My Buller epic

pineapplehead

pineapplehead

Likes Dirt
Hey all,
Anyone got any Intel on the condition of the epic trail? I know it was suffering from neglect in recent years, is that still the case or is it worth the trip up for?
Cheers

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D

Daniel Hale

She fid, he fid, I fidn't
there were some trees down after bushfires, when i went thru early this year most stuff had been cleaned up, just a couple sml problem areas, but of a tiny landslide at one point, only had to get off twice, hardly cost any time so no real problems, a mate rode it 2 wks ago -didn’t complain so presume trail is still fine
 
Calvin27

Calvin27

Eats Squid
For the record, my phone seems to not think 'mt' is a thing and always reverts to 'my'.

Looking to do an epic this side of the year as well and Buller is on my list - to be honest did it once and it nearly killed me.

Is the parallel Dellatite trails any good, or stick to epic? bypassing stirling seems like a great idea haha.
 
moorey

moorey

call me Mia
Calvin27 said:
For the record, my phone seems to not think 'mt' is a thing and always reverts to 'my'.

Looking to do an epic this side of the year as well and Buller is on my list - to be honest did it once and it nearly killed me.

Is the parallel Dellatite trails any good, or stick to epic? bypassing stirling seems like a great idea haha.
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I can’t see how that works. Delatite trails take you down to the bottom...800m elevation below where you want to be.
I’ve only done it 5 times, but always went up Stonefly...not all the way up to sterling summit always though. That’s just a torturous add on.
 
Yet1

Yet1

Likes Dirt
moorey said:
I can’t see how that works. Delatite trails take you down to the bottom...800m elevation below where you want to be.
I’ve only done it 5 times, but always went up Stonefly...not all the way up to sterling summit always though. That’s just a torturous add on.
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Some people (myself included) will ride Stonefly, but instead of losing all the gained elevation on a fast fire road at the top of Stonefly down to Telephone box Junction (TBJ)... will ride the Stonefly decent, then ride along the road and rejoin the Epic at TBJ.

If its your first time there, the push up to the summit of Mt Stirling is worth it, great views over a beautiful area. But will burn some energy as its steep and you will have to push some of it (well I did anyway).
 
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Daniel Hale

She fid, he fid, I fidn't
yep,first time i rode it we parked at mirimbah & rode up stirling rd, was a bit of a slog to start a ride like that, we descended down delatite river, was rough & rocky access trk, we missed to the normal final epic descent, was a poor way to ride it, but i just followed the guy i was with
 
moorey

moorey

call me Mia
Daniel Hale said:
yep,first time i rode it we parked at mirimbah & rode up stirling rd, was a bit of a slog to start a ride like that, we descended down delatite river, was rough & rocky access trk, we missed to the normal final epic descent, was a poor way to ride it, but i just followed the guy i was with
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Wait, what? The ONLY reason you ride it is for the 7km descent!
 
Calvin27

Calvin27

Eats Squid
moorey said:
Wait, what? The ONLY reason you ride it is for the 7km descent!
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After a good nights sleep, I've realised the error of my thinking lol. Will try to route around stirling though. Just at an optimisation phase now that I've basically figured a way to cut out the crap bits of lake mtn haha.
 
D

Daniel Hale

She fid, he fid, I fidn't
Calvin27 said:
After a good nights sleep, I've realised the error of my thinking lol. Will try to route around stirling though. Just at an optimisation phase now that I've basically figured a way to cut out the crap bits of lake mtn haha.
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you’ve done lake mountain, half the journey, and i was always struggle w the air at top of buller, always out of breath
 
Calvin27

Calvin27

Eats Squid
Daniel Hale said:
you’ve done lake mountain, half the journey, and i was always struggle w the air at top of buller, always out of breath
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I did buller epic years ago and last summer lake mountain full loop. IAll I recall was collapsing at the top of stirling after giving it everything and looking at my gps only to see a small amount of km. My mate on the other hand went into the bush to throw up. Was a good day.
 
R

riddy

Squid
Yet1 said:
Some people (myself included) will ride Stonefly, but instead of losing all the gained elevation on a fast fire road at the top of Stonefly down to Telephone box Junction (TBJ)... will ride the Stonefly decent, then ride along the road and rejoin the Epic at TBJ.

If its your first time there, the push up to the summit of Mt Stirling is worth it, great views over a beautiful area. But will burn some energy as its steep and you will have to push some of it (well I did anyway).
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I'm heading there soon for the first time, and thinking of taking this Stonefly descent option.

Which section on the Epic Trail is the fire road? Looking at trailforks, it seems like after the Stonefly climb the trail goes -> West Summit Trail -> Stirling Trail -> Fork Creek Trail -> Baldy -> TBJ. So I'm guessing the fire road is one of Stirling, Fork Creek or Baldy?

As for descending Stonefly, do you then go down Stirling Circuit Road to TBJ?

Cheers
 
R

redgsr

Cannon Fodder
riddy said:
Which section on the Epic Trail is the fire road?
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It’s basically all fire road from Bluff Spur Hut (top of Stonefly) to TBJ, and a fair whack of TBJ to Enjoy is fire road too. Some of it is ‘very old access / logging / livestock track that isn’t quite fire road but isn’t singletrack’ if that makes sense.

If you don’t do the descent of Stonefly, which I probably would, and then roll around the Circuit Rd to TBJ, a mate and I found a different fire road that prevents the full fire road descent in to TBJ and therefore skips some of the climb back up towards the Razorback hut - as you’re descending from Bluff Spur hut at around the Machinery Shed you can take the Fork Creek trail to preserve a bit of altitude. https://www.trailforks.com/trails/fork-creek-king-saddle-hut-loop-trail/

The other option if you feel like you’re worried about energy or time is to skip Stonefly altogether and roll around the Circuit Rd from Howqua Gap to TBJ. It’s a shame to miss Stonefly but definitely cuts out a fair bit of time and effort.

As per the OP - trail is in good condition, I’ve done it 3 times since lockdown was lifted. Yes there is overall too much fire road but the ‘Enjoy’ descent is amazing and in great nick.
 
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pineapplehead

pineapplehead

Likes Dirt
So a quick Christmas trip report for you all. We're got up there last week for what has become the fifth time in a now-annual ritual.
Camping at Carter's sawmill was shared with only one other small party, which was great. Suspected we may have seen ol button man too which was a bonus.
The trails are in classic Buller form. That is, the overly-represented fire roads were mostly dry and dusty with plenty of awkward sized rocks to throw your back wheel around as you attempt to float over the top. Each of us had a whoop-de-do which very nearly brought us undone at high speed.
Yes there's too much fire road overall. Although that's really what the epic is. It's hard to justify it as a day out on singletrack.
This year it seems as if maybe the horses have been on it more than usual (?). Yeah it's cool being shared use, but the reality is that hooves displace the dirt and bring the rocks forward. Mtb of course has trail impacts too - I just think that there's examples of sections on the epic where the impacts of each pursuit are not conducive to the other's preferred conditions.
Each time I ride the epic it feels more and more of a challenge. I think they've added some vertical metres to Stirling this year... It's seems a bit of a shame that some of the best dirt is found on the climb up to bluff spur hut. As beautiful as this section is it's a killer. I don't remember the climb being as technical as it was this time - small rocky uphill switchbacks needing sudden bursts of unplanned torque. I'm not ashamed to say I had to walk some of it this time.

The 'enjoy' singletrack at the end of the trail was awesome. Almost worthy of the slog to get there. I think there's been some work done on this bit recently. Sub 20 min pr here for me.

Shuttles on the following day were good, although there weren't many people riding so I think they only operated one lackadaisical coaster bus to keep us barely moving.

Beautiful time of year to ride the epic. Plenty of flowers, green grass and shade. The camping and proximity to Melb add to its appeal.
After a run of a few good years there though, next time I think we'll look over southwards over bass straight for our fix.

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