The Blue Tier was a delightful surprise. We took the drive from Launceston through Branxholm and Derby, two of Tasmania’s mountain bike resort towns, totally dedicated to living and breathing everything mountain bike. After Derby, the scenery changed and so did the tempo, as we meandered through rainforest to Weldborough, where we camped the night for free behind the local hotel.
The next morning we met up with fellow MOT hiker Linda, and headed onto a winding mountain road that took us into lush myrtle rainforest before we turned left onto a dirt road and found the carpark for the Big Tree walk. It was a sensational walk through rainforest, much that you’d expect on the West Coast, before arriving at one of the remaining forest giants.
Making it back to the car, we headed to the Blue Tier Reserve, which is a few short kilometres after the Pyengena turnoff. We followed a dirt road to Poimena and Lottah, winding our way up into the mountains and arrived at the Blue Tier Reserve mountain bike and hiking designated area.
Several trailheads start here including an interesting 10km hike back to Weldborough, which we’d like to try another time. Our Moon Crater trail headed up to the summit which was only a short distance away, and blew us away with a fabulous 360 degree view of the whole area, including down to St Helens and the coast.
The track wound down to another ridge, where we saw a black Tiger snake sunning itself in the afternoon sun, and we continued along the ridge until it fanned around to the remains of an old tin mine.
The trail met up with a forestry road and we followed it for a short while until we arrived back at the carpark. The final stop after that hike was to Halls Falls, which we hadn’t heard of before, but were absolutely stunning especially with full water after the recent rains.
Definitely a memorable outing. The Blue Tiers are magical and incredibly different to the rest of the East Coast. We’ll be back!