Tasmania, Australia's Mountain Bike Wonderland - Destination Showcase
Riders in Tasmania are grinning ear to ear. All of a sudden, this rugged little island has risen to become Australia’s new home of MTB. About the size of West Virginia, and Australia’s only island state, it’s overflowing with dramatic scenery, MTB trails and an enviable laidback lifestyle. The old adage ‘build it and they will come’ isn’t always true. The planets have certainly aligned for Tasmania; outstanding terrain, a solid vision and funding for trails have created a MTB mecca down under. It’s built, and they are coming.
If you’ve been paying attention to the EWS, you would know that round two was held in the small town of Derby in Northeast Tasmania this year, and, it went off. Riders and teams loved the town and the trails, with stage 2 ‘Detonate’ being voted trail of the whole 2017 series. The Blue Derby network has inspired the MTB-led tourism revival, Derby, only 90 minutes from the northern gateway of Launceston. If you’re landing in Launceston, put your bike together at the airport (they have a dedicated bike building area) and hit up the local trails at Kate Reed, Trevallyn or Hollybank MTB Park before heading out to Derby. It’s also a good opportunity to stock up on fresh locally grown food and craft beer for the trip. Derby looks and feels like a MTB town, a distant memory from its heyday as a tin-mining town. The Blue Derby network has 85 km of trails in the hills behind Derby and over on the Blue Tier mountain range (get it, Blue Derby). And, they’re amazing.
It's always a good sign (har har) when the town's signs feature mountain biking...
A catastrophic flood in 1929 washed this river away to bedrock. It's now a trail feature
The whole town of Derby is getting behind mountain biking.
The emphasis of Blue Derby is trail quality. Aussie trail builders World Trail have taken the time to traverse the landscape and find the unique features that Blue Derby is now famous for. Every MTB market segment will have a blast. It’s great to see families cruising around the lower trails. Starting the trip high on the Blue Tier, a 45-minute shuttle from Derby, from the highpoint on a clear day you can see the Tasman Sea and Bass Strait that separates ‘Tassie’ from the mainland. Its true adventure trail, 18km full of smile-inducing flow, punctuated with effortless climbs before even more descending.
You will need to grab a shuttle up to the Blue Tier trailhead.
The sub-alpine section of trail has some sneaky lines.
It's hard to do, but remember to take a break and check out the surroundings.
The wilderness trail has pockets of Jurassic style temperate rainforest.
The trail finishes on the lower half of Big Chook before exiting at the Welborough Pub. Time for a steak sandwich and local lager before another quick shuttle to Atlas. The country pub is full of riders and campers.
The beer garden at the historic pub is a welcome sight.
Atlas takes us back towards Derby and has some more technical features in the middle section of the trail.
Once you pass these bad boys it's all downhill into Derby.
A major drawcard is, of course, the trails built for the EWS. You can get to most of them by shuttling up to Black Stump, or, climbing. Don’t let the confidence you have built up on Blue Tier and Atlas give you a false sense of security. The EWS trails are wild, from the now trademark split rock of Detonate, the rim-eating rock garden on Upper Shearpin and of course, Trouty.
Pin-balling down the rock garden on Upper Shearpin.
The jump line on Lower-Shearpin has plenty of options for boosting.
The split rock on Detonate. Just wide enough for the bars.
The top of Trouty looking down towards Derby. This a seriously fun trail.
Watch for the right-hander and rock garden at the end of this one on Trouty. Or just pop wheelies.
At the moment you will need at least 3-4 days in Derby. 35km of new trail at Derby opens mid-2018. Plans are underway a new 40km trail dropping from the high point of Blue Tier down to the beaches of the Bay of Fires on the East Coast, and a 60km stacked-loop network in the hills behind the seaside town of St Helens.. That’s a mind-boggling 200km plus of singletrack in the northeast alone. Stay tuned for that one!
Guests of the Blue Derby Pods Ride have this oasis to retreat to
Relaxing in the pod in the Derby forest
The Ringarooma River that flows through Derby is perfect for a cool-down
Meanwhile, down south, 80 minutes from Hobart in the Derwent Valley, the next evolution of Tassie riding has been brewing.
Maydena Bike Park is a gravity park with 820m of vertical (most of any bike park in Australia). There are 20 individual gravity trails / 35km ready for the open day on the 26th of January and when complete later this year there will be 100kms total. The full-service park with year-round shuttle uplift, has been built by local trail company Dirt Art. It's set up for intermediate and advanced riders in mind but beginners are catered for. Being a gravity park, long-travel trail bikes or DH rigs are recommended. The hire shop can kit you out with a Canyon. A mix of hand-cut and machine-built options descend from the café at the 1100m summit.
You're about to do some serious descending.
The neighbouring forest is World Heritage Wilderness, home of the tallest trees outside of the Redwoods. Expect the trail to pass giant Eucalyptus and massive manferns before dropping a more open jump and flow zone.
One of the berms on the upper section of the mountain, before it gets (way) steeper.
Different ridge lines have different soil types. Luckily the berms do their best to catch you.
The Local Trail will be an instant hit. So many fun gaps, hips and doubles.
Trail builder Dan Booker shows us how it's done.
The lower jump section has green, blue, black and double black jump trails.
Trails are served with a side serving of loam. If Whistler and Squamish had an Aussie baby, it would be Maydena. Multiple world champion Sam Hill is a park ambassador and he’s had input into the build. We recommend you pre-book your shuttle pass online to avoid the dreaded FOMO.
The multiple trailheads make for variety in each shuttle run.
The In-Fern-O Trail is set to be a drawcard. Hand-built steeps mixed with jumps that appear from nowhere.
This step-up hip on In-Fern-O looks crazy fun.
The King-Brown Trail features endless tight and steep berms. These are tire burpers!
Yiew! Trees.
Maydena is a cool town, surrounded by forest and mountains. It's the gateway to the Southwest World Heritage Area.
The park is planning a massive event from 26-29 April 2018 including enduro (with uplift) Air DH, Whip-Off, Pump Track Challenge and Dual Slalom.
Some of the hits on offer on the Local Trail.
You too can flick, berm and huck.
In Tasmania, the art is on display everywhere.
From Melbourne, you can fly to the island in an hour or overnight by ferry and from Sydney, you’ll be there in a little over an hour. Wrap up your trip in Hobart with a lap on the local trails on Mt Wellington and the Meehan Range, and a visit to the local sites before flying out. On the flight home, you will be planning your return to Tasmania, guaranteed. Look deeper and there are more trails and fun to be had.
Local Knowledge
Check out Tourism Tasmania for a state-wide riding guide and more trails to check out during your trip.Northern Tasmania have a great site for the Launceston trails and these are great options if you’re heading to Blue Derby.
The official sites for Blue Derby and Maydena Bike Park have all the info you need for accommodation, food and drink and services for those areas.
Presented by Tourism Tasmania
MENTIONS: @JasperHarley
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"See what can happen when you pull ya finger out"
It makes me pretty damn happy that Potter and Buck have finally made what they wanted.
Would like to hear more about this.....
Shuttle up to Blue Tier, ride down and grab lunch at the Weldborough pub. Then ride/shuttle to the start of Atlas. If you want to extend your ride, there's a few ways to do so. From Atlas you could turn right up Krushkas. Or you could turn left up Long Shadows, then finish down Return to Sender. Or left up Long Shadows, down Flickety sticks, the Great Race, loop around Dam Busters etc etc.
Finish the day with pizza and beers from The Hub (tip - if you're not a craft beer tragic, get take-away pizza and buy your beers from the pub across the road for half the price). The bresaola and truffle oil pizza was my fave.
Note there is no mobile reception so download the maps on Trailforks before you ride if you're planning on riding the Derby trails. I found the trailside signage (and maps at the Derby trailhead) not all that enlightening, but maybe things have improved in the last 6 months.
(See them filling up the camelbak straight from the stream? That's legit. You usually don't need to filter water down there, as the streams and rivers really are that pristine. It tastes fantastic too - natural tannins from the buttongrass)
What "other things" do you like to do?
@Jagungal covered hiking, eating and drinking but we also have plenty to offer in water sports.
We have good surfing from deserted beaches
www.youtube.com/watch?v=47rsFNAqIfo
Sea Kayaking
www.roaring40skayaking.com.au
8-10 day whitewater rafting trips
www.franklinriverrafting.com
Scuba diving
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQb9ZFWfNZE
Of course there are also other land-based activities, including (at the risk of being banned from pb) great road cycling.
Or a huge variety of rock climbing from bouldering to remote multi-pitch trad routes with massive exposure
www.thesarvo.com/confluence/display/thesarvo/Introduction+to+Tasmanian+Climbing
There's also a pretty big arts scene, helped not a little by mona.net.au
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=climbing+tasmania
Feb-March is the best time to visit; stable weather, warm, long days, less people. December weather can be good but it's less settled, it's often windy and a cold snap is not uncommon (we had snow down to 400m on Mt Wellington).
You'll want to get a National Parks pass, once you have one of these may of the camping areas are free of charge (but don't expect any facilities other than a drop toilet and maybe a picnic table if you're lucky.
Hollybank is also worth a day if berms and sculpted trails are your thing. Do it before Derby though because it's not quite so mind-blowingly good.
www.tassietrails.org is a good source of information on MTB tracks all over the state. Some of the West Coast tracks (Stirling valley, Montezuma, Trial-Granville) are worth checking out despite being mostly old lgging or mining tracks.Not purpose-built MTB trail, but great scenery and a few technical challenges particularly on the Stirling Valley track. Some of the 'puddles' on the Montezuma Falls track are deep enough to submerge the whole bike.
There is also lots happening in the Meehan Range in Hobart. www.facebook.com/groups/119741154774894
The North-South Track on Mt Wellington is always fun for a blast, and connects up with a myriad of old-school trails on the mountain, as well as finishing at the Glenorchy Mountain Bike Park.
But I'm actually much more fearful of going to the USA/Canada to do some biking in the Rockies etc. I mean, you guys have real predatory animals, like bears, wolves and mountain lions. Things that'll literally hunt you down, outrun you and rip you to shreds if you come across them in the wrong way (and I imagine more likely so if you get your way with Wilderness areas at some time).
I know I've probably massively got it wrong, as there seems to be bugger all discussion on this or fear from the locals, but as a tourist in a foreign country I'd be way more worried about these animals than snakes! The only real predator to fear in Australia would be crocodiles, but I doubt you'll come across them going mountain biking. Oh, that and dropbears. Fear the dropbears!
I did cross paths with a cougar a few weeks ago and that was quite scary, but at least you see it coming.
Snakes however are not 'incredibly hard to find' in Tasmania, they're very common, particularly in grassy and coastal areas. I don't think I've ever been riding on Bruny Island and NOT had a snake encounter, and have seen snakes on numerous local Hobart trails many times (for instance in the last 3 months alone on Yellow Hippo, The Blair Switchback Project (below Head of the Serpent) and Birthday loop). They almost always try to slither away and hide, but can be quite active and defensive in mating season (spring/early summer, i.e. Nov-Dec in Tassie). Last time I rode Labillardiere circuit on Bruny we were joking about snakes on the drive there, and I didn't even get two pedal strokes from the car park before there was big fat tiger snake blocking the trail.