Living Springs track condition

6 February 2012: Tree cleared in pines

24th October 2011:  We repaired the bridge that the rain on Wed 19th October washed out.  The other bridge where the water had been dammed and flowing over the track has washed away a lot of the soil and the edge of the track is fragile so take extra care in those areas.  I think there is still a tree down in the Pines and it may be at least a week before it is cleared but people were riding around so it must be passable.   Due to potential rockfall the track down from the Summit is closed.

June 2011: The main riding circuit is in good condition apart from a small spring-fed boggy patch in the Pines that we will keep working on. As we are now getting into the wetter months it would be appreicated if you did not ride the trails when they are wet.

We are also working on making the main parking area to access the trails to be at the Farm Park down on the main road rather than Bamfords Rd. This involves making up and installing a few cattlestops and some new fencing so will take a wee while. We will keep you updated as progress is made.

Please remember that the track down from the Summit Road is CLOSED due to large rockfalls and may be closed for a long time as there are numerous rocky areas above the track that are very unstable.

February 2011: The track is in excellent condition following the NZ MTB Cup race.

coming soon

Check the photos page for a list of all the photo galleries we know of so far from the recent Singletrack Fiesta at Living Springs. Heaps of goodies in there!

MTBO night training, McLeans Island (organised by PAPO)

 Date: Sunday 16^th May

Start Times: Registration will be from 5.45 pm with riders or groups starting at 1 minute intervals. Course closure is 7.30 pm. Basic instruction will be available for those new to orienteering.

 You will be looking for small reflective controls marked with a single-letter code. A pencil may be needed to record the codes.

The course will generally follow the MTB single track (without Coringa loop) with a few small deviations. Map is similar to that used for the MTBO short course on 10^th March. Fastest riders can expect to complete the course in less than 40 minutes.

What to bring: Mountainbike, helmet with a good night light. $2 for a map. A map board or some means of carrying your map is very useful. A small backup torch is worth having if your main light fails and a compass will help you keep track of where you are on the map.

Directions: Registration, start and finish will be at the main Forest Park picnic area off McLeans Island Road opposite Orana Park.  We may have to park outside the gate.

Special Note: PLEASE advise Graeme Read (gr.read@gmail.com) by 11^th May if you are planning to take part so we can prepare the correct number of maps. Graeme is also available for any queries, ph 3522582.

We are having a riding session at the Vulcaniser course on Saturday 27 March.

Last nights decision to cancel the Vulcaniser came at the end of a rather frustrating week.  It began last Saturday with the scrubcutter breaking with about two hours of work left to do to get the course ready for the race.  Then during the week we had various issues with the timing laptops not behaving as they should.  We eventually got everything sorted and planned to head back up to the course at lunchtime on Friday to finish the scrubcutting and set up the HQ area.  There was only about 4mm of rain forecast for Thursday (for Waipara), nothing for Friday and the forecast for Saturday was looking great.  Before we left on Friday we checked the rain radar and we could see that a heavy band of rain was moving quickly up the country.  It hit Christchurch about 12 and we could see that it would have passed by 3 so decided to delay leaving until then.  The sky brightened, we saw blue sky and we were off.  On the way the rain began again, and it rained and it rained and it rained.  Didn’t see that on the radar.  When we turned off at Omihi the sky was clear out towards the coast so we were glad of that.  We put up the signage and started to head up to the course.  Went through a gateway and promptly sank into soft mud.  We unhitched the trailer and told Graham who was following behind with the toilets to stop.   This was our first uh-oh moment.

We realised that participants cars were not going to make it to the car parking area (almost 2 km further on) so we stopped to discuss our options.  No matter what scenario we thought of, there was going to be issues logistically especially as it wasn’t safe to take the trailer to the course so getting all our gear there was going to be difficult and we still wouldn’t have had the toilets.  If we started further back where we could park we could have got people to do their laps and ride back down and not worry about getting lap times.  Before deciding what to do we thought we should have a look at the course so we piled into our car (yay for 4WD) and drove/slid up to the course.  We walked around part of the course and found it to be dangerously slippery in places and with multiple bike passes it would only get worse.  We thought that if we ran the race there was likely to be many injuries and first aid crew would be really stretched which could put people at risk.  We needed to make a decision quickly and let people know as there were people coming from Nelson, Blenheim, the West Coast and Timaru.  One of the few people we didn’t get hold of turned up at the course and as he was an experienced rider with a 4WD car we said he could ride around the course if he took it easy.  We talked to him afterwards and he said that he felt we had made the right decision.

We went down to the landowner’s house and he was wonderful. He let us use his phone to call all the pre-entered riders and then put us up for the night, which we particularly appreciated since there was a frost and ice on all our gear this morning.   He also told us that they had had over 42mm of rain on Thursday and Friday. So it is no wonder the access road was so soft.

 We apologise to all those concerned and we’ll be sending out an email to organise refunds to those who pre-paid.

We will discuss what to do with the prizes with the various sponsors.   Hopefully we can retain most of them for a future event. 

If we get a dry spell and you would like to ride up there in your own time, get in touch with us and we will give you the farmers phone number.  It would be a shame to see all that mowing and scrubcutting not get utilised.

We are sorry to report that the Vulcaniser has been cancelled due to the road in being impassable. The course is too slippery and considered dangerous. Any questions please call Rebekah 027 3134908.

Cycle Surgery have come on board at the eleventh hour to sponsor the Vulcaniser.  Check out their range of bikes on the corner of Hoon Hay Road and Lincoln Road.  We are looking forward to building a relationship with Craig and his team.  You can meet them at the Vulcaniser.

We would like to thank the almost 100 riders who came out and supported our hillclimb series :o)  A total of $360.90 was raised for the Port Hills trailbuilding fund. Congratulations to Bradley Hudson, Neil Sutherland and Nick Kennedy for taking out the guys comp, and Sharron Prutton, Kristie Fogarty and Melissa Newell for being the top girls.

We are really excited to announce that Bergamont Bikes are going to sponsor trail building tools for the Christchurch Singletrack Club.  Bergamont Bikes are from Germany and have only recently ventured to our shores.  Visit http://www.bergamont.co.nz/ to see the range of bikes they offer.