I had the pleasure of doing a run-mtb-run navigation event yesterday morning, hosted by James 'Lettuce' Stewart at his Royston Farm just past Plettenberg Bay. Two friends, Talita and Otto joined me there, and it was a treat to see other friends like Debbie, Jeannette, Christine and John.
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| I'm so glad that Otto and Talita are enjoying navigation activities. |
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| A pre-start photo with Debbie. 15 years ago, in the early 2010s, we did a number of the Kinetic Sprint races together. |
We started with a 1km orienteering activity - a quick loop around the start area to find a number of checkpoints. We then got ready to bike, copying checkpoint locations from a master map on to the Google Earth images provided.
CPs 1, 2, 3 and 4
I decided to hit CPs 1, 2, 4 and 3 first. Otto and Talita made the same decision and we were together through 1 and 2, splitting before 4. I initially thought I'd get #3 first, because it looked like an out-and-back ride from what I could see on the map. Ideally I would have wanted to connect #3 and #7...
They split off first to go to #4; I split a bit later, deciding to get #4 first in case I could take another route from #3... I wouldn't see Otto and Talita until much later.
All was good. Laving #3, I did look for something to the right - like where I've drawn in the yellow dots. I didn't see anything that looked like a trail so I continued on the good dirt road all the way around.
CPs 9, 8, 7, 6...
Heading east from #2 and looking ahead at route options, I could see what looked like a trail parallel to the highway. Before getting there, I spotted a trail going into the blue gums off the dirt road, so I took it. It worked out well and popped me out on the dirt track. I then took the trail parallel to the highway.
#9 was easy, just off the road.
Going to #8, I planned to take what looked on the map like a track between forest blocks. This is an old map and according to current growth, it doesn't look like this. I saw Jeannette and her teammate here - they had turned around and she said there was no road down the bottom. I checked and turned around too. I did see a ride* in the forest but not knowing quite where it was, I didn't want to chance taking it.
* A ride is a gap in the forest - probably used when planting and later when felling. It is like a row of missing trees. Good for travel.
I rode around instead and as it turned out, the CP was on what was probably the same ride, so my possible route from the other side would have worked out.
#7 was straightforward.
Then on to #6, which was labeled as a tree on single track. I got the CP and then decided to stay on the single track to see where it went. I knew it would hit the dirt road that I could see at some point. It hit the dirt road before the dog leg - all good, I knew exactly where I was.
This is where the fun starts
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| The actual map is printed a bit darker. I've bumped the brightness up to see more in these images. |
Riding on the open forest road from 6, I spotted a trail off to my left (north), which gave me two route options.
The first was to ride back the way I'd come (green arrows), past #9, on the trail parallel to the highway and then to CPs #10 and #5. This was safe and quick.
I looked at the control description for #5 and it said 'Sneaky path'. To me, this suggested that James was indicating a trail that connected the ridge that #5 was on with the ridge which #6 was on (yellow dotted line is what I hoped for). As I could see a clear trail going down, I figured it would be worth a try.
The trail snaked down and at the bottom - next to a stream, I could go left and right. I chose to go left, which was a clearer, more used and worn trail. Should have gone right. haha haha
The trail was spectacular riding with dozens of bridges to facilitate the trail criss-crossing the stream. I loved the mosses on the trees and logs and rocks, gentle rocky stream, meandering trail, sufficiently wide bridges and interesting rocky cliffs. After about 1km, I did think it would be worth turning back to try the right-hand option, but as the trail was really fabulous, clearly new and that James had mentioned a new trail, I figured it had to turn up at some stage to get out of the valley to return to Royston Farms.
I kept riding and knew I was far down but the trail was awesome. Eventually it started to climb out.
The pink trail that I've drawn in is my estimate of where I was. I do have a Strava track that I'll capture once I finished writing this. A 'game' that I enjoy post event is to draw in where I think I was...
Thinking that my friends Talita and Otto were probably long at the finish, I sent a whatsapp to Talita to say that I was fine and that I'd taken a trail in the valley but that I was climbing up now.
She replied to say that she thought they had done the same.
Not 100m later, I found them ahead of me!
Back on the ridge, we cycled to #5 then #10 and to the finish-transition.
I told James that I'd ridden the 'Trail of 100 bridges'. He looked at me quizzically for moment and then laughed, saying I'd now be hiking it from the other direction. Haha haha.
Joined by Otto and Talita, we set off, running and hiking the route we'd done in reverse, this time continuing on the right-hand trail.
Another funny trail
We got the 3rd and final hiking checkpoint #3 and turned around to get back on the trail. I expected a forest boundary and I'd seen a track where I have the dotted yellow line when we'd ridden from #5 to #10. I expected the trail we were on to merge or intersect. I either missed it or it wasn't there and so we followed a very good footpath that meandered. We cut through the forest, hitting the road in front of the finish.
Our final activity was walking across a swinging balance beam, and then to the finish.
James cooked us egg-and-bacon breakfast buns - I just had two expertly fried eggs, and we got a slab of chocolate each - it was Easter Sunday after all.
This is my actual Strava track.
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| 33km logged |
The new trail through the valley is an MTO trail - they are doing the trail building. It is superb - I'm really glad that I did ride - and hike - it.
This was a really super morning out - good fun and wonderful exploration.
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