A MOUNTAIN biking experience in the foothills of the Barrington Tops is opening its tracks to the public today.
Barrington Bike Park offers 12 trails across a 370m drop which, according to owner Brian Kilby, "cater for all".
From about 100m outside The Steps campground, which Mr Kilby also owns and operates, he runs a shuttle service to two starting points in the park.
"At the first point there is a green one which is the beginner trail, there's a blue flow trail and two blue tech trails," Mr Kilby said.
The technical, or "tech", trails are through natural bush, off camber and with plenty of tree roots according to Mr Kilby. He said they are a very low speed but technical ride.
These trails contrast to the "flow" tracks which are less technical but faster paced. For those not familiar with mountain bike colour-coding, in ascending order of difficulty the colours are green, blue and black.
"At this stage there is one green but there is room for another green and that's literally a beginner. My nine year old can ride that really easily.
"It's out in the open, really wide, corners are nice and gentle. It' still quite steep in places so you can get a lot out of it.
"The big flow trail is going to be the number one trail on the property. Big berms, big jumps and it follows the edge of the forest line."
The top starting point is where the tracks get serious.
"We built a road up through the forest to the top transition point. From there you go into a climbing trail called Elevator and it takes you to the top point where there are four trails," he said.
"There are two black trails, ones a flow called Dead Man's Creek and there's a black tech trail called Detonator and then there are two blue flow trails."
Mr Kilby has owned The Steps for about 12 years and two years ago purchased the adjacent property which was then known as Twist Tops Retreat.
Having always wanted to operate a bike park, he was inspired by a New Zealand track build called Pipe 21 and in February last year construction began.
Mr Kilby contracted East Coast Mountain Trails, who also built the trails at Dungog Common, and said he never looked back.
"We expect at least 50 per cent of our biking clients will end up being camping clients at the same time," he said.
"A family getaway weekend or a mates getaway weekend where you book a couple of nights and set up camp. Head up the mountain all day biking, come back in the afternoon set up your BBQ and have few beers then a few rides the next day."
The park was originally meant to opened in December last year, however, due to the rain and subsequent track modifications, today is their soft opening.
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