Grom Lines & Stump Pulling - Wainui Trail dig

Like everyone else who mountain bikes in the Wellington region, we benefit massively from the obscene amount of work that trail builders do at places like Makara Peak, Wainui, Belmont, Mt Vic and now Mirimar.



Despite spending plenty of time riding the trails, most of us (Slacky being the exception) either have never, or rarely turned a hand to help at the digs. We thought we'd start remedying the situation and so the available among us, joined the Wainui pixies last weekend, to hinder their efforts constructing the new Snail Trail. This will be about 1km long and goes from Labyrinth down to the bottom of the hill. It is looking like it will be a really good trail. The gang has made some great progress.

We (Ash, Tiger, Clive, Mono, Slackshanks and me) rocked up to the summit carpark for an 8.30 ride before we started digging. Mono and I rode there from our homes. He looked distinctly better that I did for his efforts.

We rode Labyrinth and headed down 491. Ash and I meandered around at the back chatting. I wasn't able to ride with the boys at sifty pace. I hadn't been since I pretty much got to the hill at the end of my road. 491 was pretty slippy. Ash only tri-podded a couple of times though and we didn't fall off. At the end the boys were down in the clearing and shouted up that they had all ridden the long clay shute. Bit keen of them I thought. While Ash headed down the regular route I manned up for the descent. I handed in my man card about 1/3rd of the way down when I lost the front end and found a tree. I abandoned the bike and the tree broke off in my manly grip and I used it for balance tight-rope walker style as I slid the rest of the way down. Turns out none of the boys rode the shute. They will pay.

Slackshanks showed us the new family loop which is under contsctruction. It was great. It has a very well done board walk section. We headed to the roller coaster and Tigs flatted his tubeless. Then Rammer came around the corner out running so after a jawbone with him and the Bushlove mechs fixing the tire, we headed back down the road as we were running short of time. We climbed out on Jungle Jim. Some boggy bits from the waste ground led to traction fails. I smashed my knee into my stem as the back wheel let go and that stuffed me for the rest of the day, and the next day, and the next.

Mono's wife Keryn met us at the top and we all moseyed down the trail and met the dig.

We found Geoff who was fixing up an area where the existing rock wall was a big fail. Tiger and I joined Geoff (aka Thorg) to assist and the other Bushlove groms (not counting guru Slacky) helped further down where Jim, Shane, Hickie, Jules and another nice chap were working. Rammer had beaten us to it and was down there too.

The experienced guys who have done plenty of this trail building, were really switched on and definitely knew their stuff. Tiger and I learned lots from Geoff in the time we were helping him out and ended up with a quite reasonable looking stretch of trail, supported by a fine rock wall constructed of vast slabs of stone carried in confidently by our manly selves. It was much like the scene from 300 where the Spartan warriors construct a huge wall from rock and the bodies of Persians. But with less Persians and a little less baby oil.



We broke for some food and a bit of banter which predictably broke down to toilet humour. After which Boner-T and I joined Geoff, Angry and Ash to redo a bank and move some soil up the hill to level the trail we'd worked on earlier. It was mostly council style labour, with one working whilst the others leant on their tools. We had some thrills and spills getting the barrow of soil up the slippery pinches. Ash was punching above her weight and thought to give it a try. While I waited to take a pic on the second rise, she never cleared the first and slipped, tipping the borrow out down the bank. You just can't get the staff nowadays.

Geoff got us linking arms and stamping along the filled in trail. This is apparently called a "Grom Line", especially when we do it. It does a fine job of consolidating the soil and Geoff said we were the best Grom Line he'd ever seen. He was obviously lying through his teeth, but a nice thing to say nonetheless.

That pretty much wrapped up our efforts for the day. So we headed back out, leaving the experienced trail builders with our "Bushlove Two Week Trail Quality Guarantee" and probably a lot of rework.

We learned a lot from the guys out there. They must have put a lot of days into those mint trails. The mind boggles. We resolved to do more digs for sure. The efforts these keen trail pixies put in really does shower shame upon us and the rest of you who never lend a hand. If you can't make a dig, consider attending a race like the PNP rounds which donate a portion of the entry fees to the local trail building effort, or make a donation. Apparently if you attend three digs at Wainui you get a special T-shirt! I'm going to try and get one.

Thanks very much to the aforementioned dudes for educating us on Sunday. I'm sure we hindered your splendid efforts, rather than adding much value, but we had a great time. Was a good learning experience and we felt good having banked some trail karma.

Keep an eye on Vorb for dig day info or check the Wainui and Makara sites.

Cheers
Dave

Here are some pics ftw:

Sharpie took a leading roll in checking the disturbed soil for worms and keeping his tool clean.











Ash practices her poses for a very different 'bush' love photoshoot she had later that afternoon.




Slackmeister's stump pulling prowess knew no bounds. Must be all the practice at home. Mono continues checking for worms in the background.





A look down the business end of the Snail Trail. Rammer poses while Jim sets a good example to us all.



Bushlove Grom Line





Ash going for gold with the barrow.



Fail





Fail imminent - But see the barrow is full ftw.



Fail.

Re-fuelling

My workrate vastly improved once Geoff corrected my tool handling