M O U N TA I N B I K E S U N S H I N E C OAST with Andy Flanagan
Tewantin Mountain Bike Park TODAY we are headed to the Wooroi Trails, Noosa National Park, Tewantin. This park was officially opened up to mountain biking approx 8 or 9 years ago thanks to the help of Greg Long and Greg Potts (aka the Gregs), owners of a little bike shop in Tewantin called Cognition (now closed). With limited resources and spare time the Gregs founded the Noosa Trail Blazers MTB club and as they say ‘from little things big things grow.’ Books were kept, AGMs held, members were sought, grants were applied for, regular working bees and social rides organised, which has all culminated in the awesome professionally built trail network that Wooroi has become today. There are numerous access points, but the easiest is the carpark at the intersection of Noosa Cooroy Rd and Gyndier Drive. Wooroi consists of approximately 30km of twisty single trail set in amongst a variety of beautiful forests ranging from wet palm filled valleys to hill sides covered in tall eucalypts. The trails have been designed to suit most levels of riders. For the very beginner, trails like Secrets, Hovea, Glider and Indie are in the lower section of the park so climbing can be kept to a minimum. For the thrill seekers, the majority of the more advanced trails like Turn 10, Snake, Trail Blazer, and Milk Maid can be accessed from Gyndier and Top Track. Bloodwood is also a classic running from the bottom of Snake and intersects the bottom of Trail Blazer and Daydream. Note that most of these trails are one-way, climbing or descending. Top Track is two-way and starts at the bollards on the left near the top of Gyndier and finishes at a fire road, turning left will take you to Milk Maid.
smiles for miles
Recently we had our five year old grandson and joined a group of similarly aged kids with their parents. The plan is loose, ride Secrets and then we will see. We head up Gyndier for 800m then left onto 20m of fire road and left again into Secrets. This trail is 1.5km of windy flowy undulating fun that gets lots of squeals and laughs from the kids. The trails ends where it intersects with Indie with no intersections along the way to get lost on. We gather here to talk about what’s next. Its decided that going right up Indie would be too much so we go left and head to the Day Use Area where there is a map, a tap and tables for a snack and rest. Next we head down the fire road 100m then take a left into another fire road then we drop into Hovea also on our left. This is a windy flat 1km gravel trail that takes us back to Day Use. It’s then a very short road section back to the cars. This has been a first time on the trails for some of these kids and judging from the smiles and chatter it wont be the last!
Andy Flanagan. Unicyclist, Mountain Biker, Trail Runner and Senior Bicycle Mechanic at Spoke N Trail
Official e-Bike Turbo Test Centre
SALES • HIRE • WORKSHOP SKILLS COACHING • SHUTTLES E: info@spokentrail.com.au P: 07 5231 9910 M: 0449 769 560 Noosaville QLD Australia 4566
WWW.SPOKENTRAIL.COM.AU November 2021 Your Local Lifestyle | Page 51
