Blue Tier, Bay of Fires and St Helens trails.

[Stredda]

My brother was working for World Trail on both the Blue Tier linking trail and the St Helens trails. He said that the St Helens trails will almost always be dry and dusty due to the soil type and the low rainfall compared to Derby.
I can see the trails really blowing out over summer as I don't think they will get much rain now until after summer. Might be a really good winter riding location though, so I might hold off before heading over there I think.

 

[caad9]

Personally I hope they do have a lot of green/beginner trails as it would be the perfect opportunity to take the kids for a few days.

From what I hear, this is exactly what they are aiming for.

 

[teK--]

am keen to ride it and hope to get up there soon.

For terrorists coming down to ride, St Helens has always been a popular tourist location for Tassie locals and has a lot to do around the area. There's some good surf beaches, excellent fishing and plenty to do off the bike. My pick is always Pyengana for the cheese and waterfalls close by.
Coles Bay/Wineglass Bay isn't too far away and there's a heap of touristy things to do. Unlike Derby which is MTB nirvana and not much else, I imagine St Helens trails will just compliment everything else to do in the area.
Personally I hope they do have a lot of green/beginner trails as it would be the perfect opportunity to take the kids for a few days.

Hopefully the terrorists don't destroy the new trails before I get to ride them.

 

[Isildur]

Rode the new Tier to Bay of Fires trails on the opening Saturday with a group of about 20 other guys.

The first 12km, especially the 8km or so of pure descending, was some of the most fun I've had on a bike! Fast, flowy, proper berms (i.e. steep/DH exits, rather than the constant grade reversals of Blue Tier) and, being out the front was a huge boon! Lot's of little pops off the side to keep it really interesting. Some of the berms and little off camber catchy sections were rather dusty - made it a complete hoot, but would be getting pretty blown out by now already.

The next 20km or so was a bit meh. Lots of fireroad, then gently climbing singgle. Definitely E-Bike territory that stuff. I hear that there is plans to make it pretty much all sniggle for that section, but that's in the future.

The last 4km descent is pretty fun also, on totally different dirt to the first one. Where the first is loamy, the last is that small granite gravel like the bottom part of Derby. Made for some drifty action for sure.

Finishing at the beach was a bonus, and then the lunch put on by Vertigo at Buck & Jude's new place down the road was spectacular!! I'll try and dig up some pics later on, but the little beach/rock pool at the end of Buck's place was somethign special. Made for a great post-ride ice bath :O

All in all, the first descent is where the real fun is, if you're a gravity based rider. The total ride is pretty good, and more so if you're on the Vertigo Shutte + Lunch tour.

 

[rextheute]

Update - rode today .
As all other posters have said - it is pretty awesome !
The first section is rolling rolling rolling - it’s only the 3rd oh shit when you realise just how fast you are traveling - with no real effort .
There is fire road in the middle , but it is a pretty fast run to the bike wash station .
( there is talk of trying to re shuttle back to start )
The next section is harder as it is a fairly constant climb , which gets steeper toward the top .
Descent is rolling fast loose gravel with a lot of roll over and dips .
Final 3 km the beach is fast, not gravelly stuff , like sandy wet . Grippy tho .

I would do it again tomorrow .... but it is mentally as well as physically challenging .
The first half - 15 km is fantastic .

For clarity - I was on my e-bike and the fireroads eat power !
I am fat , and it was sandy pea gravel ......
There were 4 standard bikes and 12 e- bikes on trail .

Can highly recommend MadMtb - thank you to the fellas who worded me up Farkin / Rotorburn to the rescue !

 

[ozzybmx]

.... but it is mentally as well as physically challenging .

Comparison to Atlas ? There's a bit of climbing on it too... especially if you need to ride from Weldborough.

 

[rextheute]

Hmmm Atlas I did on my non e- bike .
And I came off hard , got a puncture annnnnnd no sympathy from my wife !
I gonna say less ( a lot less ) pedalling on Atlas . This is hard yards in between wash station and then descent - it is uphill but well designed to trick you into not thinking it’s so uppy .
This is good !
It is a typical world trail , can be ridden in some sections like a giant pump track ,
- down, up, over, repeat - builds speed easily and deceptively.

 

[rextheute]

Atlas is harder toward the end for me as by then you are enjoying it and forget why you are tired , again it’s deceptive in the building of speed .
My ambition outweighed my ability on that day !

 

[ozzybmx]

Yeah we rode Atlas 4 times on the last visit, 2 of them thinking of it as the easy way to get to Trouty... realised the most enjoyable way was shuttle to Blackstump, down your choice of great trails, then ride up Black Dragon from the river.

 

[clockworked]

I rode the first 13km on saturday and then jumped in the ute to go to more trails. Parts of the st Helens descent are better than anything on the blue tier descent, but overall i prefer blue tier. The st helens descent runs at blinding speed though, so that's awesome. Air ya goin and kumma gutza are all time though

Shuttling using the routes google maps finds is a once a day thing. Takes ages and is an average road

 

[clockworked]

Old salty dog at st Helens has dirt like gap creek in Brisbane. I'm no geologist, but it seems like granite sand or something. Pretty slippery

 

[binner]

Old salty dog at st Helens has dirt like gap creek in Brisbane. I'm no geologist, but it seems like granite sand or something. Pretty slippery

I'm in Derby now big fella, gunna give st Helens a miss, fuggin expense and I've heard its been pumped up a lot more than it really is....

 

[binner]

Be heading to wild mersey early wed morn, gunna do another day her at derbs

 

[clockworked]

I'm in Derby now big fella, gunna give st Helens a miss, fuggin expense and I've heard its been pumped up a lot more than it really is....

I'm back in hobart now. St helen's is a great fishing village and family vacation town that now also has some mtb trails.
Old salty dog feels like it's purpose built for ebikes or shuttles. Ages to climb up, and it has another mild climb in the middle of the trail.

 

[Stredda]

Be heading to wild mersey early wed morn, gunna do another day her at derbs

That's my local trails, I live in the main street of Latrobe. Pretty lucky really.
The next 60-70km stage of Wild Mersey will start early 2020 in the badgers range between Railton and Sheffield. Once that is done there will be enough trail to visit just for that. At the moment it's really just a day stop for a Derby/Maydena trip.

 

[nathanm]

I'm back in hobart now. St helen's is a great fishing village and family vacation town that now also has some mtb trails.
Old salty dog feels like it's purpose built for ebikes or shuttles. Ages to climb up, and it has another mild climb in the middle of the trail.

I'm heading up there in a couple of weeks for a pre-xmas ride. Was planning on getting shuttles from the trailhead to Loila Tier to ride Old Salty Dog/See Ya Later and then doing a few trailhead loops with the time left before I go fishing for the rest of the weekend.

I want to keep the pedalling/climbing to an absolute minimum and get maximum bang for buck in a couple of hours, so keen to hear from those that have ridden it.

 

[ozzybmx]

My boys are getting a bit excited, just over 2 weeks to go.

Found these, this one suggests its the decent from Blue Tier to the firetrack ?

And this one is the St Helens trails, anyone know what trails are in the video ?

 

[born-again-biker]

Be heading to wild mersey early wed morn, gunna do another day her at derbs

If you get time, check out the new trails at Kelcey Tier too. Just at the back of Devonport on the road to Spreyton. Drive up to the top of Durkins Road.
Serendipity, Rigor Mortis and Organ Donor are awesome.
IMO these trails are slightly better/more fun/more challenging than the 3 descenders at Wild Mersey.

 

[Isildur]

My boys are getting a bit excited, just over 2 weeks to go.

Found these, this one suggests its the decent from Blue Tier to the firetrack ?

And this one is the St Helens trails, anyone know what trails are in the video ?

Yup, so the first vid is indeed the first descent from Blue Tier towards Bay of Fires. Definitely the highlight of that ride without a doubt!

The second vid is a mix of trails. In the first part it's the final descent of the long ride, the second part I'm not sure of though.

 

[ozzybmx]

So I had my Bay Of Fires fill over the last few weeks... strangely didnt get to ride the St Helens trails due to injuries collected on the BOF trail.

I rode the first 14km x 3 times and the whole 42km x 2.

0-14k is nice, very loose and very unpredictable soil/sand. It was ok in my opinion, really needs a good winter to pack it down... though the level of rider completing this trail may mean it gets gouged out on every corner before it ever gets to bed in.

14-23km is fire track, simply its 9km of mostly climbing vehicle track. Towards the end of it, it gets very sandy.

23km -42km is very scenic, large monolith boulders, slabs of rock, grass trees, this is actually my favourite section of this complete trail. Its got a lot of climbing but its relatively easy. The last 6-7km is basically all downhill. All very loose and unpredictable trail surface, even some of the rock roll over ramps are crumbling away.

I really enjoyed this trail apart from the crashes. Hope it will be pristine on our next visit but seeing some of the 'holidaymaker' riders coming up from St Helens to do this ride, its going to need lots of maintenance.

The shuttle operators are having a nightmare trying to keep everyone happy, drop 20 at the top, 1st ones are finished in 2.5hrs, last one rocks in at 6.5hrs... people waiting to head back to Derby for 4hrs.

Both rides took us 3:22 and 3:04, thats with stopping to take pics, vids, fill water bottles, eat and crash.

I have a good bit of GoPro footage, will get a vid up in the next few days.