What better way to spend a part of your weekend, than swinging tools and shifting dirt with some like-minded people?
The Rotorua Mountain Bike Club and Rotorua Trails Trust, along with experienced trail builders and local good sorts, will lead digging, so it's a really good opportunity to learn from the best.
Meet at 8.45am at the Waipa MTB Carpark. The digging will wrap around 11:45am, then it'll be back to Waipa for lunch.
There will be tools provided but you can also bring your own favourite pick, shovel, grubber, rake, pruning saw, garden snips, plus warm gear, in case it gets cold, and you need to wear sturdy and protective footwear and gloves.
The team from Specialized will be there digging, as well as supporting all the volunteers with food and drinks.
"Let's get a really solid crowd together," says James Elvery from Specialized New Zealand, "and make a tangible difference to the Rotorua trails, just like last time."
Specialized and Cyclezone are a very big supporters of the local Trails Trust. They donated a Turbo Levo ebike earlier this year which has made access to trails to clear record windfall (and make trust maintenance man,Ash Edwards' life a lot easier).
They are part of a superb whanau of trust partners: R&B (Ray Cook, who supplied a digger), New Zealand Community Trust, Rotorua Lakes Council, Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust, Red Stag Timber, Nduro Events, Pig and Whistle, Radix XTERRA, Bright, Wild Thomas and Lee, Bike Culture, Pak 'n Save Rotorua, Mountain Bike Rotorua, Pedersen Group, SCION, Chapman's Restaurant, Zero Seven, Rotorua Forest Haulage, Crankworx Rotorua, Perma Pine, Giant 2W Gravity Enduro, QE Health Wellness and Spa, Holiday Inn Rotorua and Rotorua Landscape Supplies and Quarry.
That's a remarkable collection of businesses, local government and charitable trusts all combining to make our trail network a better place for all forest users, not only mountain bikers.
The trust also depends on your support and minimum membership is $5, less than a latte and a tiny, tiny percentage of what your gear costs: rotoruatrailstrust.co.nz/join
On the event horizon: The Big One, the Whaka 100 MTB Marathon is on Sunday, October 22, with 50 and 25 kilometre options. Tim Farmer, from Nduro Events, is encouraging people to get their entries in. There is a strict limit and that's not far away from being reached.
And the Singlespeed World Championships is on Saturday, November 18, with about 400 entries already.
Event organisers the Rotorua Singlespeed Society will be donating all profits to Lifeline Aotearoa. Enter here: www.rotoruasinglespeed.com.
