Trail
TOKAI STRESS-BUSTER By Tim Brink
REGION: Western Cape CLOSEST TOWN: Cape Town DESCRIPTION: Tokai’s trails are the perfect antidote at the end of a stressful day. Head up from the car park, and just after the second gate enter the Faerie Garden on your left. Enjoy the technical rooty sections and gradual climb, before crossing the main drag onto another short, gnarly stretch. Avoid the back-scraper tree and sprint the sharp climb back onto the road. From here, the only way is up. Turn right into the first side-road, and left 100m later onto the long singletrack climb. The first part is quite sandy, especially in the summer, before it gets rocky and twisty as you gain altitude. The climax is the first of our Challenges – to ride up the Big Berm: get a good middle-ring run up, and in all but the driest conditions, it is rideable. Turn right and enjoy some flat stuff, taking two left forks before you head up the little climb past the ruin. Don’t turn left into the singletrack; keep going another hundred metres and look for the steep, 50m-long track on your left. This is the second Challenge: again, middle ring is the best option. Turn left, onto the open road, until you reach a t-junction. Turn right, and immediately left into the forest onto the Boulders singletrack, and the third Challenge: make it all the way to the end and back without putting a foot down. Drop back onto the road, for the final piece of climbing, and the high point of the ride, at the entrance to the Mamba. After 6.5km, and 270m ascent, you have earned the helter-skelter rush to your car. Three singletracks lead straight into one another here: Mamba, Boomslang and Snake Eyes. At the bottom of Snake Eyes, turn right and hammer the flat back to the top of the Big Berm, to descend the way you came up. The Faerie Garden closes the ride out with some whoop-inducing corners and the final Challenge for the day: the small wooden bridge and the tricky climb out of it. For a one-hour workout, with views across the peninsula, some skillimproving challenges and a healthy dose of fresh air thrown in for free, this is near-perfect. DISTANCE: 13km NOVICE: 3/10 INTERMEDIATE: 8/10 ADVANCED: 8/10 TYRES: In summer, XC tyres will be fine but in winter, find some extra knobbles: wet rocks and roots can be as slippery as a politician. BEST THING: Easy to get to after work, as short or hard as you want to make it. WORST THING: Climbing from the get-go. BEST SEASON: Summer is best for after-work riding. GET THERE: Take the Tokai off-ramp from the M3 (Blue Route) and turn towards the mountain. Straight at the traffic circle. Where the road splits, veer right, and carry on to the end of the road; turn left and follow the dirt road up to the parking lot. COST: R25 for a day permit, from the hut as you enter the lower forest. Free access if you have Cape Nature Wild Card, which costs R245 for the year: www.capenature.co.za/wildcard.htm SECURE PARKING: Yes, but leave valuables out of sight. BE CAREFUL OF: The rocky step-downs on Mamba and Snake Eyes, as well as the rooty section immediately after the Big Berm. BE SURE TO: Stop and listen to the silence, magnified by the hum of the rush-hour lemmings in the distance... CONTACT: www.sanparks.org
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TREAD NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010