For the final part in this series, we bring you a wet and muddy 'Upper Canaries' trail. The weather this time of year has changed from clear blue skies, to rainy and cold conditions, making things a bit more interesting, and in some cases even more fun.
Upper Canaries' end is easily reachable with a 15 minute pedal from the entrance of Jonkershoek, along the circle route. But from there the rocky singletrack winds slowly up towards a fire road, splitting the trail in two. Apart from crossing this fire road, the entire trail is inside the pine forest - creating an amazing atmosphere during winter, and providing great shade during the warm summer months. The two sections of Upper Canaries are very similar apart from the upper part being a bit steeper with bigger boulders. Other than that you can expect to find nice flowy singletrack from top to bottom, littered with rocks and boulders and a couple of rooty sections.
On a more personal note. During the making of this, I quickly realized how unfit I am, and how much skill and fitness the riders that do enduro races must possess. I usually shoot Downhill races which are easily accessed by shuttling up with the riders or even driving to side of the track, but for this you have to put in time and effort just to get to the trail. This has been quite an eye opener and I take my hat off to those that do proper trail/AM riding.
A big thank you goes out to the following riders, who joined me over the course of this series:
Hanco Binneman
Adi van der Merwe
Julien de Marigny
Alex Mancini
Artho van der Westhuizen
Christiaan Swart
Arne Greyling
Martin Lompa
Read more here:
Part 1Part 2 
