Yesterday I rode from the Currumbin Border trails on my new Polygon Siskui T7 all the way to Tugun beach in Queensland. And it’s probably easier than you think!

From the Jumps to the Beach

I started from Piggabeen Hall just south of the QLD border in New South Wales. There’s an access road going up to the trails. I took that and stayed up at the main trails for a bit over an hour practising some of my MTBing skills, like burms and basic jumping.

The start of the Balter Express.

You can either use the MTB trails or the fire trail along the border fence. They both end at the same place so I would pick the trails, obviously… they’ve got jumps! You’ll come to the end of the NSW trails and cross the border at a gate; you can easily get your bike through. It might be hard to see, but the trails continue going south along the fence. After that, it’s all east towards the beach.

Before I continue with the directions, I want to touch on navigation while you’re on the trails. I use a Garmin Forerunner 245 which is best for running but can show basic breadcrumb navigation. Nothing fancy, you can’t see anything other than a line where you have been and where you are going. Down the track, I’ll get a Garmin Fenix. The reason is they have full-blown maps with even better features than your phone because they know where all the hidden trails are through the forest. You can go with whatever watch brand you want. You don’t even have to get a smartwatch, you could just use your phone. Whatever you go with, I would highly suggest that you bring some form of navigation to the trails. Trailforks on your phone (or watch) is a good start.

Back to the directions, once you’ve got back on the QLD border trails you will go along for a while and get to the fire trail. At this point, you can turn back on the return trail or scale the massive hill in front of you. If you want to get to the beach, the way to go is up, sadly. For you ebikers out there, this will be no problem; but for everyone else, this will be the hardest part of the whole thing.

The end of the Dirt Merchant. Up the hill on the right is Dodgy Business.

As you start climbing the hill, on the right you will see a trail (I think it’s called “Dodgy Business” on Trailforks). Keep going along there and don’t make any turns off the trail. There will be forks in the road, I took the lower ones on my ride, but I’m sure they will all get you to the same place.

I did take a few turns (red circle on the picture below) that didn’t seem to go along with Trailforks, but they felt better to ride.

The yellow line is the route I took. Most of the other trails are overgrown. (Screenshot from Trailforks)

If you follow the route I took (and you can with this link, I made a public Trailforks route for you), you will find yourself at a massive house. At first, when I got here I went back and forth trying to find a better way around. But it turns out that the grassy area next to the house was the only way through. There’s a pretty big fence between the grassy area and the house, so the route I took was outside the
property borderline.

After the grassy area, I got to a corner in the fence and a trail ran along it on my side. I took that and it joined up with the front gate of the property. So as far as I know, there was no private property crossed on this ride.

This is the fence along the large property next to the M1 motorway. It’s pretty easy to follow.

The rest of the ride is pretty straightforward, you cross the M1 motorway on the really high bridge, make a few turns in the suburban streets, cross the Gold Coast Highway and you’ve arrived at the beach.

Final Thoughts

After this ride, my Garmin watch said I was “Overtraining” and needed “4 Days to Recover”. So make sure you’re fit enough for the ride, there is a fair amount of uphill riding.

If you have Trailforks you can download the route I took today onto your watch and hit the trails without a worry. I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick read, I’m excited to get back out on the trails and write more about it.

If you haven’t read any of my posts before, this is just a place where I write about what’s going on inmy life. Not the boring stuff, but the stuff that makes me feel alive and the stuff that might possibly help you.

Cheers
Jess

Links

Piggabeen Hall to Tugun Beach Rideplan: https://www.trailforks.com/ridelog/planner/view/272894/

Instagram Highlight with more photos: https://www.instagram.com/jessals04