Page 65 - AMB Freelist

What to expect: A trail town on the go. Lots of new trails have been constructed catering for all trail users. It’s only getting bigger and better in the future too!
Where to stay: We stayed at Black Diamond Lodge. There
are lots of other accommodation options on the Collie River Valley website.
Best coffee: Wagon 537
Best place for a meal: Kiosk at the Dam for a post ride feed and beers. The Federal Hotel in town for dinner.
Don’t miss: A stop for a chat with Eric at Crank’n Cycles. If you’re not sure where to start, he can give you some pointers on which local trails to ride. If it is open, the Collie Bike Museum is worth a visit. Otherwise if you are around for a while, you can call and make an appointment to have a look around.
AMB’s must ride trails
Pipe’n Hot: The natural half pipe in this trail will have you wanting to go back for more. The dirt isn’t half bad either.
Dam It/Wam Bam: Has a bit of everything in it. The hand cut tech in Dam It is complimented by the fun flowing turns at the end of Wam Bam. It is the best viewing point for the much talked about Wellington Dam mural, too.
Lichen This: A great climbing
trail that must be seen to truly appreciate the effort that has gone into the construction. Also, it’s the best way back to the trailhead if you do any of the trails that descend to the river.
jumps to finish. We cross the road and ride through the Potters Gorge campsite on the side of the dam. As we ride back to the to the cars to on the Sika
Trail, Dave’s meeting has finished, and he joins us for a third loop. Into Pipe’n Hot we go. In the top half, our tyres crunch as we carve through the pea gravel. The trail has a lot to give, with sneaky gaps to be had off rocks on the side and rollers to be doubled if you are carrying enough speed. Then we cross the fireroad and it all changes. We drop into a natural half pipe, and trail name is apt. We’re surfing a wave of hero dirt. There is plenty of grip here to let your brakes go. At the end we slog back up the fireroad to get to Dam It. We ride the top half with a quick push up to grab a few rocky sections of Firetail before stopping when the bush opens to what is probably the best view of the Wellington Dam mural you will see.
Not far past this is the turn off to Wam Bam. The filter at the top gives us a good idea as to what to expect. It’s janky. Looking at it, I can see the best line, but am I strong enough to ride it? I zipper my way through. It’s not the best approach but it gets the job
done. I’m happy to get it blind. The rocky roll at the bottom just before you re-join Dam It is so sweet! We stop to session the berms at the end. Dam It, these are good trails! Back across Jabitj and up Lichen This and we’re done for the morning.
WHAT’S UP FOR WELLINGTON?
Sitting around at The Kiosk at the Dam while we
eat lunch, Dave and Rod can’t help but talk shop.
It’s a great insight as to what is yet to come for the Wellington National Park trails. With approximately 15km of trail constructed in stage one, it's exciting to hear that there are another 45km to be constructed in stages two and three. Dave draws alignments on a map, explaining what is to come. He’s excited about the good country that the next stages are in. He talks about how much more fall the descents will have
in the next stages. “This black trail - there is this gully with this big creek line through the guts of it, waterfalls and boulders as big as this house that you are weaving through.” He points at the kiosk, “that’s
64