2013 – Page 4 – Musings

Esk

by NeilEnnis 27 July 2013 3 Comments Shortlink

Today’s ride was preparatory. We planned to leave my van in Esk, ride to a railway station, and catch the train home. Then the next day we’d ride to Esk from Dayboro over the D’Aguilar Range, pick up the van and drive home.

That was the plan, anyway 🙂

Eric and I dropped the van off at Esk, and started making our way south along the rail trail. If we kept up a good pace we’d get to Walloon Railway Station, west of Ipswich, by about mid day in time to catch the train home.

By the way, rail trails are recreational trails used by hikes, cyclists and horse-riders. They follow old disused railway lines. This line once stretched from Ipswich to Yarraman in the South Burnett. We’ve ridden other sections of this trail many times before. It’s a perfect easy track for families and children. The terrain is relatively flat, you don’t have to deal with steep hills, and it’s not as intense as some of the rougher trails that you can come across on a mountain bike.

It was a beautiful ride. There were several remains of old bridges crossing different creeks. At these points, rather than roll your bike over a ricketty old bridge, the safest thing is to carefully cross the creek below and push up the other side.

Unfortunately this is where disaster struck.

I stopped my bike while crossing the creek, and put my foot out to steady myself. I put my foot on an old railway sleeper, but it slipped forward on the wet wood. This made my knee bend forwads the wrong way. I then slipped off the bike in pain, and as I did my hip joint popped out, and my knee twisted around sidweways. I ended up lying in the creek bed on my back, my face contorted in agony.

I’m so glad Eric was there to help me up. I foolishly thought I’d be ok, hopped back on the bike and tried to keep riding. That lasted about ten minutes till I eventually accepted the fact that I couldn’t continue.

So Eric and I turned the bikes around, and with lots of grunting and wincing, I slowly rode the bike back to Esk.

To be honest, while the pain was bad, I didn’t mind it. What really hurt was having to cancel a ride, and the planned ride the next day, and accept the fact that I’m probably not going to be on the bike for some time.

Before driving back home, Eric and I took a short drive up to “Lakeview Park” up on a hill to the west of Esk. The views are impressive, and I thought to myself that this would be a nice place to come back to on the bike…. one day.

I don’t know what I would have done if Eric hadn’t have been there to help me back to the car, and to drive me home.

I’ve often joked with Liz that if I was ever in trouble in the bush, the one person I’d want to have with me would be Eric. He’s a reliable, wise, capable and selfless friend.

I eventually got to the hospital a few hours later. There are no bone fractures, but there’s a good chance I’ve torn a ligament. The doctor doped me up on pain killers, bandaged the injury, booked an MRI scan and sent me home. I’ll know more about the damage when I see the doctor again on Tuesday.

As you can tell from the dopey smile, the pain killers are pretty good – but they don’t aleviate the feeling of disappointment at being out of action for a long time.

Accidents can happen anywhere – even to experienced riders on low-intensity rail trails.

The important thing is to be prepared, and if possible, ride with a friend you can rely on.

We rode (and limped) 14km in just under two hours.

Not the most epic ride I’ve ever done. I’d probably rate it 3 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.

As far as pain goes – it was about as bad as it gets.

Thanks for being there for me, Eric.

Now – what am I going to do with myself for the next few months? Stay tuned – I’ll try to make sure it’s not boring!

Total distance: 14.45 km
Total climbing: 263 m
Average temperature: 16.2
Total time: 01:51:22

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Cycling, History, Moreton Bay, xc

Ocean View

by NeilEnnis 20 July 2013 2 Comments Shortlink

We didn’t want to stray too far from home today, so I took my friends on an exploration of my “back yard” starting from the railway station down the road, and riding up into the mountains at Ocean View (near Mount Mee) before rolling back to Burpengary to catch the train. I love rides like this because it reminds me how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place. Even though we might sometimes drive a few hours to explore a place on the mountain bikes, it’s reassuring to prove the old proverb that there is no place like home.

We started off riding along the shoreline at Lake Kurwongbah. As if on cue, as soon as I started taking pictures, these rowers appeared out of nowhere. Don’t you just love days like that?

From there we headed for the shoreline of Lake Samsonvale and rode a few of the trails there. It’s quite hilly under the power lines, so we stopped for a rest at the top of the hill to enjoy the great view of the D’Aguilar Range to the west.

This led us to one of the more historic trails in the area. “The Old North Road” was used here in the 1840’s by the Archer Brothers as a way of getting from Nundah near the Moreton Bay Settlement to Durrundur Station, near present day Woodford. It was based on an old Aboriginal pathway used for generations by people who walked from Meanjin (what we call “Brisbane” today) to the Blackall Ranges (near present day Maleny). These days, an un-built gazetted road, Dunlop Lane, follows the parts of this route. It’s a popular trail for horse riders.

As we slowly made our way in a north-westerly direction towards Ocean View, the hills grew steeper, and the climbs became more challenging…

Eventually we reached the major climb of the day – Mountain View Road. What a big hill!

Photos don’t do it justice, but even Eric and Jason (both very strong hill climbers) had to walk bits of it. I did too. 🙂

We had a well-earned lunch at the top of the hill in a picnic area. In whatever direction we looked we were treated to great views.

After lunch we continued north towards our next point of interest – the source of the Caboolture River. This river starts as a mountain stream in the rainforest at Ocean View. I thought it would be interesting to check it out.

(Photo: Eric Dousi)

As we made our way along the track the sound of rushing water echoed through the trees. It wasn’t until we were almost right on top of it that we found the Caboolture River pouring over a waterfall.

It looked impressive but we couldn’t find a place to cross the river at this spot, so we made our way back up the hill to try and find a way above the waterfall.

It was a bit of a circuitous route through fern covered gullies…

…along barbed wire fence lines…

… and over more river crossings…

… until we finally made our way out of the thick bush and back onto the edge of the mountain range on Dean Drive. We’d paid our taxes in advance to the gravity gods, and so now we were able to enjoy an intense descent back down the hill.

We took one last view at the panorama looking east towards Moreton Bay, and started the downhill run. This was one of the steeper tracks I’ve ridden down. To maintain control, I hung my backside out over the back wheel as far as I could. So far, in fact, that it was almost touching my rear tyre. But I survived the descent and was able to stay on the bike.

As we reached the bottom of the range, it started raining quite heavily. We adjusted our route to get back to Burpengary Station as quickly as possible, shaving a few kilometres from our original route. We were still able to enjoy a quick (but wet) ride through Sheep Station Creek.

We eventually made it to the train with about 15 minutes to spare, having ridden almost 70 km in seven hours. We climbed almost 1,800 metres and I burned about 3,500 kcal.

I’m rating this one 8.5 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter. The climb up Mountain View Road was tough. It was quite difficult bashing through the rainforest to get across the Caboolture River. The descent back down the range was challenging as well – not for beginners.

Thanks to Rebecca, Eric, Paul and Jason for a great ride through my back yard!

Total distance: 70.38 km
Total climbing: 2509 m
Average temperature: 17.2
Total time: 07:03:19

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Cycling, Friends, Pine Rivers, xc

Return of the Super-V

by NeilEnnis 17 July 2013 No Comments Shortlink

The “Super-V” is a popular mountain biking loop in D’Aguilar National Park. It gets its name from the “V” shaped elevation profile as you drop steeply down to the England Creek Valley from Mount Glorious, then slowly have to ride up an equally steep road to get out. It’s loops like that which inspired the famous Mountain Biking adage: “What goes down must come up”. I.e. whenever you enjoy a long ride down, you’ll have to pay for it with a long ride back up.

Wayne and I started this mid-week ride from Maiala Park at Mount Glorious. It was cold, humid, foggy and a misty rain was falling, but we were still able to see the sun poking through the clouds as we looked down the mountain towards the coast.

Lawton Road has been closed for over two years. Much of it was washed away in the floods of 2011, and park workers have only just recently repaired all the landslips.

Where once there were huge chasms in the road, now there are large mounds of gravel where the graders and dozers have rebuilt the road. I doesn’t look pretty, but I think it will probably last a bit longer in a storm than the last road. All it needs is a few months of sunny weather to cook the surface, and it’ll be perfect.

At the moment, so soon after re-construction, and after wet weather, the surface is boggy in places, which made the steep climb up to Northbrook Mountain a little more challenging. Needless to say, Wayne beat me to the top.

I didn’t even realize this bush camp at Northbrook Mountain was here. It’s a gorgeous little campsite on the top of the mountain, on a turn-off about 500 metres past the Lawton Road water tank. There’s even a visitors book you can fill out (which we both did).

The long ride down England Creek Road is wonderful – and the views are…. well look for yourself! Amazing!

I know it looks like it, but we weren’t doing a “Bush Camp Crawl”. It’s just that the England Creek Bush Camp was about half-way, and we both felt like a bite to eat 🙂

And from there we slowly made our way up Joyners Ridge Road. I explained the origin of the name to Wayne. You can read about why it’s so named here. Wayne also kindly tolerated my rendition of Banjo’s “Clancy of the Overflow” as we rode up the trail. It’s very hard to recite a poem while you’re out of breath, but it takes your mind off the climbing!

We travelled 23 km in just under 3 hours, during which we climbed 930m and I burned 1,500 kcal. If you don’t have much time (like during the week) this is a great little loop. I’ll give it 7.5 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter. The cool moist weather made it a very comfortable ride.

Thanks for the great company, Wayne!

Total distance: 24.8 km
Total climbing: 1134 m
Average temperature: 12.2
Total time: 02:54:27

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BNT, Cycling, South East Qld, xc

The Mulga Pub

by NeilEnnis 14 July 2013 6 Comments Shortlink

Every year in September, hundreds of Australia’s mountain biking elite take part in “The Epic” – a gruelling race from Hidden Vale Adventure Park at Grandchester, over the Little Liverpool Range to Mulgowie, and then back over the range to the starting point.

Today we wanted to ride the race route in reverse, at a more sedate pace, and enjoy the views along the way.

I usually end up at the back of the pack when exploring with my riding buddies, but today I was nursing a painful calf injury which slowed me down a bit more. Strangely, it was much more painful for me to walk than to ride, so I found myself pedalling harder on some of the hills to avoid the discomfort of having to push the bike up the hill.

As we rode higher up the Little Liverpool Range, the tracks became narrower, steeper and rougher. Rain and cattle made the tracks very muddy, then the sun baked the mud dry. This left a rough, crusty surface with rocks protruding through at the most inopportune places. Riding this section required a lot of concentration. I fell off a couple of times and head-butted a rock. Thankfully the rock was unharmed.

The Razorback trail became even steeper as we got closer to the top. Normally, during the Epic, racers would come rushing down this hill, with less experienced riders crashing, and bodies lying all over the place while the elite riders survived the treacherous decent. Today we had to push up this hill which was hard work. Darb took pity on me, and pushed my bike up the last part of the hill whilst I hobbled up, continually thanking him as I went.

The views at the top were stunning. We could see for miles in every direction. The deep blue sky arched over us, while the fog still covered the Bremer Valley to the east, and the water sparkled in one of the distant Hidden Vale dams. Why would you be anywhere else on a day like this?

We found ourselves frequently stopping to soak up the views…

… and eventually decided to take a snack break at a remote picnic table that seemed to have been placed there for the sole purpose of enjoying the beautiful vista.

Eventually we reached the western boundary of the Hidden Vale property, at the top of Brown Springs Road. Scaling the locked gate, we were now officially in the Lockyer Valley, at the top of a long fast gravel road which descended into Mulgowie.

After the intense ups and downs of the Razorback trail, it was relaxing to roll sedately through the surrounding famrland.

The food at the Mulga Pub was delicious. We propped the bikes up outside and chilled out for an hour. One of the blokes in the pub came outside and told us he was thinking of racing in The Epic this year. As I relaxed in the winter sun, I thought to myself – “Why would you race through a lovely place like this”. I’d like to come back to The Mulga Pub again sometime.

After lunch we took it easy for a few km as we made our way south along Mulgowie Road towards Red Gap Road. Red Gap is one of the few passes over the Little Liverpool Range. We had another fun climb ahead.

The smooth gravel road gave way to steeper more technical trails…

After reaching the top, we enjoyed another fast and bumpy downhill run along the eastern part of Red Gap Road. Eventually we stopped outside “Farmer Jo’s Place” to re-group. I could hear dogs barking in the distance, and then noticed the warning sign: Beware. Guard Dogs on Duty. The dogs were coming for us.

That is the cutest guard dog I have ever met. Farmer Jo introduced herself, and her dogs. I love the chance encounters we often have with interesting people (and animals) on our rides!

In order to link this ride up with previous rides on my Ride Network Map, everyone agreed to take a short detour south, so that we could meet up with Hodges Road – part of the Bicentennial National Trail, east of Edwards Gap. From there we thought we’d follow the Hodges Road reserve eastwards through a Eucalyptus plantation.

This involved crossing a few creeks which Eric boldly traversed while I stood prevaricating on the banks, wondering how I’d keep my feet dry.

The grass was high between the trees, but we were able to follow the paths worn by cattle. Cows have an uncanny knack of picking the most convenient trail through rough country. They follow the same trail continuously, until a nice smooth single track is blazed through the grass. So if you ever ride through cattle country, remember the adage – Follow the cattle, but avoid the cow-pats.

Our little detour eventually brought us to Franklin Vale Road – another enjoyable road reserve which is impassable to cars, but perfect for mountain bikes.

And this brought us back to the Hidden Vale property, and its almost endless network of single tracks.

I got a bit carried away. I rocketed through the winding trails, boldly leaping from drop-offs, flying over rocks. This was fun… until I crashed. After head-butting a tree, I lay on my back with my head pointing down the hill, feet uphill, bike on top of me, and stars orbiting my head.

“IS THE BIKE OK???” I yelled.

It was. And so was I, after Jason helped me up, then took a photo of me to record the event.

“Today is Saturday, isn’t it?” I said, trying to prove to Jason that I was still “with it”, and capable of finishing the ride.

With the winter sun lowering towards the western horizon, we made our way back to Hidden Vale via some lazy tracks.

What an amazing day. Thanks so much to Rebecca, Eric, Darb, Paul and Jason for a fun ride.

Eric thinks that this was an easy ride. He rated it 7 out of 10. I laughed at him. For mortals like me, this rates at least 8 and a half out of 10 on the tough-o-meter. Perhaps that has something to do with my injury. This would be a tough ride in Summer, so it’s best done in the cooler, drier months.

And to anyone who has successfully completed “The Epic” – well done!

Total distance: 59.73 km
Total climbing: 2083 m
Average temperature: 19.2
Total time: 07:40:09

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Cycling, South East Qld, xc

Lockyer Waters

by NeilEnnis 7 July 2013 4 Comments Shortlink

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.
An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.
? G. K. Chesterton

The aim of todays ride was to take a quick ride aound Vinegar Hill in Lockyer National Park near Adare, and then ride eastwards, looping through the Lockyer Valley to Coominya and back.

It didn’t quite work out as planned, and (as G.K. Chesterton would describe it) we had an “inconvenience” which ended up being an enjoyable adventure instead.

Spring Creek, north of Gatton, hosts a large Correctional Services precinct including farms and a prison. We started our ride near the prison, and set off hopefully into Lockyer State Forest.

Darb and I have ridden through parts of Lockyer State Forest before, making our way westward up a long climb to Wallers Road. Today we wanted to explore the northern parts of the forest near Vinegar Hill instead.

The flowing trails undulate through this pleasant part of the forest for most of the time, but there are one or two fun creek crossings where it’s important to take a bit of care. We decided to walk this log bridge although it looks like some of our motor cycling friends were able to ride through it without much effort 🙂

The route I had planned led off to the east following a track I’d seen on Google Earth. Unfortunately it was overgrown with Lantana and impossible to ride. So we optimistically decided to follow the main trail instead hoping it would bring us out at the right spot in the end…

But it didn’t 🙂 Instead of leading down the hill to the east, our track headed up the hill and to the west. But we thought the track was so enjoyable to ride on that we’d follow it and see where we ended up.

Eventually we started rolling downhill, but Eric was the only one who was able to ride this descent to the bottom. The rest of us scrambled down on foot, using the brakes on the bike to steady us so we didn’t fall over.

It was a delight to find this hidden trail with its tight single tracks, log bridges and rock gardens. I think we were all glad we’d decided to look at this “inconvenience” the right way and turn it into an adventure.

Darb showed us how to nail a creek crossing.

After about an hour, our little detour led us in a large loop back to where we had deviated from our intended course. We decided to backtrack to the main road and continue our original route.

When I originally planned the course, I tried to stick to unpaved roads as much as possible. Thankfully there are many tracks like this throughout the Lockyer Valley.

The terrain in this part of the world is quite flat, which makes it an easy ride, and also allows for great sweeping views of the horizon.

Northwards along another unformed road, Main Green Swamp Road, we had fun crossing a few creeks.

We stopped at Lake Atkinson for lunch, and to enjoy the sweeping views over the water. The serenity helped me understand why there’s an entire community of people living by the shoreline in houses, caravans, and small cabins.

Atkinson Dam was built in 1970 to provide irrigation water to farms in the area. Most of the water flowing into the dam comes from Buaraba creek.

Prior to the dam, there was a lagoon here – one of many that formed naturally due to the flat terrain and abundant water supply.

Today it’s one of many small dams in the Lockyer Valley, which is known as “Australia’s Salad Bowl” because of the large amount of vegetables grown in its very fertile soil.

After lunch we decided to alter our original route, and leave Coominya out. Our detour earlier in the day had added an hour to the ride, so we thought it best to trim off the easternmost part of the ride to save an hour. That way we wouldn’t be late, and would get back to the start within our allotted time.

So we rode south-westward from lake Atkinson towards another small dam in the area, Lake Clarendon.

What a pleasant surprise! As we rode along the dam wall, the views across this small lake were gorgeous.

Wide open spaces, blue skies, warm sun… what a perfect day.

We rode just under 85 km in six and a half hours.

We climbed just under 1,000m and I burned almost 3,000 kcal.

This is a pleasant easy ride. There are only one or two parts in the upper reaches of Lockyer National Park that are challenging.

I’ll rate this one 7 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.

Thanks everyone for another fun adventure!

Total distance: 83.82 km
Total climbing: 1754 m
Average temperature: 21.2
Total time: 06:29:42

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BNT, Cycling, Family, History, South East Qld, xc

Toowoomba

by NeilEnnis 30 June 2013 1 Comment Shortlink

Eric and I had a couple of objectives today:

I had a few gaps in my Ride Network Map which I wanted to fill in. We’ve done a few rides in this area recently, and it would be satisfying to link them all up.

Also, Eric wanted to check out a few tracks near Toowoomba to help him plan an off-road route from Brisbane to Toowoomba.

Jaime from Toowoomba Mountain Bike Club kindly agreed to join us for the ride. When exploring new areas, it’s always helpful to bring a local 🙂

We started our adventure at Withcott – a small town at the bottom of the Great Dividing Range. While heavy traffic whizzes through here trying to pick up speed before climbing up the hill to Toowoomba, our plan was for quieter trails. We rode south from Withcott up some quiet back streets towards Tabletop Mountain. Berghoffer Drive and Tabletop Road are very steep paved roads. If you’re interested, have a look at the Google Street View link here. We slowly ground our way to the top of the road, wondering what we had got ourselves into.

But as any seasoned Mountain Biker will tell you (especially if Road Bike riders are within ear-shot), paved roads, even steep ones, are nothing compared to the challenge of off-road climbs.

We slowly climbed up the range – sometimes pedalling, mostly pushing our bikes upwards.

The views to the east were delightful.

My brother-in-law, Paul, lives in Toowoomba, and met us at the top. We carefully scurried across the busy Warrego Highway at the top of the Range and made our way towards Jubilee Park.

Jubilee Park is a mixed-use reserve which sits on the edge of the mountain stretching down the hill from Prince Henry Heights and Mount Lofty towards Withcott.

It boasts a variety of single tracks downhill runs, and a “bridle trail”. Because of recent rain, we decided to avoid the single tracks, and rolled down the hill along the bridle trail.

We had more great views on the way down, but the sticky mud quickly collected on my wheels and totally clogged them up. I had to pull out handfulls of mud from the wheel arches and chain stays just so I could get the wheels turning again.

When we reached the bottom we took a few minutes out at the picnic shelter to scrape off the rest of the mud and prepare for the next big climb. I was a bit worried about Paul. He had only ridden a bike once in the last year because of an injury, and I wasn’t sure how he’d cope with the next bunch of steep muddy hills.

Wallens Road winds back up the range from Withcott to the railway siding at Ballard. There are very few flat sections. It’s all either uphill or down. In wet weather, most of it is muddy.

We slid down several precipitous slippery tracks, and heaved the bikes up some equally challenging slopes before finally emerging to the luxury of reasonably graded dirt road. Jaime assured us we were only 15 minutes away from our lunch stop at Spring Bluff, so Paul put in a quick call to Karen to drive down to pick him up and meet us for lunch.

The short drive up to Spring Bluff Railway Station involves a nasty little 25% climb. The thought of lunch kept us turning the pedals. Paul had an added incentive as Karen was watching. Well done, Paul. That was a great effort for someone who hasn’t been on the bike much lately.

Eric often says “Hunger makes the best sauce”. I agreed with him as I inhaled my delicious burger.

The railway line up the Main Range was constructed between 1864 and 1867. Highfields Railway Station was important because it served as a watering stop for locomotives struggling up the range, and was a loading point for Timber and Dairy products from the Highfields area. Railway Commissioner Gray was particularly fond of the area, and renamed it “Spring Bluff” in 1890. In its heyday in the 1900’s, the station handled over 5,000 passengers per year.

These days it’s much quieter, although you can still sometimes catch a steam train to Warwick.

After lunch we enjoyed a leisurely roll down the hill towards Murphys Creek.

Then, heading into the bush along “Green Gully Road”, we made our way towards the Bicentennial National Trail (BNT).

It’s always nice to meet fellow travellers on the trail. I don’t often see bikes like this though 🙂

The gruelling mud on Green Gully Road made progress very difficult. We couldn’t ride much of it, because the mud stuck to the wheels. In fact even when I pushed the bike, the wheels became clogged with mud. So I carried it. It was hard work, but I laughed about it – even a muddy day on the bike is better than a day indoors.

We eventually reached the BNT on Stevens Road and enjoyed a few precarious downhills on the homeward run towards Withcott.

It might look like a quiet country lane, but this trail is an important route stretching from Cooktown to Melbourne down the great dividing range. I often wonder who has recently passed by on their way north or south.

Before finally arriving in Withcott, we washed the mud off the bikes in a flooded causeway. Eric seemed surprised when I joined in because it meant getting my feet wet.

We rode just over 50km in 7 hours. It was slow going. We climbed about 1,600 metres and I burned about 3,500 kcal.

I’d rate this one 8 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.

A word of warning though – the mud makes it very difficult after wet weather. The climbs would be difficult in summer. This is probably a ride you’d want to try in the drier, cooler weather of early spring.

Thanks Eric, Jaime and Paul for yet another fun adventure!

Total distance: 53.86 km
Total climbing: 2508 m
Average temperature: 16.9
Total time: 06:57:58

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Cycling, Friends, Scenic Rim, South East Qld, xc

Glenrock

by NeilEnnis 23 June 2013 6 Comments Shortlink

Todays adventure was a point-to-point ride from Goomburra National Park (near Cunninghams Gap) to Mount Sylvia. I wanted to fill in another gap in my Ride Network Map, and Becca, Eric and Darb were kind enough to indulge my whim and ride with me. We’ve ridden in Goomburra before, and were familiar with the steep climb up to the top of the range, peaking at about 1,100 metres above sea level. This was going to be a long day, so we wanted to save some time at the start by driving to the top of the range and starting our ride there…

Unfortunately, the road to the top was closed to vehicles – a locked gate blocked the way. So we had to ride our bikes to the top instead.

I thought this was poetic justice. I had recently written an article for The Mountain Bike Life about Hill Climbing in which I enthusiastically described how wonderful it was to ride a bike up steep hills. It seemed like the universe was forcing me to practice what I preached 🙂

The climb had added an hour’s riding time to our trip, but it was still worth the effort.

No ride “to the top” at Goomburra is complete without a side-trip to the Mount Castle Lookout, so we left Eric to mind our bikes while we hiked a few hundred metres through the rainforest to enjoy the view. Despite dismal rain the previous day, and heavy fog that morning, it had transformed into a glorious day.

From the lookout we turned westward and followed a forestry track along a sharp high ridgeline, jumping a few locked gates as we went. Try doing that in a 4wd 🙂

Riding this ridge line is like cycling on a knife’s edge. On either side the terrain drops off steeply. As we rode, on our left and right, we could see the valley below us through the trees.

The views up the valley towards the waterfall were stunning. At times like this I’m so glad I’m able to ride a bike in the bush in this part of the world. Doesn’t it look fantastic?

Eventually we reached the end of the ridgeline. It was time to drop down into the valley. Our plan was very optimistic. We had based the route on faint track marks we could make out from aerial photos. We were aware that the descent would be steep (up to 50% gradient in parts), and that we’d have to be very careful.

Yep – it was steep alright. What impressed me was that we were actually able to ride any of it 🙂

The views were amazing. We stopped every few minutes to soak up the panorama.

Recent wet weather had caused land-slips which impeded our progress. Thankfully we were able to walk over the rubble.

One thing that was unavoidable, however, were the cobblers pegs. After bashing through the undergrowth for a few minutes, it looked like our legs had sprouted wierd hairs that had poked through our socks. I think it’s going to take ages for me to pick them out of my clothes.

Eventually we reached East Haldon “Road” which follows the creek along the valley. I use the term “Road” lightly. It was a rough track to follow.

The track took us past a place on the map known as “Top Yards”. I’m guessing this was a place where graziers kept cattle in earlier times.

We had to cross the creek many times. Initally I tried to “rock hop” and keep my feet dry. Eventually I just hardened up, and waded through the water.

Eric surprised us. He had told me that he was carrying climbing rope in his frame bag for our precarious descent. But actually he was carrying a gas stove and picnic blanket. When we caught up to Eric at the “Bottom Yards”, he had the water boiling, picnic blanket spread out, coffee and hot chocolate rady, and even some short-bread.

We were cold and hungry. What a pleasant surprise!

Thanks for being so thoughtful, Eric.

As an added bonus, we were sitting under a mandarin tree laden with fruit. We were able to pick some ripe mandarins to enjoy with our lunch. They were delicious!

Here’s Darb’s video of our lunch “surprise”:

Groundhog’s Bottom Yard Cafe from Darb Ryan on Vimeo.

As we rode out of the valley, a prominent rocky outcrop came into view. This is “Glenrock” – it’s what the state forest is named after.

After countless creek crossings and what seemed like an eternity of rough tracks, we finally made it out of the state forest.

It had taken us over 4 hours, and we’d only ridden 25km. Hard work. That must have been the slowest 25km I’ve ever ridden. In fact I’ve done faster hikes than that.

The rough tracks became smooth dirt roads. While we still had about 30km to go, the toughest part of the ride was over, and we were able to enjoy a smooth, fast, ride to Mount Sylvia.

It had taken us over 6 hours to ride 50km. We were delighted to reach our destination and relax.

We climbed about 860m during this ride, and descended about 1,400m. I burned about 3,000 kcal. We took a vote at the end of the ride and decided this one rates about 8 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.

If you’re going to try doing it, be prepared for very rough country. There are no groomed trails out here. In places the track is difficult to see. And (of course) the descent from Goomburra is dangerous, so take care.

Thanks Becca, Eric and Darb for a great day out.

Thanks also to Mike for driving us out there, and to my dad, Bruce, for helping me get the Van out to Mount Sylvia the day before.

Point-to-point rides take a bit of extra planning, but they’re worth the effort!

Total distance: 54.14 km
Total climbing: 1543 m
Average temperature: 14.3
Total time: 06:07:27

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BNT, Cycling, Scenic Rim, South East Qld, xc

Egypt

by NeilEnnis 16 June 2013 1 Comment Shortlink

Queensland has its very own “Egypt” – a spectacular plateau to the south-east of Toowoomba with amazing views of the Lockyer Valley. Today’s adventure took us to the heights of Egypt following portions of the Bicentennial National Trail (BNT) as well as old tracks that were once used in the Flight Centre Epic mountain bike race.

We rode from Withcott with some new friends, Tamsin and Richard, who were familiar with many of the trails in the area, and were able to point us in the right direction when planning the ride.

There’s no chance to “warm up” when riding along the BNT out of Withcott. The hills start almost immediately. One of the first major climbs is “Silver Pinch” which takes you up to Silver Ridge, near the Toowoomba Golf Club at Middle Ridge.

As with most climbs, we were rewarded afterwards with a wonderful twisty descent down Horsfalls Lane towards Upper Flagstone Creek. It was a cold day, and I was grateful for the warm gear I was wearing as the wind whipped past us on the way down.

After following the creek for a short while, we left the paved road and followed the BNT up a dirt track leading up to Preston.

And this was to be the pattern of the day. Tough climbs. Short break at the top. Wonderful quick descent 🙂

Some of the hills were a bit too steep to ride in places, but it still felt great to be out in this wonderful part of the world.

We eventually made it up the climb to Preston – a picturesque hilltop village with its own Chapel and Vineyard. (Note to self, lets come back here in a few weeks with the family for a leisurely drive)

One of the hidden treasures of Preston is a lookout, not far from the winery. I only found out about this gem by reading Shannon Wall’s excellent blog “Biking the BNT” in which he describes his adventures riding a mountain bike along the BNT from Cooktown to Aratula (over 3,000 km). The panorama is worth the small detour from the main road. Thanks for letting us know about it, Shannon!

Richard suggested we leave the BNT at this point, and ride up to the Egypt Plateau via the small villages of Rockmount and Stockyard.

What followed was another eye-watering descent down from Preston in which we lost about 500 metres of altitude over 10 km.

Wow!

At the bottom, Paul pointed out to me that while he enjoyed the ride down, he was reluctant to give up so much altitude. Because as any intrepid mountain biker will tell you, you must pay your dues to the gravity gods. What goes down must go up. And so we met Kennedys Road.

It starts with a bit of a giggle. There are a few letter boxes at the bottom, and a rusty old fridge, that makes an effective letter box if you’re expecting large parcels.

But the climb is tough.

As usual, I was the last one up the hill.

I kept my legs turning over by reciting Banjo Patterson’s “Clancy of the Overflow” to myself. The rhythm and imagery kept my mind off the effort.

And so we made it up onto the Egypt Plateau, where we all collapsed on the grass opposite an old fig tree, and enjoyed our lunch. Eric (relaxing on his back) says the best sauce is hunger. I agree with him. Peanut butter sandwiches never tasted so good.

We stopped quite often to soak up the views. The rolling hills seemed to go on forever.

For some reason an old song by Elvis Presley starting going through my head. No prizes for guessing which one.

Each corner revealed a new vista…

… so we stopped quite often to enjoy the view.

Incidentally, this is one of the reasons I don’t do races. How could you possibly enjoy the view? (The other reason is that I don’t ride fast enough).

Great views with great friends. I can’t really thing of anything I’d rather be doing on a Saturday!

Eventually we hit the main road near Ma Ma Creek and started riding southwards. This imposing road cutting stretched high on either side of the road. There were warnings at either end alerting us to the possibility of falling rocks. Eric (ever wise) advised us all to keep riding. I couldn’t resist and had to stop and get a photo of it.

After about 55km riding, we stopped to fill up with water at this goregous old galvanized iron hall at Ma Ma Creek.

We then left the paved road, and started our way up a dirt track ominously named “Razorback Road”. This was the third major climb of the day. Good old Clancy came to lend a hand yet again as I re-recited the poem to myself.

This track was part of the “Epic” mountain bike race a few years ago. I thought about hardened racers grinding up this road. It was hard work at my slow pace. Imagine how painful it would be riding up this hill as fast as you could go?

The road passes through a couple of cattle properties on its way up to the Gap at the top.

The rugged landscape was stunning.

Jason kindly hung back on the climb to ride with me. He’s new to mountain biking, but his legs are accustomed to working hard on the road bike. It’s hard to keep up with him on the hills.

At the bottom of another exhillarating descent, we came across this gorge at Lagoon Creek.

It’s amazing what you find off the beaten track.

After one more climb, we eventually reached the top of West Haldon Road. In the Epic MTB Race, some riders were clocked at 110 km/h riding down this hill. It had a bit too much loose gravel for my liking, so I decended much more sedately today!

To the south we looked towards Glenrock National Park below the peaks of Goomburra. I haven’t been there. Yet 🙂

What a wonderful place we live in!

We enjoyed the relaxing doanhill coast into Mount Sylvia. Our generous driver for the day, “Wavey Davey” met us here and drove us home. Point to point rides are always logistically challenging, and I’m so grateful for the time “Wavey” kindly gave to us today. Thanks mate!

Thanks also to Tamsin and Richard for showing us around their specatcular back yard.

We rode 85km, and climbed over 2,100m in vertical ascent, in under 7 hours, including breaks. I burned about 3,700 kcal. It was a cold day, and we worked very hard.

This ride deserves 9.5 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.

To anyone who rode this route for the Epic race – you are tough as nails. Well done!

Oh – can anyone tell me how it this place got to be named Egypt please?

Total distance: 86.06 km
Total climbing: 3053 m
Average temperature: 12.5
Total time: 06:41:49

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