Narooma MTB Trails
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LPG
likes thicc birds
Did you end up riding there?
wkkie
It's Not Easy Being Green
Sure did. Great trails, some good variety and nice features, something for all levels.
The shuttles in the gravity area were quick and the trails are all fairly short there, but good fun and varied.
It was a bit weird that the actual downhill type trails weren't shuttled.
The pedal up in the playground area was easy, good bang for buck with climbing to descent/ fun ratio.
Worth a visit for sure! 2 days would be good, I missed a few of the trails that I would have liked to ride, but got a lot in in the half day that was cut a little short with a mechanical.
LPG
likes thicc birds
Awesome, that's what I wanted to hear. I haven't planned it yet but I might head down for a weekend with the family in March or aimilar. Its close enough to home to drive there after work and not take any time off work.
gippyz
Likes Dirt
Gonna head down this weekend. Thinking of pedalling up for the playground area on day 1 and buy 10 shuttle passes for the gravity area for day 2. Better off with a half day shuttle pass for gravity area or 10 passes ok? Website did say half or full day pass holders have priority, but am not the fastest down the hill and reckon will get better bang for my bucks with the 10 passes.
Isildur
The Real Pedant
When I was there a couple of months back for a few days, my wife and I each did a half day paid shuttle with other friends, the boys in the morning, the girls in the arvo, while we splt kid duties.
In the Gravity Zone there are 8 descending trails, and we managed to get a ride of all trails, plus being able to repeat two, so 10 laps in total. That said, we weren't hanging around, and it was a fairly quiet morning with 2 shuttles running, so turn around time was very quick.
If you're not into Huge Sends, you can probably ignore Goodbye Gravity, it's proper big, and if you're not hitting the jumps it's a sad run down the hill - it was way out of our paygrade that day and was a wasted descent for us. A couple of years ago, before my elbow "realignment", it would have been a tonne of fun for me, and on a good day it would still be fun, but just not that day when we were rushed.
On the opposite end of that spectrum, Whale Trail (I think) was a huge pedal fest and also worth skipping.
Chilli & Lime, and Colonel Senders are a hoot for jumping, while I Love Steve and Thomas the Jank Engine (both accessed by Berm A Gooey on the other side of the firetrail where you're dropped off) are warp speed mania in the best possible way - pumpy, flowy, nothing too steep or too tech, just about how long you can hold off the brakes
So if you're planning on relaxing and taking your time, a 10-pass is probably a good bet. But if you are short on time, you can definitely punch out plenty of laps in a half day if you're pinning it.
The Playground area is also super fun, and a pretty easy pedal to the top. You could spend a day there easily and have plenty of fun. The "Left Side" trails (Thunderbirds, Shredtopia) are nicely groomed lines, Thunderbirds being a really nice, gentle jump trail. Puffy Horse is another trail where you can pick up a lot of speed and be grinning from ear to ear, while the "Right Side" trails (Gnarooma, Dalmeniac & Full Force) are more natural, hand cut trails with a bit more jank.
My pick from the Playground were Thunderbirds, Puffy Horse & Gnarooma, as Dal and Full Force kind of lost elevation a bit too quickly after a long traverse.
Any way you do it, you'll have fun though, it's a great set of trails!
Just to add my experience of the shuttle, they were working overtime, I think they had overbooked. But they had 2 vehicles going and a lot of the time, I'd literally get to the shuttle area and one would be loading up and I wasn't mucking around heading down. I think I managed 8 runs and I was almost an hour late turning up (I didn't realise I'd have to ride to the shuttle zone from the main trail head). As I said in the other thread one time we did wait about 20 mins - other than that it was quick as.
As they were running 2 shuttles in the Gravity zone, they weren't running Playground zone shuttle - I'd only do the Playground zone again if they had a shuttle running.
As they were running 2 shuttles in the Gravity zone, they weren't running Playground zone shuttle - I'd only do the Playground zone again if they had a shuttle running.
Another sick trip to Narooma.
Only downside was no surf and even if there was, a local surfer told me there's been heaps of sharks incluiding Bronze Whalers. Supposedly there are plenty of fish - big tuna, mackeral etc at the moment.
Day one - was the arvo, sessioned the bottom of Thunderbirds are Go on the trusty hardtail. Some peeps couldn't believe I was a riding a HT?
Anyway apart from discovering my brakes are in need of fixing/maintenance, I had a great time. I can really tell the difference jumping both bikes.
Also pushed up a bit higher and cleared the car jump on the HT as well, was pretty effing stoked.
Was pretty dusty ; photos don't do the dust justice
Only downside was no surf and even if there was, a local surfer told me there's been heaps of sharks incluiding Bronze Whalers. Supposedly there are plenty of fish - big tuna, mackeral etc at the moment.
Day one - was the arvo, sessioned the bottom of Thunderbirds are Go on the trusty hardtail. Some peeps couldn't believe I was a riding a HT?
Anyway apart from discovering my brakes are in need of fixing/maintenance, I had a great time. I can really tell the difference jumping both bikes.
Also pushed up a bit higher and cleared the car jump on the HT as well, was pretty effing stoked.
Was pretty dusty ; photos don't do the dust justice
Day 2 - sessioned the Gravity Zone with shuttles. As usual the shuttle drivers were super nice and super efficient. Hardly any waiting whatsoever, they are on the ball & totally cool dudes 
Started on I Love Steve - it's been recently groomed and you can tell. So many options and levels of difficulty on this trail. As sick as ever and a great warm up trail. This is popular for a reason.
Next up thought I'd try Thomas the Jank Engine - for a a bit of tech and different warm up. It's as janky as I'd remembered and I must admit I absolutely love coming through that rock section as full speed! Even though it's basically flat, I can pretend I'm Troy Brosnan going through a rock garden on a world cup track
Time to introduce myself to the Colonel - Colonel Senders - this is my favourite track went down 4 or 5 times. You can go hard you can go slow, but the more you let go the better it gets. I can clear about 80% but there are 2 bigger jumps and the berm gap! No way I can do that yet. Anyway this is the best track for my level at the moment.
Wanted something different so went for Chilli and Lime - last time this was WAY above my paygrade and I didn't like it at all. Now apart from the creek gap it's absolutely fine. The problem was it's washed out and rutted like fuck so I had zero confidence to really send it in places.
So that was pretty much my morning, it was hot dry and dusty but shit loads of fun. Met some super cool dudes on the shuttles and had a blast. Better still nothing super sketchy, my riding was pretty good but I made sure I was careful where it warranted.
Started on I Love Steve - it's been recently groomed and you can tell. So many options and levels of difficulty on this trail. As sick as ever and a great warm up trail. This is popular for a reason.
Next up thought I'd try Thomas the Jank Engine - for a a bit of tech and different warm up. It's as janky as I'd remembered and I must admit I absolutely love coming through that rock section as full speed! Even though it's basically flat, I can pretend I'm Troy Brosnan going through a rock garden on a world cup track
Time to introduce myself to the Colonel - Colonel Senders - this is my favourite track went down 4 or 5 times. You can go hard you can go slow, but the more you let go the better it gets. I can clear about 80% but there are 2 bigger jumps and the berm gap! No way I can do that yet. Anyway this is the best track for my level at the moment.
Wanted something different so went for Chilli and Lime - last time this was WAY above my paygrade and I didn't like it at all. Now apart from the creek gap it's absolutely fine. The problem was it's washed out and rutted like fuck so I had zero confidence to really send it in places.
So that was pretty much my morning, it was hot dry and dusty but shit loads of fun. Met some super cool dudes on the shuttles and had a blast. Better still nothing super sketchy, my riding was pretty good but I made sure I was careful where it warranted.
Day Two - no shuttles just my pins. Boy was it tough!! Lucky for me I am way fitter than last time so actually managed a few climbs up to the Playground.
Started off Thunderbirds are Go - again this has been recently curated and it shows. The whole trail is mint from top to bottom. The top section is super fun the jumps look a bit bigger than previously, but staying off the break is rewarded. I still hate the climb/pedally bit in the middle it's annoying AF. But bottom section again is so smooth berms are mint and you can carry heaps of speed. Still couldn't bring myself to do the log jump which is frustrating as I know I can clear as I'm doing way bigger sends on Colonel Senders. Anyway the run into the car gap is smoother than it used to be, This is a great fun trail except the middle!
Next did Gnarooma for the first time,. it was tricky, I kept seeing features AFTER I'd been past and didn't fancy pushing back to hit them. There's some serious chunk on offer but nice tech and flow. The only issue is for me is some of these are too narrow and overgrown so you never see what's coming so unless you hit the track over and over it is hard to enjoy it to the max. I tend to be cautious hitting a trail for the first time so it is hard to really relax. Same as the next trail I hit
Puffy Horse - I really let it go in sections so it was great but almost had a massive stacker on a tight corner, stuck my leg out managed to skid around it, stayed on God knows how. Again I could really like this trail but you need to know if off by heart as you cannot see a thing.
Next just to see what it was like and to tick if off, did the entire Shredtopia from top to bottom. Was fun! I can see why the kids and parents love it. You can go as fast or as slow as you like, great for beginners but fun enough for me.
Managed to snag a lift up to the top again for a final Thunderbirds are Go run. Really held off the brake and sent it. Magic.
Finally did a couple of runs on Quantum - I'm pretty hopeless and case the last jump and don't do the gap line but I'm getting better on it. It's less intimidating than it used to be.
That doesn't seem like a lot but that was 22kms and 3 hours of riding. WAs absolutely stuffed after than and the morning session on Sat.
Started off Thunderbirds are Go - again this has been recently curated and it shows. The whole trail is mint from top to bottom. The top section is super fun the jumps look a bit bigger than previously, but staying off the break is rewarded. I still hate the climb/pedally bit in the middle it's annoying AF. But bottom section again is so smooth berms are mint and you can carry heaps of speed. Still couldn't bring myself to do the log jump which is frustrating as I know I can clear as I'm doing way bigger sends on Colonel Senders. Anyway the run into the car gap is smoother than it used to be, This is a great fun trail except the middle!
Next did Gnarooma for the first time,. it was tricky, I kept seeing features AFTER I'd been past and didn't fancy pushing back to hit them. There's some serious chunk on offer but nice tech and flow. The only issue is for me is some of these are too narrow and overgrown so you never see what's coming so unless you hit the track over and over it is hard to enjoy it to the max. I tend to be cautious hitting a trail for the first time so it is hard to really relax. Same as the next trail I hit
Puffy Horse - I really let it go in sections so it was great but almost had a massive stacker on a tight corner, stuck my leg out managed to skid around it, stayed on God knows how. Again I could really like this trail but you need to know if off by heart as you cannot see a thing.
Next just to see what it was like and to tick if off, did the entire Shredtopia from top to bottom. Was fun! I can see why the kids and parents love it. You can go as fast or as slow as you like, great for beginners but fun enough for me.
Managed to snag a lift up to the top again for a final Thunderbirds are Go run. Really held off the brake and sent it. Magic.
Finally did a couple of runs on Quantum - I'm pretty hopeless and case the last jump and don't do the gap line but I'm getting better on it. It's less intimidating than it used to be.
That doesn't seem like a lot but that was 22kms and 3 hours of riding. WAs absolutely stuffed after than and the morning session on Sat.
Isildur
The Real Pedant
Love this report!Day 2 - sessioned the Gravity Zone with shuttles. As usual the shuttle drivers were super nice and super efficient. Hardly any waiting whatsoever, they are on the ball & totally cool dudes
Started on I Love Steve - it's been recently groomed and you can tell. So many options and levels of difficulty on this trail. As sick as ever and a great warm up trail. This is popular for a reason.
Next up thought I'd try Thomas the Jank Engine - for a a bit of tech and different warm up. It's as janky as I'd remembered and I must admit I absolutely love coming through that rock section as full speed! Even though it's basically flat, I can pretend I'm Troy Brosnan going through a rock garden on a world cup track
Time to introduce myself to the Colonel - Colonel Senders - this is my favourite track went down 4 or 5 times. You can go hard you can go slow, but the more you let go the better it gets. I can clear about 80% but there are 2 bigger jumps and the berm gap! No way I can do that yet. Anyway this is the best track for my level at the moment.
Wanted something different so went for Chilli and Lime - last time this was WAY above my paygrade and I didn't like it at all. Now apart from the creek gap it's absolutely fine. The problem was it's washed out and rutted like fuck so I had zero confidence to really send it in places.
So that was pretty much my morning, it was hot dry and dusty but shit loads of fun. Met some super cool dudes on the shuttles and had a blast. Better still nothing super sketchy, my riding was pretty good but I made sure I was careful where it warranted.
View attachment 420600
And it highlights just how different we all are as riders. For instance, I'm 100% on the same page for Steve & Jank Engine, but totally opposite for the Colnel Senders & Chilli & Lime. I could just never get Senders happening properly, while Chilli & Lime has gotta be one of my fav jump tracks on the hill