Munda Biddi Trail (WA) - Mundaring to Carinyah

The first town to hut day of the Munda Biddi Trail, this section takes cyclists from the Northern Trailhead at the Mundaring Sculpture Park to Carinyah campsite. Descending to Mundaring Weir Hotel, the trail explores the Helena Valley before heading uphill to the Dell. Exploring a mix of stunning Jarrah forest and hills orchard country, the trail ends at the trails first campsite at Carinyah. An at time challenging but enjoyable first day

Distance: 39.8 km (one way as per original alignment. New alignment would be longer)

Gradient: Continuous descent to Helena Valley then a continuous climb to the Dell. Undulating to Gungin Rd, then mostly downhill to Carinyah with some sections of ascending

Quality of Path: Mix of single track and vehicle tracks, some with very loose pea gravel 

Quality of Signage: Well signed at almost all trail junctions, with clear trailhead at the Northern Terminus

Experience Required: Mountain Biking experience recommended

Time: 4-5 Hours

Steps: None, this is a bike trail

Best Time to Visit: All Year; but the South West of WA is always best from August-October
Date(s) Completed: 25th April, 2020 (Mundaring to Perth Observatory), 26th April, 2020 (Perth Observatory to Carinyah), 27th June, 2020 (Kalamunda Realignment)
Entry Fee: No

Getting There: The track starts at Mundaring Sculpture Park. From Great Eastern Hwy, turn right onto Nichol St. Trailhead is located at the car park at the corner of Nichol St and Jacoby St. No direct access to Carinyah Hut

As with just about every other person on the planet, 2020 was not the year I'd planned it to be. After a spectacular start to the year on the Tongariro Northern Circuit as part of our first trip to New Zealand, the plan had been for an Easter Ningaloo trip to swim with the whale sharks, a trip up to Kalbarri to complete the River Gorge Hike and a return to Queensland to tackle the Thorsborne Trail and snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. It became very clear just before Easter than none of these things were going to happen, and while Alissa and I are fortunate to be living in a safe place like Western Australia, I also found myself for the first time in years without a hike or a road trip to look forward to.

While the intrastate border closures were certainly understandable and a wise decision by our state government, being limited to the Perth and Peel region made it even more difficult. Having walked over 50 different day walks or Bibbulmun Track sections near Perth, I've done just about any walk that is worth doing in the Perth and Peel region (sometimes many, many times), and those I haven't are generally through geographically featureless areas that frankly do not excite me in the slightest (even if their very everyday nature often means they are popular with readers). As someone always looking for walks with wow moments, a sense of adventure and a feeling of newness, I was definitely feeling very deflated. Very privileged, to be not just an Australian but a Western Australian, but deflated all the same. 

The answer presented itself when I started riding my bicycle for exercise after work. I used to ride five times a week in my mid-20s but stopped regular rides when I got back into hiking. Riding more regularly again, I began to feel my cycling legs returning and after a few loops around the Railway Reserves Heritage Trail with Alissa, I decided that there was actually something new I could do - the Munda Biddi. Unlike the Bibbulmun Track which was broken up between Mt Dale and North Bannister by Western Australia's intrastate border closures, the Munda Biddi had a continuous clear run from its start place in Mundaring right through to south of Nanga. That was six days of hut to hut/town sections, and if I broke it up into a few smaller chunks I could make it last me seven weekend rides. Once the intrastate borders reopened, I could do weekend trips to the South West and Great Southern to complete the rest of the trail. It then became clear to me - 2020 may not be the year I'd originally wanted, but it could be the year that I completed a sectional End to End of the Munda Biddi.

With Alissa less confident on a bicycle than I am, we decided that unlike our hiking trips this would be a solo adventure, with Alissa kindly agreeing to run support for me. So on Anzac Day 2020, we drove up to the Mundaring Sculpture Park where I was dropped off to begin the first leg of my Munda Biddi adventure.

Having done the Railway Reserves Heritage Trail twice in the last month, Alissa and I were very familiar with this area. It is an important meeting point for several trails, with the Railway Reserves loop passing through, multiple walks and cycle trails starting or finishing there, and of course being the Northern Terminus of the Munda Biddi. Under normal circumstances, this playground would have been packed with children playing on the slides, swings and flying foxes, but with COVID-19 closures still in place everything was cordoned off.

After leaving the lovely park behind, the trail initially follows the Railway Reserves Heritage Trail over Mundaring Weir Rd, but then almost immediately makes a right turn to run alongside the road towards Mundaring Weir. This section of the track follows the old Kattamordo Heritage Trail, one of the trails made during the 1988 bicentennial when any trail with the word 'heritage' in it got funding. While the Kattamordo as a whole had been allowed to fall into disrepair until recent repairs and remarking by the Friends of the Kattamordo, this section has been repurposed for both the Kep Track and the Munda Biddi. 

This first stretch along the old Kattamordo is a lovely, easy descent to Mundaring Weir. Like the first stage of the Bibbulmun Track descending to Kalamunda National Park, it allows the rider to get into the swing of things - particularly useful since this was not my usual wheelhouse. Being used to hiking trails, it was really interesting to see stop signs on the bicycle trail to make way for cars coming along an intersecting vehicle track.

Crossing Mundaring Weir Rd, an assortment of signage shows how this stretch of track is shared between the Kep, Munda Biddi and Kattarmordo.

The trail passes a few small rural properties. Reading about the route of the trail, it would be clear I'd be seeing a lot more farmland scenery along the track compared to the Bibbulmun. This is something I've felt the Bibbulmun could embrace more, and made me excited to see how successful the Munda Biddi would be with incorporating this sort of scenery into the trail experience.

Leaving the rural property behind, the trail continued through some scrappy, burnt Jarrah before crossing the road again. Long time readers of the blog or listeners to Real Trail Talk will know I'm not a big fan of Jarrah, but I realised something while on this trail - I don't mind it as much at the speed of being on a bicycle. On foot, a repugnantly ugly stand of burnt Jarrah remains an eyesore for a much longer stretch of time and I find it hard to see an enjoyable forest for the unattractive trees. On a bicycle, you're either whizzing by really fast or concentrating on pushing uphill, so it is easy to let individual hideousness fade away into an overall impression of enjoyable forest.

Even some less exciting stretches, like this section along a water pipeline were aided by the fact I was on a bicycle. On foot, I would probably think of this as a boring stretch of walking cynically using a maintenance track as a cheap out from proper trail construction, but on a bike being on a vehicle track somehow seems less objectionable given a bike is a vehicle, and the downhill movement adds a fun overlay in spite of the so-so scenery.

Crossing Mundaring Weir Rd one more time, the trail runs alongside Fred Jacoby Park. The Munda Biddi's engagement with the park is extremely limited, with the trail skirting around the edge rather than going through it. It is understandable given where it has to go and the fact it is following the preexisting Kattamordo route, but one wishes it had gone through a bit of the park instead for a bit of a change of pace. Something I would come to recognise later is that there is a different mindset on the bike to hiking. On the Bibb, I think most people think of it in a linear fashion with side trips really only being to something that is marked and/or conveniently off the track. On a bike, it can be more of a tour, and I would in later days divert several kilometres off the trail to go to nearby recreation sites if I felt they were a worthwhile side trip. 

From Jacoby Park, the trail crosses the road again as the Munda Biddi enters the Mundaring Weir precinct.

A short distance from the road crossing, a series of steps has the Bibbulmun Track join onto the same stretch of track as the Munda Biddi. I've certainly felt very ambivalent about the Bibbulmun Track since finishing it. If I were to be honest, I feel like I've fallen out of love with it as a whole entity, however seeing it here on the Munda Biddi filled me with a nostalgia for the Bibb I've not felt for a very long time; it even almost made me a bit teary. I realised it was because being here seven kilometres into my Munda Biddi End to End filled me with the feeling of optimistic newness I felt when I first started the sectional Bibbulmun End to End, before endless kilometres of monotonous burnt Jarrah and the trauma of Marron Rd had made me a bit jaded and cynical about the compromises of the long trail. Feeling that sense of excitement about the Munda Biddi and remembering that I used to feel that way about the Bibbulmun has been a positive influence in helping me come to terms with my Bibbulmun Track experience.

The Munda Biddi and the Bibbulmun part ways at the Mundaring Weir Hotel. Normally a bustling fixture of outdoors activities in the hills area, the pub was closed due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. With no chance of a quick beer or a snack, I followed the Munda Biddi as it descended steeply down the road to rejoin Mundaring Weir Rd yet again.

Turning left onto Mundaring Weir Rd, this is the first real stretch of the trail that runs for a sustained period of time on bitumen. While I find it slightly unnerving when cars are overtaking me on a winding road, the road was fairly quiet at the time of my visit and it is an enjoyably fast downhill cycle to a bridge over the Helena River.

While I'd nearly missed the right along the pipeline earlier in the day, this was my first time overshooting a Munda Biddi turn off as I ended up cycling up Mundaring Weir Rd towards the lookout point. After not seeing any markers, I pulled over, noted my mistake on the map and rode back down to find the turn off right near the bridge.

The day had been decidedly grey most of the morning, and at this point it began to rain again after showers overnight. The first two maps of the Munda Biddi (Mundaring to Jarrahdale and Jarrahdale to Nanga respectively) are notoriously considered the most difficult sections of the entire trail because of the pea gravel, which have been been described as riding on ball bearings. The upside of all the rain is that it soaks into the ground and makes the pea gravel far less slippery to ride on. Given I'm a much more experienced hiker than I am an off-road cyclist, this was an absolutely serendipitous lowering of the trail difficulty.

This section of track heads downstream along the Helena River, and alternates between sections running through quite lovely riverine bush and less interesting sections along a water pipeline.

At one point, the trail turned off from the pipeline and ran through a series of granite boulders on a section of nice single track. As someone who loves granite formations, this was the first time I literally stopped and said 'wow!' while cycling the Munda Biddi. I was definitely being sold on the merits of the scenery through this part of the trail

While it was still Autumn and downstream from Mundaring Weir, the Helena River still had water in it, undoubtedly pumped out from the main weir to keep the river system alive. I knew that further downstream was the Helena Pipehead Walk, however it made me wonder just how close the Munda Biddi actually goes to that trail. This is one of the interesting aspects of having done a lot of trails in Perth; while you often start in very different locations, you realise just how close and/or intersecting these trails are.

Heading along the pipeline, the trail begins to rise for a sustained stretch, and I thought this would be the start of the long, steep climb I knew would be taking me out of the valley.

While the ascent was definitely still in my future, I would get a short respite; the trail veered left along a stretch identified with a gravel track sign to warn of its potentially slippery nature.

Given the rain, the gravel was not a problem and instead this stretch of track was a nice gentle descent on single trail.

The Munda Biddi crosses a culvert over the Helena River, and at the time of my visit almost immediately begins a steep climb out the other side of the valley. This was the start of some tough cycling, that was tempered by the fact it was through some very nice mature Wandoo forest. Wandoo is one of my favourite Eucalypts and I'd really missed seeing them given most of the best stands are outside the Perth and Peel region in the Wheatbelt.

Along the climb out of the valley, I shifted gears and had my first gear failure of the trail. Given most cycling I do is not overly steep, I almost never use my front derailleur. Shifting it down for an easier ascent, I realised the alignment was off. It would not let me shift gears again for the rest of the day and was aligned in a way where it would be constantly rubbing. With the steep climb and the gears giving me problems, I was beginning to wonder if I was cut out for this. This is apparently a very common experience more novice cyclists having doing the Munda Biddi; they do maps 1 and 2 and find it very difficult and give up on plans to do any more of the track. Clearly this is a problem for a trail looking to get more people into cycling, and along the ascent I could see where realignment works were being undertaken to improve the trail experience in the Perth Hills by making it a bit less of a challenge.

Two months later, this new realignment was officially announced as open, and with my friend and Real Trail Talk co-host Mark Pybus joining me for a ride in Pemberton, we decided to go for a cycle together to check out the new alignment. As a novel solution to the differing requirements of cyclists on a NoBo or SoBo cycle, the Munda Biddi realignment on this section has split the trail into one way track. This way cylists heading uphill can experience gentler gradients while those heading down can enjoy the fun of a fast descent.

Immediately, the merits of this realignment could be seen. Instead of the absurdly steep climb on loose pea gravel, the trail follows the contours of the valley for some gentle and at times relatively flat cycling. This is really how the trail should have always been, and was a vast improvement on the demoralising challenge of my first attempt. 

Of course, the trail does have to get to the top of the hill and the new alignment makes use of well formed switchbacks to make the climb much easier going. The volunteers who have done this work should be commended as this has greatly improved the trail experience.

At the top of the climb, the Munda Biddi rejoins dual direction trail. This first realignment section is fairly small, but there would be much more to come further along. 

Going back to my first cycle on Anzac Day, dealing with the chain issues and pushing a bike uphill was not the most fun experience, however I was really impressed by how lovely the Wandoo was in this section - though sadly the second part of the recent realignment means cyclists no longer pass through the Wandoo stand pictured above. Even with the realignments, the Munda Biddi seems to be only trail that goes through this section of Beelu National Park, and as a result it had a lovely sense of remoteness in spite of not really being that far from Mundaring. Once I neared the top of the climb, I was beginning to feel better about my abilities. While challenging, the climb wasn't so terrible that I hated the experience as a whole, and with that out of the way I knew the rest of my first day was going to be pretty easy.

Out of the river valley, the trail continues through more of Beelu National Park as it makes its way to the Dell. As I rode along the track, I began to recognise my surroundings; I was along the part of the Munda Biddi that runs concurrently with both the Bibbulmun Track and the Kalamunda Circuit. The trail passes a broad, granite expanse that is officially signed for rehabilitation but is sometimes used by locals or hikers as a camping spot.

From the granite expanse, the Munda Biddi continues following the Kalamunda Circuit along some easy, flat tracks.

At the time of my visit, the forest here had some rather hideous stretches of burnt, scrappy Jarrah, however as I'd noted these ugly stretches don't last quite as long on a bicycle, and I found that by the time my patience was running thin, I'd already moved on into a stand of forest that was of at least acceptable quality.

Going forward in time to June once again, a longer stretch of realigned track emerged after the burnt forest section all the way to the Dell. While less drastically in need of improvement, the realignment makes the journey to the Dell easier than it was, and also makes use of some of the Kalamunda Mountain Bike Network north of the Dell.

A treat of this new alignment is cyclists get to see their first burnt out discarded car much earlier into their journey. A mainstay of walks in the Perth Hills and a common feature of Shire of Kalamunda walks, these rust buckets can be quite iconic. I was impressed by Mark's car knowledge; in spite of the derelict nature, Mark was able to correctly identify the car as an 08/83 Mitsubishi Colt!

From the car wreck, the trail rises gently along the aptly named Highway to Dell. Reaching the Dell, the Munda Biddi alignment syncs back up with the original alignment, thus allowing me to return to that first Anzac Day ride once again. 

Having walked the Dell to South Ledge trail before, I recognised the trail intersections as I arrive at the Dell car park. While I'd encountered a handful of cyclists earlier in the day, the area's large amount of mountain bike trails makes it one of the most popular trail hubs in the Perth Hills, and even with COVID-19 restrictions the car park was pretty full. It was good to see however that while everyone was out enjoying their exercise, people were embracing social distancing principles while out and about.

From the Dell, the track had a long, slow continuous climb but has been realigned for a gentler journey towards Powerline Rd. In spite of the realignment, Munda Biddi cyclists still need to be paying attention through here because mountain bikers are constantly crossing the trail on downhill routes at much faster speeds. Leaving these mountain bike trails behind, the Munda Biddi passes under Powerline Rd, my old friend from many a hike on the Bibbulmun Track.

Interestingly, this section of track once was the Bibbulmun Track, belonging to the pre-1998 alignment given the deteriorating state of the mission brown signage. Abandoned as part of the Bibb's radical realignment in thr 1990s, its fascinating to see how sections of trail like this and the Kattamordo have been repurposed economically but creatively for the Munda Biddi.

The forest block on the other side of Powerline Rd was very much a return to nice, good quality forest, and with easier terrain to cruise through I was really enjoying the experience.

Some sections were however very badly eroded. The gravel through here was a lot looser than I had encountered earlier and I had to be a bit more careful to not find myself riding in the middle of a rain gutter. Thankfully the worst of it has been realigned with some enjoyable single track and use of alternate vehicle tracks instead. 

Joining onto the wide Gunjin Rd, the track once again follows the Kattamordo Trail, which runs along this broad vehicle track.

Just before reaching Lockwood Rd, the Munda Biddi veers off from Gunjin Road along an excellent stretch of single track. While a bit burnt looking, the trail was flowy and highlighted how the fun aspect of going fast downhill can bring an enjoyment factor to stretches of track I would normally find objectionable on foot.

The trail emerges out of the forest at Walnut Road just before the Perth Observatory, and this was to be my first pick up point for the sectional End to End. Having slowed down at the Helena River, I had thought I was much further away from Walnut Road, so I was very pleasantly surprised to see that I'd made it to the pick up point. I'd not gone very fast over this day, but I had had such a fun time I was a bit sad it was over, and said to Alissa I definitely had enough in the tank to have gone for a bit longer. Given my obvious excitement, Alissa agreed to take me back to Walnut Road to complete the rest of the first hut to hut stage two days later on the Monday public holiday.

From Walnut Road, the track enters some fractured sections of Korung National Park. Given the very ordinary nature of parts of Korung National Park (it is home to the nadir of Perth hikes - the Channel 10 Tower Walk), I've always considered it a bit of a joke and these initial stretches did little to change my opinion. That being said, after an initial slow uphill section, it was mostly easy and downhill riding that was quite enjoyable.

After some forest immersion, the trail runs alongside the first of two orchards on this day of the Munda Biddi. Given the orchards in the area, Core Cider is a Perth Hills cidery quite popular as a side trip with Munda Biddi riders, and in better times I would have considered visiting. Alissa and I went to a birthday party there a few years ago and can definitely recommend it.

Reentering forest, I was pleasantly surprised to see mature Jarrah trees in a well above average section of Korung National Park. Given my impression of Korung is quite mixed and I've been very vocal about its lack of worthiness as a national park when truly spectacular forests are not protected, I had a bit of a chuckle to myself about what my hiking friends will think when they read a write up of a trail written by me raving about the forests in Korung National Park!

The cycling through this section of Korung National Park was magical; it was filled with a lot of mature Jarrah, and while the trees clearly showed signs of previous burns, it looked like it had been undertaken in a considered fashion and that there had been enough recovery time to become lush and beautiful again.

Coming out the other side of the forest, the trail once again runs alongside a section of orchard before joining onto a section of road cycling.

This was a slow ascent over three kilometres. Being on bitumen, it wasn't very difficult, and being a minor road meant that I didn't really need to worry about cars speeding around the corner. While it would have been better if the trail had avoided the road and gone around the other way, one suspects land usage conflicts meant this was the only way around. Again, being on bike made such road sections less objectionable than they would be on foot where a section like this would take up a good part of an hour!

Reaching the top of the road, the trail runs into more Korung National Park forest.

This section of Korung was a bit more burnt than the area before the orchard, and was thus less beautiful in appearance. Nevertheless, the trail through here was mostly a very enjoyable and cruisy downhill towards Dale Rd.

Dale Rd is a broad, two lane unsealed vehicle track, often used by Bibbulmun Track hikers to do a car shuffle to complete the Perth Hills Forest Discovery Centre to Mt Dale section of the track. It is also a favourite with dirt bikers, and the characteristically irritating sound of their motorised two-wheelers rings out through the forest in these parts. At least here they are not in a Disease Risk Area so I can't knock them too much; it is the ones who ride in the Helena Valley or Monadnocks Conservation Park on the Bibbulmun I object to the most!

From Dale Rd, it is less than 2 kilometres to Carinyah campsite. Although I knew it was only a short way down the track, it nevertheless caught me by surprise to see a white access gate so close to the road access point. Unfortunately, for all the effort that DBCA had put into preventing access, the local bogans have put in even more, with what looked like a path having been cut around the gate for easy car access. This is rather exceptional laziness given how little a walk it is from the gate to the campsite.

Although this was not the first Munda Biddi campsite I'd been to, I was definitely very excited to arrive at the first hut of the trail given it meant I would be ticking off what would be the first full day for End to Enders.

While some of my hiking friends prefer the rustic look of the Bibbulmun Track huts, I like the more enclosed style of the Munda Biddi huts and their more future-proofed large size.

The huts have a huge amount of space, and can virtually house twice as many bikepackers as an average Bibb hut can hikers. The huts also have two tables undercover, plus a seating area at the back.

Additionally there are also two separate shelters for bicycle storage to keep them out of the rain, camping spots for tent camping, a toilet and water tanks. All in all, a very well appointed campsite for bikepacking adventures.

Going into this first section of the Munda Biddi, I wasn't quite sure about how I would feel about it and intentionally didn't tell anyone in case I decided I didn't like it and pulled out of the End to End attempt. As it turned out, I really enjoyed the experience; while the steep climbing out of the Helena Valley was as difficult as I'd be forewarned, I was lucky to have rain-hardened trails to ride on and any challenge was more than amply made up for by all the fun downhill sections. Certainly, this would be a lot harder with a fully-laden trailer as some Munda Biddi bikepackers use, but even then it wouldn't be insurmountably so - especially given the excellent realignment work. After completing these first two days of sectional cycling, I was hooked and looking forward to weekends in 2020 completing the journey to Albany.