Mountain biking at Wamuran

  • Buffer
  • Sharebar
  • Buffer
jethro's picture

Yesterday we did the McConnell road circuit again. Josh, Mick and I headed out into the bush for this ride together. Josh had a new bike he was keen to test, a Mongoose. It performed well for him, but he is very light weighting only 60 Kgs. The only thing I was worried about was if the gearing would be low enough. It was so good in fact he rode up all the hills that Mick and I walked up!image

The circuit starts at the drive able end of McConnell Road where you park your cars. Heading down into the bush you get a series of up and downs that are fast and fun and a good warm up. Turning right you then start to climb the ridge Here you find a forestry road and a small hill that has 2 very technical steep descents. Rutted and with loose gravel they make for a fun diversion. Josh performed particularly well leaving a nice rash on his bum when he decided to wrap himself around a tree after losing it. From there the long climb up the ridge is lung burning, calf burning time. I alternated between bottom gear and spinning as fast as I can while sitting well forward on the saddle to keep the front wheel down, and standing up and climbing in a bigger gear. About half way up I gave up and walked. Michael had also quit. Josh was on and off for the first steep bit but once hitting a slightly more gentle gradient he managed to ride to the top which finishes with a very short sharp steep climb. There we had a rest and bemoaned hills in general. However its all in good fun because the point of the climb is the downhill. And what a down hill!. The scene of a crash a few years back where I was awarded the mountain bike club trophy for crash of the year, This down hill has it all. Fast loose gravel to start with, then some fast rough packed dirt, followed by some steep technical sections with one and sometimes two wheels locked as you negotiate ruts, rocks, drop offs, tree roots and jumps. Mick almost lost it right in front of me as we took the conservative line down past one big steep section. Josh went straight over it and managed to stay on even through the rough bumps at the bottom. I took the wrong way through the bottom section and had to hit a drop off at speed to clear it forcing me onto a berm that had front and rear wheels threatening to go different ways, but releasing the brakes and just letting the bike go kept me on board. From there some fast downhill sections with some ruts and bumps that the front forks have no problem handling and a couple of good jumps at the bottom see you come flying back to the cars.

An awesome ride and only the second time Michael has done this one though Josh and I have ridden it many times.

Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
plastic surgeon's picture

Sounds like a great bike ride

Sounds like a great bike ride with a variety of different terrian. I think we will head out as soon as the weather gets nice and give it a try. Thanks for the great info.

jethro's picture

it is a good ride - lots of

it is a good ride - lots of fun!