Queen Elizabeth Country Park QECP trail building

DezB most of the off camber stuff is still to be finished. We do need more help to get it done buy winter 😉 . There has been a lot of time and effort put in to the trails and to see the rock garden smashed up last night was a bit sh*t. Hay Ho next time I will make it bigger 🙂

I’d really love to help! I don’t get enough time to ride the blimmin’ bike, let alone build trails though! Appreciate hugely what you folks are doing 🙂

ditto… very happy to shovel some dirt if/when you need

Cheers Guys its good to know the time we are puting in is worth it.

And about the all weather surface, we have no bugget so its not going to happen. QE will supply us with chalk and stacks for the back of burms but thats about it. That main thing its to get the trails in first and the work on maintaining/imporving them.

Rode this morning and was pretty impressed with your work so far. I ride with my dog,so not having to pop out onto the road on the first climb was a pleasant surprise. Rest of new stuff was good, but will be glad when the off camber is sorted; washed out my front wheel on it!
In my ideal QECP, once the new sections are complete the switchbacks could be tweaked a little to improve the flow (mainly the first two berms) and the steep climb immediately afterwards before the bombhole climb could do with being more defined. At the moment the trail is about 15′ wide with maybe 2 ‘cleanable’ lines. That’s just me being fussy though, and thinking that the quality of your new stuff you could breathe new life into old bits. As long as the last descent stays as it is though!

Have to agree with all the comment on here rode the new bits on Sunday and it has breathed new life in to the old trails. Liking the new big berm on the first drop in the singletrack no more worring about the big hole that use to be there but not sure about the kicky jumpy thing straight after it. Was also concerned about the off camber stuff come the wet season but glad to here you boys will digging it in.

While riding was thinkng about user comflict etc and also ridden some checky stuff in the past in Headdown Plantation which I think is Forestry land could there be scoop if things got more organsied that some thing could be done there which could be link to QE?

Just found this http://www.hants.gov.uk/rh/qecp/southdowns1.pdf

Headdown is FC land and there is some talk of it linking in with the existing orange trail to make a nice long red. Scott is the man in know about all this. Have a look on KingleyVale bikers[/url] for more info and some dig dates.

Yep headdown is in the master plan but its more like a 5 year master plan. It will all take time little by little. We are riding the trail as we put them in, so any thing that don’t work we will change/cut in/repair. Switch backs will be changed but there is lots to do first.

Tbh I liked the switch backs, can’t say I thought they needed anything, they looked like they were getting wider because people were riding down the climbs and skidding round them.

DT78 the switchbacks we are talking about are the older one on the orange trail, the second one is so tight you have to nearly stop. We will be opening the tight ones up a bit eventually. Not that pressing because they ride ok at the mo.

Ah ok thought you were talking about the new ones

thought you were talking about the new ones

Yer at some point, the new one we are seeing how they bed in. If we need to we will have a play with them at a later date.

just a reminder/bump about this weekend’s trail dig at QECP in Hampshire 😉 meeting at 10:30 at the main car park or later up on the trail, both days! going to be finishing off the latest new section and starting to put some tables in 😀

just rock up with a spade yes?

hey guys, I went riding up to QE with mates again today, and we really appreciate the work you are putting in. when is the next digging sesh? and do you accept 15 year olds?

People are normally up there on a Friday afternoons, doing small pieces. The next official day will be October now.

We’ll accept anyone! It’s a varied group.

OK cool, may see you guys up there at some point then

The next dig weekend will be 8/9th oct. will be working on the orange trail tabletops, burms and cutting in etc….

Any help we can get would be great and spread the word that big things are afoot at QECP

Pic from the latest dig weekend 10 & 11 Sept

You’ve built the ‘shore sideways! 😉

Where is that? On the new section, approaching the drop down to the older berms?

All on this new 1.1km extention to the orange trail

All on this new 1.1km extention to the orange trail.

Hello mate,

Is that a tabletop I see 😉 I’ve still got about 6 weeks off the mtb, so I’ll catch up with you when I’m healed and come and lend a hand. Try and get pat to come and help out with the jumps!

Jules

I’ll try and lend a hand when I’ve time, will not be around for the next dig though.
Wheres the best place to look for updates/planned days etc? Here or facebook?
Thanks, keep up the good work!

I should be able to get a pass for the 8/9th Scott, but I’m not sure what help/state I’ll be in. Its my birthday bash 8th lol! Expect me to be late 🙂

Will keep here and Facebook up to date. Or you could search kingley vale mountain bikers on Google we post dig days and pics on there.

Friday 23rd informal dig up at QECP, continue cutting in work on the new section from 4pm. who’s with me?

Anyone coming this weekend?

Possibly, working Sat but should be able to come over Sunday….just to say well done on the trails, rode there again last week and loved it.

Tracked the route on my GPS and it came out at a smidge over 7km which ties in nicely with what you’ve said about adding an extra kilometre as the signs in the carpark say the orange route is 6k….its actually pretty hard going for a short trail, which is good!

The climbs and switchbacks arent my favourite but if i just wanted to ride downhill i’d buy a DH bike and do uplift days somewhere, this is mountain biking and the trail at QE park makes you work for the rewards….my favourite part is about the midway point where you come through some bushes and the hill drops away to the right and looking down there are about 6 lovely banked turns all the way to the bottom, makes the climbing prior to that all worth while!

Slightly annoying thing last time was the small number of riders i came across who were riding the route the other (wrong) way…the signs are quite clear about where the trail starts and if you’re going the wrong way then the back of the signs are all you can see, this must give some people a clue?!

Thanks for the feed back deviant, we are having a meeting with the park manager this friday about trail and other bit and bobs like poss. XC and Enduro races at the park.

I can see a Gravity Enduro type event working really well there….its a small area but the event at Eastridge earlier in the year by 661 Gravity Enduro showed how well an event can run on a small piece of land.

If the trail was closed off for the weekend then you could have some excellent stages involving current uphill sections running the other way and obviously use the existing downhill parts….i’d sign up for that!

The XC race would be first as a easy test event. 2.5km laps for an hour. See how it goes then poss a mini enduro with lost of skill sections 🙂

I am sure back in the dark distant past there has been a NPS round held at the park, I will ask my work mate tomorrow if he remembers when it was could help with your case.

Yer there was a nps round at the park in the mid 90s. Aswell as a dh race if you could call it that and some small xc races.

Loving that old skool XC racing Vid. Tried to spot as many parts of the course that I still ride now.

Yep its a classic vid

Jeez, that’s a blast from the past. I’d forgotten some of those names

Wasn’t around this eekend but local and can help out in future

Tim we have a dig weekend every 4 weeks.