Today I had a great time riding with some buddies from the MTBDirt mountain biking forum. Ron, Eric and I decided to explore Bellthorpe State Forest north-west of Woodford. It was hilly, muddy and beautiful.
The ride started with a long slow 10km climb up Stony Creek Road as we gained an extra 500m in elevation to reach the summit of the ride at about 650m. The road is steep in parts, but it’s worth the effort to see some of the spectacular rainforest.
At the top we were pretty much level with the cloudline, and were treated to some great views of the Glasshouse Mountains, with Mount Beerwah partially obscured by clouds.
Then it’s a fun descent through the forest to the bottom, along some muddy and slippery tracks.
We were both grateful to Eric for showing us a more enjoyable track through the forest. Eric shows us here what real mountain bikers can do at Bellthorpe. I thought (very briefly) about imitating him, but chickened out.
The roads through the forest rise and fall very steeply, and there are many creek crossings like this one, as well as muddy bog-holes where 4WD’s have tried to get through.
Eventually we came out the other side of the forest, and had to negotiate one more slippery descent with more amazing views.
All up about 50km, 1200m of climbing and 3,300kcal burned. On the tough-o-meter, I’d give it 8 out of 10 because of the steep, slippery ascents and descents in the forest.
Total climbing: 1279 m
Average temperature: NAN
Total time: 05:18:26
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Every time I come by your site you have more amazing pictures. I love coming back here and have another look.
Melanie (from DM)
Thanks Melanie 🙂
Being able to share my rides makes it more fun!
Hi love this site for the simple reason i used to live at bellthorpe or bellthorpe west from 1960 til 1963 my dad john collins used to work at brandons sawmill my mums name was mavis collins she used to run the telephone exchange there, my name was sally collins my sisters name is julie and my brother greg and we went to school at the one teacher school there, does anyone come to this site that used to live in the area in the 60’s. I will throw a few names at you, johnny cumner (wood cutter), mr varley was the last school teacher up there, families like the le foes, mrs brown (sewing teacher), the nimmets frank and joe, eddie sweedman, the ships, roy rankin, lucy and sabina majchak, colmans, lyal elms, jantz the boys names were stan and ronald,the robinsons christine, thats all i can recall at the moment. would love to hear from any of the above.
G’day Sally
Thanks for reading about our visit to Bellthorpe. We’ve been back a few times. You can see more stories here:
blog.neilennis.com/?s=bellthorpe
Do you have copies of any old photos you’d like to share?
Neil
Did almost this ride yesterday, however rode to Conondale NP then backtracked to West Bellthorpe and stayed on the road on the descent (wasn’t sure about forestry road options and on gravel bikes!). Fun times!
Good on ya, Anna 🙂