Blackbutt

A couple of years ago I rode up the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail from Moore to Benarkin. I rode it again today with Lachlan and Isaac. The trail follows the route of an old railway line up the mountain to Blackbutt.

Today we started at Linville. There’s a train at the station, but it’s not going anywhere as the railway line on either side of it has been removed.

Although the trail climbs about 500 metres, it’s a gentle gradient, which makes the ride really easy for most of the way.

There are a couple of places where the railway bridge no longer exists, so there’s a steep descent down to the creek bed, and back out again. It just adds to the fun.

Eventually we reached the top and had a great lunch at a cafe in Blackbutt. Then we explored some of the dirt tracks that ran through the forests to the west of the town. This was fun as the slopes were much steeper than the easy gradients we experienced on the way up, so we were able to pick up a lot of speed down some of the long hills.

The trails finally met up again with the rail trail, and we enjoyed a pleasant 20km descent down the hill back to the car.

Last time I did this ride (Nov 2009) I found it a bit of a challenge as I’d only just started riding. This time I found it really easy. I’d probably give it a score of 4 out of 10 on the tough-o-metre, but 10 out of 10 for fun.