This ride can be done as an "out and back" trip or can be taken in conjunction with another ride such as the Foster's Lookout, Wheelers Track and Pottery Track rides. As an "out and back" ride from the Blackwood pub, it is approximately 14 km long if you head down Simmons Reef Road to Garden of St Erth or about 20 km if you follow the German Gully route below. The ride has a large amount of single trail and passes through some nice sections of forest as well as passing a number of historic features on the way. The ride follows the light blue and then dark blue tracks in the map above.

Care should be undertaken in the Simmons Reef area as there were a large number of workings in the area and open shafts still exist if you venture off the trail to look at some of the diggings.

From left to right, Blackwood Pub is the starting point for the ride. Head south down Martin Street and turn right at the Cobb and Co Store into Simmons Reef Road. Head down the hill to Skinners Road and turn left into it.

Head up hill approximately 500 m until you get to a trail marker on the right hand side of the road (see second picture below).

Follow single track.

Above are photos of the initial part of the track showing how it quickly narrows down to a single lane track. If you look off to the right a short distance in, you will see the extensive water races which were used to channel water for the gold mines. These appear as 'U' shaped trenches and follow the path around the gullies. Trail markers have been replaced recently with grey posts making the trail easy to follow.

Note in third photo above how a main trail crosses - don't follow it, follow the pointer posts (in this case down to the right). The trail follows the contour of a couple of creek gullies and typically looks like the photos below.

Views above are of the forest - it had just been back burnt when I went through and has since regenerated.

On the track up to Garden of St Erth there is a half collapsed mine adit on the left and there are further workings up on the hillside if you care to look. One of these is a short tunnel which doesn't seem to go anywhere. It was actually home to a number of miners during the Great Depression apparently.

When the single trail hits the fire trail intersection, go straight ahead to access Garden of St Erth. Keep following around past the Imperial Mine and head left to access Garden of St Erth.

From the Garden of St Erth, there are a number of options you can follow. The first is to head though the pine tree grove from the Garden of St Erth car park as shown in the photo below.

There is an open shaft on the right as you get to Lerderderg Road - its not overly obvious from the track but just head up to the bank on the right of the track and its there. It's quite a good one to look down as the authorities have preserved it and made it safe by covering the entrance in strong steel mesh so you can literally look straight down it safely. Head back up the track and follow the upper part of the Heritage Walk. This has good sight lines but keep an eye out for any walkers and maintain walking pace when near them.

Head across the car park and pick up the trail on the right.

Head down through the pine grove. Pick up the Heritage Trail on the left just before Lerderderg Road and follow it.

The other option from the Garden of St Erth is to ride west out of the car park as for the Easter Monday and Lookout Circuit rides. This takes you up a bit in elevation before heading down to the Lerderderg Heritage Trail single track. This fire trail has a number of water bars on the way down so if you enjoy jumping, this trail can be worth a go.

From the Garden of St Erth, head west out of the car park area. If it's reasonably dry, on the way out of the car park, give the single trail off to the left a crack (shown in the photos below). It's quite steep and technical. If you can get up it you are doing well as there's usually a root or slippery bit to catch you out - see how you go! If you hear motorbikes in the area, they're probably coming your way so get off the track when they get close.

If its wet and you think the single track will be slippery, follow the fire trail out of the car park taking any intersections to the left for the first bit. This fire trail rises gradually up to meet the single track further up the hill and then rises quite quickly to the three way intersection below.

 

Head west from Garden of St Erth car park and pick up single track on left.

Follow trail up the hill

You will get to a fallen pine. This only recently fell down. It was planted to celebrate Queen Victoria's golden jubilee.

Follow single trail out until you get onto a gravel trail shown coming in from right on third photo.

You will climb until you get to the 3 way intersection in the middle photo. Take the right branch and follow down into the gorge. This trail has some nice water bars to get some air time on.

Intersection of Lerderderg and New Sultan Roads.

The track comes out at the intersection of New Sultan and Lerderderg Roads. You can either head into the bush on the far side of the road or follow Lerderderg Road for 200 metres or so to the left to the  trail marker off to the left as shown in the first photo below. You follow the single trail along and there is a large mine as shown in the third photo which is fenced off. It doesn't look that big in the photo but would probably be 10 metres across the top of the digging and is still full depth so be careful.

Large mine shaft just to right of trail.

Keep following the single trail. It goes for a number of kilometres. You sometimes get a number of trees down in this area following the drought and now rains.

As shown in the first and second above, the trail heads up valleys and then back tracks along the other side.

Follow this until it returns down to the Lerderderg Road. In this area, a track ducks off to the right of the road and is marked by an orange pointer. Descend the stairways into the gorge and you will be at the site of the Crown Dam which used to be the source of water for the gold field water races.

Descend the stairways into the gorge and you will be at the site of the Crown Dam which used to be the source of water for the gold field water races. There is a picture of this in the State Library of Victoria photos - click here.  From the size of the people on the dam wall in this photo, you can see the size of the dam before it collapsed. Looking at the photo, it looks like it was located just upstream of the stairs where the rock outcrop is. Head back up the stairs and follow trail back to Garden of St Erth.

	Parking is available at the Recreation Reserve off Simmons Reef Road.
	Toilet facilities are available at the Garden of St Erth car park or in town.
	No drinking water is available.
	Cafe facilities are available at the Garden of St Erth or in town.
	No local information facilities are available at the Recreation Ground.