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Berowra Bushy Firetrails
When:
Sunday, 19 September, 2010 - 09:00
Duration:
2 hours
Come Rain or Shine:
If it's raining, I won't be there. Meeting Point:
Playground at the roundabout of Berowra Waters Rd and the Gully Road (Parking is nearby)
16 Berowra Waters Road, Berowra Heights, New South Wales
Details:
So I'm planning to ride this great loop with 5km of enclosed firetrail with descents punctuated with waterbars, lookouts, mostly covered in ferns, and I rate this one of the best firetrails in Hornsby District.
After that there'll be some 'interesting' stuff (which you'll find out about if you come), followed by several other good downhill firetrail blasts, before finishing up for a day.
Who's in?
shano, Noel, Steve C, Tristania, lorchio, samTHAman, Dan chapman (7 riders)
What Happened?
Were you there and have a story to tell?
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Hi Tristan - checking the dates now. If i'm free I'll be in. Just remember to bring some bandages for me! Oh, the irony!
Hamish.
Tentative.
Being a local in Hornsby I thought I had ridden most of the tracks in the area.
Sound like fun!
Shano
So you've never ridden on these tracks?
Me neither until about four months ago, when I stumbled upon them by chance.
They're similar sorts of tracks as Cherrybrook
But more of them.
Therefore, more risks of stacking it
But often we seem to stack it when there's the LEAST risk of doing so!
Guys, I'll be moving up to Berowra next month and I'm pretty excited by the prospect of a trail in Berowra!! I knoew there was one on the Hornsby Heights side, but had no idea about this one. I can't make this scheduled ride, but I'd love to come along another weekend.
Where is the trail BTW?
I'll have to post a message to see if anyone is keen on showing me the sites of Berowra in the coming weeks!!
@ John O, The track, a narrow firetrail 5.2km long runs from the end of Berkley Cl to the end of Ti Tree Crescent. Rather nice enclosed terrain most of it, including some hills and waterbars, as well as two lookouts. I've heard it's like Winmalee firetrail if you've done it (though I haven't)
The singletrack is also 5.2km, and exists off the firetrail on the ridge at the end of Turner Road (off the firetrail). It's hard to explain how to do it, but you should work out your own way after exploration a couple of times.
Join http://hsmba.info and i'll show you where they are once you move up. The Berowra Heights trails are going through some kind of approval process and the builders have asked for the trails not to be publicised or included in the HSMBA advocacy push. They are confident they will be fine without the attention. I've ridden there a bit and the local walkers etc seem to be pretty good about the cycling trails too. The walkers smile and say hello. The trails are technical, tight, narrow, dry and very sustainable. It's on a ridge so it's very exposed to wind and sun.
It's rocky like Cherrybrook but it's more like lots of large loose rocks where Cherrybook is built on a massive massive rock they used as a mortar target in WW2.
The fire trail Tristan is refering to (if it's the one I'm thinking of) is listed on the Trail Flix website. Watch out for the loose off camber DH left hander. I've seen a few end up in the scrub on that one. The fire trail has an amazing lookout at one point. You can see photos of myself and friends posing for photos on the Trail Flix site for that ride. http://www.trailflix.com.au/tfx_new/trails.php?i... It's short but fun, the view from the lookout is amazing.
I was actually unaware they were going through an approval process, though hopefully this will hold up the tracks better, even though they are in pretty good shape. Though once people know about them more, they'll be so popular.
When I met with a council officer he was explaining that we should push for Berowra Heights. I explained that we want to be able to ride to the trails from the heart of Hornsby, we already have trail we can drive to. Kids don't have cars so until they provide trail, jumps and pumps, we will continue to have dirt jumps in every little park like we do. He explained to me that apparently most of the trails there are in suitable crown land, there is one section (I can't remember where) where it could be harder to get approval and that bit should be moved. I have not been up there for a while or spoken to the riders/builders from there for about a year. He pushed about Berowra Heights 3 times in one hour. The guys there said to leave them to their own devices.
In Hornsby shire we are currently pushing for MTB facilities in Old Man's Valley, The Quarry, Hopevillle Park, and Montview oval. We have had World Trail and more recently Dirtz involved. It's a painfully slow process. In about 15% the time we have been pushing for stuff, Willougby Council has accepted a plan to turn some jumps into a pump track and now the dirt is delivered. A mate of mine is involved in Willoughby. We have not yet had one facility approved in HSC. It's a friggen joke, an embarrassment and an indication of the lack of commitment Hornsby Shire Council has for council the needs of youth. The irony of it all is that the more illegal trail there is, the more chance we have of getting something approved. It appears there needs to be informal trail and informal jumps to demonstrate a need. How backward can ya get? If you read between the lines in the last couple of sentences can you see the words "just go out and build"? I can't see it written there, but it seems to be the mixed message we get from HSC.
In the last two weeks HSC has run about sticking signs up where building has occurred demanding it stop and ring council to get on board with the whole thing. Last action was the council rep has asked for infinite detail relating to trail elements and stuff on a simple XC proposal. Councils worship documenting, and it corners you. It's friggen stupid. You can't be that prescriptive with XC trail building. You just mark it out in the bush, have the stakeholders walk it, move some of it to go around the aboriginal, historical, and sensitive bits, then get the green light and build under the volunteer framework of BushCare, but call it Trailcare. Why does it have to be so freaking drawn out with the BS!?!!
We can talk more about it as we cruise Berowra.
I remember the time I went to the HSC hearings about MTB trails when we had 1 MTBer against 8 people from bushcare groups, and I remember how frustrating some of them became, talking about how they thought "MTB tracks should go behind factories instead." Hadn't it dawned on people that MTBers like the bush scenery just as much as walkers, if not more.
It's shocking that they can't just pass the approval to make a bunch of 1m wide tracks, though at least we have the Berowra one, which has the added bonus of a 360 degree view around the ridge, and the Cherrybrook ones.
Thanks for the advice guys, looking forward to riding these trails! I've registered on the HSMBA website too. Looking forward to moving up that way.
Here is a photo of the lookout (taken by Grant S of TrailFlix):
http://www.trailflix.com.au/tfx_new/images/wallp...
After seeing that photo of the Lookout!
I am in for sure
Looking forward to it!
Shano
If you like lookouts, you'll love this track.
Not only does it have that spectacular lookout on the firetrail, but it also has about ten lookouts around the singletrack, something which is very rare for designated singletrack networks
For the Berrowa Heights bit I'll rig up "Bum Cam" (helmet cam mounted on seat post pointing backwards). I don't have a little video of this trail yet. If somebody can stay pretty close to the rear-end of my bike while we go through some twisting trail (to stay in the camera angle) it can make for some good footage. It's all about the downhill bits. Footage of people riding uphill is dull and slow. Bum cam tends to show the trail tread quite well. (as in the Awaba and Oaks videos): http://www.youtube.com/user/unfreeriders . If your keen, the videos turn out better if the rider is wearing a shirt with a very bright colour (very bright red/blue/white/yellow/orange etc).
Sorry Tristan, something's come up and I won't be making it. Maybe next time. Have fun!
Oh, well, at least we won't need to worry about bringing another derailleur and a stack of bandages...
But it's a pity you can't make it - hope to see you on another ride some time soon.
Hope you all had fun on the ride.
The weather was sure nice to us, and bikes mostly held up well.
I'll post the photos next weekend (the computer is being a pain letting me upload them now) when I get back from a camp.
Hope to see you on another ride!