The best 7.50 I ever spent

 In recent years the trails on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug (the sandy moraine between Utrecht and Wageningen) have undergone a transformation.  Routes like Amerongen used to be ok, but with quite a lot of long straight bits and not very challenging. That's all quite different now.   A new route has been created at Rhenen, and more recently the Amerongen route has been largely remade.  Last Saturday we cycled the Rhenen route and half of Amerongen (setting off from Wageningen the whole of the Amerongen route was too far for all but two of us). It really was great fun, with swooping descents and steep ascents making the best of the differences in height and tight curves demanding substantial focus and concentration on your steering. At at few points I really wondered if my handlebars would fit through the tight gap between the trees (they did). They have also built in a few small jumps (with alternatives in case you don't want that) for extra fun. Even cycling back to Wageningen had its good points, despite the asphalt, we had to thread our way through a herd of sheep (an unusual occurrence in these parts) and some of us were lucky enough to see a kingfisher. Heuvelrug vergunning

Practical points

You can buy the permit for all the trails on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug from the shops and other points listed here: http://www.mtb-utrechtseheuvelrug.nl/vergunning/, plus from Roel Perenboom's shop in Wageningen. Note that you cannot buy one in Rhenen, nor via internet. Fines are regularly dealt out to mountain bikers without permits or if you do not stick to the waymarked trails. Development is continuing, which means that the GPS tracks on the internet (this site,  the Heuvelrug site and mtbroutes.nl) are often out of date at the moment.  On the connecting route between Rhenen and Amerongen, there is an off-road section only when you are going East; going West you stick to the road. The signposting is exceptionally good and clear, so that really does not matter. Do pay attention to going in the right direction, large sections are real singletracks where there is no room for people to go two ways.

Pin It