Work took me to London Ontario this week. I decided to take a quick detour (~15min north of 401) to just west of Kitchener to try out the Hydrocut Trails. It’s reputation of being a great place to ride didn’t disappoint.
The first thing I liked about this network was the presentation of their map and the numbering of trails to show the most ideal loop. When riding a new location I hate having to stop at every junction (and therefore ruin the flow of the ride) to establish which way to go – Hyrdocut trails pretty much take that out of the equation. When there was a larger junction with multiple options there was typically a posted map to help with any confusion.
All 20km of all-original single track was buffed, like super buffed! This was a ridged single speeder’s paradise. There were some ‘blacks’ and ‘double blacks’ but it was more a consideration of climbing and steepness rather than actual technical features.
Speaking of technical features there were frequent options off the side to take roll-outs or manual drops. Nothing crazy, just a little fun. The builder’s routing and options helped me to quickly grow in confidence to let the bike roll even around the frequent blind corners. Established one-way (only) routing also helped with the confidence.
The routing/layout of the trails was also excellent. Lots of gradual climbs with proper slope and mini-breaks kept everything fun, whether going up or down.
My favorite was probably Adams Run with lots of speed and fast corners, but there were a couple of sections with fun Kingdom Sidewinder-like sections that were also memorable. Below is Sweet Street I believe, Kamikaze offers a much larger version later in the trail network.
All in all, an excellent outing and one I’ll be definitely visiting again. My 20km ride was 1hr 50min with frequent stops for pics etc… Plan on anywhere from 1:30 to 2 hours, with options to bail out and make a shorter loop. This is also an excellent place to bring beginners and young riders.