Mtn. Bike Race Trail

We'll be having another mtn. bike race on Sept. 10. Some of the race is on nice wide dirt roads, some is on washed out dirt roads, and the best part is on some donkey trails that most people don't even know exist.

As time goes by, these unused trails get overgrown with bushes and thorns. Every couple years, I have to do some thorn bush pruning so I can ride without getting all chopped up. Brer rabbit would feel right at home in some of our Bonaire briar patches.

One of my favorite trails connects some dirt roads between the Radio Netherlands antenna farm and Karpata. Here we are looking back near the start of the donkey trail.


You can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

Some parts of the trail are are wide with a hard rock (coral) surface, but other parts are narrow and have a loose surface made up of small to medium sized rocks. The loose parts are a challenge to power through on a bike.


Here is a narrow part of the trail. We get to enjoy the scenery much better when we walk along the trail with our pruners and clippers. When you are on a bike, you are too busy steering to check out the view.


If you look at the bottom of the picture, you'll see some of the bumpier terrain. There are a couple sections of washed out stream bed that I haven't photographed yet. They are quite tricky to ride, especially at race speeds. Novice riders may have to walk their bikes, but experienced cyclists will hammer through more or less out of control, and loving every minute of it.