Another ride, a new route and some new cheeky trails.
After a warm day, we headed out later in the day when a bit of afternoon breeze was around and the temps were slowly dropping. With the sun not going down until well after 8pm, we still had a solid 2 to 2.5 hours before light would be an issue - plenty of time to get out in the hills.
And so, we did.
Up the shared use singletrack (albeit still with "no bike" signs along it, as Burnside Council haven't changed the signage) of Pioneer Womens Trail on Mt Osmond to the Old Bullock track and then on to Crafers. A long steady climb, more or less from sea level in the city to not too far from the highpoint of the Adelaide hills as we came close enough to Mt Lofty. Saw no-one else out bar a couple of roadies climbing uphill around the old freeway. On we went, until the access was reached for the cheeky descent.
Now, this happens to be basically a steep, loose and fast fireroad the majority of the way back to the bottom of the hills. So, if a Firetruck or Ute can use this and not be a problem, then as I've stated before, there is no way a few bikes are going to affect it either.
And we didn't.
Once again, we saw no walkers, despite the perfect weather, good views up top, birds out feeding, the odd sleepy koala and lots of other little creatures rustling around in the undergrowth - all the things that us mountain bikers are supposed to not notice, nor care about, if the Selfish Few are to be believed.
So, once again I ask - why not share?
Another interesting point in all of this, is that whilst on the descent, we would've clocked some impressive speeds with the wide open trail, long sight lines and steep gradient. But with the loose trail surface, the odd water bar, rain rut and tennis ball sized rocks littering the trail, along with debris from the surrounding trees - bits of bark, the odd branch - there was more potential for incident here, than there would be on twisting, narrow and consequently, much lower speed singletrail equivalent. Yet both the land managers and those that oppose bike access seem to be more willing to let us use firetrack than singletrail, if we are to ever get access.
This is a pretty good example of why as well as access being needed, it needs to include singletrail access for bikes - as well as being more fun, it is actually safer for all, despite the assertions from the Selfish Few that bikes, walkers and singeltrail do not mix. Hmmm...
