A mixture of twisty hand-cut trails, gold-rush era oddities and beautiful diverse forest come together in a unique and rewarding experience.

The trails emanate from the central hub in the valley which is conveniently right next to overnight camping areas so you can step out of your sleeping bag and onto the trail. Here you’ll find a drop toilet and a map, so stock up at Yack, which is about 5 kms away, before you head out here.

The majority of trails are intermediate but a recent addition is a machine-built all-abilities green trail that is suitable for adaptive and beginner riders too.

Most other tracks involve a reasonable amount of climbing but it’s rewarded in spades on the descents. Navigation is simple with each trail colour-coded and regular signs to show the way.

With the exception of the new trail, the tracks have an old school XC flavour in this area, not too wide and plenty of ups and downs. There are numerous natural and man-made features peppered along the trails to keep you on your toes and keep the smiles coming.

It’s great that the trail-builders have been playful with the surroundings and integrated some of the mining relics and workings into the trails. Disused water-races form some of the tracks and demand a bit of attention as they traverse the steep hills. A couple of the tracks are a little exposed too with sizable drops on one side. 

Yack is the start (or mid point) of the Indigo Epic trail, which runs in a 56 km loop via Beechworth and includes a mixture of hand-cut and machine-built trails. This is an excellent XC/Flow adventure: a tough but rewarding and ultimately fantastic trail. It really does earn its name as an epic with huge climbs, massive flowing descents and all the while dramatic and remote scenery.  Starting the Epic at Yack gets the majority of climbing out of the way in the first 30 km leaving you to enjoy the descending trend from Beechworth.