BOUDDI NP MTB - THE LOOP - 5 MAY 2018

Mountain Bike Ride (MTB) - Bouddi National Park

Parking

There's a number of places to park at Bouddi NP depending on where you start your ride.

I parked at the Maitland Bay carpark, Scenic Road.

Staying

There is a national park camping area at Putty Beach.

The ride

I started at The Maitland Bay carpark and rode north along the Scenic Road past the houses until coming to a dirt clearing on the left. The Turkey Track starts at the end of this clearing.

The track starts narrower and runs smoothly with a couple of drop offs before turning sharply to the left. The track widens more from here and becomes a rough downhill ride with tree roots, rocks and drop offs. After a while the track, the track smooths out and becomes a smooth ride. Towards the end, the tracks goes a steeper uphill and intersects with the NW Ridge trail.

I turned right on the NW trail and continued uphill nearly to the gate at the top of the hill where there is a track to the left. This is the NW ride track. This track goes a short distance and veers to the left or right. I took the left and followed the track which runs out of sight but parallel to the trail.

This a a great undulating mainly downhill track - rocks, tree roots, short steep climbs with obstacles, lots of small drop offs, close vegetation and beautiful scenery. At a few points the track passes close to the cliff edge.

Eventually, the track leads onto the trail and then a short steep downhill with a steep uphill to the Aboriginal rock carving area. Please walk over the tessellated sandstone to a track on the right. This track winds through the burrawangs and joins back onto the trail.

I followed the trail back to the end towards the road gate. From here there are a number of choices.  I chose to ride along the road towards the north and just before the turn off for the Strom Trail there is a track to the right. I followed the track to the right for a short distance and turned right onto the Strom Trail. This trail is undulating, wide and easy but beware sometimes there can be a pools of soft sand.

After a distance there is a track to the right leading uphill towards the ferns. This is such a pretty track - narrow, thick ferns and burrawangs, some drop offs and loose edges in parts. It joins onto the Strom Trail where I turned right and continued. The trail soon leads very steeply uphill, past a locked gate and back to the Maitland Bay carpark.

I called this ride the Bouddi Loop. One of my favourites. A lot of variation can be added or taken away from the ride depending how I feel.