Contermanskloof trail report 23 July 2010:

The trails have bedded in well and held up rather well considering how new they are.

The first climb through the vineyard has one section which needs to be built up again as riders seem to have crumbled it by going off line

The first downhill down to the farmyard (where ‘the King’ resides) is super fun and the berms offer an option to miss out on some of the puddles. Our suggestion would be to build these berms bigger so that adequate drainage can occur.
Some of the switchbacks climbing up to the top of the mast have become mini marshes and the trail has deviated from the original. In these areas, the trail will probably have to be moved to avoid the natural watercourse.

The monster jeep track climb up to the mast has held up, but we can’t wait to have a switchback climb heading up there instead. (We’ll gladly help out in building it!)

The switchback descent from the top has held up superbly and is a really fun section! The black and double black route is still super fun and technical and there is a new black section being added that looks like it will cross the green route a few times.

The easier green route down is still amazingly fun at speed and it is only at the bottom of the descent where thing get real boggy-I’m afraid that some sort of boardwalk might have to be built there for future winters or a course deviation if that’s not possible.

The rest of the black trail back down to the dam and parking lot are fine except for the last kilometer or so of flattish singletrack, where it again gets boggy. This trail will probably have to be raised above the current ground level to avoid flooding in future.

Overall, the Contermanskloof trails have held up very well and are still ride-able in all but the worst winter conditions. A massive thank you goes to Robert Starke of Contermanskloof who built and operate the trails as well as Tygerberg mtb club on getting all these new trails open and constructed-it is so nice to have a variety of trails right on our doorstep!