2012 – Page 6 – Musings

Cycling, South East Qld, xc

Kenilworth

by NeilEnnis 17 June 2012 6 Comments Shortlink

There is an amazing sense of freedom in being able to indulge a whim and go anywhere on your bike that takes your fancy. On a Friday afternoon I though it might be fun to ride a loop from Mapleton to Kenilworth and back. My friend Ron courageously agreed to ride with me for the day.

Mapleton is a small village in the Blackall Range on the edge of a huge forest. Kenilworth is a small village on the banks of the beautiful Mary River nestled between the Connondale and Blackall Ranges. So the ride would cover a variety of landscapes, and include a lot of hills!

The smooth clay surface of Mapleton Forest Drive was pleasant to ride on. The tall eucalypts shaded the road for most of the way, and the gentle descent helped us keep up a brisk pace.

The descent gradually became rougher, steeper and faster until we were flying down towards Cedar Creek trying to avoid ruts and rocks in the track. I was grateful for my full suspension, which smoothed out most of the bumps. Ron was riding a hardtail (no rear suspension) and I think his bones got quite a rattling.

Eventually, the descent spat us out onto Cedar Creek Road – a rural community nestled into the end of a valley. Since the road was effectively a cul-de-sac, there wasn’t much traffic, and we had the road to ourselves.

At this point we had two alternatives. We could have ridden the entire length of the road and followed 15km of bitumen into Kenilworth. Or we could head up into the hills of Gheerulla…

(Photo by Ron Perske)

“Sorry, Ron. I didn’t realize Gheerulla would be this steep”. Ron didn’t seem to mind as we both heaved our bikes up the hill.

We eventually made it to the top, from where we could enjoy a few challenging down-hill runs.

(Photo by Ron Perske)

The down-hills in Gheerulla reminded me of “Whoa Boy” in D’Aguilar National Park. They were long, steep and had waterbars every few metres to stop soil erosion. The waterbars made the ride feel like a bit of a roller-coaster as we hung on tightly trying to make sure the bikes didn’t slide out of control on the way down. I made sure I hung my backside as far out over the back of the bike as I could.

After a few wrong turns in the Gheerulla forest we eventually found our way to Oaky Creek Road and then the main road into Kenilworth.

We eventually rolled into Kenilworth for lunch. It’s a goegous little town – the main street has numerous cafes, and a typical country pub. It’s popular with day trippers and touring motor cyclists.

Like a crazy tourist, I stopped in the middle of the bridge on the way out of town to get a photo of the Mary River. Luckily no cars were passing while I stopped.

The final part of our trip was the climb up Delicia Road. This started out as a tough climb with some amazing views to the south over the Obi-Obi valley.

(Photo by Ron Perske)

Delicia “Road” gradually increased in steepness until we had to push the bikes up the hill.

(Photo by Ron Perske)

It got steeper….

(Photo by Ron Perske)

…and steeper. Eventually I declared that whoever had named this precipitous sherpa track “Delicia Road” should be imprisoned. It wasn’t a road. It wasn’t a track. In places it wasn’t even a hiking trail – there was no trail.

Ron was amazing. He just said “It is what it is. It stands between you an the rest of your life. You can either sit down and cry, or keep pushing and get home”. I took his sage advice and kept pushing.

(Photo by Ron Perske)

And, almost miraculously, we reached the top, asked some friendly locals for some extra water, and took a few photos.

This was an amazing experience. I’ve done longer rides, but this one was really tough. It was worth it for the views, and for being able to share it with a friend. It’s not every day you get to rock-climb with a bike on your back, and live to tell the tale.

Unless you want a packet of pain, I would strongly recommend against trying to take a bike up Delicia Road, although it would ideal as a class 5 or 6 hike.

We rode 50km with about 1,500m of ascent in about 6 hours (including breaks). I burned about 3,300 kcal. Ron and I both think this one rates about 9.5 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.

Total distance: 50.32 km
Total climbing: 1479 m
Average temperature: NAN
Total time: 05:52:13

Download file: activity_189360043.gpx
More data

Cycling, South East Qld, xc

Mount Mellum

by NeilEnnis 9 June 2012 No Comments Shortlink

Mount Mellum is a scenic spot up in the hills between Maleny and Landsborough. We rode there today from Beerburrum on our way up to Mooloolah. The aim of the exercise was to find an alternative route from the Glasshouse Mountains to Mooloolah via Peachester so we can eventually organize another Cross Country Group Ride out that way in a few months.

Craig lives in the area, and knows it well because he spends many hours mountain biking through it each week. I met Craig a couple of weeks ago while riding at the Glasshouse Mountains. One of the great things about this sport is the lovely people you meet on the trail.

He kindly offered to show Tony and me around his “back yard”.

We started the ride with a climb up to the saddle between the twin peaks of Tunbubudla. This was quite rocky and steep in parts so we had to walk some sections.

Once we got to the “saddle” between the twin peaks, we have a rest. Since the twin peaks look like a pair of breasts from the distance, we surmised you could call this geological formation a “cleavage” instead of a saddle 🙂

From there we headed north towards the lookout and then to Beerwah. Although the rain threatened to come most of the day, it stayed dry. But the clouds looked fascinating as they shrouded the peak of Mt Beerwah.

At the lookout we met up with Craig’s friend, Gordon, who rode with us to Mooloolah. Gordon had a wonderful quote. He likens mountain biking to “Bushwalking on Wheels” because you get to explore the great outdoors – you just get to cover greater distances than when you walk.

We rode around the northern face of Mt Beerwah. This was a really fun undulating track. The only downside was that the recent rain made the mud and sand stick to the bikes. When we discovered a water tap at the picnic grounds we made sure we used it to wash it all off.

Out the back of Peachester we followed Macdonalds Road. It’s quite steep in places and eventually devolves into a road reserve covered in overgrowth. We found a fun but tricky technical descent down the track, followed by a tough climb up to Mount Mellum.

After enjoying the views at Mount Mellum, we followed Old Landsborough Road down into Dullarcha National Park. This finished in a fun 2 km descent down to the Dullarcha Rail Trail.

From there we followed the bike paths back to Beerburrum.

Some of the views on this ride were amazing. Thank you Craig! We couldn’t have done it without your guidance.

Just over 60km, with almost 1,100m of ascent, and just over 3,100 kcal of energy. This one rates 8 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.

Total distance: 62.26 km
Total climbing: 1190 m
Average temperature: NAN
Total time: 05:29:35

Download file: activity_186978572.gpx
More data

Looking Up

Transit of Venus

by NeilEnnis 6 June 2012 No Comments Shortlink

In a week of portentious astronomical events, we watched the Transit of Venus this morning.

It’s a rare occurence – it won’t happen again for over a century.

It’s also of historical significance because in 1769, James Cook sailed to the South Pacific to observe and measure the Transit of Venus so that scientists could get a better estimate of our distance from the Sun. The idea was that if you could calculate the exact time you observe the transit in one part of the world, and compared the differece with observations another part of the world, you could use that difference and the distance between observation points to work out how far away we were from the Sun.

I was impressed at the quality of the equipment that was available at our kids school. I think it’s wonderful that they are able to get a chance to watch such a special event.

An image of the sun was projected from the eye piece of a telescope onto a screen, and we were able to watch what was going on by looking at the screen – and therefore not putting our eyesight in danger.

I took photos of the screen with my mobile phone. Because I was standing at an angle to the screen, the disc of the sun looked egg-shaped. To fix this, I “stretched” the photos on my computer using a program called “Gimp” to make the sun look round again.

The quality of the image was really good….

If you look closely you can see a few sunspots in the middle of the disc of the sun, and the planet Venus just starting to appear at the “6 o’clock” position at the bottom of the disc.

The next series of photos shows Venus slowly crossing the lower edge of the disc of the sun as the transit begins….

22:33:59 UTC
In the photo above, notice the “Black Drop” effect – the disc of Venus appears to distend towards edge of the solar disc as if it is being stretched.

Moon

Lunar Eclipse

by NeilEnnis 5 June 2012 No Comments Shortlink

We had a partial eclipse of the moon last night.

I took a few photos with our Canon EOS 400D. Unfortunately the zoom wasn’t very powerful, so I finished by taking a few photos with Liz’s Canon Powershot. I was surprized that the Powershot took much clearer photos than the DSLR. I was also surpsied how little exposure I needed. With the DSLR I used ISO 100, F/5.6 and speeds between 1/200 and 1/800 sec. With the EOS, I used ISO-800, F/8 and 1/2500 sec.

I enjoyed the experiment. This one was much easier to photograph than the Transit of Venus which happens tomorrow. I might leave that one to more experienced photographers 🙂

Cycling, Northern NSW, xc

Border Ranges – The Movie

by NeilEnnis 3 June 2012 1 Comment Shortlink

Here’s Tony’s video of our ride through the Border Ranges yesterday, including my wimpy attempt at crossing Horseshoe Creek.

Thanks Tony!

Cycling, Northern NSW, Scenic Rim, xc

Border Ranges and Horseshoe Creek

by NeilEnnis 3 June 2012 12 Comments Shortlink

A few weeks ago some friends and I had to cut short our ride through the Border Ranges National Park because of our late start and slow progress.

Today Eric, Darb and I gave it another try.

We arrived at the starting point at about 8:30am after a two and a half hour drive from Brisbane, and immediately started the long climb up into the National Park.

Normally, this ride has some amazing views. Rising over 1,100 meters, some of the lookouts are perched atop shear drops, and let you see forever in every direction. The clouds, mist and rain made that impossible today, but it was still a wonderful experience riding through the lush rainforest.

The rain also made it impossible to take photos. My camera is out of action, so all I had was my mobile phone which doesn’t handle moisture too well. Thankfully, Darb was able to capture the high points of the ride on his Contour video camera. Here’s a link to his video of it.

The challenging thing about this route is that apart from three fast descents, we were climbing for almost 35km, which took us about three and a half hours. All the while, it was raining, and the temperature was hovering around 11C. So it was hard work.

Eric and Darb are strong hill climbers. I found it impossible to keep up with them on the long ascents, and was thankful they stopped several times to help me catch up.

The fast descents were exhillarating though. Shooting down a dirt track at about 40 km/h with fogged up mud-covered glasses, and chill breezes cutting through rain-soaked clothes really makes you feel alive – and cold 🙂 I was glad I added a couple of Snickers Bars to my normal stash of food – they helped to warm me up again.

The final descent out of the National Park is awesome. We dropped 1,000 metres of altitude in just over 10km. That’s the longest descent I’ve ever done.

Normally on a run like this my brakes would overheat, and I’d end up losing them. This time my local bike shop had installed an 8″ brake rotor on the front, and a 7″ rotor on the back. They handled the descent with ease. My brakes didn’t fade at all. Thank you, Sam from Strathpine Bicycle Centre!

Once we left the park, we took a detour through some private property. I had been in touch with a local land owner who said he didn’t mind us riding down through his property to Horseshoe Creek. This was another fun descent down a steep boggy 4wd track with a couple of dozen water bars.

(Picture – Dean Dwyer)

At the bottom of the boggy track, with the bikes covered in mud, we had to cross a flooded Horseshoe Creek. Eric just lifted his bike above his head and waded across in the knee-deep water. I pussy-footed around trying to hop across the rocks and keep my feet dry. In the end, Eric took pity on me, waded back into the water and grabbed my bike, while I finished crossing the creek. My efforts were to no avail – my feet were soaked despite wearing plastic feezer bags over my socks.

The creek was a good spot to wash the mud off the bikes and start the second half of the trip through the much flatter farmland in the valley below the ranges.

(© State of New South Wales through the Department of Education and Training)
In order to fit the ride into one day, we decided to leave out riding into the small town of Kyogle. This saved us about 45 minutes, but it also meant that there wasn’t any place we could stock up on water if we needed it. In the preceding week I got in touch with the teacher at Collins Creek Public School who kindly agreed to let us pop into the school grounds and fill up on water if we needed it. It was a beautiful little school surrounded by farmland, and it in just the right spot for us.

For me, the toughest part of the ride was the final two kilometers. With the end of the day seamingly in sight, and 80 tough kilometers on our legs, the road became suddenly steeper, and we had to grind our way up the hill back to the car.

We did a total of 2,000m of vertical ascent on this ride. It took us seven and a half hours to ride 81.5 km (including an hour in breaks). I burned about 8,000 kcal.

Doing this ride in cold wet weather and having to drive two and a half hours each way to get there definitely rates this one 10 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.

Total distance: 82.71 km
Total climbing: 1999 m
Average temperature: NAN
Total time: 07:33:35

Download file: activity_184546001.gpx
More data

Cycling, South East Qld, xc

Peachester Forest

by NeilEnnis 26 May 2012 No Comments Shortlink

(Many thanks to Ron Perske for taking the pictures today. My camera has broken from over-use, so Ron very kindly agreed to be our photographer)

The late Autumn weather in South East Queensland has been amazing, which inspired me to do some more exploration around the Glasshouse Mountains and Peachester. The only problem was that once I’d committed with a couple of friends to do the ride, it started raining 🙂 So it ended up being a bit muddier than we had anticipated.

(Photo by Ron Perske)

Eric, Ron and I started our ride from Matthew Flinders park at Beerburrum, under the brooding watch of Tibrogargan. The park is named after Matthew Flinders who camped there in 1799 – the first european to visit the area. He intended to climb Tibro, but it proved too steep for him, so he decided to have a go at the much easier Mount Beerburrum instead.

(Photo by Ron Perske)

We headed west through the forest towards the lookout. Rain from the night before had soaked some of the trails, so within a quarter of an hour we and our bikes were quite muddy.

After completing the steep climb through the bush up to the lookout, we took a break to enjoy the view and try and get some of the mud out of the bike chains. I brought an old rag, and a bottle of wet-weather chain lube. I discovered that drowning the chain in lube kept most of the mud at bay.

(Photo by Ron Perske)

As we headed into Peachester Forest, we just followed whatever trails looked interesting. We had a basic plan of where we wanted to go, but whenever we came across a winding trail heading off to the side, we checked it out. Sometimes that turned out well. Sometimes we ended up to our axels in muddy water 🙂

(Photo by Ron Perske)

…sometimes we got our feet wet.

Eventually we ended up at Peachester for a bit to eat and a drink, followed by a quick descent down Old Peachester Road, then back to the cars along Old Gympie Road.

The fun thing about today was that we didn’t have a fixed agenda / schedule. The flexibility meant we could follow a whim and see where some trails ended up. The knowledge we gained will be really useful in planning future group rides through the area.

This ride was about 50km, and took about 4 and a half hours. I burned about 2,700kcal and climbed about 900m in vertical ascent. I’d rate this ride about 7 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter. There are one or two short difficult pinch-climbs, and the mud made it a bit more of a challenge. It’s not really a ride to do in wet weather so leave it for the dryer winter months.

Total distance: 50.72 km
Total climbing: 992 m
Average temperature: NAN
Total time: 04:37:00

Download file: activity_182014069.gpx
More data

Cycling, Pine Rivers, xc

Kluvers Lookout

by NeilEnnis 23 May 2012 2 Comments Shortlink

Kluvers Lookout is a 680m high peak west of Dayboro in the D’Aguilar Range. My friend Wayne and I took a mid-week ride up there today.

We started from Laceys Creek, riding 6km up Wirth Road, and ascending 400m through the rainforest in the process.

From there we climbed another 200m as the road wound slowly up to the lookout.

The lookout itself is quite small, but the views are fantastic. We were really lucky with the clear blue skies and views out to Moreton Bay.

From the lookout we started the long descent back down to the valley. On the way down we were treated to some great scenery of low-lying clouds in the creek-beds to the west looking out towards Mount Byron. Wayne and I kept stopping frequently to enjoy the view.

Half-way down the mountain, we came across this helicopter landing pad which was built in the park for emergency rescue. Wayne did an amazing impression of a helicopter. His “chooka chooka” noises were so authentic I expected him to take off.

From there it was a fast descent down Lacey’s Creek Road back to the bottom of the range. I worked my brakes so hard that they started to fade half-way through, and I had to pump them furiously to get them working again – not the sort of surprise you like to experience on a quick downhill run!

We rode 25km with about 930m of vertical ascent, and 2,300kcal. This one rates 8 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter because of the long climb and the tricky descent.

Total distance: 24.67 km
Total climbing: 966 m
Average temperature: NAN
Total time: 02:52:58

Download file: activity_181101434.gpx
More data