Exploring the Falls Creek backcountry

Words and photos: Mandy Lamont

There’s nothing quite like the adventure of a backcountry trip, getting off the beaten track and exploring. Going beyond the marked trails and seeing what is on the other side, and rarely seeing another soul on your journey. It’s the unknown, the fact that no one else is around, and finding your own way. You’re out there with the elements and those unknown elements become part of the adventure.

I love exploring the backcountry and I spent a couple days exploring the Falls Creek backcountry last summer with Shannon Rademaker of All Terrain Cycles Mansfield and guide Andrew.

For Shannon, backcountry operator and guide, one of the biggest things about being an operator in the backcountry is having a really good trip plan, understanding the risks involved and how to manage those risks. Weather checks, communication checks and equipment checks are key.

Know your route.

Being on unmarked backcountry trails or trails that haven’t been purposely built for mountain biking are unpredictable. Quite often some of these trails won’t see people for a long time, so there can be branches and rocks across the track. There’s no bike patrol or maintenance like in a bike park situation and no safety network of trails, where there’s a loop back to base. In the back country it’s generally point to point, so you need to be prepared for almost anything and carry everything you might need with you.

Don’t go unprepared – take all this and more!

Planning the trip is important and part of the excitement of the adventure. Looking at the map and deciding where you’re going to go. Anticipating the adventure, what’s going to happen, do you have everything you need, do you need to be fit for this? Also knowing your own and other riders abilities. Then once you’re out there riding, you can enjoy the experience. Being in the moment, just you and a couple of mates. There’s a sense of achievement by getting to your destination. It’s a highlight because you’ve just had this amazing experience.

The ski resort of Falls Creek in the Alpine National Park is a great base to explore the backcountry. Falls are at the tail end of a four stage mountain bike plan built by World Trail. With the first trails opening in 2013 Falls Creek has since been developing as a mountain biking destination. Stage three trails opened on the 21st November 2015, providing a total of 22.3km of singletrack on the resort this summer, and the fourth and final stage is set to open late 2016 giving Falls Creek a total of 40km of purpose built mountain bike trails upon completion.

As a mountain bike destination, Falls Creek certainly is a place where you want to spend a few days exploring the singletrack and aqueduct trails that the resort has to offer . There are beginner cross country trails, flat aqueduct trails as well as intermediate downhill and all-mountain trails.

As well as the purpose built trails on the resort, the Falls Creek backcountry is expansive. Part of the Victorian Alps of the Great Dividing Rage, it offers both short and long distance cross country trials in the high country for the more adventurous with mountain climbs, the Bogong High Plains, cattleman’s huts, valleys and rivers.

Falls Creek offers a great base to get out and explore from.

Just a few kilometres behind the resort towards Omeo along the Bogong High Plains Road, there are a few trails to get your legs warmed up and get your eyes used to the view. Parking at Watchbed Creek we rode the Marum Point Paralyser (10km loop), and the historic huts trail (11km). A great introduction to the backcountry on relatively flat and wide 4WD trail and of course stunning views. They can be done separately or joined together and can loop back to the car park along the Bogong High Plains road.

The historic huts trail goes past Wallaces Hut and Cope Hut. These huts are an important part of Victoria’s alpine country, and an easy pedal.

Wallace Hut

The oldest hut in the Alpine National Park, Wallace hut was built in 1889 amongst the twisted snow gums by brothers Arthur, William and Stewart Wallace while they were up in the Bogong High Plains with their cattle. It’s one of the few huts to survive the 1939 bush fires. A great place to stop for lunch, you can’t stay in the hut overnight though.

It hasn’t aged a day!

Cope Hut was built in 1929 by the ski club of Victoria as a ski refuge. Eco-friendly camping platforms have recently been installed at Cope Hut which can be booked through Parks Victoria and cost $30 per night.

Cope Hut has some of the best views

As well as the short distance backcountry trails around Falls, there are also a lot of long distance, point to point trails. The next day we rode Timms Spur, 30+ km’s down to Mount Beauty. At the base of Mt Bogong and Falls Creek, built in 1949, the town was developed by the State Electricity Commission to provide additional accommodation for the thousands of workers during the construction of the Kiewa Hydro Electric Scheme. There are many tracks through the valley that were built to assist the Hydro works around the area, some of these rough and raw 4WD trails we will ride.

After coffee and cookies from Milch we’re on our way. We have perfect autumn weather. Blue skies, little wind and ideal temperatures in mid March. Leaving the resort we’re dropped off on the Bogong High Plains Road at the trail head of the Marum Point Paralyser. Heading off into the unknown through the dead snowgums, it’s not long before we’re above the tree line and riding through the bare mountain tops of the Bogong High Plains on the 4WD Big River fire trail. The sparse Bogong High Plains are dotted with alpine flowers and you can see the trail for miles ahead winding around the bare mountain in front, so you have a pretty good idea of what is ahead of you. You can see the resort of Falls Creek, a spec in the distance. Reaching the Mt Nelse turnoff and the views stretch for miles, the vegetation has changed to a more dense low lying shrub. It’s amazing being on top of the peaks in the Great Dividing Range. All you can see is layers of mountains all the way to New South Wales, including Mt Bogong, Victoria’s highest mountain. We start the climb over Spion Kopje spur and along Timm’s Spur, where we are rewarded with magnificent views of Mt Bogong.

As we begin our long descent into the valley, the views have us all gob smacked, panoramas everywhere you look and we keep stopping for photos. We are dwarfed in this majestic mountainous landscape. The distant mountains covered in dead snowgums looks like a grey three day growth.

We’re now descending and the vegetation changes again, we’re back in the gums and the trees are green and dense; a typical Aussie bush landscape. The scenery is going past a lot quicker than on the way up. The only problem is that on such a rough trail, you really need to be looking at where you’re going, and not just admiring the scenery. It’s rocky and overgrown with shrubs and the occasional log across the trail as we descend into the Kiewa Valley.

After what seems like an eternal descent, we reach a small river crossing, the East Kiewa River, which we are able to cross without getting our feet wet. What goes down must go up, and we start a small climb afterwards, this is pretty much the only ascent on the descent.

Further into the descent and the vegetation changes again into what is almost rain forest, with lush ferns. Continuing down into Mount Beauty, it’s getting warmer the lower we go and the boys are having fun with the loose dry corners.

One final cross of the river upon reaching Mount Beauty, which seemed like a buzzing metropolis after what we had just experienced, we had a fun little spin on the BMX track before a well deserved locally brewed ale at Sweetwater Brewery to talk about our adventures. It’s taken us most of the day and what a day. We’ve covered over 30 kms and around 1,500 vertical metres including plenty of time to take in those jaw dropping views.

Shannon, owner of All Terrain Cycles in Mansfield and Gravity Oz bike skills clinics with school and private groups has had a lot of experience on bikes, he grew up racing BMX, then discovered mountain bikes in his teens and downhill racing. A qualified mountain bike guide and outdoor educator, he is now also a lecturer at TAFE for the outdoor ed courses, giving skill development, coaching and assistance.

For Shannon, the unknown experience is the best part of the back country. It’s not just given to you on a plate. “I like to go places where not many people have been before, I guess that’s the beauty of it too. It’s a pretty raw experience and not many people get to experience it, so I guess that’s the good feeling factor too. There’s only a select number of people who have done it. Whether you’ve been there before or not, the beauty of knowing that you’re out there and you never see anyone, it’s a good feeling. Just having those wow moments, it’s easy to get side tracked by the vista and just enjoy the moment too much. I love it.”

Expect the unexpected in the Falls Creek backcountry

To be prepared in the backcountry, you should carry with you a first aid kit, charged phone, spare tube, tube repair kit and a pump, a map and compass that you know how to read, energy snacks, spare links and a chain tool, tyre levers, plenty of water and let someone know where you’re going. Communication is a big thing in the backcountry.

The resort in the Victorian High Country is a great base, with the resort facilities open year round. It’s easy to explore the back country and you don’t have to travel far to get back to the comfort of your accommodation, a good feed and a cold beer. Being an alpine climate it is around 10 degrees lower than the towns in the valleys, and it’s not uncommon to see inclement weather in the summer months, so check the forecast and be prepared, conditions can change very quickly.