Committed

I went along to the Hamilton Mountain Bike Club AGM to listen to an amazing talk about the construction of the Pureora Timber Trail.  The guys from DOC did a very interesting presentation including the conditions encountered during construction, the huge and impressive suspension bridges, and a brief bit of history of the area.  Inspiring stuff and another ride added to my "To Do" list.

At the meeting, I joined the HMTBC committee as part of the general committee.  So far it's worked out pretty well and I've even managed to contribute in a small way.  I don't find it easy to get along to track work or tree planting days, so I've ended up as the Council Liaison to try to streamline the info between the club and the Council and prevent conflicting messages being sent.

So far I've managed to get Council to give their approval for a container to be used as on-site storage (no simple task!).  They are also going to provide some street signs to direct people to the park - from both the Maui Street side and the Pukete Road side of the park, to connect with the other on-road cycle facilities and the Te Awa cycle path.  I also managed to get them to give us some high quality aerial photographs of the park to use as a basis for a Trail Map.

As a fresh committee, our meetings have been full of discussion making them very long at around 3 hours and usually end after 10:30pm.  Despite this, and knowing full well I was in for a late night, I have ridden my bike to the last couple of meetings.  It was awesome!  The nights were clear, relatively warm, and there were hardly any cars around.  I didn't get home until after 11pm both times, but felt pretty badass riding home alone in the dark, down the centre of the road, with no hands, and not a car in sight.  It does take me a while to drift off to sleep after that little bit of excitement though, but it's totally worth it!