The general level of maintenance of the trail is excellent, full marks to the folks at CALM and their many helpers! Several shelters were taken out by fire and rebuilt, and fires had been through other parts, but the trail seems to have fixed up quickly.

This is especially true for the trail markers, which are frequent and generally well-visible. The combination of yellow signposts at the roadside and reflective markers nailed to trees ensures sufficient redundancy to reasonably survive fires and vandals.

Nevertheless, some people (including us ;-) manage to lose the track occasionally. Reasons are:

It is easy to miss a turnoff in a fast section. When going downhill fast you need a lot of concentration to stay on your bike, and it is easy to miss a turnoff. We found that it took a while to get the “feel” for the track, after which we rarely missed a turn, and, if we did, noticed almost immediately.
Even when not going particularly fast and on an easy bit, after riding for hours, it is easy to switch to autopilot and not concentrate much on navigation, which can also easily lead to missing turnoffs.
Occasionally the markers are overgrown, and at places burnt out. This is rare, however, a sign of the excellent track maintenance.
Many of the yellow signposts were missing the directional markers. This seemed to be mostly the case when the trail runs on or crosses a road, so we strongly suspect that (motoring) morons took them as souvenirs.
On the last day, getting close to Collie, we saw several signposts in a row that were run over. Again, we suspect motorised vandals.

All in all, the trail is very well signposted. While several people complained about lack of signs in the registration books, we suspect that they, like us in the beginning, hadn't learned to read the trail. After making similar complains initially, we later realised that the trail was really marked as well as feasible.

Recommendations

Buy the official trail maps! These are excellent (except that I wish they'd show a 1km or 2km grid rather than a 5km one, which makes reading out GPS coordinates a real pain). They are a good way to reassure yourself that you are still on the track, and if you aren't, how to get back. They also contain important information like location of emergency water holes, trail profiles etc. Thirty bucks well invested. A map holder on the handle bar is highly useful.
Carry a compass. This should go without saying. You are in the bush, and it's easy to lose the trail, and you may find yourself in a maze of twisty (or not) little (or large) passages, all different...
I found the GPS very helpful, particularly mounted on the handle bar. This gives you accurate compass direction while riding, and, after programming in a few way points, you see with one glance whether where you are going lines up with what the map says. The GPS is even more helpful once you managed to get off the track, to identify the fastest way back onto it.
Stay on the track! Don't think the “temporary realignments” are advisory only, they are there for good reasons. Typically it means that industrial-scale tree-felling is in progress on or near the original track, and continuing might be outright dangerous (and you are taking the chance that you'll have to backtrack a fair distance). Furthermore, all the markers are removed from the original track, and several new roads may have been cut into the bush, making navigation quite tricky. Finally, the maintainers seem to have gone to lengths to ensure that the realignments are similar in length and profile to the original track, so there really is no good reason not to follow them.

Trudy & Gernot

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Munda Biddi Trail Ride 2006

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