come along and lend a hand. Swinging a mattock is therapeutic, honest! There are plenty of other things to do on the trail so everyone is welcome.
Thanks to Pete (VERT) for the pics. You can click the images for larger versions.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Spoonhill Bypass Continues
Okay, so quite a while ago the Spoonhill Bypass was mentioned as an option to give the park more loops, bypassing the top of Spoonhill could create another intermediate loop. I didn't think the trail would be anything special, but would serve a purpose.
I was really wrong. The trail that is being built is going to be very fast and a lot of fun. Tryfan and Neil have put a lot of thought into the trail and it is going to be a ripper. There are long sight lines to allow speed and confidence, there are fun little features built in for added style it will be mint.
The best news though? It is being built nice and quickly by the volunteers, so will be open soon! It will be open even sooner if you come along and help out. Check out http://www.vorb.org.nz/ for details.
In other news, the family track and entry area plans are continuing, with final plans being available soon and it is likely tenders will go out in the next month. All good news!
I have included a few photos from the Spoonhill Bypass just to show how good it looks!
I was really wrong. The trail that is being built is going to be very fast and a lot of fun. Tryfan and Neil have put a lot of thought into the trail and it is going to be a ripper. There are long sight lines to allow speed and confidence, there are fun little features built in for added style it will be mint.
The best news though? It is being built nice and quickly by the volunteers, so will be open soon! It will be open even sooner if you come along and help out. Check out http://www.vorb.org.nz/ for details.
In other news, the family track and entry area plans are continuing, with final plans being available soon and it is likely tenders will go out in the next month. All good news!
I have included a few photos from the Spoonhill Bypass just to show how good it looks!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
The Family Track
The plans march onward!
One of the major sale points to the Hutt City Council for the funding of the Wainui Trail Project was the construction of an easy family track. This will incorporate a car park and meeting area at the end of Waiu Street.
The volunteers have proposed a trail which has met the approval of the HCC and designs for the car park area are currently being reviewed. All going to plan, final designs will be complete in January with construction beginning mid-Feb.
The good news for the volunteers is that the trails are being built by the Council, so we will have another trail magically appearing that will be usable for all groups (I am going to make my girlfriend ride it!)
One of the major sale points to the Hutt City Council for the funding of the Wainui Trail Project was the construction of an easy family track. This will incorporate a car park and meeting area at the end of Waiu Street.
The volunteers have proposed a trail which has met the approval of the HCC and designs for the car park area are currently being reviewed. All going to plan, final designs will be complete in January with construction beginning mid-Feb.
The good news for the volunteers is that the trails are being built by the Council, so we will have another trail magically appearing that will be usable for all groups (I am going to make my girlfriend ride it!)
The Spoonhill Bypass
A new trail!
Construction has recently started on a new trail - The Spoonhill Bypass which will create an intermediate loop incorporating Jungle Gym and Labyrinth and will Bypass the upper rutted section of Spoonhill.
The aim in construction of the trail is creating a similar 'feel' to the bottom half of Spoonhill, which is fast and flowing. A favourite of all mountain bikers. A special feature is being constructed on the trail. Grant funding has been obtained for the materials for the constructino of the feature.
Building is currently taking place each Saturday morning, from the top of Spoonhill - come along and lend a hand if you want to see more sweet singletrack in the Wellington region!
Construction has recently started on a new trail - The Spoonhill Bypass which will create an intermediate loop incorporating Jungle Gym and Labyrinth and will Bypass the upper rutted section of Spoonhill.
The aim in construction of the trail is creating a similar 'feel' to the bottom half of Spoonhill, which is fast and flowing. A favourite of all mountain bikers. A special feature is being constructed on the trail. Grant funding has been obtained for the materials for the constructino of the feature.
Building is currently taking place each Saturday morning, from the top of Spoonhill - come along and lend a hand if you want to see more sweet singletrack in the Wellington region!
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Trail work additions to Labyrinth
Paul has recently installed a beautifully crafted corner up on Labyrinth. With a 5 degree inward slope it blends into the trail well and looks great! This was a problematic corner but we believe the result will be much more sustainable and easily maintained. It rides pretty well too.
Click on the thumbnails for larger versions.
Click on the thumbnails for larger versions.
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