Summer Riding Holiday part 3 - Thredbo

The beautiful NSW high country

So 2013 dawned with sunny blue skies and forecast warm weather, today was a rest and travel day. With the rest of the group heading back to Melbourne, we started our drive towards the NSW high country through Tallangatta and Khancoban then along the Alpine way to climb up to the cooler, but still warm and sunny, weather of Thredbo. We made camp a few kilometres down the Alpine way towards to Jindabyne, on the banks of the picturesque Thredbo River. Unfortunately the high volume of human traffic in this part of the high country means the river water isn’t safe to drink without boiling – but it did provide a pleasant place to escape the heat and wash off the dust.

We had discovered that one of the Newy Cogheads was staying at Thredbo with his family so we arranged for a tour of the local singletrack the next morning, before retiring to bed for a deliciously cool alpine night.

visitors at camp

Thredbo is yet another ski resort, with a decent history of DH riding, which is currently trying to develop a cross-country network of trails to attract more summer time visitors. They currently have a small network of trails based around the village and lower slops and a trail is being developed that will head down the river valley and eventually will link into the Crackenback resort trails about 25km downstream.

Unfortunately, we got the feeling that Thredbo isn’t quite there yet in terms of riding. The first inkling we got was at the information desk when we were trying to discuss the trail network with the girl behind the counter. Thredbo have built a downhill flow trail, similar to the one at Mt Buller and we were keen make the long uphill grind up from the valley floor to the top lift station to test out this flowing downhill run. The conversation went something like this”

Me: do we need full-face helmets for the Flow trail?

Girl: No they aren’t required.

Me: what’s the route to the top?

Girl: you get the lift, you will need to do the $99 induction and if you don’t have full-face helmets and bikes you can hire them. It’s $299 for the day to hire everything and do the induction.

Me: Can’t we just ride to the top along this route on the trail map?

Girl: Oh no, that’s advanced! You need a guide who will assess your skills and do the lift induction.

Me: we don’t want to use the lifts, we are XC riders and have XC bikes.

Girl: Then you need to ride the XC trails in the valley, you can only ride to the top with a guide and full-face helmets.

Me: Ok so how do we get to the start of this advanced XC trail (which appeared to start from half way up the slope)

Girl: you need to walk up the Flow trail!

Colourful, but lacks trail direction and sends you up the Flow trail!

Hmmmm… now at Mt Buller as an XC rider, you could get on the DH tracks easily as they accessible from the top of the road, but there’s adequate signage and information and a general vibe that it’s up to you to take some responsibility for your own skills and riding experience both on XC and DH trails. Now at Thredbo, we started to get the feeling that we were being treated like complete idiots.

Having decided the Flow trail was out of the picture (why build a Flow trail if it’s only open to DH anyway???) we grabbed another XC trail map and tried to work out a route. Compared to Mt Buller, Thredbo trail maps suck! First of all, it’s a crappy A4 sheet of paper, which won’t last a day’s riding. Secondly, there no directions marked on any trails despite some of them being impossible in reverse unless you are an accomplished trials rider. Feeling distinctly grumpy we headed off to meet up with Ian for a lap of the valley trails.

Walking tracks make fun singletrack

We started the loop by rolling down the Valley trail – the one that will eventually head 25km down the valley to Crackenback. At the moment only 3.5km of the trail has been completed, and it’s a shared use trail of fairly smooth surface and gentle corners. It’s fun ridden at speed and Tim and I were soon covered in dust from Ian ripping it into the corners ahead of us. Soon we hit the extent of trail work and turned around for the gently climbing ride back towards town, but just before reaching the village we turned a hard right into the Bridle Loop which offers a few switch backs and rocks to keep the climbing interesting. At this stage we were starting to feel that there was a bit less oxygen available at 1500m than we were used to.

The Bridle loop pop you out onto what appears to be a beginner baby ski slope and a trail switches up that through the summer grass before you’re out onto firetrail. A bit more climbing and we ducked into some more single track, I think this may have been walking track but it was great fun with loads of steps and rocks which required quick on-the-go line choices and behind the saddle action. Then you pop out again onto firetrail at the top of the summer luge track, wave to the kiddies and it’s onwards and up again on some more firetrail.

Sections of rocks, steps and roots :-)

Then comes the Thredbo brilliance, you cross the DH track and suddenly you are riding UP the flow trail. Yup, you can only ride down it with a full-face helmet and induction but you can ride up it just by correctly following the XC trail map. Of course we stayed off the side of the trail where we could, but the trail provides a few narrow points where this is impossible and it’s also hard to see people coming. A confused DH rider stopped and told us we were on a DH trail, I don’t blame him for being confused – it’s a bloody stupid idea.

After a few hundred metres of hard uphill along side the flow trail we ducked into the most advanced XC trail on the map – Meadows Trail. This actually isn’t an XC trail but a walking track that they allow bikes on. This means that while you are negotiating the steps, rocks and roll downs you need also be away of summer walkers including children who may be on the trail. Following Ian’s big 29er wheels this track tested the best of my read-and-ride line choice and behind the saddle abilities. Linked up sections of steps and rocks were all ride-able and even roll-able but baulk and unclip and you were walking for a while.

That fun ended all too soon and we were out onto the trail around the golf course. This would be a fun descent except that so close to the town, the shared trail gets a high volume of walkers so that you are constantly stopping and starting. After less than an hour of riding we were back in town having covered 95% of the Thredbo single track, fun but definitely nothing like what we’d come to expect after our Alpine riding in Victoria.

Firetrail to Cascades Hut

That afternoon we headed up to Deadhorse Gap to ride one of the firetrails accessible to bikes in the National Park. The ride out to Cascades Hut is very pretty although it is 100% firetrail with no singletrack. Unfortunately it’s hard to appreciate the beauty while being attacked by March flies, perhaps we should have picked a windier day as the still heat was definitely sending the flies crazy.

Alpine scenery on Cascades Trail

Over the next days in Thredbo we explored the Crackenback cross country trails, a fun and flowing loop of just over half an hour with a decent skills park. All this in a little self-contained resort complete with Segway tours… odd! And headed back to the Thredbo trails to play on the more technical trails with their rocks, roots and steps. We knew that good riding was to be had in Jindabyne and at the Bundarra trails but the weather was hot even up at Thredbo and the idea of heading down to Jindy where it was 5-10 degrees hotter was not inviting, we put those trails on the “next-time” list.

The final day of riding in Thredbo became a road ride day. We decided that Charlottes Pass was worthy of an ascent and leaving our camp at 8am we headed down the road towards Jindabyne. Despite the forecast for a hot day, the alpine nights are cold leaving before the sun came up would have required vests and warmers.

While the ride to Jindy is primarily a descent, it does have two decent climbs as you head up and out of the Thredbo River valley into an adjacent valley before continuing down towards Lake Jindabyne. It must be a hugely popular area for training camps because we passed literally hundreds of roadies coming the other way, complete with support vehicles. Once down at Jindy we met up with Ian and headed along the road towards Charlottes Pass which follows the lake edge for a little way before crossing back over the Thredbo river and then commencing the climb. From the base there’s a fairly constant climb of around 5% for about 13km. From around 900m elevation at the base you reach 1600m at the 13km point before the undulations begin, you promptly descend 100m in elevation and the climb another 150m to gap … a pattern that repeats itself several times and sees you pass through winter ski towns like Perisher and Smiggins Holes. These towns are eerily ghost-like in summer with deserted buildings, signs creaking the wind and not a soul in sight except a few confused tourists wondering where everyone is.

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The total distance from the base of the climb to Charlottes Pass is about 32km with the road ending in a locked gate at about 1840m in elevation. For the last 5-10km of the climb the road weaves through beautiful alpine grassland with mountain streams running over glacial boulders, a truly beautiful to ride! Topping out at Charlottes Pass we were met by Ian’s wife and kids in their car, on his 29er Ian elected to save his off-road tyres by skipping the descent so it was just Tim and myself on the roadies heading back down to Jindabyne.

Topping out at Charlotte's Pass

The undulations meant that there were still several decent uphills to content with on the ride back and these were made worse by the return of my friends the March flies… nothing like uphill motivation than trying to outride something bitey!

Soon though we were on the 13km descent back to the base of the climb and the temperature was steadily climbing. The Thredbo river looked so inviting as we crossed at the bottom and then a hot north-westerly wind hit us as we slogged up the hill back out of the river valley. Luckily this proved to be mostly a tail wind back into Jindabyne – a welcome help seeing as we had by now covered 100km and 2000m of climbing, it was also well over 30 degrees.

We had picked up my Dad the afternoon before from his 6-day solo hike in the high country and he met us in Jindabyne with the car for some cold milkshakes and lunch by the lake. Then it was back to camp for a swim in the river and the final night at camp. Of course while I drove back to camp Tim decided to ride and, not only that, but went up to Dead Horse Gap before heading back into camp – why not on a 33 degree day!

Collecting Dad from the top of the chairlift post hike

Finally the holiday was over and it was time to head home, we drove to Canberra for our first hot shower in two weeks and to drop Dad off with relatives so he could catch a train back to Melbourne. Canberra greeted us with 39-degree heat so we decided to give the Canberra singletrack a miss this time and headed out for a dinner of steak instead. Then after a fitful nights sleep in oppressive heat it was onto Sydney the next morning for brunch with friends then eventually home to Newcastle and the reality of unpacking and starting the many, many loads of washing generated by two weeks of riding…

Summer riding holiday part 2 – Bright/Mt Beauty

Leaving our pretty camp early in the morning we headed to Bright, arriving late morning to a town swarming with carbon road bikes. Seriously, if you have an expensive carbon roadie, some matching kit and a bit of a potbelly then head to Bright because you’ll be one of thousands! I’m sure there were some pretty serious roadies around Bright too, but they tend to be glimpsed earlier in the day and we’d obviously arrived at the prime feeding time of the slightly portlier species!

Having decided that it at least meant our bikes were very unlikely to be stolen, we hit up the local bakery for a milkshake and to meet up with yet another couple of old Melbourne friends who tend to do some DH riding as well as a bit of XC. Indeed Kat suggested we should all “get some Gravity in ya”!

All the cafes in Bright were surrounded by roadies

Once the crew was assembled, a process that takes longer with increasing numbers we set off for some exploration of the Bright trails. These head up the creek from town and deliver you into a pine forest networked by random trails and some fireroad. Overhead the paragliders were circling like flies in the clear blue skies obviously enjoying the thermals created by the 30-odd degree day. Yet more flawless weather!

Unfortunately the Bright trails are hard to navigate when no-one knows where to go and we ended up doing a lot of discussing which way we should go and some time spent riding up stuff that should have been ridden down and vice-versa. In the end we climbed up the fireroad to reach some trails that are probably more all-mountain than cross-country. Should have guessed that seeing as it was the gravity-loving pair leading the way.

About 20 minutes short of the top we stopped and the less gravity inclined of us headed down what was supposed the easier trail… not so much easier as just a shorter section of steep stuff I think. Now as an XC rider I generally rank reasonable well in the descending stakes so I took the lead into this “baby gravity” trail and suddenly found myself on a very loose and soft surface with steep corners and an unfriendly drop-off to the side for a lot of the trail. Things went pear-shaped rather quickly as my front wheel found some even softer surface on the edge of the trail and dug in and I unclipped one foot pre-empting an over-the-bars incident, however I somehow stayed on the bike and careered on down the track on foot of the pedal and very soon off the saddle as well and finally coming to rest in some bushes after riding one-footed on the cross bar for some distance… what can I say – style is my middle name.

Bogong from Survey Track

Determined to do better I remounted and continue down the trail, and things went relatively well for a while until a very steep and tight right-hander with a near vertical drop off the side. I’m not sure what happened, perhaps I lost my nerve and unclipped shifting my weight forwards and over the bars or perhaps I grabbed some brake but the result was a catapult over the bars but somehow landing on my feet with my bike entangled in one foot and still cartwheeling behind me. I ended up with a perfect dust tyre-print across my arse so at some point I managed to run myself over…. That’s what I call talent! After that display everyone else walked that corner, and soon we were down off the steepest sections and into more manageable trails for us cross-country types.

The rest of the ride was more of the same, trying to find trails based on vague memories of someone who had raced there and getting thoroughly lost in the process. Then getting annoyed with it all and heading back to town only to find the sought after trails on the other side of the river to where they were supposed to be. Eventually we all ended up back in town for yet another milkshake before leaving the town of a million carbon roadies for the slightly quieter scene of Mt Beauty.

Big Hill MTB Park and the local brewery

Over Towonga Gap and into Mt Beauty, which nestles in the valley below Mt Bogong and Falls Creek, we set up camp at the foot of Mt Bogong about 15km out of town and yet again were treated to another idyllic campsite with beautiful mountain stream and no camp fees.

A good day on the trails

Our days in Mount Beauty revolved mainly around the Big Hill mountain bike park, which is just on the edge of town on the side of a hill (they have plenty of hills in the area). Luckily this time we had a local guide for a our first ride and the result was 2 hours of riding awesome trails without having to make one direction decision. The first part of the ride was up Survey track, which was the original track, used by surveyors and early construction workers on the Kiewa Hydro Scheme in the early 1930s. There is some local talk about clearing the track even further up the mountain and perhaps making a mtb route all the way up to Falls Creek which would be a phenomenal ride. For now the track winds its way up the hillside running almost parallel to the Falls Ck road and provided a not-too steep way to reach Cranky Corner – where the Falls road has a distinctive hairpin. Crossing the road here and continuing up some equally manageable firetrail brings you into the trail network of the mountain bike park. Crisscrossed with trails and fireroad you could literally spend days in here getting lost and found again but always finding stuff to ride. There is apparently a trail map available but apparently it’s more confusing than helpful so we relied on group knowledge and experiences from the first ride with the local guide.

Survey Track

Mt Beauty was back on a surface I’m more familiar with, dry hard pack through eucalypt bush with some rocks and tree roots. The single track has been built by locals and the local club (rather than resort style construction) and trails often bear the name of their main builder …. Seems Bernie was and is instrumental in the park. 

Three decent sessions in the trail network and I’d still be happy to go back for more but Tim was champing at the bit for some road riding so on New Years Eve we planned to mountain bike in the morning and road ride in the afternoon. As it turned out it was yet another hot day and so after a decent session on the trails we swapped to the roadies and headed up to Falls Creek.

Elevation of the Falls Ride... with a GPS fart to start

Now I said Mt Beauty was quieter than Bright but it’s still a riding destination, in fact there’s an informal boot camp called ride week that is headed by some riders who are Mt Beauty born and bred like the van der Ploegs and attracts some top road and mountain bikers to the area for the Christmas/New Year period. With classic road climbs like Falls Creek, Towonga Gap, Hotham and Buffalo all in reach it’s easy to see why you’d want to own a roadie in this area.

Doing my best roadie impression!

Ok so maybe not roadie legs!

Starting at Mt Beauty at around 300m elevation the road up to Falls Creek climbs with some big undulations in the first 15km up past Bogong Village until it crosses the Pretty Valley branch of the East Kiewa River, from there it continues up at a fairly constant gradient to top out at Falls Creek 31km from Mt Beauty having climbed to an elevation of around 1600m. Being the seventh consecutive day of riding, I did have some doubts about whether I’d make it especially as my easiest gear was already in use in the first 500m of the ride. The ride never gets steep though and all I had to do was just keep the legs turning and keep my heart rate from spiking to high. Soon we climbed high enough that the heat started to ease and in the shade of the tall mountain eucalypts and tree ferns it was a pleasant and pretty ride. Several kilometres from Falls Creek village you pass the toll booth for fleecing winter visitors, from there the village in often in sight and you start to loose the tree cover. I started to really struggle but Tim encouraged me to keep going and soon enough I could rack my bike on one of the many friendly racks (the hook your saddle over type ones) out side the Falls Supermarket and recover with a chocolate milk.

Just to prove I did make it!

The descent down Falls is awesome, with fairly gentle corners and gradient you swoop down the mountain between 40 and 50km/hr marvelling at hour quickly you reach landmarks that seems miles apart on the ride up. Then suddenly you cross the Kiewa and the legs have to pedal with the first of several rather rude uphills back to Beauty. Finishing back in Mt Beauty I was totally spent, so much so that after one beer I was in bed by ten thirty on New Years Eve and looking forward to a rest day to start 2013.

Summer Riding Part One - Mt Buller

Leaving Newcastle on the Friday afternoon before Christmas we drove south down the Hume with four bikes on the roof and a car packed full of camping and riding gear. The first night of the holiday was not what most people would call a holiday, a five-star piece of old unused hwy near Jugiong with the dulcet tones of semitrailers engine braking ensured a restful night’s sleep ;-)

Enjoying the 5-star accommodation

Then it was onwards to the border and into Victoria to the Castlemain district for a quick catch up with old friends and a spin on the local trails. Sunday was forecast to be 40+ in Victoria so we headed out early on the trails and got in a couple of hours through rocky, loose and shaley tracks with very dry and sparse undergrowth. The trails at Castlemain are quite different to what we’re used to (something we were to experience several times this trip) with some tight switchbacks on loose surface and rocky roll downs interspersed with flowy trails and swoopy descents. Thanks to our local guide we got in a good 20km of singletrack on the unmarked trails before the weather got to hot. Then we made our farewells and travelled onto Melbourne for Christmas.

Apart from a cruising the streets of Melbourne and quick roadie spin along the Boulevard on Christmas Day, Melbourne was largely about eating and catching up with family and friends. Early Boxing day we set of for Mt Buller, boasting a long history of down hill trails and competition, Buller has more recently become well known for it’s cross country trail network including the signature trail on the adjacent Mt Stirling which is accessed via Howqua Gap.

Spectacular views

We arrived at the top of Mt Buller after lunch and met up with a couple of friends from Melbourne who took us on a loop of the singletrack including GangGangs, Corn Hill and Misty Twist. The weather was fantastic, the vegetation lush and green and there was a permeating scent of wildflowers as the alpine bush was in bloom. This gave us the feeling we were riding in Europe or New Zealand rather than in Australia in summer.

The trails at Mt Buller are on earthy soil, which gives great grip even in the dry conditions we rode in. There are enough rocks to keep things interesting and enough elevation to keep the fit people quiet but the numerous switchbacks make the climbing manageable. The descents are very flowy with numerous bermed corners and odd A-line for those inclined to ride along logs. All the time there are fantastic views and beautiful alpine bush to ride through.

The wildflowers were out

We finished off the loop with a descent of Copperhead, the “Flow trail” at Mt Buller. A flow trail seems to be the new in thing for an alpine resort, Mt Buller has one, Falls Creek is building one and Thredbo also has one (more on that later). A flow trail is basically a DH trail that doesn’t require DH skills and can be ridden on an XC bike. It’s full of berms and rollers rather than rocks and jumps. The Copperhead trail starts from near the summit of Mt Buller above the main village and descends for around 2.4km finishing close to the lift and the road for which ever takes your fancy for the hike back up. The estimated ride times for the trail according to the trail map is 5-20 mins so they obviously expect a range of users. We had someone opt not the ride so with the knowledge of a car shuttle waiting at the bottom we hit the trail. The start snakes you back and forth across a fairly open and steep slope, the corners are well bermed but the gradient still gets steep in a few spots. We obviously ride across areas that get wet as there are also long sections of rock armouring, which aren’t the smoothest on XC suspension and would be annoying on a hardtail. But on the whole the trail provides about 6-7 minutes of fantastically fun descending around bermed corners and along flowy swoopy track.

We set up camp near the base of Mt Buller on a tributary of the Delatite river, this little stream was freezing cold and provided just the thing for tired legs after each day’s ride. The advantage to camping at the bottom of the mountain is the Delatite river trail, this trail is mainly 4WD track which has been turned into a mountain bike trail that descend almost the full height of the mountain and emerges onto the sealed road at Mirimbah at the base of Buller.

Random internet photo of Delatite bridges

This meant that on day 2 of riding we could simply descent all the way back to camp crossing the Delatite river (apparently something like 13 times!) on newly constructed log bridges which mean you can keep your feet dry. But before this 700m of descending we had some riding to do! We had now been joined by another two old friends from Melbourne so it was a group of 6 that set out from the Buller village along the easy trail of Gang Gangs before heading into the fun descent and ascent to Corn Hill then down some slightly sketchy firetrail and into a the last section of awesome single track descent to Howqua Gap Hut.

From Howqua Gap Hut the Stonefly trail heads up Mt Stirling to Bluff Hut, which is only just below the summit. Setting off you actually get a short swoopy descent which spits you out onto firetrail, then you turn immediately back into singletrack and the climbing starts in earnest with some of the tightest switchbacks Mt Buller has to offer. After this little warm up, things ease off and the single track weaves its way along and up the side of the mountain crossing little mountain streams over rocks or well constructed bridges. At one point two longer bridges about 60cm wide are set into the track sequentially with rock armouring between them and also in the lead-in providing a fairly technical challenge, which saw quite a few people unclip, and in one case a spectacular dismount and disappearance into the trackside shrubbery.

As you ascend the gum trees change to snow gums and the alpine grasses and flowers make you feel like Heidi on a summers day in the Alps. Every now and again you get a few swoopy corners in a short section of descending, which are just a taste of what is to come.

Just as your legs are starting to complain, the single track pops out onto firetrail and another few hundred metres sees you at Bluff Hut where some kind soul has hewn some armchairs out of tree trunks for weary riders. This was a spot for us all to regroup before the descent back to Howqua Gap…. And what a descent! After a short section of fun firetrail you enter into singletrack for over 10 minutes of descent… unlike the “flow trail” this does require some pedaling mainly in the top half but soon becomes continuous flowy berms and corners which put a mad grin on everyones face. All too soon you pop out at the Howqua Gap Hut again and face a climb back up the Mt Buller side. The climbing is all on single track though, with Silk Lane leading into a detour on Misty Twist and then a reprieve on the Corn Hill descent. From here you have a choice, a final lung-buster up Split Rock back to the village or down the Delatite River trail to camp which is what we did.

The Delatite trail descends steeply at first on firetrail and even has an unexpected uphill before becoming one of the most fun firetrails I’ve ridden. It follows the picturesque river whose clear blue waters flow large river boulders making it look thoroughly inviting on a hot summers day. The roadside embankment provides berms which small tributaries need to be jumped or forded. After an exhilarating descend it was just a few short kms on the road back to camp for a sit in the stream.

Photo from the WorldTrail construction of Stonefly

Our final day at Mt Buller was just a chance to ride all these fantastic trails again, Stonefly was so fantastic we did it twice then hooked up with the Delatite trail via the River Spur Trail (also a fantastic firetrail) to head back to camp ready for part 2 of the adventure at Bright and Mt Beauty.