Mt Buller MTB

The wife and I decided that we deserved a few days away. I was keen to check out Mt Buller to help me decide whether to ride the Bike Buller festival so we tracked down a place on the banks of Lake Eildon about 50 minutes from Mt Buller(or 40 if you like exploring back tracks and dirt roads which I do).
When I go to a new place I like to get my bearings so one of my first jobs when we got to Mansfield was to get a map. I got a very detailed one of the Mt Buller area which included the small town of Macs Cove where we were staying.

The place we stayed at was called Willowlake. There are 4 cabins on the property as well as the main house. The cabins have some lake views, heaps of friendly bird life that likes to come in for a feed (sparrows, magpies, rosellas and cockatoos). You could also hear the kookaburras singing their famous song nearby. It's a great place to stay and apart from the location and the facilities it's worth the trip to experience dinner in the restaurant. The food is nice enough but its the antics of the 67 year old waitress cum cleaner which make it a unique experience. She is a cross between Manuel from Fawlty Towers and Kath From Kath and Kim. She provided a lot of laughs and a very Aussie view of the world.
Anyhow enough about the accommodation this is meant to be a bike blog.

The view from our cabin

The two of us did a gentle ride around Macs Cove and then I took off to do a bit more riding. I decided to ride along the Mansfield road to the top of Martin Gap near a hill called Jim Crow which was 590 meters high. The climb was nice and gradual and on the way up I spied a dirt track to the left of the main road so I decided to take that for the decent. It was pretty rough and rutted so I was taking it easy when I came across a very large tree across the track. It didn't seem like there was any way around the tree so the only option was to start riding back up the hill and hope to find a way across to the main road before I made it all the way back to the top. Lucky for me there was a very faint set of wheel tracks not too far up the hill which headed in the right direction which I managed to follow.

The next day we went sight seeing at Mt Buller. We road the sole chair lift operating (mainly used by down hill bikers)and then I paid a visit to one of the bike shops and booked a 3 hour cross country tour for 9 am the next day.

The summit of Mt Buller

The Trail map of Mt Buller

When I turned up it was just me and my guide Tom on the ride. He was really helpful and offered plenty of riding tips as well as picking out the best trails for us to ride. From the bike shop we headed out the Gang Gangs to the Skills Park before climbing the Corn Hill summit. Then we did a couple of laps of Misty Twist before heading back along Corn Hill Rd to the main Mt Buller road which meant we had about a kilometre of climbing back to the shop.

The Trail guide description of Misty Twist

Having a riding partner who knew all the tracks was a real benefit. Throw in some expert tuition and great trails and it was an excellent way to spend three hours and something I would recommend to everyone. By the way the new Stonefly trail linking Mt Buller to Mt Stirling opened this weekend and definitely sounds like its worth the drive to get there.