Crosscut and Upper Luge tracks open for riders, walkers and runners
Published on 20 April 2022
The City of Hobart has opened a new mountain bike and walking track on the lower slopes of kunanyi/Mt Wellington that runs parallel to the popular downhill 'Luge' mountain bike track.
The Crosscut Track is a dual-use trail that climbs through blue gum and stringybark forest and skirts its way around the remains of long-lost logging sawpits and snig tracks in Wellington Park.
The new climbing route leads to the top of the Upper Luge, a downhill, mountain bike only track that returns riders down through the forest canopy to Main Fire Trail, which has also been re-opened after extensive track renewal.
Together the tracks are expected to prove highly popular with local mountain bike riders and bushwalkers have long called for a walking track that links Middle Island and Main fire trails. Trail runners will also be drawn to the new track.
Rich history
The shared use, intermediate (blue) level trail is the result of months of meticulous track work and detailed cultural, environmental and archaeological analyses of the area.
Surveys undertaken before any work could start mapped out centuries-old snig tracks that show where loggers once dragged timber down the forest slope to what are thought to be small sawpits.
Archaeologically important, the mapping will now help protect the old snig tracks, remnant sawpits and tree stumps, all evidence of timber-getting dating back to the early 1800s.
The new track is an uphill-only trail for mountain bike riders, minimising potential conflict with other users, who can walk or run the track in both directions. The Upper Luge, which runs parallel to the new track, is now a dedicated trail for mountain bike riders.
The initial design of the new climbing trail went through a number of alterations once track builders moved from the design stage to working on the forest floor.
The trail location and the points at which it crosses old snig tracks had to be approved by a supervising archaeologist, which means the finished trail winds uphill to avoid significant sites.
To add challenge, steeper shortcuts have been added between switchbacks for fitter riders, walkers and trail runners.
Environmental and heritage training
Everyone who worked on the new trail underwent environmental and cultural heritage training.
Once on site, the City of Hobart tracks team and Next Level Mountain Bike ensured clear buffers were established between the trail, cultural heritage sites and important habitat trees. Rock armouring was used to protect tree roots and stop erosion of the old, heritage-value snig tracks.
The trail alignment was chosen to open up views of some of the most impressive trees in the area, all hundreds of years old and which escaped the axe and saw of early colonial logging operations.
An important milestone in developing the City of Hobart's Riding the Mountain plan, the new climbing route helps create a more connected track network on kunanyi, helping to take riders off busy roads and away from fire trails.
The work has been partly funded through a national Australian Government COVID stimulus package to support tourism recovery worth $238 000 and brings us a step closer to a seamless and integrated recreational network.
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