Rockwheelers Trail Talk - April

2014 has seen a fairly normal wet season, a couple of club working bees and a new batch of Trail Fairies to wave their magic wands on the hillsides of Douglas Mountain Bike Reserve.  

In February, Townsville Rockwheelers held its second annual Trail Building Workshop, were those interested in getting more involved in trail maintenance learned the basics from our more hardened trail fairies.  Workshop co-ordinator Haydn Tilley kicked things off with an International Mountainbike Association (IMBA) presentation on sustainable trail design.  IMBA has been at the forefront of sustainable trail design for over a decade and their experts travel around the world supporting local organisations with advice and resources and preaching trail advocacy.  Haydn is one of several Rockwheelers members who have attended IMBA training programs and combined with his Degree from the school of hard knocks, has a very good handle on what works and what doesn’t.  IMBA’s trail building resources can be found online at https://www.imba.com/resources/trail-building.

Most trail construction is now done by contractors using mini excavators, so this workshop was really focused on trail maintenance.  But good maintenance requires at least a basic understanding of how sustainable trails are designed.  The IMBA presentation ran us through the key principals of trail design.  Here’s a few of the most important ones:
  

1. The Half Rule: a trail should not exceed half the grade (steepness) of the hillside.  Break this one and your trail becomes a fall line that funnels water down it and quickly becomes a maintenance nightmare.  Fall line trails erode quickly, damage the environment and are not fun to ride. 
2. 10 Percent Rule: overall trail grade should be 10 percent or less.  In Townsville with our poor soils, long dry season and heavy wet season downpours, best to err on the side of caution or suffer the consequences. 
3. Keep the flow - All trails should have "smooth transitions". Bad flow, especially fast sections leading into sharp turns, is a primary cause of erosion, user conflict and poor riding experience.
4. Drainage: get the water off the trail by using grade reversals, rolling grade dips, nicks and other groovy features that are not only essential for drainage, but actually add lots of fun and variety to the trail. 
5. Outslope: Trails are built with a slight outslope to drain water.  When excess material builds up on the outer edge of the trail it is removed by DEBERMING.  This reinstates the outslope and ensures water can drain off the trail instead of along the trail.  De-berming is the activity we most commonly undertake at working bees.

Good trail has lots of wiggle – it’s fun to ride, and sustainable.

Haydn then introduced some of our newly crowned Trail Fairies who have been involved in the ADOPT-A-TRAIL program at Douglas MTB Reserve.  Many will be familiar with the Herculean efforts of Lou Marou who has been beavering away on Wedgetail since early last year.  Anyone who has ridden that side of the hill recently will attest to Lou’s continued efforts.   We also met Kim and Steve Clarke who adopted Upper Bluering.  Kim and Steve new they had a challenge on their hands and were duly advised by Peter ‘Mozzie’ McLean to ‘just go for it – they couldn’t possibly make things any worse’.  Stay Tuned for an update on Kim and Steve’s progress on Upper Bluering.  And finally we heard from Chris Rockemer who recalled his epic battle with the grass monster that was Lower Wedgetail.   
  
Armed with just enough info and caffeine to be dangerous, Haydn then led the group on a magical digging adventure up The Long Way.  Here they were able to see sustainable trail design in the flesh, caress her curves, feel her smooth transitions and sense her desire to be fun and erosion free.  The group followed up work done with a mini excavator the week before, tidied up some backslopes and realigned the junction of the Long Way and Hammerhead. 
  
Virtually all the trails at Douglas have been adopted again this year, but don’t despair those Trail Fairies need YOUR HELP.  If you are interested in helping out with your favourite trail, or your just want to learn how, come along to our next club working bee and make yourself known.  The club has a schedule of working bees to ensure our trails are ready for the race season, and that leisurely afternoon ride with your mates. 

Thanks to all the trail fairies who have given their time to make the Adopt a Trail program such a success.