Mt Archer Loop

Start at the carpark at Sunset Drive. head north-east along the MTB/walkers track which ends up at Moores Creek, which has stepping stones to keep your feet dry. If it's more than knee deep, brown and running swift, it's in flood and not crossable - but normally this makes a great end-of-run swimming hole.

After crossing the creek, the track runs into at the First Turkey MTB park at a T-junction. Head right and south on this main track - the next intersection on the left (Seesaw Hub) has a number off MTB trail exits (K9, Megatron) as well as a steep fire-trail. Head up the steep fire-trail to the Ants Nest Hub (marked with a sign) and from there follow the first walking track on the left downhill (don't follow the K9 MTB trail). This leads to a 4 way junction - go to the track straight ahead - the Dawg trail which heads up the mountain. Although steep, it's one of the nicest sections of the loop, usually empty of runners or walkers. At the top it sidles around the back of houses on Elida street before emerging through long grass on a vacant section. Follow the street back to the main Mt Archer Road where you may run into uphill-road-runners heading to the summit. Follow the road to that summit where there are toilets and water. Lots of water is needed as the 4.5km uphill is quite sheltered from the sun, but the bottom sections of the 13km downhill (Zamia track) can be quite exposed to the sun. The Zamia track heads down from the zig-zag ramp below the toilets and then south-east and down.

There are a couple of short out-and-backs two lookouts own the way which are well worth it, checking out the volcanic hill-scapes. Eventually the groomed touristy walking track heads into the valley and gets a bit more overgrown and rough (around 8km) before dropping into Moores Creek. After following that for a few kms you head away from the creek and sidle around the slopes and across a nice side-creek (around 2.5km) before rejoining Moores Creek for the last km. And a swim!