Today was the big Craigs Hut ride. There was a lot of hype about how tough this ride was but in the end even Sharons group completed it ok with quite a bit of effort and a lot of pushing. Some of our group peeled off at the end of the ride and did some single track to finish off the day as most of the Craigs Hut ride was on 4WD tracks or fire roads.

Perfect weather here today with fantastic clear views in all directions. First stop after quite a climb was the Mt Stirling summit. Great views back over to Buller and in most directions. A couple of bush walkers came past and the had passed Sharons group about 30 minutes in front of us. My faster group left about an hour after Sharons group so we would all arrive about the same time.

Mt Sterling Trig with Mt Buller village directly through it

Mt Buller

After Stirling there was more decending and more tough climbing on loose and very steep in places fire road. The last section was well compacted by the 4WD drivers and we flew down this section at break neck speed. Arriving at Craigs Hut was a little disappointing with the long weekend there were so man 4WD and motor bikers it was like grand central station. We lent all out bike up against the railing around the hut and after a while a couple of motor bikers came over and told us to move them because we were spoiling pictures for others. Not sure why the didn’t move on all the people blocking the pictures as well!

There were a lot of bikes I suppose

Craigs Hut

Anyway we had lunch in the sun and had a look at the hut that has been rebuilt 3 times after being wiped out by fire, the latest in 2006. Nobody seemed to be taking photos and the bikers were all kicking a dopy snake with there big motor bike boots! We eventually left Craigs Hut and returned the way we came and all of those big decents became big climbs. 3 of us had not had enough after all that so we peeled off onto some sweet single track and topped the day off nicely. Just before returning to the accommodation we had a blast on the pump track again with Roy one of the instructors showing us how it was done.

One section of the pump track

Party night here tonight, could be a few sore heads in the morning. We are leaving Buller tomorrow and found another MTB park to ride on our way back to Melbourne.