My experience of this area goes only as far as completing The Pinch Ride back in January 2008. Word is though, that starting out this way before turning East down Tin Mile Trail is another very good option.

The Pinch Ride

A one way all day Epic from Dead Horse Gap to Barry Way through complete wilderness. Not for the faint hearted this runs through some beautiful and remote countryside. In the hight of the summer holidays we only saw two bushwalkers (at Cascade Hut) the whole time.

Some good organisation is required as are plenty of supplies and spares as there is no phone reception either along the route or at the end of this ride which is a camp site by the Snowy River on Barry Way.

This is nothing hard so far as technical challenge goes and if it were not for the amazing views and serenity of the course you might be forgiven for thinking it's a dull ride. On the contrary though - anything but with numerous sections of fast downhill fun and numerous water bars to launch off - just be careful remembering how far from help this is!

The ride is punctuated by the longest MTB decent I've ever found - a 900m drop in under 6Km distance. A real brake burner!

Options?

As mentioned in the summary, Tin Mine trail is apparently another option to Barry Way. This would mean turning East a long way before Nine Mile.

It also looks possible to continue South along Ingeeboodbee Trail into Victoria instead of turning down Nine Mile Fire Trail to the Snowy there. Such a route looks to come out on Snowy River road and would be an even more epic epic!