The Trail Less Travelled

I am quite blessed to live at the foothills of the Macedon Ranges, which contains some very well known and amazing singletrack sections.

For the past 10 months I have ridden these trails, desperate to develop that ‘local only’ type of pace that only comes with having ridden the trails over and over and over.

In conjunction to riding these trails, I am also becoming one of the “singletrack ninja’s”, the people who walk the trails in the middle of the night (little black dog following) and keep the trails clear of fallen logs.

The past month however, I have decided to investigate all the little trails that flow off to the side of the trails that I ride most, and they have been a amazing learning experience.

I set off with the Bryton and Iphone to start plotting the new trails I find. Some of these trails die off a couple of hundred meters, but others offer up some huge potential.

With a little help from some very adventurous motorbike riders, I follow the trails and see where I end up. As long as I can get a GPS signal, I can get home (albeit it might take a couple of extra hours). It’s also very handy having a Yeti ASR-5 to handle the terrain the moto’s, and a comfy pair of shoes for when you have to walk.

Once of the best trails I have found, that actually links off one of the MOST popular singletrack sections, heads off onto a 10km singletrack rollercoaster that has everything a trail needs to keep one smiling.

With just a little bit of time spent on the shovel, it could very well be the next “cool’ trail that just has to be ridden. I am guilty of having ridden past this trailhead at least 60 times, always wondering where it would end up, and it was only a week ago that I did.

I can tell you that this new singletrack will now form a very challenging extension to my regular ride.

Exploring is something every MTB rider should do, so if you constantly ride past a trailhead, fireroad or path....head off and see where it ends up. You never know, you may just find a hidden DH track with 30 berms.....just like I did last night.

Ryan Hawson