Yack tracks - what's your recommendation

SummitFever

Eats Squid
I'm driving down to Melbourne tomorrow and would like to break the trip up with a midday detour to some mtb trails. The Yack Tracks look pretty good and are about at the half way mark for me. I see there are three loops around the 17km mark (Diggers, Kokoda and Ground Effect). Doing one of these should make for a nice rest stop.

Plan is to stick a sandwich in my jersey pocket and have lunch on some high point along the way.

If you had to do just one loop, which would it be?
 

beeb

Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
I haven't ridden either, but Hunchback Hill in Wodonga looks like quite a different set of trails for not much of a detour.

Could maybe do one on the way down, and the other on the way back?

 

kbekus

Likes Dirt
Beechworth MTB park is a very fun loop.. nice town, not far off the freeway. Sorry, can't help you on the Yack tracks but if you ride them let us know
 

Calvin27

Eats Squid
The Yack Tracks look pretty good and are about at the half way mark for me.
Bugger that, hit up the yack (indigo) epic but start from beechy. If you got time, ride to yack and then lunch and return, otherwise you turn back just before the start of the yack tracks and head back up to beechy.
 

SummitFever

Eats Squid
Bugger that, hit up the yack (indigo) epic but start from beechy. If you got time, ride to yack and then lunch and return, otherwise you turn back just before the start of the yack tracks and head back up to beechy.
Got a link to some info on this "indigo epic" trail? Can't find anything on the interwebs or trailforks.
 

Mattyp

Cows go boing
Have only ridden at Yack a couple of times but there are a few loops of approx 15-18km, not huge elevation but still enough for some long fun descents.
Don't know about the names but they all had a different colour and difficulty assigned, which made it pretty easy to navigate. The Purple loop was the longest and was pretty much all natural hand cut trail with some fast fun descending throughout.
Most recently rode the red and yellow loops, the later of which had the most new machine built work done on it, a different sort of fun.
Indigo trail was still under construction last time I was there.
 

hpatches

Likes Bikes
Yellow loop (Ground Effect) is all I have ridden, very pleasant if not challenging. Machine cut stuff is only on the final descent IIRC. Some nice fast open descents over the back of the loop, and the first climb is very scenic. 7/10, would ride again.
 

Calvin27

Eats Squid
ot a link to some info on this "indigo epic" trail? Can't find anything on the interwebs or trailforks.

On second thought, it would probably be easier to just start at yack, drive up to the yack track trailhead, park there and then ride up towards the course. On this map the yellow is the existing yack track (boooooring), the red is the new stuff (really good!)

1675569048444.png
 

SummitFever

Eats Squid
Did the yellow loop Ground Effect as it involved the most amount of climbing (= most descending). Really enjoyed it. Like all good XC trails, the way to make them fun is ride 'em fast. Was the perfect way to get a 1 hour (or 1:15 once I got the bike in an out of the boot) break from driving.

The machine cut stuff was a pleasant surprise and had so many opportunities for sneaky air and little booters. The temperate rainforest bits are really nice. I think the crew out there have done a great job. I'd love to spend a half day there are do all of the trails.

Now if @Calvin27 is right and this is the boring stuff, then I might give the Indigo Epic trail a go when I come home from Melbourne. The access road to the Yack Trails is being redone, so when I come back through that way during the week it might be a PITA to access the Yack Trails. Perhaps I'll give the Indigo Epic a go from the Beechworth end.

How many km is it to do the entire loop?
 

Ackland

chats d'élevage
Did the yellow loop Ground Effect as it involved the most amount of climbing (= most descending). Really enjoyed it. Like all good XC trails, the way to make them fun is ride 'em fast. Was the perfect way to get a 1 hour (or 1:15 once I got the bike in an out of the boot) break from driving.

The machine cut stuff was a pleasant surprise and had so many opportunities for sneaky air and little booters. The temperate rainforest bits are really nice. I think the crew out there have done a great job. I'd love to spend a half day there are do all of the trails.

Now if @Calvin27 is right and this is the boring stuff, then I might give the Indigo Epic trail a go when I come home from Melbourne. The access road to the Yack Trails is being redone, so when I come back through that way during the week it might be a PITA to access the Yack Trails. Perhaps I'll give the Indigo Epic a go from the Beechworth end.

How many km is it to do the entire loop?
Good to hear that the trailscapes stuff is good.
Some of the local mtbers have complained about it and just want the old school hand cut.

Both have their place and there are ways to make machine built stuff fun, challenging and appealing to a wife variety of riders of you have a skilled crew
 

rowdyflat

chez le médecin
The yack section of the Epic is pretty good , its physically demanding but technically easy.
You can start at the level bit of Yack gate road .
 

Calvin27

Eats Squid
How many km is it to do the entire loop?
24k one way. There's not really a beechwroth part of the track, it's more a fire road (at least when i was there) to get to the main looooong downhill part. Pretty much the good section starts at around rawes road /wallaby track - then it's literally 14km down hill to yack.
 

Calvin27

Eats Squid
No I'll have to go back. It's handy having a mate to pick you up from yack though, after the beers and all!
 

SummitFever

Eats Squid
Had to grab something in Albury on the way home so did lots of tracks on Nail Can Hill and on the next hill north. Some fun riding to be had. Lots of rocks, some sand and pretty eroded in a lot of places. No mud. A great all body workout and challenging to keep the speed up. Roughly did route 1 and route 2 but there were a few places where the sign posting was a little lacking so might have missed some bits and added a few other bits on.

Well worth an hour or two if you need the stop over. Parked at the end of Range Road.
 
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