Fox Creek Bike Park: Adelaide's Jewel in the Crown

Words: Mike Blewitt

Photos: Jack Fletcher

My focus is glued to the wheel in front. Left, then right. Over a log, a quick stop. Then go! Through the next gap and carry on.

Georgina and I have flown to Adelaide to come and see what the trail riding is like near town and up at Fox Creek Bike Park. We are determindly following our ride guide Joe Mullan’s wheel as we scythe our way through the back streets of inner suburbs of Adelaide towards the hills via parks, laneways and local knowledge. Adelaide is a lot like Brisbane where I call home as there is plenty of easily accessible riding close to almost all suburbs. In fact, if you’re a mountain biker and don’t have trails about 15 to 20 minutes ride away, you probably made a poor choice when choosing where to rent or buy.

We’re making our way towards Belair National Park, and roll into a train stationto meet up with Adelaide local Jack Fletcher, playing the role of additional guide, local knowledge provider and photographer. It’s started raining pretty hard, and although we could easily keep riding singletrack to the top, the train line also runs all the way up the hill.

‘Belair laps are certainly a thing’ Jack confirms, as we see a train approaching the platform. ‘There’s a KFC at the bottom of the hill, and you always see a bunch of bikes parked there as young riders refuel after doing runs all day.’ None of us are too excited about a Zinger Tower challenge at this point, and we jump on the train and buy our tickets.

As expected, there are half a dozen kids with mountain bikes on the carriage, loaded with stoke and probably sugar as well. We discuss the relative merits of riding trails to get up to the top compared to catching the train, which is a way of saying old school rider Joe disagrees with gravity fan Jack… but we disembark before things get too heated. The stations all have taps, so even if you don’t take the train up, there are places to refill in the warmer months.

We pedal off into the cool later afternoon air. I’ve brought the rain from south-east Queensland, and the red dirt trails are starting to transition from hero dirt to slick, depending where we are. We climb a little higher, riding trails along escarpments and through open bushland. We descend into pockets of National Park that must have been an arboretum given the variety of old trees towering above.

As we point back towards Adelaide we jump fromone trail to the next, with the bushland between suburbs all used to house trails for outdoor access. From stacked switchbacks to long bench cut trail, and even past what I’m told was Adelaide’s OG downhill track. There’s plenty to have fun to be found, with Georgina finding some fun lines on the Pivot Shadowcat she has comandeered, as Joe takes all the best lines with an in-depth local knowledge. I just flounder and keep up – although we’re all pretty happy to be riding trails mid week so close to town.

As we descend back into Adelaide and get lead by Joe back to our accommodation and a huge pizza order, Jack looks at me.

‘Everyone has great trail riding nearby in Adelaide, but Fox Creek is where we all go on the weekend to shuttle. That’s why it’s so important that it got rebuilt.’

Fox Creek Bike Park has had major investment to be rebuilt after the black summer fires in 2019, to rebuild it into Australia’s most modern community bike park. It’s within a working forest run by ForestrySA and the rebirth has been really dramatic. While the return of gravity trails to shuttle is one thing, it’s just a small part of how Fox has risen from the ashes. Now, you’ll find three distinct sections of trails, from the gravity trails to trail riding and some old school cross-country trails. Plus a skills park, facilities area, adaptive mountain bike trail and even more to come. And that’s where we were heading the next day.

The next morning dawned fine and clear, with the promise of hero dirt after an afternoon of steady rain. Georgina and I loaded our bikes onto the car and drove towards the Adelaide Hills, leaving the sensible grid system of Adelaide and heading upwards. The road twists and turns through the gullies to gain the ridge lines into the hills. This is magic terrain for road riders, and we’re climbing towards what may be the closest mountain bike park to a state capital in Australia.

As we pass through one quaint village to the next, stopping for coffee and caramel slice just to fact check the quality (two thumbs up!), we end up on a dirt road with the main carpark of Fox Creek bike park ahead. Devoid of almost all large trees after the black summer fires, we overlook hills rolling away from our feet. I’ve been told by locals that they didn’t know the view was even there, but such was the ferocity of the fires, there is now a clear line of sight over the ridge lines. Save for one lone gum atop a hill in the distance.

Fox Creek has always been known for gravity riding, thanks to the easy shuttle access and a vertical drop for a fast run and quick shuttle turnaround. In the rebuild, attention has been paid to variety. Lead by Rocky Trail Destination, the rebuild by ForestrySA has aimed to suit a wider variety of mountain bikers. Sure, everyone loves to shuttle. But there’s a bunch of trail riding, with singletrack climbs to access another area of trails, and a new area being developed that is a little tighter with a homage of sorts to older hand-cut trails. This area is called Spaghetti Western because it really looks like a mess of spaghetti on a trail map.

A wider variety of formalised trails isn’t the only new thing for Fox Creek after the black summer fires – the game changer is it’s transformation into being a proper bike park. With a facilities hub and skills park, the popular riding destination has toilets, showers, a kiosk, shelter, water and places for bike hire and eMTB demos and charging stations. The facilities hub leads into the skills park with a variety of lines and features to allow for progression. It all looks out over the whole fores of rolling ridgelinest – so the view isn’t bad either.

Of course, Georgina and I are here in late March, so some of the above is viewed using our imagination and artist’s impression sketches. The skills park is all there, and the majority of the facilities buildings were done. It was easy to see how will the trail hub would be operating, making an ideal base for social events and races. The facilities hub is also an ideal place for local businesses to set up, and Will Ride e-bikes already has their eMTB demo centre on location. When you consider that The Fox Run are consistently running shuttles, as our Escape Goat, and some accommodation providers are expanding for mountain bikers – the community impact is already being felt. And while Georgina and I found that interesting… we really just wanted to ride some trails.

After a few GPS snafus to synchronise our watches and .gpx files we were on our way, checking out some of the trail riding options. We rode down Green Goblin into The Ducks Guts, letting our tyres find gobs of traction on the red dirt. The native forest is growing back here and the trails are a red line through bright green foliage, with stands of dead pine trees occasionally looming over the trail like extras from The Blair Witch Project. We exit The Ducks Guts final switchbacks and roll down to Middle Earth, a 3.6km singletrack climb up the gully. It’s a gentle climb in the cool gully that inevitably gets a little steeper at the top. But it puts us onto a fireroad to contour around to Easy Rider and the Cudlee Creek Cruise, before coming back to The Outcrops. These trails are all able to be ridden fast and blind, which suits us to a tee, but besides The Ducks Guts and The Outcrops they are all green trails and ideal for just about any mountain biker to enjoy. All these trails in the renative bushland

After some lunch at the winery opposite the carpark (handy, isn’t it?) we make our way into the Spaghetti Western network. This part of the forest has been replanted with new pines, while much of what we have just ridden is native forest and old pasture that has mature trees. Still, there are stands of plantation pine as well, and the trails are all together narrower, with a much smaller bench cut into the dirt, and some tighter corners. Georgina and I absolutely love it. We twist and turn, laugh and heckle. While much of the trails are still in the openb, the fast growing pines will mean that soon the network will be through green tunnels – but let’s hope the viewing platform remains.

Jack Fletcher has arrived with Zarah Mitchell and Conor Clancy to show Georgina and I the gravity trails. Or the ‘real’ trails as Jack likes to call them. While most Adelaide locals have trails close to home, the trails at Fox Creek have historically not just been the weekend location, but also where events ran. And the mountain bike clubs in Adelaide have all had a roll in shaping and maintaining the trails. So lots of riders have some skin in the game, and a real sense of ownership and inclusion with the trails. There’s some real connection with them.

Fox Fast is the first trail we ride, and it’s only just opened again. As the name suggests, it’s fast, with some straight line chutes with a number of lines, hence why it’s popular for race runs. It’s one thing to ride it, but another to do it fast.

Allen’s Orange Whip is the only adaptive mountain bike gravity trail in South Australia and it also leads into some of the main gravity trails like Blues Groove, Fox Long, Patterson’s Curse and Bowl. The big berms and tabletops lead into the narrow Blues Groove which keeps it tight on some descending traverses, before an open and exposed bench and descent into a gully. The corners arc around in steep berms before another straightaway into the stacked berms to finish. Throw in plenty of jumps and it’s no wonder this is one of the trails with the most traffic while we ride the trail.

Fox Long runs into Bowl and the latter really typfies what a lot of Adelaide riders like about Fox. It’s got some jank, it’s tight, and you can’t fudge it riding fast. Zara leads me into this one and as soon as it got a little tighter and faster it was like she disappeared. These trails really reward precision bike handling and confidence in your technique. I pinballed down it but still had a huge grin at the lower carpark for the shuttle pick up.

The rebirth of Fox Creek Bike Park has looked pretty incredible from the sidelines. It has been driven by funding post bushfires, with an incredible amount of support from Adelaide mountain bikers and of course ForestrySA. It’s only been recently that anyone from around Australia can come and visit, and getting tyres on the ground has made a real difference in seeing how Fox Creek Bike Park fits into the mountain biking scene in greater Adelaide. Sure, they have good trails close to home. But the variety of trails all rolling out from one facilities hub at Fox Creek Bike Park cannot be beaten. There’s so much more space that is open for trail building that it really seems the Fox Creek story is just beginning. But a big part of me wonders why ForestrySA are pursuing this path.

How forestry and mountain biking can work

Fox Creek is a working forest, and I was lucky to get time to talk to Julian Speed, the Chief Executive at ForestrySA. Surely having a bunch of mountain bikers, and trail builders, in the forest would make it harder?

‘It doesn’t make anything easier, but it does expose to the more general public who are not typically exposed to forestry the fact that it is a really well credentialed green industry,’ explains Julian Speed. ‘It’s the ultimate renewable when you’re growing carbon sequestration in a working environment that people want to go and visit as well. It ticks all the boxes. Without all the exposure to the general public, we face social licence issues, with people who don’t understand what we do who object to trees being cut down. Which is fair enough, until you dig in and learn that that’s the reason they were planted. Every hectare that is harvested is replanted.’

‘The exposure to the broader public that out industry doesn’t normally get is important to us. And that’s one reason why Fox itself so good. It’s so accessible, being 45 minutes from the middle of Adelaide, with a big and growing interested user base.’

ForestrySA have a long standing relationship with mountain bikers and other recreation groups, but the redevelopment at Fox Creek stands apart from anything prior, as Julian Speed explains.

‘This is a first time that we have actively decided to create a precinct where there’s a bit more in terms of facilities being available. We’ve got plenty of good trails, but the concentration of quality trails in this area has fed upon itself to some extent because of interest from mountain bike clubs and recreation groups who have put in volunteer hours to improve the trails which has improved the site as well. So it’s become a bit self-fulfilling that Fox has become the jewel in the crown for us over time.’

There is no real blueprint for success in what ForestrySA are doing, but it has involved looking at other operations to see what works, and what suits Fox Creek.

‘We have had to lean on what we see in other commercial plantation forests with mountain bike access that show that it works. It was important to us as a point of difference to maintain Fox Creek as a working forest as well,’ starts Julian Speed. Their point of difference is a huge bonus for any mountain bikers – as it has prioritised trails. ‘We have planned the commercial forestry, the plantation, around the trail access. Instead of fitting in recreation users retrospectively.’

Funding has helped create this opportunity, but it’s the culmination of relationship building and work done in the past – and it’s all come together to deliver a leading example of forestry and recreation working together, according to Julian Speed.

‘We probably only have one chance to put in real time, effort and funds to get it right. We’ll always retain access to trails all over the place I hope – but not with the facilities that go with it like at Fox Creek. It’s important to have these facilities that can handle the bigger events and bigger crowds otherwise riders and events won’t come back.’

The facilities hub is a big bit part of the development at Fox Creek, and ForestrySA want to see it benefit local riders and the community – with space for small business to setup at the trail head hub.

‘We’re really keen to leverage off the bike economy. It’s not something we really looked at three years ago, but the level of visitation we have had already and what’s yet to come has opened up some really obvious opportunities for small business to attach themselves to our bike park visitation. Be it bike repair, bike sales and hire, coffee and food vans, those small businesses benefit from the number of people coming through our gate. It’s making more opportunities for mostly small local business – and that’s a good thing.’

And Julian Speed makes no bones about how integral the community is to the success of Fox Creek. This is a community bike park where any proceeds goes back into the park – not into private equity. So it’s success is a reward for all riders.

‘We don’t want to lose sight of the fact that volunteer groups and mountain bike clubs and informal entities are the main reason this place was recognisable as a mountain bike hub in the first place. And that attracted the funding to do the work to build it up after the fires. Without the locals spending their time and energy in the field, this thing wouldn’t be where it is today. Or where it will be in 6 months from now and beyond.’ Moreover, it’s the people who are some of the best stewards of the mountain bike park and the land it sits on, according to Julian Speed.

‘We’ve got about 30 000ha or so that we look after that has visitors to it at some point, so compliance and looking after the land is a big part of what we have to do. Visitation like we will be getting at Fox can be a pain in some ways, but we also have no better stewards than the people who really care about how the place looks next year and in five years from now.’

When you look over the ridge lines at Fox Creek Bike Park, you can see the remains of charred trunks stacked up, with hillsides being prepared for planting. The current network of trails is on just a small percentage of the land, and the scope for future builds seems near limitless across the 900ha aside for the trails.

As we finish our visit to Fox Creek Bike Park, more riders are arriving to jump on The Fox Run for afternoon shuttles. The sun is shining, it’s a Friday afternoon and the mood is good. Perhaps the most striking thing to me about Fox Creek Bike Park isn’t that it’s a mountain bike project that is trying to reinvigorate a region. Far from it. It’s a redevelopment post-fires in one of Australia’s tourism hot spots – the Adelaide Hills. And while the road cycling world knows the area from the Tour Down Under, it’s time for mountain bikers to wake up and sample the fine riding, produce and  towns in the area. The redevelopment of Fox Creek Bike Park is just one part of how bikes will be more involved in the area, but it is clearly the jewel in the crown for mountain bikers in Adelaide and surrounds – and that doesn’t look like it will change.

AMB’s top 3 trails:

• Blues Groove: This is a blue trail that gets pretty dark blue when ridden fast. It’s great with a few friends in a party train, with easy access back up on a shuttle, or get enduro fit by taking the firetrail.
• Easy Rider: Whether it’s an easy cruise or flat out pedalling and letting your bike run, this green trail is anything from low speed chill to high speed fun. Throw in a couple of picnic locations and you can see why it’s a winner.
• Middle Earth: Climbing singletrack can be missing from many bike park builds. This 3.6km trail climbs 183m mostly in a shaded gully. It’s an essential link for gravity riders chasing enduro fitness, and to link the network for trail rides.

Local impacts

We shuttled the gravity trails with Steven Krajc from The Fox Run, who also runs Bicycle Fix, a boutique mountain bike store in the Adelaide Hills.

‘Our retail business was majorly impacted when the fires came through, but the bike park reopining has given us the opportunity to start The Fox Run as side project to  our bike shop.’

This is one example of new opportunities, with accommodation providers also jumping onboard, and even some wineries asking about holding events and putting in their own trails. 

‘It’s great for the community’, adds Steve, ‘it gives a lot of opportunity for people like us to set up a shuttle company, but local cafes are busier as well. There are just more business opportunities for locals to be able to sustain living in the Adelaide Hills.’