Blue Mountains mtb rides
Grose Head South
This review is quite old, conditions have probably changed.
The Grose Head South ride starts from Hawkesbury Road Springwood, at the back of St Thomas Aquinas Primary School. This property used to be known as St Columba's (at one stage the property was a seminary). Although this is the popular entrance to this ride, we were recently told you need the permission of the school's principal if you use this route. According to the former principal we spoke to, you should use the Whitecross entrance, which is a much harder ride.
From Springwood Station, head east towards Sydney along the highway or Macquarie Rd through the shopping centre. From Macquarie Rd turn left at the roundabout into Hawkesbury Rd, following the signs to Winmalee and Richmond. From the highway just follow the signs to Winmalee and Richmond, and when you go left through the roundabout, you'll be on Hawkesbury Rd. Continue on to the traffic lights at Winmalee Shopping Centre and turn left into Whitecross Rd. Follow this to the end, where the dirt starts.
Turn left at the first T intersection and head down into the valley. When you reach the creek, head right (north) along the firetrail through Blue Gum Swamp. Some distance along is a track to the left, up the very steep Bees' Nest Hill. National Parks and Wildlife often have night spotting trips down in the swamp during school holidays, because there's plenty of nocturnal wildlife.
Unfortunately, the whole track has been recently graded, making it a wide, smooth, boring superhighway. Typically after grading, there is a soft packed sandy surface that is hard to ride on if there's been any rain. The bottoms of some hills collect deep loose sand after rain, before passing the silt into the creek system. ;^(
Fortunately
there are some table drains to jump, but on the whole I was very disappointed compared to my last ride on this
track. No doubt it will improve as the new surface washes its way down
to the creeks... At the end of the ride, stop
and savour the beautiful views of the Grose Valley - the track ends right
on the edge of a clifftop. You might even see soaring eagles if you're
lucky! Return the way you came - be careful heading down Bees Nest Hill, it's very
steep and often loose - riders often come to grief there. After slogging your way back out, you'll discover there's a pub at Winmalee shops - a perfect way to end a ride. There are quite a few other tracks to enjoy in this area.
because of the time since the grading, this ride should have now improved to
two and a half Fat Hippies
| Distance | ~25 km return to station |
| Difficulty | Medium. Some steep hills. Medium/Hard if you take the Bees Nest Hill option, due to steep hills and loose surface. |
| Type | Graded fire trail, some waterbars |
| Time | Varies - from two hours to all day |
| Trains | Springwood - timetable |
| Interest | Grose Head South Lookout, views, beautiful old buildings in school |
| Issues | Access denied via the once popular (easy) route through the school. |
another fAt hIpPy production
