This ride does a large circuit to the north of Blackwood taking in a number of tracks and can be extended further by adding the Blue Mountain ride to the circuit from the Old Blackwood and Yankee Road intersections. The route takes in Shaws Lake, North Blackwood Road, Ruth Track, Hayden Track, Yankee Track, Yankee Road, Albion Track, Nuggety Track and then Old Blackwood Road. Refer to orange track in map above.

The ride takes in a number of track surfaces including mining watercourses, tracks (ranging from good quality to steep and washed out) as well as some forest roads. The ride features a constant climb over most of the first half of the circuit before rapidly dropping back down into Blackwood. The ride has some steep sections in places both climbing and dropping. Wet conditions can result in some fairly clayey muddy tracks as well.

The following photo gallery has been taken in order from Whalebone Road, Mineral Springs, Shaws Lake, North Blackwood Road, Ruth Track, Hayden Track, Yankee Track, Yankee Road, Albion Track, Nuggety Track and then Old Blackwood Road.

From the Blackwood pub, head down Martin Street hill and turn into Whalebone Road. You can see a number of old log cabins that used to be more prevalent in the area - there's another group of them remaining near Simmons Reef as well.

Head down Martin Street and then Whalebone Road. Turn right on to the Great Dividing Trail and follow the water race trail down to the mineral springs.

In the middle photo below, there is a water hole to the left of the track as you come into the mineral springs which can be nice for a swim on a hot day.

The mineral spring area has two rotundas with the mineral springs - one with iron water and one with soda water - as well as picnic and BBQ facilities. Head across bridge and follow Great Divide Trail pointer off to left - follow this trail all the way up to Shaws Lake. Again there are some diggings off to the side of the trail so be aware if you are walking off track.

You will come to a rotunda at Shaws Lake (shown in the third photo above in the distance).

Head out from Shaws Lake on the main road trail which comes into the area from the opposite direction. A couple of hundred metres along is the turn off to the Moonlight Gully Circuit which takes you back to the mineral springs. Head along this trail for a short distance to get a good view over the valley and part of the town as shown in the photo below.

View from Lookout

Return from the lookout to the main road and follow it out to the north east. Up to your right are the diggings from Bills Birthday Mine (shown below). These have been caved in fairly recently (probably for safety reasons) but were open until fairly recently.

Remains of Birthday Bills mine.

The trail will bring you out onto the North Blackwood Road. If you look in a north west direction there is a small trail heading off into the forest refer to the third picture below. This tracks roughly parallel to the North Blackwood Road and it turns into a narrow single trail after a short distance.

Trail heading off to north west from intersection.

Follow single track and turn right when you get to fire trail.

Coming in to end of trail and out onto North Blackwood Road.

Follow Ruths Track until you get to an intersection with two gate posts. Turn left and follow - this is Hayden's Track. This area has been recently clear felled and is currently regenerating.

Coming in to end of Ruths Track. Pick up Haydens Track on left.

Follow Haydens Track until you emerge on North Blackwood Road again

Coming in to end of trail.

Coming in to end of trail.

Coming in to end of trail. Last picture shows signpost at end of Haydens Track.

Head 50 metres south down North Blackwood Road and follow Yankee Mine Track. This provides a fast downhill run to Yankee Road which provides relief after the constant climb to date on this ride! Better in the summer time as the greasy surface makes the ride very interesting in winter. In summer, you get a fast and rough fire trial to negotiate.

Coming in to end of Yankee Track.

Where Yankee Mine Track intersects with Yankee Road, you can see in the bush the remains of the Yankee Mine with various shafts, diggings, boilers, etc being located here (bit hard to see in photos below due to resolution).

Old mine boiler and other mining diggings.

If you head east from the mine site up Yankee Road, past the white post on the side of the road, there is a small trail off to the left of the road. This takes you to the Drummond's homestead where a plaque has been erected. You can actually see the plaque from the road if the grass isn't too long. It's a bit hard to imagine a house ever having been there now in this remote part of the forest. The third photo shows the clump where the homestead fireplace once was.  This was still standing in the 1970's but has since fallen over.

Trail off to left at homestead - monument is on left of trail.

Follow Yankee Road until you get to Albion Track - refer third photo. Albion Track has a stump on the right hand side of the road where the track continues north.

Albion Track was not sign posted when these photos were taken. The first photo below is a tree stump on the northern side of the road where Albion Track heads north. Head south down Albion Track. An alternative to this is to take the single track of the Sweet Nuggs Track which follows the gully. This would be my preferred route now but the photos below were from an earlier ride which gives a fire trail based alternative - particularly in very wet weather.

Albion Track

Follow until you get to this large clearing. Follow Nuggety Track off to left.

Follow Nuggetty Track down a steep creek valley. Climb back out of the creek valley and follow track until you reach Old Blackwood Road. Follow Old Blackwood Road to the right and back into town.

	Parking is available at Blackwood town centre or the river on North Blackwood Road.
	Toilet facilities are available at Blackwood (located on hill opposite pub).
	Drinking water is available at the gold stamper opposite the pub.
	Food can be obtained at the Blackwood Pub, Garden of St Erth or Blackwood Provedore (both are good).
	Local area information can be obtained from the noticeboard to the right of the Blackwood Provedore.