Poverty Creek

The weather report forecast rain, but we still wanted to ride, so we took our fat bikes to Bribie Island.

It was high tide.  The beach would not be rideable for another two or three hours.  Rather than wait for the tide to go out, we headed inland to explore Bribie’s vast maze of inland tracks.

Bright wildflowers festooned the narrow trails.

Early Spring is perfect mountain biking weather.  Like Goldilocks porridge, it’s not too hot, not too cold.  The insects are still sparse. It’s “just right”.

Jason told me that Bribie has many narrow trails like this one.  I made a mental note to return in the future to check them out.

So many trails… so little time 🙂

After a few kilometres, our narrow track emerged at a gravel road.

We followed it northwards past an old sand quarry.

Dark clouds skidded overhead, pushed by a cool breeze.

These were ideal conditions for riding.

I joked, “Horrible weather, isn’t it?

The sandy tracks grew soft,  It was difficult to pedal.

When I rode here a few years ago on my skinny mountain bike,   it was impossible to ride on this sand.

Today our large soft tyres floated atop the sand.  Although we had to work hard, our wonderful fat bikes did the job.

What was impossible a few years ago was now possible today.

The sand track slowly morphed into mud as we passed through “Bottom Swamp”.

After a few kilometres we reached Poverty Road – a gravel track leading west towards the Pumicestone Passage shoreline.

The track ended at the Poverty Creek camp ground.

Looking west from the shoreline we could just make out the peaks of the Glasshouse Mountains on the other side of the Pumicestone Passage.

We found ourselves a picnic table under a tree…

… and had a quick snack while rain gently fell.

After riding for a couple of hours we now started to make our way back across the island to the beach.

The tide was falling.  Soon we’d be able to ride on the beach.

Brooding storm clouds billowed behind us as we rode.

Would we get wet?  Who cared?

We encountered more soft sand.

It was like riding uphill, except there was no descent at the top.

The northern half of Bribie contains a large inland swamp, which leaves few places where you can cross from east to west.

But it’s pleasant.  Lush ferns and grass spring out of the marshland.  Birds, frogs and insects make happy sounds.

It’s an enjoyable place to ride.

A few kilometres later we rolled onto the beach.

On the horizon, a large container ship steamed southwards.

We rode south into a fresh breeze.

I grinned at Adam.

“Ah this brings back memories of Fraser Island,” he said.

Woorim beach lay almost ten kilometres ahead of us.

We settled into a steady rhythm, and pedaled south.

We all tried to power through the soft sand at the beach exit.

Although lifeguards cheered us on, the sand was too soft, and we had to walk the last few metres.

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We rode about forty-five kilometres in four hours.

Bribie Island is flat – so there was little elevation gain, but I still burned about 1,500 kcal.

I’ll rate this ride 7.5 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.

It’s much easier in cool weather on fat bike.

Thanks Eric, Jason, Adam and Justin for another fun day on the bikes!