This past weekend saw the Singletrack Mind series racing on the great trails at Wingello in the Southern Highlands of NSW, Australia. MarathonMTB.com were represented by Team rider Justin Morris, who was racing in the pairs category with Swell/Redshift rider Nick Both.
Before the race, Justin was excited to be racing on such well designed and maintained trails. They certainly are well made, and this is no doubt why they stand up to extensive use in and out of competition, and in great or grey weather. Justin had given credit to some of the trails to the late James Williamson, and the Southern Highlands Cycling Club. However this isn’t really the case.
Huw Kingston, of Wild Horizons, has put us right, sending the following information:
“The 50km of signed trails and initial 11km or so of ST in Wingello was originally built by work parties coordinated by Wild Horizons and some from Conservation Volunteers Australia (working for Forests NSW). Some 5 years ago the Southern Highlands Cycle Club built a 1km section of ST (now known as Everglades and Turn Off) in readiness for a Working Week Series event being run there – that is the only section built by the club. Then some 4 years ago locally a bunch of riders based in the southern villages of the Southern Highlands) formed Highlands Trails, a community group that, along with advocating for better MTB facilities in the region, continues to maintain and build the most recent ST in Wingello SF. Some are members of SHCC (including myself) but SHCC has played a very limited role in the trail maintenance or building other than prepping them for events (as we all do for our events). There are a number of people in Highlands Trails who would be disappointed to see their hard work attributed to other groups or individuals.”
So our utmost apologies go out to all those who plan, dig and maintain the trails around Wingello. They are a fantastic resource that we are all lucky to have.
Make sure you get an entry in for the Briars Highland Fling in November, so you can appreciate all the hard work that has gone into this extensive trail network.