Dave Sidery had an idea for a new line and Murphs (named after his dog) was built during 2016. Murphs was the first track built at the park that was intended to be more challenging. Allister Davies came along and helped with this and then went on to build several tracks independently of the club – these include Al’s Alternative, Gorge Rd, Dan’s Dash, Tiga’s, Up you go and the ruts bypass on the crocodile which is now the main track. He continued to work on the tracks until 2022.
After 12 years of track building (beginning with the Vulcaniser course in North Canterbury), and event organising Rebekah and Craig were starting to get a bit tired. In 2015 Murray Anderson joined the team and by 2016 he was taking a leading role and bringing fresh energy and enthusiasm to the project.
In 2017 Murray launched Secondary Schools Mountainbike Racing (Race Singetracks). We watched parents walking up and down the hill from the ponds to the noticeboard and decided to open it up a bit to make it easier for them. Once we looked at it more closely however we realised it was possible to put in both a climbing and descending riding line and in just a few sessions Upload and Download were completed. By this time we were regularly getting 20 people or more turning up to our trail building sessions which meant that progress was much more rapid.
Since we were on a roll we next got straight into building Upper Crust (to give another climbing option and so we could use Murphs in a race loop) and CrocPot (intended to be a fairly raw track to give variety and so that the forest section of Crocodile could be used in a race loop). Upper Crust refers to that fact that it is for going up, and because the upper crust of the area was removed when the clay was quarried. Crocpot is a nod to the Crocodile and because crockpots are made of clay and the area has a high clay content.
Now that there was getting a network of tracks, even though the area is relatively small, we began referring to it as the Crocodile XC MTB Park.
At the start of 2018 the Christchurch Singletrack Club hosted the South Island Mountain Bike Champs. Feedback on the course was good but a request was made for more technical features so over the next few months Spurious (it goes down a spur), Coopers Creek (it was designed and built by Anton Cooper) and Off the cuff (it was added in without as much thought as usual and someone whose name shall not be mentioned, injured their rotator cuff near the bottom of it). These three tracks merge in to Down & Out. At the end of Down & Out a 45 degree post wall was put in and in December 2018 a rock garden was built near the bottom of Murphs. In preparation for the 2019 South Island XCO MTB Champs we also marked out a few walking access routes and a gap jump and water crossing was added at the bottom of the rock garden. Tayler Reed built a deck area so that people could look at the maps without blocking the entrance.
During 2019 we planned Rickrolled and hosted a Specialized Dig Day. Double Exposure was started at this. Before the year was out Smith Cranes had delivered a shipping container to the site to store our equipment in.
In 2020 we embarked on a cohesive signage programme and built Garden Path and Rickrolled. And COVID arrived. Seating was put in the entrance hub area.
In 2021 and 2022 the venue hosted National Champs. Just before the 2021 event we added a rock climb to the start of Crocpot.
Maintenance and tweaking of tracks is continual. In 2022 work got underway to improve the entrance to Double Exposure which has morphed into extending Mish Mash.
in 2022 and 2023 work was done extending Down and Out and Mish Mash.
The section of Crocodile in the valley was prone to tunnel gully erosion so we next turned our attention here. We rerouted the start of it and renamed it Switchback Alley and made this section descending only as we put in a whole lot of flow to the trail. This feeds in to Down and Out. We renamed what was the Bypass and Gorge Road to be part of the Crocodile so that there was still a continuous track from the entrance to Kennedy’s Bush Road called the Crocodile that could be ridden in both directions.
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