Bittersweet Ending

I managed to get out for a ride in the Hills on Sunday afternoon, my last mountain bike ride in Perth. The next dirt riding I will do will be in *sunny* England. You see, my family and I are moving to Newbury in England at the end of the month. While I am sad to leave behind the excellent riding in Perth, I am equally excited about discovering new riding opportunities around my new home.

To end my Perth riding adventures, I decided to ride a couple of my favourite trails, so that I can leave Perth with fond riding memories (so as you can imagine, I didn’t end it with a 100km slog along the Munda Biddi Trail).

My trails of choice in fact started on the Munda Biddi, but then diverged on to the wonderfull flowing White Tag track, then on to the very fun Blue Tag track, then on to the fast and challenging Scorpion track.

White Tag is a trail that I love as much for its different environments as for its flow. One minute you’re riding through sparse Jarrah forest, then through low-lying ground covered in thick sedges, then you pop out into fantastic pine forest. All the while, the bike is hardly ever vertical because of the constant flowing corners, many of which are bermed. Thankfully off-camber corners are kept to a minimum, and in some places it is possible to let go of the brakes completely and just carve your way through the corners. Fantastic!!

Then on to the much used Blue Tag track, which holds a special place in my riding memories as the first Perth Hills trail that I tackled, way back when I was riding my mighty Apollo hard-tail. Because I have ridden this trail so much, and the surface is so hard packed, I find that I am pedalling flat out the whole time. Exhausting but exhilarating, because of the high speeds.

After crossing the bitumen, it’s on to the brilliantly constructed Scorpion trail, complete with some extremely difficult trail features like log rides leading to hip-high flat landings, which thankfully have a great chicken-line around them!! I have two favourite parts of this trail, which are both great for different reasons. One is a ride-through of an ancient, and huge, burnt out tree, where you actually ride through the centre of the still-standing trunk. The other is the massively fast pine tree section, where a trick of the local topography makes it seem like you are riding slightly uphill, but in actual fact you are riding slightly downhill. Absolutely brilliant!!

All up my last runch in the Perth Hills took less than an hour, but I am really happy I managed to ride my favourite trails. To the guys and girls who build these trails, I take my hat off to you. I only hope that the trail pixies in England have learned the same trail-building techniques as you.