Dry Diggings Track

Ride the Dry Diggings Track
Total distance: 61km
Total time: 5 - 6 hours *

For mountain bikers the Dry Diggings Track is logically broken into three sections. All have excellent car access, and the full ride is a great day out for fit riders.

Daylesford to Chocolate Mill (8km)
Again it’s easy to be fooled by the long descent from Daylesford to Hepburn Springs, these first few kilometers belie the truth that is to come. The steep climbing through the northern end of the Hepburn Regional Park will make you feel as though Daylesford is trying to draw you back, but once past the Chocolate Mill and the letterboxes at Sawpit Gully Rd you will be set free into the sweet singletrack of the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park.

Chocolate Mill to Vaughan Springs (21km)
Now on the northern side of the Dividing Range you’ll find drier, rockier terrain and stands of box eucalypts jostling for position in unforgiving soils. Soon you’ll cross Porcupine Ridge Rd and start what is widely acknowledged as the best mountain biking section along the entire length of the Goldfields Track. A gradual descent, the track winds through fascinating old mine sites, long vanished villages and awesome geological features before dropping into the beautiful Vaughan Springs picnic area.

Vaughan Springs to Castlemaine (19km)
From this point there is a brief section of tarmac before the track reenters the forest and winds toward Fryerstown. Dense bushland is occasionally broken by moonscape like clearings revealing vast expanses of reef rock, look closely and you may spot a remnant streak of gold passing under your tyres. More flowy singletrack takes you past the Spring Gully mine site and following a steep pinch up the Monk you arrive at the Poverty Gully water race - this engineering marvel still carries water to paying customers 140 years after its construction. Nowadays it doubles as a shared walking and cycling trail providing an unforgettable finish to a great day’s riding.