In my last post I started to outline my credentials as they relate to mountain biking, starting with my first race and the first legal mountain bike trail that I built.
After that first trail at the Pines near Gough's Bay in NE Vicco, I had the opportunity to attend a two day mountain bike trail building workshop in Tumbarumba, NSW, with world famous IMBA guru Joey Klein. Mountain Bike Australia had bought Joey out to teach us antipodeans a few of the essentials in mountain bike trail building. I went along with an overflowing cup of enthusiasm, which was more than matched by the other participants and the sickeningly positive Joey. I can only speak highly of that experience and would recommend any budding trail builders attend next time Joey comes back down under - he is a knowledgeable, fun and amazing teacher.
Shortly after that I got the chance to put many of those new skills into practice in my job as the Environmental Officer at Mt Buller Alpine Resort, building a new walking trail. Walking trails and mountain bike trails are really two different beasts, yet they are also exceedingly similar - many of the same design and construction principles apply, its just that the mode of travel is different. You also need to account for differing behaviours between the two groups. Anyway, the trail was a great sophomore effort in trail building. We must have got it pretty well right too, because (not withstanding a few minor repairs) it has stood the test of time. If you are up there and ever want to check it out, its called the Summit Nature Walk. I should point out that I was only responsible for the section of trail on the south side of the hill - the part on the north side was already in place. We had to jump through more hoops than a lion in the circus to get it built - state planning approvals, flora and fauna assessments and we even had to get federal approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act because the trail was proposed to pass close to habitat of the endangered Mountain Pygmy-possum. I was also responsible for the content and design of the interpretive signs. Anyway, here's a picture of it:
Eventually the time came to leave Mt Buller and I took up a new job with the Department of Sustainability and Environment in their Tourism and Recreation team, back in Melbourne. At this point you may be starting to realise I am a little bit of a greenie. You're damn straight I am. I'm not rabid about it. I just happen to think that this huge grocery store we call earth is a finite resource, and that if we continue to consume at the rate we are, one day there'll be nothing left on the shelves.
Anyway, I moved back to Melbourne and into a full-on policy project at DSE that I soon began to dislike. Fortunately, around the time I started there, an interesting project reared its head. I remember being asked on my first day there "You're a mountain biker eh? Do you know anything about building mountain bike tracks?" You see the government had made an election promise to phase out timber harvesting on public land in the Otway Ranges and then they'd hired some consultants who told them they should invest in tourism as a way of reinvigorating the local economy and thus make up for the jobs lost from timber harvesting. Nice in theory...but it worked out well for me and the mountain biking community of Vicco, because one of the potential tourism opportunities these consultants recommended was mountain biking.
And thus was born the Forrest Mountain Bike Trails Project...
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