I was asked this week if I would like to help convert some local wooded wasteland into a new mountain bike track.
This golden opportunity came about when a friend of mine inquired with the coastal ranger if there were any plans for a huge area of silver birch forest that had sat untouched behind a barbed wire fence since the 1970's.
The coastal ranger, who is responsible for the upkeep of estuary coastline from Flint to Greenfield in North Wales, explained to my friend that the area was primed for a mountain bike park but he lacked the knowledge of building one having never really done much mountain biking before.
Enter - a dozen or so mountain bikers with shovels, rakes, saws and barrows!
The area sits in between the River Dee and Flint industrial estate and used to be occupied by Courthaulds Textiles Ltd who manufactured artificial fabrics throughout the twentieth century.
Mike, the ranger had highlighted some red tape that we needed to adhere to - a badger set that can't be disturbed, a contaminated area of earth that can't be dug up and that all tree cutting must be done before three weeks time, when the birds will begin nesting.
With this in mind, we descended on the area yesterday morning and took a walking tour around the site to see what we had to work with. The area has been used illegally in recent years by mountain bikers and there are already a lot of groundwork (ramps and berms) in place that we could utilise.
Our initial task was to carve out some general lines through the overgrown mess from the starting point and from here, with our general lines visible, add features and groundwork as we go.
Half of the help rolled up on their bikes so they could test what was being built in real time.
I was paired with a work friend, Andy and we began raking out a beginners/kids line from the start, meandering through the silver birch with a winding stretch of single track. Parallel to us was another four lads who were working a higher line that would join up with ours further through the woods.
I'm rubbish at 'before and after photo's' and usually remember half way through what I'm doing! Here was no different. The first two photo's show our rake work through the forest, after pulling up roots, litter and concrete remnants from the works' that once dominated this area.
We had made good progress through the thick bush until we got to this whopper of a tree that had an inviting looking gap in the middle. The dream was to make this track appealing to everyone, right the way from children to the 'big air junkie' types that were helping with the build.
Therefore, what better opportunity to add our first fun feature for the little ones - a mini jump/ramp through the gap between the trunks. Nothing too extreme but enough to get the taste-buds going for the young ones.
I took a little wander to see what progress the other teams had made on their more technical line that would eventually join with ours.
They had created a decent drop off down to where they were working with an impressive looking berm at the bottom. After only a few hours of man power we had completely transformed the overgrown waste of space that would eventually be the beginning of the park. Dog walkers and cyclists stopped to admire our community effort and gave us comments of approval as they passed by.
The dream is to have a blue, red and black line and utilise some huge redundant concrete pipes sitting in the middle of the track for a skills zone. I'm really excited about being involved in this project. There is an abundance of local mountain bikers around these parts but nowhere locally to ride.
Bikers are often sneered at by walkers and other trail users around here so to have somewhere purposely built for them would benefit everyone.
I'm looking forward to getting back up there with my rake this week and excited to post regular updates on our progress over the year here on Steemit.
Thanks for reading and wish us luck!