Still windy and cold here in Canberra today. Camper dried out overnight though and we packed everything up and headed down the highway for the Sparrow Hill MTB Park. We had some two year old directions and it seems they have realigned the highway since then so there was a bit of confusion about where we should be. There were big chain link fences blocking our access where the directions seemed to take us. To cut a long story short – yes Sharon was right and I was wrong. The directions were for the old highway and once we followed that there was a nice car park and link track to the toilet and tunnels under the new highway alignment.

A worrying sight on the edge of the car park

still can’t take a picture that shows how steep it was.

Hell yeah that bit was fun

Injured rider collection station 26!

Not today – even Sharon ran through here after I told her it was easy

Sparrow Hill had big wraps on itself on it’s own website with statements like “people think it’s the best bit of track they have ever ridden in the first few meters”! As it was still quite cool we had a couple of layers on to start with plus ear warmers and it took ages to warm up. We got properly warmed up about the time we headed back for a lunch break. The wind was ever so slowly moderating and behind the truck it was quite warm.

Lunch time

We spent the morning doing the bottom half of the trails. The park is built in pine plantations on the side of a hill (Sparrow Hill) and hard packed single track just goes everywhere. A few odd puddles here and there after the rain was all the mud we encountered.There are no significant climbs to speak of and you just fly around as fast as you want / can. No close in trees to clip with wide handle bars either. There were a couple of fun sections they had build into creek beds and a nice technical 1km loop I did around a hill but apart from that it was pretty much all the same just there was so much of it you did not repeat anything in the 20km we did before lunch.

No it didn’t!

After lunch it was hard to get going again but it had warmed up and the wind was lighter. We rode together for a while then I headed off on all the extended loops I could follow. More of the same track km after km of it. One section that ran over Sparrow Hill obviously used to be in a pine forest that had been clear felled so you were riding out in this huge open paddock with stumps everywhere. Sparrow Hill even had it’s own lookout and flag flying about half way up. I crossed over into another plantation area and just kept finding tracks to follow. One section was very different in open forest and quite rocky but apart from that it was more of the same.

Apparently there is about 80km of track in this area and I did over half of it. I expect the other parts are more of the same. Great place to train I suppose as you don’t repeat anything in a days riding but there was only brief levels of excitement factor to get the heart pumping. Great place to ride once or to do a long distance event at. The huge kangaroos on the track added some extra spice for both of us though.

Plenty of trail for tomorrow

All the loops you can do and the main map – impressive

Sharon met up with Cathy (rode at Forrest with her in March and lives in Canberra 10 minutes ride away) at Mt Stromlo MTB Park after she finished work for a chat and some route tips. Cathy was happy to take us for a ride as she rides there most evenings but by the time we rode and then got to our campsite we decided to give it a miss as we can ride it all day tomorrow. They were certainly rocking in after work finished by the droves. Stromlo has a criterium circuit, large skills park, toilet / showers and plenty of parking. We even passed a couple aussie champs in Dan McConnel and Bec Henderson on the way into the park. Who knows we might pass them tomorrow on the trails?