Hi there,

This Saturday sees the 2nd of the trail maintenance sessions planned at Mugdock park. If you’re interested in volunteering or learning more about what’s happening then please contact me in the first instance (email in profile).

We’ll be focusing on trails stretching from Drumclog car park to the WHW (via Rocky Rooty). This follows on from a great day’s effort from the volunteers on the riverside path beside the Allander a month ago.

The programme of work is being conducted in partnership with the park Rangers and co-ordinated by GMBC with valuable support from the Meet Up group, Rockhard and a handful of other local riders. Aside from us all doing our bit to maintain the trail network we hope this effort will also raise awareness about responsible use of the trails and improve the situation for all the park’s users.

good shout Graham,

The first maintainance day was a great success – over 20 volunteers out there and we made a real difference to the riverside trails.

As the saying goes ‘many hands make light work’, so c’mon Glasgow area riders – come along and give 5 hs of your time – won’t be long till summer is upon us and we can hopefully reap the rewards of all the hard work 🙂

joined the meetup group specifically to help out, looking forward to meeting and making some improvements see you sat.

Ehhh, are you gonna be on your feet by then Iain?

If not, I can get you a lone of a wheelchair, megaphone and a whip! 😉

s’alright Barry – I’e got the whip already 😀

having attempted to move stones along the riverside trails in a wheelbarrow last time I reckon I’d need one of those off road chairs like they tested on topgear the other week !

Looking forward to it, a worthwhile cause and learn something too. See you Saturday.

What time does it start?

It starts around 10 – best bet is to drop a mail to ‘son-of-mike’ who is on GMBC Committee

a wee bump 🙂

Couldnt commit due to a heavy workload and ended up working all Saturday. Was up today and amazed at how much you achieved!

Hopefully the spring annual dry out shall actually happen this year. If so it will be minty up there.

What is the river run like now that you have worked it? I almost ventured on for the first time in a year but gave it a miss in the end and boosted down the WHW.

Noticed someone has made a good job of ramping over the fallen tree on cliff run (or what ever it is called). 🙂

Yes, it was a great effort by the guys on Saturday. Lots of teamwork and hard graft. Lots more to do though and the next volunteer session is planned for Sat 24th March.

We’ve got more work to do on the Riverside path. Some bits have held up well, others have not. For the bits that haven’t we’ll need to do more work on drainage. The problem is the amount of traffic when the conditions are really soft. Apart from doing the physical work we’ll need everyone to help out during the year and ride paths according to the weather conditions, i.e. avoid the most sensitive paths when it’s really wet. Wishful thinking I suppose but it’s in our best interests to ride responsibly.

Volunteered for the first time on saturday, big thanks to everybody that organized this, some great improvements have been made already. Do you think some notices on the paths or notice boards in the park premoteing responsible riding and the work we are doing to maintain the paths would be a good idea.

Noticed someone has made a good job of ramping over the fallen tree on cliff run (or what ever it is called). that was me, although i had nothing to with the ugly jumps further down, trying to clear as many trails as possible before i get the bike out for some spring riding.

moolove – the tree ramping is a great addition. I was going to hop the tree on the way down as there was a little bump before it to propel off. As I reached it and saw the new ramp I :mrgreen:ed.

If you are the man with the lovely labrador then you are a man of many talents.

I shall have to be honest, I have been very respectful of the river run but rocky rooty gets a hit everytime as it is fun in all conditions!

Mr Plow you must be thinking of someone else with the labrador, I hope the mainteance sessions continue to include some trails outside the park still, some paths to be cleared and soft areas that can be repaired with the rock and soil that all the downed trees that have thrown up.

moolove, GMBC are liaising with some of the landowners outwith the Park area and the hope is that we can do some work with them. It’s not always easy to have these people onside when they see the amount of erosion and widening of paths resulting from the huge amount of not always wholly responsible bike use the area is getting. As son-of-mike and others have alluded to, we’ve got to all look to ourselves, where and how we are riding, and let nature heal the boggy messy bits while we give them a miss, helped along by some human assistance with digging ditches, placing rock etc as you mention. There is no reason why we can’t all do a little bit of trail maintainance in the areas where trees are down, whether this be clearing away debris, moving some soil and rock to recreate the path etc. It is a mammoth task, but I reckon with the amount of people riding there, if everyone did a little bit we could have the place in good shape over the summer. The problem is that due to it’s popularity, the area is seeing a lot of use, some of which isn’t sympathetic to the sustainability of the trails…

i will continue walking the trails doing what i can in preparation for riding them when the better weather comes.

You should post these updates over here – http://www.trailscotland.co.uk/forums & try here as well http://www.meetup.com/Mountainbikeglasgow/

Rode the riverside trail today and it was pretty good

Someone has taken a horse down the remains of Flux and done a good job of messing up cliff run and some other steep trails. Bit selfish but mixed feelings as the land is open for everyone to use. Very deep hoof holes show how soft the ground still is.

moolove – glad you were able to make it along on Saturday and enjoyed yourself. It’s taken a fair bit of my time to get this up and running so it’s great to get positive feedback. Hopefully you heard the Ranger’s chat at the start and how she’s really happy that the the biking community have voluntarily given up their time to help.

re: notices for responsible riding in the park. Interesting idea, I’ll speak to the Ranger and see what she thinks. When I’ve been out (either riding or fixing the trails) I’ve taken the time to speak to other riders to raise the awareness of responsible riding, especially important in a heavily used area like Mugdock. If we all did that then the message would get out pretty quickly. Also, there are some leaflets on responsible riding up on display up at the visitor’s centre which I got from Scottish Cycling. It’s a start.

For anyone interested, the next session is this Saturday 24/3, 10am, this time meeting at Craigallian Bridge on the Khyber Road. Email in profile if you want more details. I’ve posted a similar note over at the Trailscotland forum too.

Just want to give my thanks to those doing maintenance at Mugdock. Rode ther for the first time in nearly 6 months. Would love to lend a hand at meet ups but work prevents it. Will do some clearing on my own when I get the chance.

Hi. Here’s a wee write up of what the Mugdock trail volunteers got up to yesterday.

And a few photos showing some before and after shots.

Looks like we’ll be organising a 4th session, some time in April, date TBC but it’ll be posted up here and around the mailing list of volunteers once it’s planned.

Thanks again to the guys from GMBC and Meet Up (and local chap Paul too!) who put the hard graft in yesterday, top effort!