I’ve been wanting to check out the Wild Mersey mountain bike trails since the first stage opened some time ago.

Wild Mersey is a $4.1 million development connecting the Tassie towns of Latrobe, Railton and Sheffield with MTB trail. Not just a little trail either, but well over 100km.

The trailhead at Latrobe is a short drive from Devonport, and just over an hour from Launceston. I headed out with the Turbo Levo fully charged to check out Stage One and Two, taking in the park at Latrobe along with the more recently opened trail connecting Latrobe with Railton.

Arriving a the trail head there were a couple of things I noticed straight up. Firstly the mighty Mersey river! It’s pretty cool to have a trail development that flows alongside a large river. End the ride with a swim? Check out the local platypus? MTB has come a long way!

And with good reason. The car park was packed, and not just with hardcore riders but local families and groups of young kids clearly just getting into mountain biking.

It’s a recurring theme throughout the network. Wild Mersey is for everyone. Technical features are restricted to a couple of descending trails, with the rest being beginner friendly. You still need to be fit though as there’s a fair amount of pedaling involved, unless you have an ebike of course!

The 10km trail across to Railton is a good fun adventure ride. It’s a little rough in parts but they’ve done a great job of connecting the two towns with as little road riding as possible. It was pretty cool to meet a family of five leaving Railton heading for Latrobe, clearly on their first big mountain bike adventure.

So there you go. I finally got to Wild Mersey! If you’re short on time I’d recommend an ebike. In half a day and one battery I was able to cover close to the entire network.