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Table Mountain post-fire closures: update on Rhodes Mem gate opening?


Stephan

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Ride report for Friday morning. 
 

took my trusty Cannondale pumped to road pressure from some road rides while I was working on my road bike (140mm stem and 340mm bars to make @Pure Savage proud)

The UCT single track will hopefully be back soon as I was riding with Grant who is the boss man of the uct mtb scene, interesting to see my old stomping ground (indoor rowing center) with no trees around it. 
 

Turning off the tar to get on the gravel was still quite loose and not much has been done there. That part was alright on the gravel if you have gears (I was happy on my 38f 42r but grant was doing torque intervals on 36 or 34 front and 30ish rear) but I would not classify it road bike-able. 

I stopped to let some air out of my tyres as I was expecting them to have been fine quite hard and OBVIOUSLY let out way too much and enjoyed sealant spraying all over my legs for the next 2km of not-ideal-for-gravel road. Some sections were very loose and rutted. Definitely not happily road bike-able (for me at least). 

We got to the second gates, also closed, and I put some air in my tyres again as I prefer not having sealant on my calves. Upon stopping we also realized we had some assistance from a nuts tailwind. 

From just after here it was mostly that beautiful gravel pictured above that dreams are made of, apart from a few bits of rock or “potholes”/ruts.
 

Climbing the switchbacks in the wind was interesting for two small sub 65kg boys, and the descent was SKETCHY in the wind. At one point on the most exposed corner (about a 110° turn after the main switchbacky corners) we stopped as we were almost blown off the side and my glasses flew down the side of devils peak. I went to retrieve them and did some more damage to my poor Road shoes.
 

Descending the rocky stuff later was pretty gnarly as my pressure wasn’t quite right. All in all it was a fun ride to do something a bit different to usual and a nice start to Friday morning! will definitely be back 

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1 hour ago, Kom said:

I don’t think the gate is open if you’re having to Chuck your bike over the turnstile.

I went there today, still loads of no-entry signage, gate still padlocked.

I threw the bike over the fence and went for a looksee anyway, the state of all the tree cutting is super sad. The UCT XCO track is a memory.

there is still a make shift bob-wired fence at the tree at the bottom of plum pudding, so traffic from the cable car side is also being blocked.

 

 

 

 

Screenshot_20210918_194947.jpg

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18 hours ago, Kom said:

I don’t think the gate is open if you’re having to Chuck your bike over the turnstile.

I went there today, still loads of no-entry signage, gate still padlocked.

I threw the bike over the fence and went for a looksee anyway, the state of all the tree cutting is super sad. The UCT XCO track is a memory.

there is still a make shift bob-wired fence at the tree at the bottom of plum pudding, so traffic from the cable car side is also being blocked.

 

 

 

Yep the gate is closed but the turnstile is open. 

Previously you always had to chuck your bike over the turnstile if you arrived before the gate was opened up in the morning. 

As posted above. Rhodes is open to walkers and cyclists but not to vehicles. 

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