Tasmania - the secrets unlocked...

ozzybmx said:
Starts just before the corner: A local Adelaide bloke, currently the 50+ Aus Nat Champ making it look easy, its steep, needs commitment and good tyre placement, hesitate and over you go.

Commitment is the key, the faster you go, the more momentum and easier it will be rather than braking over rock drops.

Camera doing its usual job of destroying the steepness, this corner drops about 20-25m over 25m of distance.

The boulder section from 55 seconds is awesome !

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Fuck I don’t remember any of that! Haha.
 
pink poodle said:
We all are!
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@Luca Suggested I ride the slab blind, so I did, on a hire ebike in an open face helmet.

Pretty cruise till the last few metres

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Spoke to an older guy there on the day - "well I don't know what they expected with all these damned giant trees around, they should have known better"

What're ya supposed to do, chop down all & any trees with any chance of falling on anything? In a reserve? Just rolled my eyes.
 
Tubbsy said:
flowmountainbike.com

Tasman Peninsula Mountain Bike Association working to bring 80km+ of trails to Taranna

The local club has set its sights on building a nationally significant trail network in the hills behind Taranna (TAS), but in the meantime have constructed a smaller trail network as a proof of concept.
flowmountainbike.com flowmountainbike.com

Potential new trail network for Tassie.
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They have some trails there already and what they have planned looks promising. Interesting to see Sustainable Timbers Tasmania, now officially not endorsing or not wanting to even work with any mountain bike development to the point of fighting to prevent such development.
Seems we are getting pushback from two government departments for two different reasons. From Parks and Wildlife not wanting MTB development in their jurisdiction because of the perceived environmental impact and the polar opposite we have Sustainable* Timbers Tasmania not wanting MTB development because of the push back they get when logging near the trails and protecting the forests.
*not sustainable at all
 
Stredda said:
They have some trails there already and what they have planned looks promising. Interesting to see Sustainable Timbers Tasmania, now officially not endorsing or not wanting to even work with any mountain bike development to the point of fighting to prevent such development.
Seems we are getting pushback from two government departments for two different reasons. From Parks and Wildlife not wanting MTB development in their jurisdiction because of the perceived environmental impact and the polar opposite we have Sustainable* Timbers Tasmania not wanting MTB development because of the push back they get when logging near the trails and protecting the forests.
*not sustainable at all
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Not sure on the specific case but from what I've seen with the forestry it's more a case of "let's avoid the public being able to see what our mates sign off as rehabilitated forest".
 
LPG said:
Not sure on the specific case but from what I've seen with the forestry it's more a case of "let's avoid the public being able to see what our mates sign off as rehabilitated forest".
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Yes, I think that is the case.

Back before STT there was Forestry Tasmania, and they were partly a state government timber industry entity and part tourism enterprise. They built places like Hollybank treetop adventures, Tahune Air Walk, and the Dismal Swamp discovery centre. All designed to put Forestry Tas in a good light and to be seen to be giving back to the community even though it was thoroughly corrupt and continually made a massive loss for the State. STT was formed from the ashes of Forestry TAS, was supportive of developments like Derby and Maydena but due to the push back to nearby logging it seems STT wants nothing to do with mountain biking now. Even to the level of allegedly logging extra close to the Maydena trail area as a petty stab at Simon French for his comments on ABC Radio.
 
After the big wind storm last September ??? There were a few fallen trees down over the MTB trails at Holybank Juggernaught being one. The top section of Juggernaught was cleared pretty quick the lower section no. I rang Sustainable Timbers Tasmania asking could they clear the fallen trees if not can I clear them myself. The woman I spoke to said she would get the man in charge of that area to ring me back. That was last November and I have heard nothing since. Wonder if those 5 trees are still across the trail now. Betting they are.
 
There is already quite a bit of tourism on the Tasman Peninsula. However, according to the Port Arthur Historical Site annual reports, only about a quarter of the folks that visit stay overnight.
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Its a hard place to get accommodation even booking in advance, possibly due to we were only ever there during school holidays. EagleHawk has nothing, Port Arthur had nothing so we stayed at White Beach CV park near Nubeena for 5 nights and explored the whole peninsula from there. Being only 80km from Hobart makes it accessible as a day trip, though there is a lot of good stuff to see down there and we were kept busy for 5 days, even with a lot of backtracking and driving the same roads over and over.

Getting back and forth to Tassie reliably is the biggest issue right now and people are scared off because of it.
 
bigdamo said:
After the big wind storm last September ??? There were a few fallen trees down over the MTB trails at Holybank Juggernaught being one. The top section of Juggernaught was cleared pretty quick the lower section no. I rang Sustainable Timbers Tasmania asking could they clear the fallen trees if not can I clear them myself. The woman I spoke to said she would get the man in charge of that area to ring me back. That was last November and I have heard nothing since. Wonder if those 5 trees are still across the trail now. Betting they are.
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I'm pretty sure that Launceston MTB club look after Hollybank and they did get some funding to help from STT but in light of the change in policy in regard to mountain biking maybe that will change.
 
Stredda said:
I'm pretty sure that Launceston MTB club look after Hollybank and they did get some funding to help from STT but in light of the change in policy in regard to mountain biking maybe that will change.
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Launceston MTB club do look after Hollybank but only the trails they race on that would be No sweat and Tall Timbers. The people who ride Juggernaught for the most part ride the top half down to the fire road and mostly shuttle from there back to the top so that top half of Juggernaught is looked after by someone.

The bottom half of Juggernaught no one does any maintaining on the trail.

In all fairness not that many people ride at Hollybank anymore. Shame really.
 
PS I think Sustainable Timbers Tasmania have started or about to start logging in the area of Juggernaught.

Launceston MTB club also do trail maintaince at Trevalyn and Kate Reed reserve and will ask for volunteers to go out and help out on those days. I have been to some of those days. I asked an official on one of those days about doing some trail maintenance on Juggernaught out at Hollybank and just got a blank look.
 
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It's that time of year!

I'm coming down in a couple weeks for some pre harvest checks on our gear. Day sailing on the Saturday, wander down New Norfolk way on the Sunday, on farm first thing Monday morning, until Friday. Unless something goes pear shaped, I'll have the weekends clear.

Before it was confirmed Mrs George could tag along, I was thinking of riding Penguin, but the Salamanca market has been on her bucket list for years (so I found out yesterday) which kinda rules out riding Penguin on the Saturday.

I could only book recliners for the return on the Sunday night (🤮) . The question, where can I get clean on the Sunday before getting on the boat?
 
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