On Wednesday Boogie, Andy and I revisited the Cascade trail from Holywell down to the road below the waterfall.
We first discovered it by accident whilst having a family barbecue at the park. There was a lady selling bananas and I asked her where she had come from. When she said “Cascade” I said to her “That is a long walk up the road through Section”. “No” she said “I came up the trail”.
Boogies’s ears have an acute extra strength when the word “trail” is mentioned.
The trail starts on the left as you exit the park and is a double track down to coffee farm. Then you turn left on a single track, very narrow and rocky in places with a river crossing. I got my feet wet!
The first time down we christened it the “Hairy, scary trail”. This time we were not so sure it did not seem so bad, until I put my right foot down to push round a rock and there was nothing under my foot! I went backwards over the edge, hung onto a tree and Andy came and rescued my bike. He then pulled me up and I was back on the track and suddenly “edge conscious”.
In fact after this point there are little rocky bits, which Boogie with his Maxxis tractor tyres and big suspension mainly rode. I didn’t take my downhill bike because of the long climb back from Cascade.
There is then a junction with two ways down, we turned right and the hairy bit began, narrow, steep and several berms that were difficult to negotiate. There is a splendid view of the Cascade waterfall from the trail and then you are on the road to Section. It was a beautiful sunny day with country smells and sounds.
Two of the landslips on the road have been fixed but you still have the single track before Section, which is not so daunting, now the foliage has grown and the path widened.
We stopped at Section to se our Rasta friend and had a French press of really fresh Blue Mountain coffee, for which he charged us 200 dollars.
Suddenly the clouds came down and we did most of the climb to Holywell in the mist but the sun came back as we turned the mountain. Andy and I went to Café Blue for breakfast and Boogie drove off to work (we had motored up to the starting point).
BikeNutz grading? 3 for experience downhillers, 5 for beginners."
