Sam, Sarah, and sketchy single track on the South Island – FIT IS A FEMINIST ISSUE
I started talking about sketchy single-track when I did my first off-road ride with friends from the Guelph Coalition for Active Transit. I was surprised that I managed to ride over tree roots and rocks around turns in little gulleys.
To be clear these are trails that would be fine for pretty much any rider on a mountain bike. My issue is that I’m not riding a mountain bike and I don’t have very much off road experience.
My history in cycling is pretty much all pavement (or concrete or wood!) bike commuting, triathlon, road riding and racing, and velodrome. But as gravel trails have become more popular and I’m happier away from cars, I’m spending more time on more challenging trails. I have an “adventure road” bike for commuting and an even more adventurous gravel bike with wider tires that’s here with me in New Zealand. What we don’t have are mountain bkes.
Sarah and I have been pushing our limits this trip on our gravel bikes. I think the first ride was scarier for her. The second one was scarier for me. But both were fun, and we didn’t crash and no one died.
Ride 1
The Kaikoura Trail is a actually a connected series of trails, looping together country roads, a beach side path (the Whale Trail), gravel roads, and river-side mountain bike trail.
We had a blast riding it but the river-side mountain bike section was definitely challenging. It was single track but allowed traffic in both directions so we had to do a bit of moving to the left when there was oncoming bike traffic. It was also downhill so there was some moderating of our speed required.
We had the map but I think we glossed over the “mountain bike required” and “basic off road skills” bits.
Ride 2
Our second ride was a) in the rain, and b) on a mountain bike trail alongside the beach just north of Westport where we were freedom camping in our campervan.
It was scarier because it was one-way only (so no backing out once you’d started) and it had the feel of a track that he been designed by the local mtb club for maximum curviness and bumpiness, with added trees, sand, mud, and rocks. You needed speed to get up and over the bumps easily but I was nervous making it through the corners at speed. I stopped unexpectedly a few time and Sarah had to brake quickly. Sorry!
We exited part way through and rode some of the way back to our campervan on the road, in the rain.
Again, fun, challeneging on our def not mountain bikes, and we didn’t die.
Here’s what Strava had to say about the ride:
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