Set to become one of Australia's iconic MTB trails, the Indigo Epic Trail flows through native forest, historic sites and farmland to link the High Country towns of Beechworth and Yackandandah. Open and rideable year round, the trail is a mix of brand new machine-cut and classic hand-cut trail.

What's an Epic Trail?

The criteria for an Epic Trail as described by IMBA is that it must be a demanding single track adventure in a natural setting. “True backcountry riding experiences that are technically and physically challenging, more than 80% single track and at least 32kms in length.”

Trail notes

The Indigo Epic is a mix of classic XC trails hand-cut by the Yack and Beechworth locals over the years, plus brand new machine-cut singletrack by the gurus at Trailscapes to link the original trails together.

The narrow trail widths, off-camber corners and rocky and rooty sections of the classic stuff are quite a contrast to the smooth, wide, modern trail cut neatly into the hillside ... but old and new work together brilliantly to create a complete set of features and trail surfaces on the full loop.

The full Epic loop

The full trail is like a figure 8 on its side, with a crossover point at the historic Wallaby Mine. This means you have options to ride the whole thing, ride from one town to the other, or ride either the Beechworth or Yackandandah loops.

Tough cookies will be keen to chalk up the full loop - it's a guaranteed bucket list ride - but at over 50km including 1,000m of climbing you'll need good fitness even if you're on an e-bike)!

Our favourite sections are the descents: Baarmutha Belter back to Beechworth and Homeward Bound into Yack, but Ferny Gully's twists and turns and Wallaby Climb with its waterfall swimming hole are a close second.

Half loops

Yack back to Yack and the town-to-town rides are rated More Difficult and require a good level of fitness and skill.

The Beechworth to Beechworth loop is slightly easier than the Yack-Yack loop, so if you have some basic MTB experience and a moderate level of fitness, keep riding past Lake Kerferd and climb up to the Wallaby Mine crossover point, then take the fork to Beechworth and enjoy the descent back to the Gaol.

We suggest you hire one of our E-MTBs for this if your fitness or riding experience is low.