Topic: Bike: Awaba MTB Park

: Things that Make you Go…..Mmmmmmm.

By: schacksta | February 27th, 2011 | No Comments » |

Every now and then on the trail I see something and think Mmmmmmmmm. The mind starts ticking and inspiration flows. I thought I had to share the latest installment.

Its been a while since I have been near a DH bike, unless of course walking past the neglected DH bike inthe garage consitutes being near one, let alone thrown my leg over one. OK, I’ve not ridden a DH bike in a long long time, probably too long.

Been thinking about a spin lately, but just couldn’t get myself motivated. Well the motivation just turned up in a big way and plans are afoot to make the old girl rideable again. Whats the source of motivation? Some recent work by the DH trail fairies at Awaba, in particular the reconstruction of the Uber Berm.

I got sent some photos of the new work on the Awaba DH trail (Monkey Trail) and it looked pretty sweet so I had to go have a look. Mmmmmmmmm, looks like that DH bike definitely has to come out for a spin just so I can ride this section. Its funny, the XC trail takes me within metres of this section everytime I ride, now I need to ride it.

Maybe this type of feature to be replicated on the standard trails. Planning has started for future trails in Awaba and perhaps we will see more of this starting to pop up around the place. Its definitely something that gets me desperate to ride.

Photos of the build crew thrown in as thanks for their hard work, I know I’ll enjoy it.

: Awaba – Red Loop Bail Out

By: schacksta | July 12th, 2010 | No Comments » |

Some more news from the trail fairies at Awaba, works on the newest section of trail are all but complete. The new section represents a trail that gives riders the option to avoid the last steep pinch on the Camelback Hill climb on the Red Loop.

No longer will those wanting to access the back end of the trail (and the future trails under construction) have to conquer the red loops  Camel Back hill in its entirety, a 1.2km climb from the bottom of the chute up some moderately steep terrain.

The new addition effectively gives a bail out point toward the top just as the steepest and more technical section of the climb looms. Once on the trail it’s all down, onto Little Falcon Road and then the descent continues. In the future this trail will provide an easier way into the trails north of Little Falcon which are about to begin construction.

Bridge entrance to the trail

Trail starts its descent

Pi11wizards berms to hold you on the trail

Drainage

Chainsaw Artwork

: Awaba Trail Update for June 2010

By: schacksta | June 15th, 2010 | No Comments » |

Its been a long while since anything has been added in here for the Awaba Mountainbike Park, so I thought it was high time that an update was thrown up for the current state of play, particularly since a lot of you are here for the VVC classic info. I’ll come back shortly and pen an outline of what you can expect to see once the current approved trails are finished construction.

If you head out to Awaba now to ride the XC trail, you’ll notice at the trail head that there are now four main signposted routes. Each successive trail is an expansion of the trail before it. As it currently stands you have the option of;

- Orange Loop, 1.2km in length known as the kids loop.
- Yellow Loop, 6.9km’s in length. This is the bassic loop that was opened first.
- Blue Loop, 8.5km’s The first expansion incorporating some technical bits like the salad bowl and the chute.
- Red Loop,  10.2km’s and growing. This is the trail network in its entirety with the big hills.

A further blog with maps of each loop and the main trail features will be coming shortly, but for now I thought it was timely to post the latest additions to the red loop which will see it soon extended by a few km’s. This work was done on the sunday of the June longweekend with quiet a decent volunteer turnout depsite the holiday period.

When questioned on the weekends build, on of the build crew remarked, “This piece of trail passes through some unforgiving countryside and has required massive amounts of digging, but it will all be worth it once it is ridden in. Expect to find a steep pinch or two, some fast downhill sections and the biggest berm on the trail to date“.

For those who haven’t yet ventured out to the red loop, the terrain is quiet steep with an abundance of natural features to work with. Being the main trunk trail, nothing extreme has been incorporated but the terrain on offer will ensure some varied trails in the near future.

Till then, a teaser of what will very soon be opened to the riding public. For those wanting to dig, build days are the first Sunday of each month.

The new berm in its formative stages.

Full benched trails.

Hand built trails. Hard work but well worth it in the end.

One of the many new bridges.

Hopefully these trails will be open soon to be enjoyed by all. Check back soon for a detailed run down on each of the current loops and DH trail, as well as a rundown on future plans for the trail network.

: An Awaba tit bit

By: g | September 14th, 2009 | No Comments » |

Monday morning’s Awaba ride…..

The lead in:

The corner:

The new B-Rad Gully based A line:

The current exit from the corner:

All up, a superb section of trail.

Tags:mtb,ride,Singletrack,trail

: Awaba Mountainbike Park: An Introduction

By: g | August 10th, 2009 | No Comments » |

This little corner of twentysixinches.com has been set aside for the Awaba Mountainbike park. For those of you who come along to play at the VVC series of events, you have contributed to the development of the Awaba trails as the money raised from the events is put back into trail development. As we support the development of the Awaba trails, we also wanted to help promote them. In here you will find a run down on the history of the trails and updates as things progress. Feel free contact me, or stick something in the forum, if you have suggestions or comments about the development as it really is appreciated to make sure the trails are made great for everyone.

Nestled in between the foothills of the Watagans and the western shore of Lake Macquarie sits some single trail that is collectively known as the Awaba Mountainbike Park. A trail system that started with a blank canvas and is rapidly evolving into single trail heaven. The trails have been entirely constructed by volunteers one weekend a month with trail design undertaken by the guys at World Trail.

The park is on land owned by Forests NSW and historically used for Forestry purposes. The Hunter Mountainbike Association has obtained permission and support from Forests NSW to develop the site into a Moutainbike destination not only for racing, but also as a place to ride that is not only family friendly, but challenging for the more competent rider. Forest NSW really need to be acknowledged for their proactive way of looking at Mountainbike Access to their forests and for not only considering, but allowing a substantial chunk of forest in a prime location to be dedicated to single trail.

Keep an eye on this section of the site as updates and sections from around the park are highlighted.

Recent History on the trails of HMBA

Delving back into the not to distant past of HMBA, racing was traditionally held at the Killingworth Trail network. As anyone who had ridden there would attest, Killingworth had some of the most enjoyable flowing single trail available along with some technical terrain and gut busting hills if you were that way inclined.

Trails like suckers run, the pig track, wasp loop and the creek track never failed to bring smiles to the faces of those who ride. But what really made killi special was the flow. I’m not sure that the flow at killi could be planned, it just evolved that way but a lot of credit needs to go to the original trail builders for creating trail after trail after trail of single track heaven.

Killi wasn’t without its flaws though. Where it fell over was with access to the site, anyone remember the Grand Canyon running down the middle of the access road? I’d seen that gorge eat many a car that tried unsuccessfully to straddle it. On to of that, Killi was a dusty place and sometimes dirty place and the wind just seemed to funnel down the mountains and along the powerlines easement. Holding the timing quickshade down during wind gusts was an art, as was driving in and negotiating the Grand Canyon.

Despite these short comings, Killi was still a magical place to ride. But things changed.

The land to which Killi was sitting on was managed by a Government Department for future development, although it now looks more likely that killi will become National Park in the not to distant future. The club, and other sporting groups such as orienteering, were granted access to the land for club based activities. Over the years the network grew to a massive network of intertwined single trail, fire road and a hand full of downhill trails. Unfortunately, the same trails and management roads that made Killingworth so popular with bike riders, also made the trails so enticing to motorcycles and 4WD’s.

While conflict of uses was never a major issue (other than tape being taken down during events), keeping the trails in pristine condition became increasingly difficult and time consuming and came to a head during the June 2007 storms in the Hunter. What damage had been started by the motorised vehicles in the area was polished off by an amazing amount of water filling the site. Trails were rutted, bridges washed away and access to the site ruined.

The club had been negotiating with State Forests for a new Downhill area, and with the impending change of status of the land at killi, the decision was made to move on. This wasn’t a decision taken lightly given the reputation of the trail network, but maintenance was becoming increasingly difficult and the storms had decimated Killingworth. Add to that the uncertain nature of the lands tenure and the opportunity to start with a clean slate, the choice to start Awaba was made.

Overview of Awaba

The Awaba site encompasses approximately 300 Hectares off Mt Faulk Road in the Watagans. There is the possibility of substantially increasing this area to the north and to the east, but for now there is more than enough land to play with. For the next few years anyway.

Access of the freeway is easy with sealed road to within 1km of the trail head, even then in most conditions 2WD access to the trail head carpark is more than possible.

The linked kmz file has a trail map of the Awaba Mountainbike Park. Trails designated by the blue line are still under construction. As new sections are added, the map will be updated so keep looking back for updates.

Download the Google Earth kmz File

DH Trail

The Downhill trail, known as “Monkey” was the first addition to the park. The club had been using a trail, “Amazon”, about 3km’s north of the current trail alignment for a few seasons. Amazon was a scarily fast trail that in many places followed the alignment of an old Bullock Trail. These trails were used by forestry to haul logs off the mountain and as it turns out, make a great DH trail.

Amazon was featured in the Earthed 2 movie and hosted two state rounds before it was finally closed. While State Forests were supportive of the trail, the neighbours weren’t and logistically the trail was a nightmare with 30min drives back to the top of the mountain.

Once again the time had come to move on.

In consultation with State Forests the hunt was on for a permanent base for HMBA in which both XC and DH could occur. As it turned out we had been driving past the most suitable site with every shuttle run of the Amazon Trail.

With the site found and over 300ha locked in for mountainbike use, energy turned to trail planning. With the DH in places given the extreme steepness and terrain on offer, the trail was sited to provide the easiest path down the hill.

As with everything at Awaba, before a trail can be cut a number of studies need to take place and be approved by State Forest. While an expensive exercise for a small club to undertake it does keep things open and transparent as well as managing and reducing the potential impacts of the trails. Fortunately for the downhill trail, the only issue with the trail alignment was a plant in the start area, something easily resolved.

Trail construction was undertaken by a core group of club members, supplemented by many eager volunteers. The trail was rushed through in order to be completed for a NSW State DH round in 2007. While completed in time for the round, the trail has continued to evolve since this time and even now constant modification and tinkering to the trail occurs to not only keep the trail in tip top shape, but also to protect the surrounding environment and to ensure that any safety issues found with the trail are resolved.

Link to helmet cam of trail

XC Trail

Designing of the XC trail was undertaken by World Trail in 2007 The initial design taped out was for a 9km – 10km loop of beginner/intermediate level. This trail was intended to form the backbone of the Awaba trail network. World Trail completed design in late 2007 with an in depth trail report and associated Flora and Fauna studies handed to State Forests for approval. A few minor tweaks to the alignment were required to avoid some Endangered Ecological Community and finally construction could begin on the new network.

While people were excited with the prospect of being able to legally cut in and construct new single trail, I don’t think anyone anticipated first how big a task it was really going to be, or secondly how great the terrain at Awaba is.

After just over 6 months of building there are just short of 7km’s of single trail cut in and some engineering marvels in the bridge works to date. The trails traverse everything from open grass land to rain forest  while winding up and down some prime undulating terrain. As the trail under construction is not intended to be challenging or super technical, there are no major climbs in the circuit, although these are being planned as your reading this. The existing loop has about 120m of elevation gain spread out around the trail.

What’s Next?

Even with a few Km’s to go with the existing loop, planning is already in place for the next phases of the development of Awaba. Trail signage is being designed along with notice boards at the major trail heads so people know where they are and whats going on.

The road is being looked at to try and solve some of the wet weather issues and toilets are also on the cards.

As for the trails, big things are being planned:

•    A second DH trail that is a little more accessible for the average rider on an All-Mountain bike. It will also be shorter in distance than the existing trail.

•    Some major XC climbs to facilitate some epic descending trails of varying technicality. With any luck we should at the very least be able to push a climb up to the road gap area of the DH trail for a climb of about 200m vertical rise.

•    Some all mountain trails and trail features along with a skills park are being planned.

Obviously the implementation of these is fund dependant and HMBA can’t throw money at everything at once, but a masterplan is being put together to deal with this and help plan out the various stages of development.

Event wise, check out the HMBA calendar for races and also look out for the VVC Christmas Bash on Dec 5th and the SS Nats