More trails in Tassie!! West Coast's first purpose built MTB trail, Oonah Hill, Zeehan

Stredda

Runs naked through virgin scrub
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creaky

XMAS Plumper
That part of Tassie certainly needs an economic pickup.

The trail looks a bit lame from that video in the news article you linked too but huge potential on the west coast, with more plans from what I've read.
 

Stredda

Runs naked through virgin scrub
That part of Tassie certainly needs an economic pickup.

The trail looks a bit lame from that video in the news article you linked too but huge potential on the west coast, with more plans from what I've read.
I'll tell you what it's like after Sunday if the weather holds. It's a 2.5km climb and a 2.5km descent but it's part of a loop that used some old tramway and a tunnel. Not sure what the distance of the whole loop would be. Looks like around 15 odd km.
 

Stredda

Runs naked through virgin scrub
Rode Oonah Hill yesterday, and I'm happy to report, it's a great trail:D
In typical Parks and Wildlife form the trail head is not signposted on the road:rolleyes: but you can just see the Oonah Hill trail head if you don't blink and know where to look. (best to have your Trailforks going).
The trail climbs up through open button grass hills before reaching the top of Oonah hill. It start descending out in the open before plunging into the tea tree forest. It's a super flowy trail with a quartzite gravel surface, as there is no soil down there just a thin layer of peat that everything grows on. It's an interesting surface to ride on, you drift quite a bit with a bit of a soft, flat tyre feeling, mainly due to the surface still settling in.
It was a pretty wet day when we rode it and despite that the trails held up really well due to the gravel surface and the amazing amount of drainage built into the trail.
The trail is hard to ride as a loop as you have to ride up a reasonable amount of road to get back to the trail head. I'd recommend to shuttle it which can be done either to the base of the climb or directly to the start of the descent if you have a car with a bit of ground clearance. We did one full climb and descent and three descent only shuttles.
Keen to see how the Mt Owen trails turn out at nearby Queenstown as this would definitely make the trip down worthwhile.
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Haakon

Keeps on digging
I can certainly see why many people are not happy with these ones. They sure do stand out... They look like they're going to be awesome to ride, but the visual impact is not great...
 

slowmick

38-39"
I can certainly see why many people are not happy with these ones. They sure do stand out... They look like they're going to be awesome to ride, but the visual impact is not great...
What we need to do is find the whitest of white white topping materials so that the trails really pop against the scenery.

Makes me think of Good morning Vietnam

You know, this whole camouflage thing for me doesn't work very well. Because you go in the jungle, I can't see you.

Let's boogaloo till we puke.
 

PJO

in me vL comy
white topping materials
That is the underlying "soil", it is quartzite. It is why the vegetation is so small, it is a really nutrient poor.

I can certainly see why many people are not happy with these ones. They sure do stand out... They look like they're going to be awesome to ride, but the visual impact is not great...
Yep it is going to stand out. Anything that white is going to be really obvious with the very low vegetation.
 

Stredda

Runs naked through virgin scrub
That is the underlying "soil", it is quartzite. It is why the vegetation is so small, it is a really nutrient poor.


Yep it is going to stand out. Anything that white is going to be really obvious with the very low vegetation.
Yep, there's around 50mm of soil on top and pure quartzite gravel underneath. It's actually a great base for a trail where the annual rainfall is so high. Any proper "dirt" would be a muddy mess 90% of the year.

It's hard on tools :oops:
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I don't see the same people complaining about the walking tracks doing the same thing. It's not World Heritage or a National Park, the area is pot marked with mine shafts from 100+ years of mining, I think there's a good balance of conservation and recreation going on there in this instance.
 
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