Went for a great ride today. Hooked up with some friends – BT, Col and Cheese – and took off for Lysterfield Park. Despite the 9am start, it was pretty warm; the mercury eventually climbed to 34 degrees C.
We left from the parking lot near the entrance and headed round the bottom of the lake then up the hill toward the Hallam North Road entrance. During the climb we passed two ‘roos (maybe wallabies?) grazing in the bushes. The last section before the halfway mark at Hallam Road was all switchbacks climbing up about 100m.
We stopped for a breather at the halfway mark to allow Cheese to catch his breathe – he lay on the ground panting and cursing his previous night of ‘beer and fags’. After a drink of water and a few minutes of chit-chat, we headed off again, this time onto the Commonwealth Games XC track. Col, Cheese and I skipped the black run, but BT had a go (and he was successful for the first time ever!)
One more big climb to the highest point of our loop and then it was (mostly) downhill all the way back to the car park.
There is some great singletrack and some tough climbing on this route. There are also some small jumps and logs and the occasional rock garden to negotiate. The total loop was about 16km and took around 1 hour and 20mins. The helmet-cam video will follow shortly!
To download the gpx file, click here.