Just got back from 3 days in Derby, a big thanks to Mitch and the Ballarat MTB club for making it happen. Another big thank you to a great riding group in no particular order, Dallas, Waz, Clint, Tanya, Paul and Moorey. And the biggest thank you of them all to Derby itself, Buck and Jude from Vertigo and World Trail for providing an outstanding set of trails to ride.
Heading off early Friday and after a really warm week in Melbourne the weather was looking utterly shit.. not cold but lots of rain (up to 50mm on Saturday alone). Buck and Jude picked us up at the airport and after a quick stop in Launceston to grab another group of 4 from SA we drove the hour and a half to Derby, a town was obviously once prosperous and busy but had struggled with loss of industry. We built up our bikes and rode from the parking spot straight onto the trailhead and really enjoyed some introductory green and blue trail under the native temperate rainforest in the warm and humid (!) conditions. Meeting back at the shed we loaded up the trailer and shuttled up, up, up to the head of Atlas. Of course at this point the weather turned to shit but such is life, we rode off through the swoopy, bermy top section and into a switchback laden climb through dark, misty and wet Beech forest. At this point the trail turned a bit more technical with decent but short rock gardens and tree roots that came out to play... to show my appreciation I decided to get up close and personal by going over the bars.. my way of giving the trail a hug. Soon enough the trail turned groomed and we rushed down hill on classic World Trail: swoopy, bermy machine built stuff of dreams. We rode out on Sawtooth and Berms and Ferns to a great bike wash and showers then up to the cafe for dinner. I don't want to write too much about the accommodation for the night but suffice to say I've never had a hotter, more sweaty evening alone with 5 other blokes in a single room cabin as I did that evening.
Woke up Saturday expecting the worst and unbelievably we were greeted with clear skies! We jumped in the bus and shuttled up to Blue Tier along some serious back country, off the beaten track 'roads'. We were lucky to be riding this old miner trail with some locals and they guided us down this very natural alpine path laden with creek crossings and rocky outcrops. I really loved this trail, it was quite technical (read: I carried my bike a fair bit) but there were no real gotcha moments even on the steep and rocky descents. Even stopping off the side of the track to allow a group of 4WDs to pass we were soon at the bottom and climbing a grindy uphill to the start of Big Chook. Fark, what a track! I've written it more than I should already, but bermy, swoopy. Sigh. Lots of grip on the red hardpack except when there wasn't, some wild jumps for the brave and almost the whole thing descending through gorgeous rainforest.
Lunch stop, the Weldborough Hotel. Simply great food, the steak sanga was stuff of dreams. And craft beers on tap, OMG. I almost wished for rain so I could stay there the arvo. Almost. Either way we loaded up and shuttled the 15 minutes up to Atlas for another blast down this spectacular wilderness run. Yesterday's effort I just didn't enjoy, it was dark, gloomy and wet with a lack of familiarity of the grip on offer I rode stiff and unhappy. Today though it had dried out just a touch and was perfect, the rocks were granite like the Youies and were tacky like rough concrete combined with the granite sand style base mixed with just a touch of leaf litter was fabulously grippy. The boys felt the call of the Black Dragon so down we went... this was a fairly serious down hill track over big boulders and required a fair bit of commitment to ride properly. Regrouping at the bottom half the group went back up to have another crack at the Dragon while the rest of us took the more casual Long Shadows and Flickety Sticks loop for a more gentle roll. Again the bike wash got a solid workout and at this point it was pretty clear that some of the group were pretty handy with the polishing rag. Dinner at the Branxholm Hotel then back to the cabin for an early evening with the gentle sounds of snoring and farting keeping the wildlife at bay.
We were totally kissed by the weather gods on the Saturday with not a single drop of rain falling but we couldn't continue the lucky spell and we woke up to a downpour on Sunday. Some of us kept positive thoughts though and it cleared just enough that we headed out for a run of Kruska's after brekky and coffee. Half way up the tough but rewarding climb it started to belt down but we were too far in to turn back and when you're wet you're wet so onward we continued. This was another track that just delivered with fast flowing downhill, again with jumps and obstacles for the eager and B lines for folk like me. We sessioned a few of the jumps and I'm looking forward to a video edit because some were spectacular. We finished off Kruska's and rode back into town utterly spent and satisfied. A third date with the bike wash and showers and we packed up for the journey home.
Now I'm sitting here at work with a distant look in my eye reliving various pieces of track and working out what I can steal to flog off for another Derby hit. Half the group came home nursing minor injuries of one kind or another but everyone rated the experience highly. The combo of natural Blue Tier trail with the machine built stuff of Big Chook and lower Atlas are an amazing full day ride experience and I want to spend another 3 or 4 days there to try Dambusters and the other smaller loops in the area.
tldr; get your ass to Derby ASAP if you like groomed cross country loops or all mountain descents.