Another favourite and beautiful trail run that is worth the pain of running steep hills simply for the stunning views. Because this run starts up hill pretty quickly, we took a short detour south on a wide trail for a warmup run first. There is a loop we could have done that would have brought us back to the trail lower down. We chose the out and back mainly to keep it short, keep it on the wide easy trail and to allow us to do a final check for late comers in the parking lot.
The trail is easy to follow. From the parking lot, it drops down for several metres before coming to a junction, marked "Ridge Trail" - go right here and just follow this trail. At any unmarked junction always go to the left. It starts climbing steeply pretty quickly and you'll be at the peak of Holmes in just over 1 km from the parking lot. Beautiful views from the top.
The trail continues down the other side, dropping steeply, then more gently and rolling for a while, before beginning a series of steep climbs as we head towards Jocelyn Hill. Again, at any junction always go left. Around 4km mark, we come to a sign pointing to Jocelyn Hill to the left, we go right here and enjoy a long down hill run - taking the left fork at the bottom and keep going. After a sharp left and crossing a bridge, the trail climbs very steeply and comes to a signed junction. We go left here and this takes us to the top of Jocelyn Hill for the views. Continuing the trail goes around Jocelyn on a very rocky section with a sharp 430m drop to the sea below. This is just stunning to see on a clear day. Follow the trail markers over the rocks and eventually this brings you back to the signed junction where we turned right on the outbound run. Going back, simply take all of the right branches in the trails.
At Holmes Peak, there is a bypass to avoid the steep hill over the summit. But the bypass has steep hills on it too so is just as much work as going over the top. But it makes a change.
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