Ride Rocky's MTB Trails

Published on 30 June 2021

The boys from Flow Mountain Bike recently visited Rockhampton to ride our mountain bike trails.
Read on for how they found our trails, if they caught a barra, and whether or not they will be back to visit us again!

Ride'n Rocky

Winter in Central Queensland is sensational for mountain biking. We took a trip to Rocky in June to soak in the sun, steaks, singletrack and try our luck fishing for barramundi. Come along for the ride!

The landscape was black. A recent back-burning operation at First Turkey Mountain Bike Reserve had jumped its containment line, leaving the trails in an otherworldly state. As the sun started to peek over Mount Archer, soft morning rays began to trickle through the unburned canopy, bathing the ground in shades of yellow, orange and green. The charred landscape around me and the unlit hill in the background, set against the intense splash of colour, felt a bit like being in a Bob Ross painting.

As Mick rolled past, the light caught the dust stirred up by his rear tyre, and I completely forgot about that extra hour of sleep I thought I needed. There is an electric buzz that runs up my spine when a photo like this appears on the back of the camera, and it felt like I’d grabbed an electric fence with both hands and possibly a few toes. I ran over to Mick to show him what we had just captured, and I could see the charge run through his body — this was the shot we had been after.

Then I heard it, a deep rumble. The reverberation of a rider descending the trail above us. They came thundering around the corner and dropped into a rocky staircase at such speed, I could hear their tyres cry out for mercy. The first rider of the Rockhampton Mountain Bike Club’s gravity enduro was on course — it was time to heckle. 

We had been exploring Rockhampton for the last four days, and between the calibre of the riding and the characters we met along the way, this will not be a trip we will soon forget.

Rockhampton is situated almost equidistant between Brisbane and Townsville, claiming to be the beef capital of Australia and is home to seven ‘Big Bull’ statues. We had come to explore the singletrack traversing the slopes of Mount Archer and a new network in the neighbouring town of Mount Morgan.

MOUNT MORGAN - THE NEW TRAIL NETWORK

Since we were last in Rockhampton back in 2017, an entirely new mountain bike network has been constructed in the neighbouring town of Mount Morgan. We wanted to see it, find out why it was built, who it is for, and is it worth the time?

Every time Mount Morgan came up in conversation, words like ‘quirky, interesting, and unusual’ were thrown around, but it didn’t take a spiritual medium to divine what wasn’t being said, so I will come out and say it. Mount Morgan is weird, and that’s why I love it.

The singletrack around Dam No. 7 only opened in December 2020; the trail map is comprised of blue and green squiggles, though the locals hinted that there was a black trail or two somewhere out the back.

The official trailhead is near the dam wall, with all the facilities for a pre or post-ride chill; however, thanks to a few suggestions and some Google Maps sleuthing, we found a back entrance that deposited us on the far side of the network.

Rolling up the fire road, the cold air was biting for Queensland, and as we crested the first rise, we caught our first glimpse of the Dam. The early morning fog was lazily drifting across the water, and the birdlife was in full song. Fueled by only a PowerBar and terrible pod coffee, I did a double-take spinning through the sizeable berms on the first climb; it felt like we were ascending a descending trail. We later learned that it’s a two-way trail, but this is the direction most people ride it — we would soon understand why.

The sun-kissed the prehistoric fronds of the Cycad palms, and the grass trees flowed with the breeze — this trail was beautiful and wholly unexpected. 

Cresting over the top, the surprises came thick and fast. Techy rock gardens, jumps and drops whizzed past. We were riding them blind, and they were tricky, but the trail builder clearly prioritised predictability with great visibility, so we let the brakes off and let it run. As we descended further, the scrub became thicker, the grass trees taller, and the vibe more prehistoric.

Back in town and going hunger flat, Mick and I searched for sugar, caffeine and calories. Mick holds a special place in his heart for old pubs and Queenslander style houses, so when we drove past the Leichhardt Hotel, it was never a question of if we were going there, but how long we would spend inside.

Written by Flow Mountain Bike Magazine
@flowmountainbike

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