You are hereForums / By Discipline / Mountain (off road) / By Location / Australia / NSW / Southern Highlands / Best ride in a long long time.

Best ride in a long long time.


herzog's picture

By herzog - Posted on 29 November 2009

I did the McPhails Downhill + Meryla pass combo this morning, and geeze what an epic.

The start is at Fitzroy Falls (700m) and you first go bombing down the McPhails trail to the floor of Kangaroo Valley. This is an absolutely brilliant descent, probably my favourite track. After a couple of Km fireroad on the way in, it quickly turns to mainly singletrack. It has magic downhill singletrack sections through rainforest, on a bed of leaf litter. It's like a magic carpet ride, with a few jumps and logrolls thrown in. Then you hit the phenomenally steep switchback section, with huge bermed corners. The berms are there for a reason - if you hit one of these corners too hot, they will never find your body! It's a long way down.

Since there doesn't seem to be many photos on the net of McPhails, I took a few today. These have been posted to Nobmob and should be visible shortly.

From the bottom we rode to the start of the Meryla Pass. This involves even more downhill action ending at a creek crossing. This is the lowest point on the ride, about 80m. But what goes down must go up again, and from here you have to climb back to over 700M. This is a massive climb, about double the climb out of Andersons.

It's a slow (but scenic) grind up the Meryla pass, and the steeps are broken up by a few flatter stages to allow you to recover a bit.

Ultimately you'll end up back at the Fitzroy Falls visitor's centre where you started. 41km total.
KML/GPX available here
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=...

(Note the GPS bombed out with about 12 kms to go, but gives a pretty good idea of the route.)

Rob's picture

Thanks for the pictures Smiling

I've been hanging out to do this ride for literally years though. You fancy doing it again in the new year and letting an old bloke tag along? Eye-wink

FWIW, the route I've seen has the ride going round from the falls and finishing up going up McPhails. Basically the opposite of what you describe. Yes - I've heard it's steep - you reckon it's doable or better as you did?

herzog's picture

Yeah I'd be up for that for sure, I'll organise something through the site when the Mrs gives me a new leave pass in a couple of months Smiling. The ride probably suits groups of up to about 10 or so, and takes about 4hrs or so.

Certainly possible to do it either way, but really the highlight is descending McPhails. Riding (walking!) up it wouldn't do it justice.

Descending Meryla would be fun too, but much easier and less technical, say like a rainforest version of the Oaks. We saw a group of about a dozen or so coming down this morning as we were climbing.

PINBALL's picture

this is one of my favs as well, i particularly like the descent down meryla pass, chasing the kangaroo that for some reason decided not to jump to the left or right, theres some good lines with not much room for error on both descents , just a bugger of a climb back out.
one other good thing is after the hair raising bomb down mcphails trail is the dip in the river under the bridge and the beer and steak at the pub just a few meters on
legendary ride, just hope it doesnt get to busy

marhleet's picture

Fitzroy Falls into GE and the first bright thing to see is Nowra Rd - Moss Vale Rd
oooooowww, that looks good.
then i looked where you went.
hooley dooly

long but the end looks fun.
is it ok if us old fattys start at the bottom and get the grind over with first ?

herzog's picture

Yeah of course, come along.

I'd definitely recommend the descent first though. It would be better to bomb down McPhails while you are sharp, rather than fatigued.

The climb up Meryla Pass is long, but not technically difficult. With plenty of rest stops it shouldn't be too bad.

marhleet's picture

I'd do the climb first to get it out of the way, warm up at the pub first first, get to the top, pub to rest, then the freewheel downhill to cool off in the nice breeze and chase roos on the way back to the car for the celebratory pub visit after

PINBALL's picture

where's the pub at the top

herzog's picture

There ain't one to my knowledge! I suppose you could leave an Esky full of lagers in the car?

There's definitely a decent pub down the bottom though...

Rob's picture

It sounds to me like one should defiantly start in the Valley, ride up and finish with the fun coming DH. Then get the beers in.

Any camping close to the pub? Eye-wink

herzog's picture

Actually yes! There's a trailer park about 200m up the road from the pub (in the Nowra direction).

snowkiwi's picture

sounds great - I'll be in NZ until mid jan, so how about a late Jan, pre-Blackheart jaunt for us old fatties? camping near the pub sounds damn good.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Best Mountain Bike