What we’ve been up to this summer
It’s been a busy summer for us at North Cardiff Trails. Not only have the trail fairies been excellent at keeping the trails clear and running sweet, but we’ve been working hard to get our trails above board and fully legit.
Here’s a quick rundown of what’s happening right now…
We’re working closely with NRW
This is to get licensing that would make our trails official and have us being the caretakers of them. We’re one of two projects they’re running this with (the other is the Trail Collective North Wales), so it’s a pretty big deal.
- Everyone knows what trails we’re talking about
- We can all see what’s currently there
- And can list our priority trails to support, improve, and maintain.
If you have any trails you really love, it would be great if you could let us know. Just reply to this email or drop us a DM on Instagram.
Or you can rate them on TrailForks. This is a bit like Strava, but you can report issues like trees down, see what condition it’s running in, and even rate the trails you enjoy the most.
We created a GoFundMe
Part of this licensing includes paying for insurance to cover events like dig days.
Nobody likes asking for money, but things like insurance, website hosting, tools, and all the proper training needed to get important tickets aren’t cheap.
We’ve set up a GoFundMe page and already have over £300!
If you’ve got a couple of quid you’d be happy to chuck in, we’d really appreciate it!
In related news, you may have seen that our website keeps going down. This is an issue we were having with the current hosting set up. We’re moving platform in the next few weeks which should give us a long-term fix.
We’re almost there with Garth Woods
We’ve had a lot of really good conversations with Breedons and Savills (who own and manage Garth Woods respectively) and the builders in the area, and we’re happy to report that everyone seems to be on the same page!
Now we’re finalising the trail mapping, making a few changes to improve safety and prevent conflict with other users, and then an ecologist needs to inspect everything to ensure we’re not damaging any protected areas. Once that’s done, we’ll be able to start hosting some dig days to get the agreed trails running as sweet as can be.
If you’ve been up recently, you might have seen that the horrible boggy climb up has been weather-proofed – a big win in our books. Look forward for more to come!
Can you lend a hand?
If you’re interested in getting a bit more hands on with North Cardiff Trails or you want to be first to know about any dig days then send an email to hello@northcardifftrails.org.
We meet in-person or online roughly once per month, and any help you can offer is really appreciated!