Hard work makes fresh mountainbike tracks
Christchurch mountainbikers have yet another new track, letting them take in the spectacular views from Montgomery Spur Reserve.
It’s the first new mountainbike track on the Port Hills in over a decade, excluding those in the established riding area at Victoria Park or in the new Christchurch Adventure Park nearby.
The 3.8-kilometre easy to intermediate loop starts from halfway up Rapaki Track, and was largely created by a team of 40 volunteers co-ordinated by the Christchurch Singletrack Club (CSC). Additional digger work was done by trail-building specialist Scott Walker of T5 Contracting.
The project was supported and supervised by the Christchurch City Council (CCC), which hopes the collaborative approach will become the model for similar future projects.
CSC Port Hills track liaison and volunteer co-ordinator Graham Allan said feedback had been hugely positive, though the track was ‘‘yet to reach its best’’.
‘‘It’ll only get better as the grass wears off and you get bare earth. It’ll get a bit faster and a bit grippier.’’
The track’s opening in October was deliberately low key to let it bed in, he said. It was currently being ridden about 800 times a month.
The project had a ‘‘long history of gestation’’. Early planning on the track started about 18 months ago before building began in May 2016. Allan estimated at least 750 hours had been put into the track.
It was made possible by a $20,000 community grant from Transpower, which helped cover materials and the contractor.
He said the trail provided a way for developing riders to progress from the easier trails in flatter areas such as at Bottle Lake to the more challenging tracks in other parts of the Port Hills.
Care was taken to minimise any environmental impacts from trail building and usage. The club walked the proposed route with council staff and plant specialists to ensure they would not cause lasting damage.
When it came time to build, those digging took a ‘‘deliberate, quite low-impact approach’’, even saving the turf they broke to use around the edges of the new track, said Allan. ‘‘We didn’t just trample through the middle of anything that was sacrosanct.’’
CCC Port Hills ranger Nick Singleton said the CSC was ‘‘awesome’’ to work with, and had built a good working relationship with the council over a long time.
The track has been ‘‘mapped to millimetre accuracy’’ at six points which will be monitored to learn more about how trails wear based on factors such as number of users, rainfall and soil type, he said.
A walking track is also planned for Montgomery Spur Reserve and will be completed by June.