I was thinking it on the weekend and lo and behold today was my first mountain bike ride of the year. I really like riding off road and thankfully, like snowboarding, the basic skills don’t seem to disappear even after some time off. Basic skills aside, if the dump (Hartland) could talk smack, it would say that it owned me tonight. Oh yeah dump, well you suck, I want a rematch.
As usual I rode out to Hartland from town, since I feel like I’m shortchanging myself if I drive out. My mountain bike (a Kona Kula Primo cross-country machine) is far from being a pig to ride, but it’s no 16 pound road bike. After climbing the road up to the dump parking lot I headed up to Twister via the Switchbacks (failed to ride them cleanly today — not too surprising). Can’t quite remember what it’s called, but after Twister I did a bit more climbing up to one of the higher points in the dump and then started descending towards the south end. Noticed some trail changes/improvements along the way, nice work SIMBS and volunteers. For the return trip back to town I took Munn Road and various others; the pace was pokey at best.
GPS Data: 46.4km (with about 7km of trail) – 2h26m – 19km/h – GPS Route
A 46km mountain bike ride (about 7km of trail) to and from Hartland (the dump) near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS data.
