Category: xc

Rugged beauty – that’s what appeals to me about Conondale National Park. It contains lush rainforests, spectacular waterfalls, babbling creeks, and massive mountains; but it’s hard work to explore, especially on a mountain bike.

My friends and I have explored this area on several occasions enjoying a splash in Booloumba Falls, conquering some large hills in Bellthorpe Forest, and soaking in some amazing views at Mount Kilcoy.

The aim of today’s ride was to ride eastward from Jimna up into the Conondale Range and explore some places around Summer Creek that we’d never been to before. I was also keen to join up some more places on my map.

We started our trek heading eastwards along Sunday Creek Road. near Jimna. This gravel road twists through the forest all the way to the Mary Valley. Before entering the forest we enjoyed riding in the mist through some green farmland. The light drizzle kep the temperature down which made for very pleasant riding weather.

As we continued the slow climb up the hill, the terrain suddenly changed and we were surrounded by towering eucalypts – their heads disappearing into the low-lying clouds.

The road kept rising, and the temperature kept dropping. Eventually my GPS told me we were well over 800m in height, which explains why it was feeling so cold.

Eric and Becca are strong riders, so they kindly waited for me to catch up with them at the top of most hills. I was glad that I’d brought a plastic wind jacket with me to keep the cold air off while we zipped down the other side of the hill. And what a descent it was! We dropped over 400m in altitude as we rolled down this wonderful 13 km descent.

Alas, the law of gravity dictates that all descents must eventually end. Our descent ended at Summer Creek. On one side of the track this crystal clear creek bubbles through the forest and over rocks. On the other side it accelerates down the mountain towards a waterfall. Exploring waterfalls on a bike is not a wise idea, so we decided to keep to the track. We topped up our water from the creek before continuing.

What followed was two kilometres of steep muddy tracks that were impossible to ride. We had to slowly trudge up the slopes of Summer Mountain, pushing our bikes over rocks and through boggy ground. It was exhausting.

Becca recently competed in a 24 hour mountain bike race. She’s an amazing athlete who has been trying to build up her endurance for future events by attempting longer tougher rides. I don’t think she had this in mind when she agreed to ride with us today. She pondered that Summer Creek Road made some of the hills in her 24 hour race last week look pretty easy.

We eventually left the forest and started making our way westwards towards Jimna along McAulay’s Road. On the map I thought this would be the easy part of the ride, winding through farmland. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The track was as “rough as guts”.

Although it’s quite rough, McAulay’s Road is picturesque as it winds through a large cattle property.

We had to cross several creeks on our way. At first I wimped out, and took of my shoes and socks before crossing. (My riding buddies often tease me because I don’t like getting my feet wet). Eventually I just gave in and waded across the creeks in my shoes to save time. Wet feet aren’t that annoying towards the end of a ride anyway.

Eventually we left the farmland and entered the hoop pine plantations near Jimna. Hoops are beautiful native trees, and form part of large forestry plantations around Jimna. The plantations are criss-crossed with forestry roads which we zig-zagged through as we made our way home.

We eventually rolled back into Jimna, exhausted. Although we only rode 52km, it took us almost 7 hours including breaks. We climbed a total of 1,850m in vertical ascent, and I burned about 2,800 kcal.

I rate this one 8.5 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter. A word of warning though – you need a high level of fitness if you plan to follow this route – especially the northen section. It’s rough, steep and very slow going. You also need plenty of water. We were fortunate that the weather was cool and that the creek water was drinkable. In dry hot weather this would by much more difficult.

Thanks Eric and Becca for another great adventure, and for helping me fill a few holes in my map. I now have a continuous track log that almost stretches from Maidenwell near the Bunya Mountains in the west, through Nanango to the Sunshine Coast and down to Brisbane 🙂

We’ve been organizing a group social ride through the Glasshouse Mountains which we plan to run next week (23 March). We expect about 30 people of varying skills and fitness levels to turn up, so it was important to make sure our planned route was suitable. The last time we did this ride was in the dry spring months last year, and the challenge is that we’ve had a lot of rain recently, so a few parts of the previous route are really muddy, or blocked by fallen trees. Our aim today was to ride the original route, note where there were problems, and find alternative trails to “get around” the problems.

That’s where fit mountain-biking friends come in 🙂


We started from Beerburrum and rode west towards the Glasshouse Mountains Lookout. It takes about an hour with a really challenging climb just before the lookout, but the effort is worth it for the panoramic views of this magnificent ancient volcanic caldera. Apart from a few navigable fallen trees and small mud-patches we didn’t encounter any major issues, and I think most participants next week are going to enjoy it.

After the lookout, it’s a short ride to the Hennessey Hill Downhill MTB track. This professionally designed track is a hoot – you don’t need a downhill rig to ride it. In fact Eric and Darb did it on hardtails with no problems. There a loads of jumps on the way down – but if you’re shy of getting too much air (like me), they’re easy enough to roll over with no “gaps” to fall into. The only problem is that in one or two spots on the downhill side of the jumps, there are a few muddy ruts which might catch an unsuspecting front wheel, so I think we might need to warn everyone before we send them hurtling down the trail with our fingers crossed 🙂

So far, everything was going perfectly as we followed last years track. But curiosity got the better of me at the bottom of another fun descent. “Why don’t we check this track out instead?” I suggested as we veered from our previous route and headed into unknown country.

It was a mistake.

We had to brave a couple of nasty muddy bogs, but also had to push our bikes up some horribly steep hills. Even worse, we ended up heading at right-angles to our desired direction, and eventually scrambled out, exhausted, an hour later onto a gravel road.

“Ummmm, perhaps we shouldn’t ride this route next week” I sheepishly blurted out, stating the bleeding obvious.

After having lunch in Woodford, we started our return leg to Beerwah through some more state forest which had been affected by recent rain. Jason has the same aversion I have to getting his feet wet, so we both did a “Charles Blondin” (look it up) and tight-rope walked our bikes over a fallen plank to avoid having to wade through the flooded creek.

Several kilometres later, with mud and sand in our drive trains, we stopped to clean up our chains. Jason had a brilliant idea and hung his bike from a tree branch – just like a bike mechanics stand. Surely this man is a mechanical genius? Once again – a quiet note to self. We’ll probably modify the route next week to avoid the flooded tracks, unless people turn up with snorkels and flippers.

With bikes now running much smoothly, we eventually wound our way up “Trig-Point Hill“. This nastly little climb takes you up to the highpoint of the ride, but not before forcing you to work tired legs to grind up the rocky track.


The best thing about Trig-Point Hill is a descent we’ve dubbed “The Giant Drop”. We all had a bit of a double-take as we looked over the edge to make sure it was all ok before committing bikes and bodies to the bruising descent.

We made it down without any mishaps. I made a mental note that perhaps this point would be appropriate to explain to riders next week that if you don’t feel safe riding down The Giant Drop, it’s quite ok to walk. As if to confirm my thoughts, some people in a Four Wheel Drive car stopped at the top, took one look at the descent, and drove off looking for an easier way down.

We eventually made it back to the cars about two hours later than expected, after all the back tracking. We were bruised and exhausted. A couple of us (myself included) fell off and suffered a couple of minor “war wounds”.

I love days like this. A bunch of friends head out into stunning countryside to explore new tracks, battle the elements, and work out a plan to share it with other friends. What better way could you spend your Saturday?

Unlike next weeks ride, which will be social, challenging, but enjoyable, todays ride was tough. It had to be tough today, so that it can be easier next week. Today we rode about 70km in about 8 hours including breaks. I burned up about 3,300 kcal, as we completed about 1,300m of vertical ascent. I’m rating it 10 out of 10 on the tough-o-metre because of the one hour “sojourn in the wilderness” that we endured because of my curiosity. Next week, I’m expecting a 7.5 out of 10.

Thanks to Eric, Darb and Jason for a fantastic day.