Our MTB holiday to Forrest and Buller plan - your input appreciated :)

Rat

Likes Dirt
Hi all, my wife and I are planning on coming over on the ferry from Tassie with our car and MTB's to ride Forrest and Mt Buller in Feb / March looking for input on our plan before we book accom etc.
We were going to race Bike Buller, but it clashed with a local race we want to do, so we are coming to ride the trails a week earlier.

We are fairly fit XC racers who enjoy challenging technical single track and nice views, would be looking at riding about 20 - 30km per day.

Arrive Tues 26th Feb and drive to Forrest, stay in the Forrest Caravan Park Tues / Wed / Thurs nights giving us two and a half days of riding the Forrest trails. Seems to be good maps, I assume the trails are all signposted and easy to find, also looks to be enough there to keep us busy riding for our stay.

Friday morning depart and drive to Mt Buller and stay at Andy's Fat Tyre Bike Lodge Frid / Sat / Sun / Mon nights leaving to drive to Melb Tues morning (Hmmm 4 nights, I hope Andy's is good?). Again it seems everything is well organized here with good maps and plenty of riding. Thinking of booking the shuttle bus on Sat to do Kingsporn (is that open ATM?) thinking it might be busy the weekend before the race. Hopefully there will be enough riding here to keep us satisfied for 3 full days of riding?

We did look at possibly driving to another trail on the Monday, The Pineys http://rockyriders.com.au/trails/ but considering we would have to drive 4hrs then ride the trail the same day then that's probably too much and we would be better off just staying at Buller.

How does that plan sound? Looking for any advice or tips that are not obvious on the websites for those places already, are we missing anything?
 

Rat

Likes Dirt
Hmmmm, 60 views zero replies, input such as "yep that accommodation is ok" or "yeah 3 days riding at Buller is not too long" would be helpful :)

Does anyone know if a fullface and padding are required as mandatory for riding Kingsporn? if so can you hire them locally?
 

bikeyoulongtime

Likes Dirt
Hmmmm, 60 views zero replies, input such as "yep that accommodation is ok" or "yeah 3 days riding at Buller is not too long" would be helpful :)

Does anyone know if a fullface and padding are required as mandatory for riding Kingsporn? if so can you hire them locally?
good morning! tiny bit of input on buller for you:

3 days at buller would be long enough to ride all the trails at least twice and have time to nail anything you missed first go :) I've been for quite a few trips and ridden pretty much all of the XC singletrack, then a lap on copperhead, and then klingsporn in a long and exhausting day.

you don't need anything except a bike to ride klingsporn. Its a demanding trail, kind of 'old school' in that it is fast, skinny, off camber, rocky.. and an absolute hoot! Arm pump is likely... as is cheesy grinning.

don't know about accomodation, sorry - every trip we've camped near mirimbah.

have heaps of fun!! and a local plug - if its not far off your track swing by and ride lake mountain/buxton. a good days riding there...
 

Pastavore

Eats Squid
Hmmmm, 60 views zero replies, input such as "yep that accommodation is ok" or "yeah 3 days riding at Buller is not too long" would be helpful :)

Does anyone know if a fullface and padding are required as mandatory for riding Kingsporn? if so can you hire them locally?
Way to make me feel guilty!!

Can't comment on Buller, but 2.5days in Forrest sounds pretty perfect. Yes, trails are very well marked and very easy to follow. The caravan park is nothing special, but the brewery is great for coffee, food and (obviously) beer. There is no supermarket or anything in town, so if you are self catering stock up before you arrive.
 

creaky

XMAS Plumper
If you are reasonably fit and intend to ride for 4-5 hours per day then, weather pending, two full days in Buller will be heaps to cover all trails and at least two goes at Dellatite River trail and Stonefly.
 

djam

Likes Bikes
Here's a video of the river trail ride I took on Saturday (2 Feb 2013) to wet your appetite. :)

[video=youtube;6owT7WbrNwY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6owT7WbrNwY[/video]

30 minute ride down and a 30 minute bus ride back up, after a break at the Mirimbah Store.
The bus runs 4 trips per day on weekends till the end of April.
 
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MTB Rod

Likes Bikes
Hi Rat
I spent about 5 days riding Buller a couple of years ago,before copperhead,and had a ball.
Stonefly and Corn Hill/Misty twist were fantastic ,and certainly can be ridden more than once.
3 days would be easily filled !
 
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landy_man

Likes Dirt
I prefer to stay off the mountain in Mansfield.. more variety regarding pubs, restaurants etc.. Banjo's is a nice place to stay.. huge rooms and nice and quiet..

Make sure you organise the shuttle if you will be there during the week as it only runs on the weekends..

Other than that.. HAVE A BALL... some great riding to be had..
 

Rat

Likes Dirt
Awesome, thanks so much everyone for that input, some very useful tips there, the supermarket tip will save us some unanticipated hassle, will look into Lake Mountain trails also as that is more on the way back to Melb than other trails we looked at. Checking Banjo's accom now.....and thanks for the input and video of the trails, good stuff :)
 
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