Sticky Forest

The blue trails - Not overly technical, but smoooooooth. Robbins of single track with the odd double that can be avoided.

I wanted to add a follow up review. Although trails seem to go everywhere here, the trails are well marked, and there is actually a method to the madness. The Easy Trail runs the length of the forest north to south basically and stays on top of a ridge mostly. Most of the trails come off of it, dropping off on either side to the bottoms. There are a few points at the bottom where most of the trails join up. The Hub is a key location at the bottom on the NE end of the area. And Venus Landing is a key location at the north west end. Then there are a couple of other unnamed key hubs like these two. Also it should be noted that the "Summit" is a key hub on top above Easy Street on the east side. Lots of trails drop off the Summit. There is a helpful map at all the bike shops that makes all of this easily understandable. It lists 54 different trails, and their direction. Here's a link for it: https://daks2k3a4ib2z.cloudfront.net/55b54ff099ca97744839e090/55b705c12f94dfa17f2c21b8_Bike-Wanaka_Bike-Trails-MapLarge1500.jpg

I rode Sticky Forest today for about five hours and had a blast. For such a small place, there is tons of variety and challenge. I guess I wouldn't call this place a "bike park" per say, but it is a collection of great trails with tons of features. There are simple small jumps, small gap jumps, gnarly root sections, and bermed turns everywhere. On the expert trails there are some big jumps. There is a lot of flow within Sticky once you figure it out. Many trails are one way (up or down), so pay attention to direction. Each trail is short, but many of them are a ton of fun. Some of the expert trails are a bit "tired" as Jim stated, but then other expert trails are very fast, like Pedal or Die and Dirt Diggler. All the other trails in the system are in great shape no matter the difficulty level. North x North, Hoe Down, Sesame, and Venus are all fun, really flowy downhills. There is a lot of evidence of trail maintenance and a lot of techy fun pretty much everywhere. I had a great time here today. Thank you Wanaka bikers for your efforts.

This bike park is also known as The Plantation. You should buy a map of the trail network from the information centre - you're going to need it. There are a few good trails but many are junk.

Your best bet is to start at the car park in Platinum Ridge (a street). Head up to Double Gate on the Hoe Down track then follow Easy Street to Venus which is a good track that takes you down to Venus Landing. Then take Crankin Fine back up to Easy Street. After that you should take 4G to The Hub. That should get you started!

The Plantation (Sticky Forest) is not one of the better bike parks in New Zealand. The trails are short and they don't flow well. The jumps mainly suit expert riders, regardless of trail grade. The advanced and expert trails are badly rutted and tired. Most trails meander through the forest without flare, flow, or interesting technicality.

Great network of trails. Best to pedal in and get lost, get your bearings a bit. A lot of trails spit you out at the Hub, and follow the arrows from there going uphill (don't ride up Sick Boy, ride the others. It's steep). There's very fun, flowy, tight singletrack, bermed up turns abound, some trails that take you straight down the fall line, some that have awesome gaps/jumps, some that have MASSIVE gaps (big timers), some that just cruise and are fun. I naturally can't remember other names, but just get in there and ride around and explore, you'll ride some fun trail.