Harrys Hut

The purpose of todays ride was to explore some trails around the upper reaches Noosa River in the hope of finding an enjoyable route for a group ride next week.

A bunch of us are planning to ride from Kin Kin in the Noosa hinterland to Harrys Hut – a camping area on the banks of the beautiful Noosa River.

So Eric and I decided we should look around to find the best tracks… and have some fun at the same time!

We started at Kin Kin on the northen edge of the Noosa Trail Network – a vast network of recreational tracks that meander through the forests, hills, creeks and dairy farms of the Noosa hinterland.

But we were heading futher north than was possible on the trail network.

As often happens on leisurely cross-country rides, Eric mused “I wonder what’s at the end of this road?”, and soon we were pushing through some overgrown tracks at the end of Bates Road. This was just what we were looking for.

We had a general idea of where we wanted to go – north-east towards the river. As we followed the trails in that direction we eventually found ourselves riding along some smooth forestry roads in a pine plantation.

“Follow the Yellow Brick Road”, Eric said. The track was slightly yellow in parts, and very smooth, so I didn’t argue.

We eventually found ourselves on Harry’s Hut Road – a dirt road which led east towards the Noosa River.

The road is framed with giant ghost gums twisted into unusual shapes.

Harry’s Hut is named after Harry Spring, a pharmacist from Cooroy who purchased the hut in the 1960’s.

The hut was originally built by Alan Buchanan and Norm Thrush for timber cutters who logged the area until the 1950’s. Logs were lifted across the river, then driven by truck to the sawmill in Tewantin.

Thankfully the logging days are over, and this spectacular wilderness area can be explored and enjoyed in many different ways.

Rather than return the way we came, Eric and I decided to explore some more forestry trails on our way back.

As we made our way back south, we eventually met up with the Noosa Trail Network again.

This track on Bunney’s road looked ominously familiar. I remembered toiling up a steep climb very similar to this when I rode here with Paul a couple of years ago.

Sadly, my memories were accurate, and we pushed our bikes up the tough incline for a while.

As with most climbs, we were rewarded with a fun descent on the other side down to Shepperson’s Park. As I was running a bit low on water I took this opportunity to top-up from the rainwater tank. The water was clean and perfect for drinking.

From there we toiled for a few kilometres over some grassy hills that undulated through a dairy farm. The hills weren’t too steep, but after riding almost 60km we were glad to eventually roll back into Kin Kin.

All up we rode almost 60km in about 6 hours including breaks. We climbed about 600m in vertical ascent, and I burned about 2,800 kcal.

I’ll rate this one about 8 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter. The large hill at the end before Shepperson’s Park is hard work – but if you can’t ride it’s easy to push a bike up it.

If you need to refill there’s ample rainwater at Harrys Hut as well as one or two other parks along the way.

I’m looking forward to coming back here with friends next week!