St Helens is Awesome

Saturday, 7 December 2019

I've spent the last few days in St Helens with Clare checking out some stuff for next year's Australian Championships.  Actually we only spent half a day checking stuff out. We spent the other 1.5 days checking out the new mountain bike trails, which were totally awesome.

On the first day we rode some of the loops at the Flagstaff trailhead. This was the first time I'd ridden my bike for ages, so it was a great way to get back into it. The loops were pretty easy and very fun and the facilities at the trailhead were pretty impressive. Nice toilets, a cafe and a bike wash station. Afterwards I rode back to town while Clare drove the car back. It was a lovely 4k descent to the edge of St Helens then a 3 k cruise back to where we were staying with Rob.   I would have more photos but my phone went flat.

Today we rode the 2nd part of the trail which comes all the way from Derby. Our part was 22kms and started on the Ansons Bay Road and ended at the beach.  Most of the descending comes in the part we didn't do, so we had a good 16 or so kms of flat and gentle climbing before we got to swoosh down the final hills. It was fantastic fun and generally not too scary - in fact I was able to ride all the features which was awesome.  The views were lovely and the forest was georgous - but we knew that already from our orienteering/rogaining adventures around here.

Our adventure wouldn't have been possible if Rob hadn't kindly dropped us off at one end and picked us up at the beach at the other. Thanks Rob!  

St Helens has always been nice but with all these new trails it is even more awesome.