Bill Hatcher Photography

Sydneys First Mountain Bike Park

Sydney has a new mountain bike park, it's first. I went there yesterday with riders Nic Learmonth, Kath Bicknell and Melanie Bell to check it out.

It's located on Sydney's North Shore at the Golden Jubilee Sports Field in North Wahroonga and borders Kuringai National Park. You couldn't find a more spectacular setting for a bike park. The new park has three trails with a XC trail on the steep west facing hillside and on the hilltop there is the pump track and bike skills trail.

My vote of the coolest trail goes to the XC- flow track and it makes for some nice photos as well.

The park was built in a short few months by World Trail an outfit based in Queensland. These pro's from the far north know about trail building in wet country and how to build a sustainable trail in a place like Sydney where it rains hard, I have no doubts this trail is built to last. The park's official opening isn't until next month, but the trails were open and already busy with riders this weekend. The bike park links

Yellow Boat

I usually don't get excited about new gear unless it's the latest new camera, but I just ordered another new packraft from Alpacka, I have two now. I plan to pick it up at the Alpacka shop in Mancos, Colorado and I'll have it just as the temps start warming up for boating in Australia.
The new boat is yellow and has yet to be named. Any ideas for a name that doesn't include the word banana or lemon cream puff?

This is packrafting in yellow boats on the Picton River this past year.

Cockatoo Island

Are adventure photographers inherently selfish people? Maybe we are. For the last few weeks I have been enjoying climbing, hiking, paddling and biking all over New South Wales, Australia, but you don't see any photographic proof of that here. Did I make any photos while I was out, a few, but most of the time my hands were full of sweaty bike bars or trying to