| Everyone who has a downhill bike has heard of the Kinglake DH course. It's infamous and rightly so! Keep reading for some tips, directions and what to do and not do... |
| Kinglake is hard! It's steep, gnarly and takes lots of casualties. Last weekend it was one knee with a hole the size of a meteor crater, a broken collarbone and seperated AC. Not bad for one day. But I'm here to tell you it's all good!! Right, directions first. We leave from Eltham. Get youself onto Main Rd and follow this until Wattletree Rd. Turn left here (over a small bridge) and go through Diamond Creek. Continue on to Hurstbridge through Wattle Glen. Stay on this road (it's now called Heidleberg-Kinglake Rd). Follow straight through the roundabout and take a left turn over a bridge into Cottlesbridge-Strathewen Rd. Follow this for around 10 minutes. The road has a bridge and then immediatley turns into dirt. Turn right just before this, then left into Bowden Spur Road 100 metres on. This is sort of underneath the powerlines. Follow this road (it's dirt but sort of graded) for around ten minutes. You will see an open area on your left with a couple of small jumps. Park here and put on every bit of armour you own, steal your mates if you have to. If you don't own a full face helmet and goggles you are @#$**** crazy. The track starts from the jump ( if you don't clear the 44 drum there's something wrong...umm can I?) and follows a 4wd type track before turning into singletrack. It then crosses the road. I must stress here -this is a public road and is used a lot!! Drivers may not see you and most parts of the track drop straight onto the road. Remember to look and listen, your armour is no match to Bazza the bogan in his V8 LandCruiser. From here just follow your nose. The track descends through the 'dark side' which isn't steep but a bit slippery. It then opens up for a bit before getting into steep, rutted, twisty singletrack. There are a few more road crossings. All of the really steep drops are off the road or onto the road. At the bottom you'll ride a fast 4wd track. There's a cool jump off to the left. First time I hit it was at the last minute and it nearly ripped my arms off! Then to the turnaround point. Hopefully you've bribed someone to pick you up so it can be done all over again. Well that't it! I haven't gone into tiny details but that pretty much sums the track up. It is a hard track to ride and even harder to ride clean and fast. I've been there four times and can only now ride it with no dabs reasonably quickly. It is definitly not a track for beginners-take them and they may never ride again! The drops are steep, rocky and very unforgiving. A run takes roughly five minutes, depending on how long you stand at the top of the drops 'emptying you jocks' as Tyron puts it! There is always people there on the weekends and we all go fairly regularly. Just call and we'll take you on a guided run. Easy. Kinglake, it's all good! Jen |