Ewok Village Vanished!?
On a recent mountain biking trip to Glentress we were a little gutted to find the north shore features within Ewok Village had been completely removed (- it was made a little more frustrating due to the lack of signs indicating the removal). Anyway as I had been psyching myself up I was able to ride the only remaining feature – the sea saw – for the first time so it wasn’t a completely wasted journey. Since returning back home I’ve found out that the sorely missed Ewok Village had been removed due to rotting wood. Whilst the decking panels had been treated the posts and supports were made from untreated timber and were rotting pretty quick.
One of the raised timber platforms in the Glentress skills area have now also experienced a similar fate. The features will apparently be replaced but not immediately.
Andy Wardman a ranger at Glentress says they are planning to do some upgrade work in the Skills Area in late 2009 or 2010, as they’d like to tweak where certain features sit around the area and the overall layout – part of improving how the Skills Area works for you the visitors. One area they’re really keen to improve on is how the area works for larger groups of riders – school groups, the Kids Club etc.
Apparently they are currently fine tuning their plans for the upgrade work but would love to hear your thoughts on the Skills Area, especially:
1. What features and sections you like/work well?
2. What features and sections you don’t like/don’t work well?
3. What features/sections/types of trail you’d like to see developed in the Skills Area?
4. Any other thoughts or things you’d like to get off your chests?
So if you’ve ever made a trip to GT and have any thoughts or ideas drop Andy a line at andy.wardman@forestry.gsi.gov.uk or call 07900 138901. They would love to hear from everyone – first timers, skills coaches, school leaders, parents, youngsters, regular users, irregular users, young, old, in between.
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