Day 5 of mountain biking Peru in the Sacred Valley was another great day of full-throttle rides, variability, scenery, ruins, and adventure!  We rode the classic Inca Avalanche DH course, a cool trail that started at the Pumamarka ruins, and our final run near the Lord of the Keys from Chinchero Alto.  Peru Biking doesn’t disappoint!

Ride 1: Inca Avalanche 

This ride follows a DH course formally known as Mega Avalanche and now known as Inca Avalanche.  Starting at 14,400′ the trail follows an old Inca Road for approximately 5000′ of descent.

For us, it was raining pretty good at the top!  Inca trail, then into some more singletrack with rocky techy sections.  Eventually it runs along the road (cutting switchbacks) so it’s a matter of piecing together really fun sections all the way down to Ollantaytambo.  It felt shorter than 5000’ as a result of being chopped up I think.  With the rain, we took it fairly slowly due to all the wet rocks!  Overall a fun ride 🙂

Ride 2: Pumamarca ruins to Ollyantaytambo

Pumamarca – Built on a steep Andean hillside overlooking the intersection of the Patacancha and Yuracmayo rivers, these lesser-visited ruins were once a ceremonial center for the Wari people, becoming a fortress for the later Inca civilization. Pumamarca also holds important historical significance as one of the few places where the Spaniards suffered a military defeat against the Incas. 

This ride started traverse-y and it kinda stayed that way, with fun rocks and flow to keep things interesting.  It wasn’t a huge descent (maybe only 1500?!?).  Some tight rock sections that caused a bit of ankle bash for me, and riding through a stream rather than over the rock bridge which resulted in a proper bath!  Just when I thought I couldn’t get more wet!

The drive up was pretty stunning!

And riding back down was stunning too!

This trail was harder for me to find flow – I don’t love tech without vertical! Others had more fun than I did, I think!

The last section was fun, fast, and flowy!

Ride 3: Chinchero DH

This one was my favorite of the day . . . fun farmland section up top with road-like sections, grass, tight turns, eroded features, and just overall fun.  Then a flowy section to the hillside where the down started!  This had character of the end of “Lord of the Keys” but was more rideable and had less of a water rut down the middle!  Fun rock sections, spicy turns, and really engaging and fun riding . . . in stunning scenery!

Looking back over at Lord of the Keys from day 3

At some point riding through rad stuff like this just gets normal . . .