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.