Fraser Dam is a hard 1.5 hour bike ride from Clyde.
It was constructed during the depression as a irrigation dam. Today around the water edge of Fraser Dam you can see eager trout fisherman trying to catch a trophy brown trout.
Quick Facts about this walk
- Location: Central Otago
- Distance: 10.50 kms
- Time needed: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
- Difficulty: Hard
- Wheelchair Access: No
- Route: Double back
- Elevation: 640m
- Wet Feet: No
- Toilets: No
- Dogs: No
- Mobile Coverage: Yes
- Last Updated: November, 2019
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Summary points about this walk
Points of interest along the walk
Point 1: Fraser Dam Road
Fraser Dam Rd is 9.6 Km from Clyde. The ride from Clyde was on a good sealed flat road with not to many cars running up and down to make it dangerous. You can zig zag around the back roads to keep off the main road
Point 2: Fraser Dam Road Summit
Now we are on a narrow dirt farm road all the way up to the dam. There was just one short climb before dropping down to a creek crossing, this was followed by a flat section. When you reach the stand of Poplar trees, its up hill for the next 7.9Km. We started the climb at 11am well after the fog had lifted, so I had a good excuse to stop and remove some clothing to try and cool down. It also gave me a chance to turn around and look back down the valley to Clyde and Alexandra, what a view. We also gave way to the two cars heading up to the dam.
Point 3: Fraser Dam
At the summit it was too cold to stop, so into top gear and zoom the 2.8Km down to Fraser Dam, only to find the dam was out of the freezing wind and quite warm, so off with the warm clothes again. Or was that because we were sitting in the sun drinking hot coffee. We met an elderly gentleman at Fraser Dam trying his hand at catching his dinner, he told us he has been trying to catch a trout for the last eight years, talk about being persistent. Heading back was a lot easier, just a slight 2.8 climb back to the summit, the tail wind helped, then a fast down hill ride for the next 7.9 Km.
