New Sphinx Rock mountain bike track open
SIX hundred hours of voluntary work and a $30,000 grant have produced another scenic addition to Alexandra’s mountainbiking network that will get some heavyweight usage next week.
Some of the first riders of the new 6km Sphinx Rock Track will be 600 competitors in the sixday, 424km ‘‘The Pioneer’’ Ironman event, who will cycle the track as one of the stages of the Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes event on November 27.
The track, opened on Saturday, climbs from the Roxburgh Gorge Cycle Trail to Sphinx Rock, at the summit of Flat Top Hill, near Butcher’s Dam, Mountainbikers of Alexandra (MOA) president Joe Sherriff said.
The track was a joint initiative between MOA and the Department of Conservation (Doc), and built with a $30,000 Doc grant and 600 hours of volunteer labour.
Mr Sherriff said for some years there had been a popular 10km loop track, ‘‘Purple Haze’’, that climbed from Butcher’s Dam along the top of Flat Top Hill and went back to the Butcher’s Dam car park.
The Sphinx Rock track connected the Purple Haze track to the Roxburgh Gorge track and had ‘‘magnificent views of the gorge’’, he said.
He praised all who had been involved with the initiative and said MOA and Doc were continu ing to work together to further expand the Flat Top Hill network of tracks.