First time to ride Forrest Victoria Yaugher MTB trails

[open roader]

I'm working up to exploring the MTB trails outside of Forrest in Victoria. Work allowing, I expect to have some time to begin late winter / start of spring. I live just 20 min drive away.

I'm an experienced road rider, and have used my MTB's for road bike training on gravel roads and local bush tracks but very little actual narrow track / single direction MTB trails.

Anyone have some experience with the Forrest/Yaugher trails and some tips for a beginner. I know how to badly crash an MTB and thus will be taking it all gently but I'm more interested in trail etiquette, riding tips - anything other than how to pace myself.

I've made a good start by purchasing a decent dedicated MTB helmet and have a nice Yeti SB6 to push along. I'll ride about in some cheap MTB tops/ pants and plan to pedal flat platforms as perfect pedal stroke is not an initial goal.

Any clues, tips are most welcome. My initial goals are to survive, enjoy and not to upset other riders.

[Duck!]

Forrest is, to be blunt, bluddy awesome classic XC mountain bike terrain - the SB6 is overkill. Although there are no super long climbs, the trails undulate a lot, so you still need your climbing legs, and some bits are a bit on the steep side.

There isn't much in the way of particularly difficult features, focusing a lot more on "flow", so you can have a lot of fun, clock up some big miles, with less risk of hurting yourself than other places.

The southern loop, trail head in Forrest town centre can get pretty slick & mucky when wet, but the Yaugher section a couple of km north of town is on better-draining dirt and much better to ride if it's been wet. Trails can be be subject to closures due to weather, so check with the locals what's open before you ride.

[bychosis]

Trail etiquette (some):
- don’t ride if it’s too wet. It damages the trails and your gear. Local trail status should be available on social media indicating wether you should rise or not.
- don’t stop on the trail. If you want to stop try to find somewhere wide enough to move over for others to pass.
- stick to the marked direction. Most formal trail networks will have a marked single direction for the trail. Avoid going the other way to avoid head on incidents. One of our local trails has ‘wrong way wednesday’ and It causes a few problems despite marking.
- stick to the trails and don’t create new paths. Just because an obstacle is tricky. Learn to ride it by repeating attempts or just hop off and walk it.
- hang back more than for road riding. Leaving more space between the rider in front allows you to read the trails. If you need to pass, call ‘track’ and wait for a passing opportunity or when the lead rider allows you to. As a slower rider if someone comes up behind it is courteous to pull over when space allows advising the following rider which side to pass on, most riders will be patient (unfortunately a few are douches though and won’t be patient)

[open roader]

Thank you gentlemen - some really good advice that I'd not considered before :- keep off sodden tracks to avoid damaging them - keep a good safe distance between riders - stick to the northern side of town whilst it's still winter/wet and challenge myself to work out how to negotiate obstacles on the trail - don't cop out and bypass them - all points I'd not considered.

Yeah, I know an SB6 is way more bike than I need but after a horrendous hard tail back end come around prang 4 years ago I'm happy to hit the trails again on a bike that has suspension and grip that is so good and so easy to dial in it feels like downright cheating compared to the hardtail and 2.1 tyres I used to ride.

[chriso_29er]

There are still a lot of two way trails around.

General etiquette is that down hill gives way to uphill.
However in most cases the uphill riders will have heard you coming and got out of your way anyway. Just be prepared to slow down and give way. Unless a one way trail, always be on the lookout for other riders.
Common sense usually comes into it.