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A mountainbike trail (8 km) on an island. The island of Texel. How cool is that! I have to ride it!

And so started hours-long research.

Forgive my ignorance. At first I thought that surely I’d find no accommodation here? Oh, 39 hotels! Turns out Texel is a popular tourist destination, with its own national park as well as an international airport! www.texel.net. Wikipedia.

There is no bridge to the mainland. Only ferry. And only ONE ferry company.

Going only for the day, and not minding a longer, mixed biking distance? Park up for free in the Den Helder harbour; the ferry costs only 5 euro return with a bike. Explore Texel’s supposedly extensive biking network to the trail start (some 8.5 km from Texel harbour), return to Den Helder, stay the night in a hotel, and in the morning check out the mountain bike trail in Den Helder (5-10-13 km).

Looking for more? Drive 27 km east to Wieringerwerf (8.4 km loop).

Another 33 km south, and you hit the first of a quartet of trail locations. If pictured as a rectangle, Langedijk with its 8-km loop is located in the upper right corner.

From here, due to how the roads have been laid, and if you insist on visiting all four trails, you either go clockwards Langdijk-Heerhugowaard-Alkmaar-Schoorl or the other direction Langdijk-Schoorl-Alkmaar-Heerhugowaard. I prefer going west, then south ..

Some 12 km west of Langdijk, Schoorl offers a relatively long-distance loop of 15 km. The trail map reveals that the loop starts with a huuuge double back section. Personally, as I am not a fan of these, I might be heading somewhere south of Schoorl instead, to the area of Aagtdorp (crossing of Duinweg, Postweg and Waterleidingweg), to pick up on the loop. Aagtdorp is located some 10 km from Langdijk.

Some 10 km south of the Aagtdorp you find the Alkmaar trail providing a short-short distance of 2 km … it is apparantly a very technical route that is used for bike clinics, is NOT open 24/24 to the public, and is illuminated at night. Competitions are held every Thursday. Wow. Sounds so serious, I might opt to go to the the other side of the town of Alkmaar (6.5 km east) and ride the less busy, and a fraction longer, loop of Heerhugowaard (2.3 km). Heerhugowaard is located 9 km south of the Langedijk trail.

Even further south, there is lovely Spaarnwoude (3.5 km) which I would love to re-visit, and then of course the close-by Oostzaan (3.2 km) and Landsmeer (3.3 km) trails, just northeast of Amsterdam. Oostzaan and Landsmeer are only 3.5 km apart; maybe do some trail exploring in between?

Gps files available for all locations except for Alkmaar.

Hmm … ideas forming …