bikepacking.
April 1-2, 2023
The first weekend in April, I went on a 100km bikepacking trip with the UON Mountaineering Club. It was my first event with the club, and definitely one to remember!
Day 1 started off pretty easy. We coasted down Fernleigh Track for the first part of the ride (see the first photo), a beautiful paved & slightly downhill path with forest all around us. We veered off at one point to hit an actual downhill track. I was nervous as I had never done any real mountain biking, and asked the boys for any tips. They first informed me that my rear brake was on the left side of my bike (just like they drive on the left here instead of the right), and then told me to keep my body weight towards the back of the bike. I went cautiously slow and made it to the bottom unscathed :) We stopped several times to take in the views, which I of course snapped photos of, so below you will find those, as well as some rare photos of myself taken by others! Hooray for shared Google Photos albums!
Day 2 started off pretty rough with 45 minutes or so spent climbing out of the valley we had camped in. I made sure to take photos of the incoming storm over the beach before we left. We were all convinced it was going to catch us, but somehow it never did. We rode back exactly the way we came, stopping for lunch in Swansea like we had the day before, and ending our ride around 5pm back at the university.
