That Word

With a bit of free time this crisp autumn afternoon, I decided on a quick ride through Cornubia over to Daisy Hill and return.

I headed straight up my new favourite climb, Wallum Froglet and was greeted by a little bit of trail art at the top. Now, many words have been typed on forums and spoken hailing the sweetness of this new trail, but this simple arrangement of gravel and stones is touching and quite frankly, made my day.

Rolling Again

The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur around here.

I just did a stint of six days straight away at work and let me tell you, nothing gets done in your personal life with that much time spent in an aeroplane or hotel. The company totally owns my backside while I am away. But, how else would I have the opportunity to check out this 70's era Toyota Crown wagon in Hobart? Love the wood panelling.....

So, after patting the kids on the head and getting some chores squared away I jumped on the trusty Trek and went for a roll around the Cornubia and Daisy Hill trails.

It was nice to see the new (temporary) trail head totems on Wallum Froglet and to see how well the trail held up to so much rain last week. It was dry to ride on Sunday.

Another highlight of hitting the trails mid morning was that I had them to myself. Not a soul to be seen and hero dirt everywhere!

It was great to be back on the bike and I could feel the stress levels decreasing with every pedal stroke. A week and a half is too long between rides!

Freedom.........

So, I ask you, "what am I going to do on a Saturday morning for the rest of 2012?"

"Not get up at 5am and trudge up a hillside to dig trail" is the answer!

WOO HOO!!!!!

As of Saturday the 14th of April, at about 11:30am to be precise, we locked the gate behind us after the final build day on the Wallum Froglet trail.

The guys really put in a massive effort for this last build day.

There was intensity in every one's actions. The wheel barrows full of rock and blue metal were wheeled down the hill with purpose. The empty barrows were whisked up the hill with minimal chat to be refilled. Every one wanted this thing finished, today.

In fact, we were so focused that there were no photos of the final day! It even rained on us as we cooked the wind-up BBQ! It was if the bush was saying "so what?, now piss off!"

So I snuck up there, thumbing my nose at the rain the following day to get some trail porn pictures....

This is the trail head, which will be tidied up a bit yet. But we did move 2 cubic metres(yards) of rock and about 2.5 of the 3 cubic metres(yards) of blue metal that was delivered to us.

Actually, I did get one photo of the final day. It was taken with my smart phone, after nearly 5 hours of hard slog and the lens is suitably fogged up.

Then the heavens opened up on us, forcing us to scoff our sausages and mutter under our breath. But....and it is a huge BUT, we were finished.

There were no hiding the smiles and feelings of accomplishment. I am very proud to have been involved with such a great group of people in building this trail. There is no greater indicator of passion than turning up, week after week, to hard physical work and getting nothing but enjoyment out of it!

I feel very proud and privileged to have been involved.

Thank you all.

Now, lets go ride.....................................................

Good.....No, Great Friday

Today didn't start so well, with me having to bail on an early ride with a mate, due to me feeling "fluey". (Sorry Dean0!)

As the day wore on, I downed plenty of fluids and some placebos....er vitamins and began to feel better. I also noticed what a cracker of a day it was too! A slight coolness in the air, something that we haven't really had here in Brisbane so far this year. Too good a day to waste sitting around the house, trying not to eat meat or chocolate.

So I saddled up and went for a roll through Daisy Hill, via Wallum Froglet. Up the new trail to get to Daisy, then back down it to come home.

I am not sure what an actual Wallum Froglet looks like, but I know what our Wallum Froglet looks like.(It looks better in HD too.)







                                                                     Yep, it was a great friday.

Into The Light

Trail Building.  A bittersweet experience.

I quite enjoy the therapeutic benefits of using my hands to create a section of trail that is both pleasing to the eye and flows well on a bike. There is something almost primeval about the satisfaction.

At times though I dislike, almost resent, the fact that I am stuck here digging when I could be riding my bike, like everyone else.

What has brought on these thoughts you may ask? Well, they are always bubbling along, under the surface. I am human after all! But more on that later.

This morning was another notch in the belt for the trail builders here on Wallum Froglet. Week 9 in fact. We have only missed two Saturday mornings due to rain since the 21st of January. I am itching for some riding.

Fellow MTBer and sometime radio presenter, Andrew Demack, came along this morning to lend a hand to the build day. He also brought his recording equipment along and thrust a microphone into some of the dedicated builder's faces (in a nice way, of course).

So, as we come toward the end of this massive effort, his questions got me thinking about how I feel about the work we have put in.

I can tell you that I am massively proud of the regular half dozen guys that have been there, virtually every Saturday morning, for the last 11 weeks. There are another twenty or so guys and girls that have contributed to the build when they had a spare Saturday and they are also champions.

The other 10-15 000 mountain bikers here in Brisbane should hang their heads. The amount of whingeing that takes place on MTB forums about the lack of places to ride, at times, is phenomenal. These keyboard warriors are also armchair experts in trail design, with most never having picked up a Rakeho to actually help out. The real flamer for me is when they post on our trail building thread and ask where the trail is located, so that they can come and ride it! My response to come along, help build and learn where the trail is always gets the "sorry mate, too busy riding that day" response from these tactless tools. Don't they realise we would rather be riding as well?

But these people weren't too busy to forego one ride to help create a little slice of heaven......

Yes, even the kids busted their tushes carrying rock, pushing barrows and grabbing tools for the adults. I am sure this young bloke got a blister on his index finger from all of the photos he took today! Sorry to anyone who had 20-odd photos taken of them in quick succession! I got a great laugh as I downloaded from the camera, literally hundreds of photos of this mornings efforts!

Anyway, I was pressed for time this morning, with my wife away in Sydney and soccer duties falling to me, on top of trail building. I was rushing around, trying to help as much as I could, set up the BBQ and keep an eye on the time so we wouldn't miss the round ball kick-off. This is when Andrew found me for a quick chat....Now, there is a good reason my company doesn't let us drivers talk to the media. As interviewees, some of us (me in particular) should just stick to dealing with 80 tonnes of Boeing 737 rather than articulating my feelings on trail building!

I felt a bit like a rabbit in the headlights, couldn't take my eyes off that damn microphone and noticed that I was talking about an octave higher than normal!! I am not looking forward to hearing this short interview played back and I am hoping Andrew can just dub in some cool music to drown me out.

Only a week or so to go now.......then we RIDE.

Mid Week Sneaky

This Mountain Bike trail that has consumed all of my (and many others) saturday mornings this year is finally nearing completion.

I was able to sneak out today and finish up some minor gully crossings to help speed the build process next saturday morning. Some hidden tools certainly help in this endeavour, as I can cram in a ride, then dig some trail.

These little gully crossings can now be linked into the main trail this saturday.

Less than four weeks to go now folks!!

I am looking forward to having my saturdays back and going for a ride on this trail.

Wallum Froglet, Part "A"

Saturday dawned fine and clear after the heavy downpours of friday. Good news for the trail building crew, as today was hopefully going to mark the end of Part A. The plan for today was to cut a dropout trail two hunderd metres long to the fire road, going from virgin hillside to fully finished IMBA standard single track. The rollout was impressive. The saying "many hands make light work" sprang to mind.

Over the course of the next four hours we were taken through the trail building process by local professional, Oppy. 

As we moved along the hillside an amazing thing happened. A ribbony length of single track appeared behind us. Look behind you Tom...............it's following us.

Once we reached the fire road it was time to head back and place the duff we were saving along each side of the trail. There before us was a completed section of trail that looked like it had been there for ever, unlike the main part of the trail that still needs fixes applied to it. Some say this trail is too easy. True, but it is only a drop out track to make part A ride able/usable before we push on with part B of Wallum Froglet trail. Once part B has been carefully marked out to ensure it is going to be sustainable and not turn into an erosion embarrassment, we can apply these newly learned skills to it's steep slopes.

In the mean time, chuck another steak on the bbq, then lets go for a ride!

Can't afford not to!

It has been head down, bum up around Flyboy HQ lately. The builders doing our renovations have me fairly well occupied, then throw in running around after the kids doesn't leave much time spare. Lets not forget there is work. I appreciate having more days off by working harder when I go to work, but ten hours on, ten hours in a hotel, eleven hours on, eleven hours in a hotel, followed by another ten hours strapped into an aircraft is catching up with me! These last two weeks have been the easy weeks this roster!! Yikes!!

Wedged into this hectic schedule are some calming moments. Trail building here in Cornubia is one of them. A few weeks ago we happened across this very nice waterfall, just below where our new trail will run.

Sorry about the Samsung Galaxy picture quality.

Trail building is becoming a regular feature. 6am every saturday morning and a bunch of scruffy looking fourty somethings shuffle along the mean streets of Cornubia, carrying all manner of digging implements. Our destination is a narrow corridor of bushland in Cornubia Forest that has been named "Wallum Froglet". It will be one of the best "fire access" trails in this state when we have finished with it. It will link onto more sweet "fire access trail" that is yet to be crafted, creating a mecca for the "knowing, discerning" MTBer here in Brisbane. Singletrack connoisseurs need only apply.

Another bummer is that my instant fitness acquired in Rotorua is on the wane. This full schedule is only giving a very small window of opportunity to actually do some cycling. About one ride per week since I have been back. After some soul searching I have pinned down what is fuelling this lethargy. I believe it is the fact that I have resisted any self coercion to actually write up a race schedule. I have not actually sat down and mapped out my year ahead, meaning I have no training goals/plan. This means if I miss a ride, it doesn't matter! Dumb logic I know. I need to get off this blog and decide what races I want to ride this year before it is too late, then get off my arse and train.

I put some hurt on myself a couple of weeks ago by riding while I was suffering after effects of a cold. This made me reluctant to get out last week. Luckily I did though. I rode over to Underwood park and took part in the Brisbane South MTB Club club race day. I must say I had a good time. Not necessarily flogging myself, but riding hard, yet smart, I felt good and had a great time. Maybe it is time to get some scheduled training happening?

Some super sweet deals have been appearing on the interwebs of late and I have hatched yet another cunning plan for bicycle blinginess! I love Chain Reaction Cycles and the deals they provide. Some of the components are so cheap, You Can't Afford Not To buy them!!!! The Australia Post Santa arrived tuesday morning.........................

Stand by for some unbridled "blinginess" coming to a Trek near me!