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.
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!
www.southboundescapes.com
