Locations and Tracks

[greg]

Hi All,

I've been reading some of your comments regarding event coverage in 4WD magazines - these comments also bring to mind another area that I think 4WD magazines are lacking and that is Track details / coverage when they do a write up on a given park or location.

Even though it is great to know about areas that have good 4wding to be done in them, what is even greater is when you have a proper idea about where the good trails are. I know I have taken people out to areas around Melbourne a few times and hit trails that were only a few km's away from where the others had been many times before - but they had never known about these trails.

What I am suggesting is that rather than relying / hoping that the track details will be posted to a greater level of detail in magazines, why not get something organised in the Trips and Tracks section. We could easily have one topic per area where people could post write ups on tracks they have found / driven in the area, pictures of tracks could be posted etc...

For Example:
Trips and Tracks >> Toolangi Vic --> would contain details of tracks in Toolangi Area

My suggestion would be that when posting up details of a track, supply the name (if known), and the location of the track - this could be a GPS location, or, even better, how about a map reading from what ever map you have... (i.e. Rooftop Brand, Gembrook State Forest Activities Map, E5). This way a reader could simply buy two or three maps of an area, and have a pretty good idea about where to find the tracks that are worth searching for rather than driving around for hours on end and never finding anything decent.

I think this would be a great resource to have on the board, and would definately be something that I would be searching through whenever heading out to a new area, or even just to find out about new tracks in an area I would already go to, or perhaps to hear about tracks that I planned to drive that have since been closed / graded etc.

What do people think? Is this a worthwhile thing to have on the board?

Any thoughts or ideas?

Cheers,
Greg

[Charlie]

I have mixed feeling about this idea, its great to find new trips to do but it’s not fun when your favourite track is closed due to overuse after a magazine write up. I suppose 4X4 Australia was the first mag to do detailed trip articles and even twenty years ago with the tracks near Penrith restrictions started soon after a track notes appeared in print.
Regards Charlie

[TuffRR]

I agree with Charlie. Generally, the only thing to come out of publishing track names is greater traffic on these tracks and hence more destruction of them.

[antt]

likewise, i'm in two minds about it. just ask ruff about what's happened to the waterfall tracks here at ormeau in SEQ, major rockstacking, cause people in their stocko rigs couldn't drive it, so they tried to pave it and then claim they've driven it.

[V8Patrol]

We all have our "favourite tracks" in our own regions and tend to keep quiet about them so others dont stuff it up, I have 2 favourites and because of their difficulty very few ppl tend to drive them, most quit after the first mile or so and U turn before it gets "impossiable".
"Advertising" the likes of these tracks would create an onslaught of attempted use and ultimately the destruction of the challenge they present to those in the know, or more likely the "upgrading" to make them more user friendly.
We lost a top track a few years ago after word got around, it was inundated with drivers with little skills and driving soft 4X4's, they were constantly becoming stuck and calling for assistance form the local farming community who inturn became sick and tired of being draged away to "save "some idiot. That track is now fully lined with "blue metal" and is drivable in a family sedan.
For me ...well if I was going into a new area I'd probably contact a forum member and ask him for details as to where the best ones are, more n likely he'd be comming too !!!!

[beebee]

likewise, i'm in two minds about it. just ask ruff about what's happened to the waterfall tracks here at ormeau in SEQ, major rockstacking, cause people in their stocko rigs couldn't drive it, so they tried to pave it and then claim they've driven it.

How do you know when you've wasted your money on mods? - when you can't drive the waterfall track that "stocko rigs" can

Life's a bitch

[MQ080]

i'm up for keeping quite... from experience i tend to find tracks stay open longer this way

[XXXL80]

i'm up for keeping quite... from experience i tend to find tracks stay open longer this way

my thoughts exactly, look at menai, every man and hi dog knows about this place, hence why they want to shut it and develop the land....

[MQ080]

...porters, cranstons, calabash, the list goes on and on

[bundytunna]

yeah i agree too keep the tracks quite and mention them to mates family etc but if ya give em to a mag every 1 will use em
i mean if i read about a sick track closeby i would be out there the next weekend
wouldt you?

[V8Patrol]

You wouldnt be alone there !!!!!!

[robbie]

from what I can see greg is trying to say, is to get a section on this board done..nothing to do with getting details posted in mags.. read his post

and I would say 99% of the people on here aren't stupid, and all want the same thing... which is to keep these tracks open, and to drive decent tracks

if it stays on this board, then yer, why not.. good idea greg

[antt]

from what I can see greg is trying to say, is to get a section on this board done..nothing to do with getting details posted in mags.. read his post

and I would say 99% of the people on here aren't stupid, and all want the same thing... which is to keep these tracks open, and to drive decent tracks

if it stays on this board, then yer, why not.. good idea greg

except this is a public forum, so it's quite easy for any tom, dick or harry to get on here, find the tracks, then go and stack em

[MY45]

It would be unreal to have a resoucre like this, but as everyone else has said this is a public forum and because of that there are to many cons. I suppose if you want to find some new tracks try and orginise a trip with some other members. That way you will be sure to find some good tracks an it would still be low key.

[MQ080]

What's wrong with how things are at the moment? (apart from the fact that there is very frew places to go) Your tracks are your business, you know a few, your lucky. If you don't, you need to get some friends. I agree with Roly when he says, "we've all been bitten too many time"

[greg]

Thanks for the feedback guys... I guess the plan would have worked well if we were in a perfect world wouldn't it?

You're all right though - and i guess it really only takes 1 idiot to get a track closed - and since the ratio of responsible persons to idiots must be pretty constant throughout the entire population, it must also be constant in the 4wder population too, therefore it would be naive to assume that there would be no idiots ever logging onto this forum and reading about the great tracks and areas that you and I want to know about, in order to use responsibly to have some fun.

All your points regarding track closures make good sense - but I guess I was looking at it from the other side of the field which would suggest that the more people that experience a track / know about a track - the better chance we have of keeping it open are...

You are right about tracks like Porters etc (which I should point out that I would never ever of heard of had it not been for it's coverage in magazines and this forum - and i would have to question who else but local sydney siders would know about it if it weren't for these too), however, I know here in Victoria that there are a lot of tracks that are closed in parks (i.e. Bunyip state forest) that were awesome to drive but it would seem that no-one ever knew they existed - and hense no one knew they were going to be shut until it was too late.

Another example i'm aware of is the VAFWDC's fight to get some tracks in the vic high country opened...

Let me put it this way - if you don't know about it - you can't do anything about it...

I guess this goes for all things in life though doesn't it - i.e. if i didn't know about people starving in africa then i wouldn't have any reason to do anything about it would i?...

Another example outside of 4wding would be something like a Bell's Beach or a Bondi... Both of these i've heard of, but i've never been to either, nor do I care very much for surfing... However, now that I know about these places, if i heard tomorrow that one was going to be shut down and turned into a private housing estate (for exampe), I know i would voice my disgust regarding this.

But i suppose this is somewhat naive of me to think that we (4wders as a group) actually have enough power to keep tracks open. I guess this is somewhere that we need to improve if we expect to keep this activity going for us, otherwise we are going to end up like rollerbladers and skateboarders where all good places to skate in the cities are closed off and we are confined to playing in the little parks they provide.

Anyways, don't worry folks, your secret tracks are safe with me. And I guess the sad part is that next time someone logs on and asks if people know about any great tracks worth driving in the XXXXX area - i'm going to have to think twice about it before i put my hand up and say 'yes'.

I guess if enough places get shut down i'll have to start thinking about other things like on-road handling

Regards,
Greg

p.s. Hey Lexx - hurry up with the 4wd park man ...

[robbie]

from what I can see greg is trying to say, is to get a section on this board done..nothing to do with getting details posted in mags.. read his post

and I would say 99% of the people on here aren't stupid, and all want the same thing... which is to keep these tracks open, and to drive decent tracks

if it stays on this board, then yer, why not.. good idea greg

except this is a public forum, so it's quite easy for any tom, dick or harry to get on here, find the tracks, then go and stack em

there are ways to restrict access to certain areas, not hard.

[antt]

from what I can see greg is trying to say, is to get a section on this board done..nothing to do with getting details posted in mags.. read his post

and I would say 99% of the people on here aren't stupid, and all want the same thing... which is to keep these tracks open, and to drive decent tracks

if it stays on this board, then yer, why not.. good idea greg

except this is a public forum, so it's quite easy for any tom, dick or harry to get on here, find the tracks, then go and stack em

there are ways to restrict access to certain areas, not hard.

the only way you could do this, is to set up an area, seperate to this, which only people who you have met in the real world, (so can 'really' judge if they're gonna be responsible or not), can get password access to.

and theirs no point really, you could just ask them about tracks when your talking to them in the 'real world'.

[robbie]

true

[V8Patrol]

Like everything else in life.... only takes one apple to fud the whole shootin match, wether its in the real or virtual world.....
Personally..... ask someone , if someone from this forum said they were comming this way and wanted a few good tracks then I wouldnt have a problem wid it, but I'd be selective as to which tracks.