Last Sun

Belmont Regional Park, Wellington, New Zealand

Seriously hard-core downhill track featuring a variety of jumps, gaps, drops, chutes, rocks and tree roots.

Extreme

Bike and Foot

This is a raw downhill track, with serious features that demand real skill and commitment (or at least the bravado of youth). Much of the track is lined on either side by tape that says "DANGER KEEP OUT". The tape is intended to delineate the track, though it could equally be referring to the track itself.

The top of the track is unmarked and hence not especially obvious. If the drop off the side of OCR Belmont is too intimidating, then proceed no further – the top is far from being the most difficult section.

If you proceed down the steep – and sometimes extremely steep – hillside along the edge of the forest block, you'll encounter a variety of obstacles (otherwise known as features). The features include:

Jumps: ramps and/or bumps that are designed for getting a bit, or possibly a lot, of air. Some, though not all, can be rolled over.

Gaps: similar to jumps, though generally can't be rolled over so they need to be taken at speed.

Drops: there are several drops, some utilising the terrain and others created artificially by filling behind logs placed across the track.

Chutes: extremely steep slopes that drop down several metres.

Rocks: at one point there is a drop down into a rock garden. Other parts of the track simply have stray rocks in random places.

Tree roots: being in a forest, there are plenty of tree roots – many of them embedded in off-camber corners.

This really is an extreme track. It is advisable to walk the track before riding.

The top is on OCR Belmont, 10m north of the gate that's on the edge of the forest block.

The bottom joins Big Weta just below its alternative line.

0.61km

Single track

7 Feb 2010 by Ian

Ian