East Coast MTB road trip

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EyeMacHunt

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I'm considering doing a road trip from Sydney to Brisbane and back for Mt Joyce enduro in late July. Just looking for advice on where to ride on the trip? I'm happy to deviate the route a bit for some good trails too. What's worth the visit?
 
You should be going past the Gold Coast so I would suggest you do Nerang State Forrest, then you have Daisy Hill conservation park that is close by. If you head out towards Ipswich (West Of Brissy) way you have Castle Hill then further out you have Hidden Vale Adventure park. Hidden vale is about 1hr and a half out from Brissy but it would one of the better parks not to miss.

Towards the city you have Gap Creek reserve at MT Cootha then you have Bunyaville and Samford on the north side of Brissy. There are a few other little parks to ride around but unless you have heaps of spare time I wouldn't bother.

It all on trail forks if you need further references.

https://www.trailforks.com/trails/map/?lat=-27.523000&lon=152.895534&z=11&m=trailforks
 
You're obviously going to ride the enduro stuff so is your aim to do loop style trails (XC) or gravity fed stuff?
Some things local to me that I'll suggest:
-Kemspey enduro trails. They are great, easy climb up with some super fun descents. It's not far off the highway, easy to get to and fun.
-Nambucca XC loop (Jacks Ridge). Its the only loop worth riding in this area and is fun as with some easy climbs and cruisey descents.
-Mt Coramba. It's a downhill trail that an enduro bike and advanced rider love. You can ride the fire road up but shuttles are our thing.
 
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Depending on how many stops you want to make for riding, you can get started with Ourimbah and/or Awaba on day one. Then all the stuff around Newcastle.

Or there is a trail network near Armidale which could be an option on day 2 if you decide to take the New England Highway.
 
Thanks for replies so far.

I'm thinking Glenrock in the morning on the first day, then up to Kempsey for the night. Ride Kempsey in the morning then up to coffs for the night. Ride nambucca in the morning then up to Brisbane.

Maybe Bris after Mt Joyce then Byron on the way home if there is anything worth riding there.
 
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EyeMacHunt said:
Thanks for replies so far.

I'm thinking Glenrock in the morning on the first day, then up to Kempsey for the night. Ride Kempsey in the morning then up to coffs for the night. Ride nambucca in the morning then up to Brisbane.

Maybe Bris after Mt Joyce then Byron on the way home if there is anything worth riding there.
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Don't think there's much at Byron other than a MTB farm type resort and it's only a few trails. There's a small trail network at New Italy,NSW that is before Evens head but it's pretty flat I've told. They've just reopened a trail network at Kooralbyn valley resort that has some gravity trails and it's not far from Mount Joyce.
 
New Italy is a relatively new one, just south of Woodburn.

Couple of the trails right out back aren't too bad (take stairway to heaven to ants in Sam's pants & Deathstar)

The guys have put a lot of work in & you (probably) drive straight past it on your way up the highway.

Turn in at the New Italy Museum.

+ 1 for Nerang for a multitude of tracks
 
Dozer said:
You're obviously going to ride the enduro stuff so is your aim to do loop style trails (XC) or gravity fed stuff?
Some things local to me that I'll suggest:
-Kemspey enduro trails. They are great, easy climb up with some super fun descents. It's not far off the highway, easy to get to and fun.
-Nambucca XC loop (Jacks Ridge). Its the only loop worth riding in this area and is fun as with some easy climbs and cruisey descents.
-Mt Coramba. It's a downhill trail that an enduro bike and advanced rider love. You can ride the fire road up but shuttles are our thing.
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The old Coramba trail was heaps of fun, so the new one must be even better. As for travel requirements, I rode the old girl on a lot of different bikes but had the most fun on 130-180mm bikes. These smaller nimble bikes felt perfect for linking up and railing the berms network while also sending it off the jumps. I'm by no means an amazing rider, how does this new trail compare for such bikes?

Tubbsy said:
Depending on how many stops you want to make for riding, you can get started with Ourimbah and/or Awaba on day one. Then all the stuff around Newcastle.

Or there is a trail network near Armidale which could be an option on day 2 if you decide to take the New England Highway.
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There is some good riding in the Newcastle area. An easy one would be Sawmill which is near Morisset if you want a nice long generally downward ride. It is mostly untamed wilderness rather than groomed lines. I'm pretty sure it has a strava segment. Glenrock by comparison has a few legit and marked trails that are mostly flat winding well groomed rutied xc trail, 1 reasonable climb, and a few challenge areas that include some moderately tame dirt jumps inspired mounds of dirt. There may be a few short push tracks with some jumps etc on them, but I wouldn't know anything specific outside of what is on the clearly marked map at the entry point.

EyeMacHunt said:
Thanks for replies so far.

I'm thinking Glenrock in the morning on the first day, then up to Kempsey for the night. Ride Kempsey in the morning then up to coffs for the night. Ride nambucca in the morning then up to Brisbane.

Maybe Bris after Mt Joyce then Byron on the way home if there is anything worth riding there.
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As per my comment above...that's somewhere I ride a lot, but not because it is amazing and exciting. I just live near by.
 
pink poodle said:
The old Coramba trail was heaps of fun, so the new one must be even better. As for travel requirements, I rode the old girl on a lot of different bikes but had the most fun on 130-180mm bikes. These smaller nimble bikes felt perfect for linking up and railing the berms network while also sending it off the jumps. I'm by no means an amazing rider, how does this new trail compare for such bikes?
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More turns, more jumps and drops, more flow, it's better than ever and feels awesome on a smaller travel bike but like any well built gravity trail, a downhill bike will always feel better. ;)
 
So should i be avoiding Glenrock in search of something a bit more fun? Can't do anything too gnarly if it's my first time there because I'll be riding solo so i need to minimise risk.
 
pink poodle said:
There is some good riding in the Newcastle area. An easy one would be Sawmill which is near Morisset if you want a nice long generally downward ride. It is mostly untamed wilderness rather than groomed lines. I'm pretty sure it has a strava segment.
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This is right near my parents' place.

Got any more info?
 
Tubbsy said:
This is right near my parents' place.

Got any more info?
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That depends...is your dad going to head out there and cover it with dog poo and felled trees? No? Oh good...I don't use strava, but I'm sure there is a strava segment. The trail starts near Muir's lookout and ends on Pringle's road Martinsville. It is mostly old rutted out fire roads and single track frequented by motor bikes. There is some sweet bits of single track that motorbikes don't go near as well. It follows a few different fire roads down and most climbs (which aren't too challenging) are on them. Depending where you come out at the end there is some winding single track that drops and climbs or fast rough fire road. The end is a piece of fire road with water bars...and pretty big air if you want it. I've got some pics of that somewhere, if I find them I'll post one up. It's plenty of fun and best with a shuttle.

I used to do bike guiding on the trail but haven't ridden it for about a year, so can't say if it's any good or not at present. It won't be any good for a while as there has been a lot of rain in the last couple of days and the ground is heavy on the clay. Parts of the trail seem to always hold water anyway, but only as puddles you can shoot through or skirt.
 
pink poodle said:
That depends...is your dad going to head out there and cover it with dog poo and felled trees? No? Oh good...I don't use strava, but I'm sure there is a strava segment. The trail starts near Muir's lookout and ends on Pringle's road Martinsville. It is mostly old rutted out fire roads and single track frequented by motor bikes. There is some sweet bits of single track that motorbikes don't go near as well. It follows a few different fire roads down and most climbs (which aren't too challenging) are on them. Depending where you come out at the end there is some winding single track that drops and climbs or fast rough fire road. The end is a piece of fire road with water bars...and pretty big air if you want it. I've got some pics of that somewhere, if I find them I'll post one up. It's plenty of fun and best with a shuttle.

I used to do bike guiding on the trail but haven't ridden it for about a year, so can't say if it's any good or not at present. It won't be any good for a while as there has been a lot of rain in the last couple of days and the ground is heavy on the clay. Parts of the trail seem to always hold water anyway, but only as puddles you can shoot through or skirt.
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Ha, my dad has no dog, isn't anti-mtb and is too old to be bush bashing anyway.

If there's more to it then PM me. I had a look on Strava, but I find Strava not very intuitive for finding trails. There were a few segments here and there, but an idea of a loop would help.
 
Tubbsy said:
Ha, my dad has no dog, isn't anti-mtb and is too old to be bush bashing anyway.

If there's more to it then PM me. I had a look on Strava, but I find Strava not very intuitive for finding trails. There were a few segments here and there, but an idea of a loop would help.
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That's a bit odd, it was a pretty popular trail and not particularly secret. Looks like I'll be making some coins on a guiding trip soon!

The place is like a rabbit burrow of trails thanks to the excessive motorcycle traffic over the years so a little difficult to explain. I'll have a look at Google maps and find some fire road names as well. But if you use the look out as a start and Pringle's as the finish you can sort of work out the area...kind of, but not really.
 
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