A few months back I decided to head out to McLeans Forest mountainbike park, for some reconnaissance riding ahead of the 6-Hour Blast event being held there. Not having a bike rack for my car, I figured that the most pragmatic way to get there would be by simply biking the roads and paths leading there – this would also give me an idea of what this route is like to bike.
Being on the other side of town, I got over to Harewood by popping my bike on the #8 airport bus – unfortunately you can’t even do this now while the bike rack ban is still in place… It would be nice too if there was a good cycleway option to get you out there as well – unfortunately having a fully completed Wheels to Wings cycleway to help you has also been stalled by various parties over far too many years…
Ah, well… Assuming that you do manage to make your way successfully to the top end of Harewood Rd, you at least have the luxury of a pretty good underpass to get you under State Highway 1.
The signage then directs you to cross over the Harewood Rd roundabout approach. There’s a certain irony that, in building an underpass to avoid four lanes of traffic, you now have to cross five lanes of traffic to continue on…
The first section of the route to McLeans Island takes you on a path around the airport perimeter.
(As an aside, it does seem rather odd that the final link of Orchard Rd doesn’t connect through to the McLeans Island Rd roundabout – it would certainly make airport access a lot easier…)
The path around the airport is arguably no more than a footpath really, but at least it keeps you off the fast-moving (80kmh) road.
Still, it would be nice if the path was a bit wider and had better sightlines as you head around the curves…
And a bit of path maintenance and tidy-up wouldn’t go amiss either…
Finally at the intersection to Aviation Dr, the path finishes and you are left to run the gauntlet for a little bit on relatively minimal shoulders (I guess if you’re on a mountainbike, you could use the gravel shoulder…).
At the intersection with Pound Rd, turning right sees you briefly with some shoulder space before it narrows up again.
The sharp 90-degree bend also isn’t the greatest for sight distance either…
Fortunately, on the approaches to the Isaac Construction quarry entrance, some painted cycle lanes have been provided as part of the road curve realignment.
But then those cycle lanes also stop and you are back to a negligible shoulder – with a blind crest curve as well…
Salvation is at hand on the other side of the crest when you can now head to the off-road trail that starts up here.
The trail is generally a good surface and flat riding along the way.
There are a couple of access roads to cross but they’re well signposted.
The crossing points are also well signposted on the roads so that traffic know you might be crossing.
Finally on reaching the third access road you can head up it a little bit before entering into the forest trails.
Before long you’ll be at the McLeans Forest carpark and ready to ride some MTB trails!
As you can see, choosing to bike out to McLeans Forest is a mixture of okay sections and bits where you might have to grit your teeth – here’s hoping that over time the latter parts will be improved to make it a more pleasant ride…
P.S: If you don’t fancy trying to get your bike out there, one way or another, you can also hire bikes on site at Cycling the Dream!
Have you biked out to McLeans Forest before?
Nice write up. I’ll look out for the gate entry to get off the road and use the connecting trails to get to Templars and McLeans now.