For once the experience was as good as the catchphrase.
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"We're putting the mountains back into mountain biking," proclaimed the West Coast Mountain Bike Trails website beneath a headline promising: "Mountains not molehills."
It delivered on both fronts.
A trip into the wild west was never going to be complete without sampling some of Tasmania's newest and most-talked-about mountain bike trails and I'm delighted to report that they did not disappoint.
Keen to establish themselves on the Tasmanian mountain bike landscape alongside the likes of Blue Derby, St Helens, Maydena, Wild Mersey, Penguin, George Town, Hollybank and Mount Wellington, the West Coast network played to its strengths in creating what it promises is "an experience like no other in the Southern Hemisphere".
While the Silver City trails of Zeehan provide some of the best - and most remote - cross-country riding in the state, the Mount Owen network offers the complement of exhilarating descending with trails ranging from "easy" (green) to "extremely difficult" (double black diamond).
Shuttles are needed to reach the drop-off point at $35 for a single run back into Queenstown or $65 for a half-day double, which adds either of the two major descents into Linda on the remote northern side of the mountain.
I plumped for the 10-kilometre Waterfall trail which takes in the iconic Horsetail Falls before climbing past the Welcome to Queenstown sign and dropping down into the town.
Driving from where I was staying in Strahan, I stubbornly left the windscreen wipers on intermittent in the vain hope of convincing myself that it wasn't raining that hard. Eventually, however, I concluded that crashing a car probably wasn't an ideal way to avoid crashing a bike.
Arriving in Queenstown came with the dual bonuses of the temperature hitting a balmy six degrees and Mount Owen finally making a few fleeting appearances out of the cloud.
It didn't last and we were soon swapping the safety - and warmth - of the shuttle bus for dense cloud and the promise of civilisation somewhere through the gloom.
Within seconds riders become intimately familiar with both the conglomerate rock which forms Owen and the rest of the West Coast Range and the superb craftsmanship of the trail builders who have created a wonderful showcase of the 1146-metre high peak.
Some of the 34 hairpin corners (I may have lost count, or passed out) on the Welcome to Queenstown climb were just a bit too tight for this weekend warrior and the trail categorisation bordered on the blacker end of blue, but all was forgiven by a final descent which brought to mind The Doors frontman Jim Morrison's vision of "pure unbounded joy".
I may not have landed the best day weather-wise but knew it was also far from the worst. A previous hike to the Mount Owen summit featured a wind-chill factor sufficient to freeze my phone while snow and gales are as common here as wedge-tailed eagles.
Meanwhile, Headley Faulls Park, on the corner of Sticht and Cutten streets, makes for a perfect shuttle meet point as it offers free parking, toilets, shelter and even bike cleaning facilities.
Half an hour away from Queenstown are the 35km trails of Silver City, located just outside Zeehan.
Within minutes of leaving the spacious car park, riders pass signs warning of the extreme dangers of straying from the trails evoking thoughts somewhere between Deliverance and The Blair Witch Project all in the vicinity of the town chosen as the most off-grid location imaginable for the quirky and somewhat disappointing drama Bay of Fires.
As I was riding solo, I limited myself to the green trails of Dispatch and Oonah Hill which took an hour to ride up and eight more minutes of unbounded joy to return down.
However, from my turnaround point, blue and then black trails could be seen disappearing toward and beyond distant horizons and straight up mountains in the direction of Mount Heemskirk.
The network's directional arrows resemble those which traditionally appear on convict uniforms - ironic given how they indicate opposing feelings to those of confinement.
Furthermore, the logo on the Silver City maps features a mountain bike's wheels forming the eyes on a skull which also happens to have several teeth missing. This does not breed self-confidence.
A lot of time, effort and money has gone into building the West Coast trails which thoroughly deserve their place at the Tasmanian MTB table. All they need now is usage.
In more than two hours at Silver City, I didn't see another rider, my only company coming from the black cockatoos noisily complaining about an oddly-dressed human daring to encroach on their territory.
The network deserves visitation and recognition as it offers factors many other MTB destinations can only dream of.
I fondly recall my late mother's amusement about the mountain biking events at the 2012 London Olympics being held in Essex. "How can they be?" she asked. "There aren't any mountains in Essex."
She was right, and indeed all rocks on that particular course had to be imported.
In contrast, Tasmania does have mountains, isn't afraid to use them and has few better than the likes of Mount Owen.
And who couldn't warm to a network that comes with the disclaimer: "Serious injury, permanent impairment and death are potential risks for all trail users."
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