This route is compliments of Linda English, AKA “Gravel Girl”. She lives in Bend, Oregon, but spent two glorious months in 2018 riding gravel in Tasmania! She is the co-founder of Dirty Freehub which is an online guide to five-star gravel bike routes. Read more here.
(Photo credit: Kevin English)
This Scamander Loop on Tasmania has a whole lot of variety! (Scamander is the name of a sleepy beach town on the ride, but the only thing sleepy about this mixed gravel ride is the first half of it . . . just you wait for the second half!)
It starts with a zippy downhill past Elephant Point on pavement that takes you to the ocean, with classic Tasmanian views of the water. The viewing area has a whale spotting station and a nice spot to watch the surfers. Then it is very easy and flat until you turn inland. Next, you’ll have a big, (let me repeat BIG) climb up through the forest with a beautiful ridge-line view of the coast at the top. Finally, it’s a quick downhill back to the start.
The climb gets steeper the higher up you get and the climbing comes late in the ride. (There is a 0.5 mile/1 Km section that is continuously at 15% or above!)
Do this ride if you want to have a devil of a time riding some of the best gravel you can imagine on the Australian island of Tasmania.
Food, water and bathrooms are available in the town of Scamander which is at about mile 10/Km 16.
The route is ridable all year long (Original route post-date: November 2018.)
Want more info? Check out Dirty Freehub’s original post.
Route starts in downtown St Marys.
Guest: Linda English
Linda English is also known as the “Gravel Girl”. She is the co-founder of Dirty Freehub– an online guide to five star gravel bike routes. She lives in Bend, Oregon and has done loads of riding across Oregon, Washington and Arizona as well as Australia! She is often riding with Captain “O” (Kevin English) on one of their crazy adventures. She just loves all the logging roads in Central Oregon, spinning along while rarely running into a single car and yet getting to gab with her pals while riding. Gravel Girl loves testing out routes, organizing rides through the BACE (Bend Area Cycling Enthusiasts) MeetUp group and snapping pictures. In addition, she also writes a lot about gravel cycling!
Read more here.
