Only 3 sleeps until Santa and Neil and I risk
life and limb against the legendary downhill runs of
Isaacs Ridge.
As with the trip I had done here
before, Neil and I met at the usual dirt 'car park' near
the corner of Erindale Drive and Mugga
Lane.
Heading straight up the Southerly side of the Ridge we
took the slippery and steep climb to the top and were
able to ride all of the way with only one slip each!
These climbs are getting easier with practice
:)
From the top of that climb we took the first down hill
(the same one I took with Chris last time).
We took
it at twice the speed of last time and only walked
down the one extremely hard section, but its still no
fun having to do that at all, so in search of more
realistic tracks we go....
Back at the bottom we
headed North along the fire trail at the base for 1km or
so then found a track that wound up the hill to the
top again.
We met some friendly fellow MTB people
at the top who told us about some good runs (local
knowledge kicks ass). We tried the easier to find track
back down which was great, a couple of small jumps and
it was pretty smooth, unlike the first run.
At
the bottom the locals advised the climb back up via a
bitchumen road that leads about half way up, heaps easier
than climbing on dirt. They also advised a better
downhill that starts at the top (right at the the saddle
between Isaacs Ridge and Omalley Hill).
A quick climb
up (which I walked most of due to lack of
energy.....mental note: take chocolate for next time!) and we
headed down the best goddam downhill I've done yet.
Plenty of manmade jumps, but with easy runups and
landings. There is a section of four in a row that was
awesome. All are made from downed trees with dirt upramps
and the bigger ones (2ft or so) even have dirt down
ramp if you don't want to get air (but why wouldn't
you?!).
All in all a great ride asisted by friendly locals
that showed us tracks we otherwise would have missed!
Am definiteley going to come here more often as it's
the only place I've been to with 'proper' downhill
tracks and jumps etc, plus the knowledge of the good
downhills I have now will help for next time :)
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