Video: Peak to Creek Teaser

 This weekend we (the builders and volunteers) spend 3 days (about 200 man hours) rerouting and building less than 250 meters of flow trail. A flat curvy trail with only minor ttfs. It takes about 2 minutes to ride through, but it is a lot better than the 250 meters of muchy mud in a straight line there was before. People need to spend some time moving rocks and hauling gravel to appriciate the work behind it.

 I know the pain. Finished my 4 hours of moving boulders. A steep turn that's about 7m in length. But tomorrow is the easy day of covering it in dirt. Then after a full 8 hours at the office I'll have another turn that won't rot, can't be kicked down and unless we have a humongous earthquake, will probably still be there in the 22nd century. Build it right the first time and it's there forever. As I'm just on my own I've cut about 150-200m of trail in 4 months. Buts it's worth it though. Hoping to finish by next summer for a decent 350m (altitude) descent. Hopefully around 10-15 min run. Keep building people.

 here in quebec the bike club focus mainly on racing, it's about time that there's a no dig, no ride club

 Thank you. That is a great example. There are forest car parks for hikers already and people who charge for using them, but I think there are still several missing ingredients for a bike park to be created here:
- there is a need for a person or a official group of people who ride, want to devote in creation of a bike park and deal with it for some time with all responsibility day by day.
- local authorities understanding the need. There is still no believing in a mtb facility that brings income, except and because of a small group of riders. There is about 1,5 milion people living in and around my town and some people even claim about 500 riders among them, but I checked it ones organising a group meeting, emailing 180 of them several times and a week before. This was an important meeting concerning future of one of the few places to ride and all I could count was 34. No more.
- all of the people who ride, are 20 on average. There are some teenagers and some students. A few people around 30 and two over 40. Nobody has the will or possibility to deal with a bike park project. It is a hobby, passion but this is it.
- I am sure a bike park has a chance to be successful here, but there should be some man or an organisation willing to invest in a ordinary place like this (just some hills, lakes and forests here), willing to discuss it all with authorities for a long time, and willing to wait untill more people would get interested in riding. After some time there would be hundred of users, visitors from far, far away and gratefulness, but it is not so easy.
The 30 people I managed to group don't want to host a place and deal with bureaucracy, they just want to ride. It is a great sport, but nobody wants to make a life out of it. Certainly there would be people willing to participate, even for free, but still no leader.

 The only bike parks I know in Poland are in the southern part of it where the mountains are. It is over 300 km from here. We play dh fr on hills lower than 100m. Descending is short, there is no lift, so it means walking up 10 up to 25 times a day. I got bored and developed my own discipline. I take a dh bike, change some setting more into enduro riding and play on my own paths covering some enduro and some dh sections.

 retallack

 Ah okay, Peak to Creek reminds me of Whistler.

 I saw the title and got all excited thinking it was Whistler as well.....

 Me to, but then I saw it was Retallack and got even more exited

 Depends if you own the land or not haha

 Retallack holds the tenure for the land. They don't own it.

 For all the tree huggers, there is plenty more trees to go around. Its not like they cut down half of the forest.

 I am a tree hugger, but this is not the point. Some trees should be cut down to maintain forests. Some trees are already horisontal and facing decay. I am asking because it is extremely forbidden to cut down trees in Polish forests which are all public. This would be jail or a fine for sure. Even entering a forest with a mechanical saw seems suspicious. I know Canada for their loving the nature attitude and I see riders cutting down trees and playing with mechanical saws like with bikes. Moreover they even film it. This seems weird to me. So maybe I don't know anything about trail builders and forest keepers agreements, or general rules in forests like: "If you feel like building a trail, you can cut down three trees in a month, but no more. Be careful." Our forest keepers don't see much problem in dirt features between trees. Even though this might influence roots. We know we can use some lying trees waiting for decay, but without any chainsaws or noisy tools. We also know it for sure that it is not allowed to use living trees as supports by nailing into them, because all the features were destroyed. Usually we can equip a forest with some additional wood, like pallets. This is tolerated, but it is more difficult to deliver wood into forest than use trees as the supply. We have to learn by trial and error method, because building a trail for bike use in a forest is so unique and so surprising to society that nobody has already prepared any law for this. Certainly we are perceived to have mental issues, because we choose to ride bikes in some cold forests, than to drift an old bmw, visit a club and drink vodka all the time. If it ever goes enough popular here, it will be because of the present riders, and it is worth asking about how it works in Canada for example.

 I think most trail builders in Canada use already fallen trees.

 Thank you for answering. The only thing which still wonders me is why I got two negatives with my original question. If you wish to break a law in Poland in is very worth to know the law, penalty, controlling institution and possibly all arguments that can help with explanation.

 I think your main problem will be the law. Even for a forester or ranger. In Britain we chopped down the majority if forests between the napoleanic wars and WW1 mainly for ship building. After WW1 the forests that were ancient deciduous tress, English Oak, chestnut, ash, beech etc we're replaced with coniferous trees. Because they grow very fast in our climate. These are nothing more than plantations. Commercial forestry to be chopped down for timber. It's also why the riding in the UK is relatively strong. The forestry commission suddenly caught on to another way to make money. This is especially the case in Coed Llandeglla, which is a private commercial site. Turns out they made more money from riders than the timber. But in terms of tree hugging, another movement is also going on here. Because we chopped down all our forests then replaced them with coniferous, we are now seeing a move back to deciduous for environmental and conservation reasons. When people travel up to scotland it almost looks like Canada or Scandinavia. It should not look like this at all. The only endemic coniferous trees we have in Britain are the yew, scots pine and one other I think, but I forget. Oak, beech, Rowan's and many others are now being planted when a commercial forest is gone to try and restore the land scape. I suppose in summary you have to know about the forests history, why and what is there? What is it's purpose? How do the public want to use the forests etc. I hope this helps a little bit. I don't know about Poland but not all is as it seems sometimes.

 At Retallack, we have a cutting permit within our tenure lines. We only use trees that pose a safety hazard to the riders.

 @Small-Tales-Epic-Trails I know about the fact that Great Britain was deforestated in the past. It was done not only because of ships building needs, but also for burning wood in a process of iron and metals obtaining. It gets so windy without forests. There is a perfect climate in UK for trees so I think they should be massively grown everywhere. How do you make money out or riders using a forest?

@kinbad What is a tenure line? Is it a line officially devoted to trail building? I thought riders know better where a trail should be, so who states where a tenure line should be? Is there any official agreement before a trail is built?

 Tenure line meaning within the border of the land they currently have control over.

 We build trails illegaly in Poland and risk penalties and demolishing features, because we don't know how to speak with forest keepers about permission. Usually, if there is any conversation, a ranger is allowing us unofficially, providing with some general rules about behaving in forests and shaking his head about our way of spending time. Any knowledge about the official way of establishing a trail is helpful.

 unless you want mad sap everywhere

 We don't have pine there. Only Cedar and Hemlock, Then fir and Spruce at higher elevations. 99% of our wooded features are peeled. Ones that aren't, well... sometimes you can only use what is available to you.