Category: xc

Over the last month or so I’ve been planning a ride over the D’Aguilar Range with a few friends. We had arranged for about 15 people to do the ride today, but it started raining a few days ago, which meant most people didn’t want to do it due to the weather.

Despite the rain, five of us decided we’d give it a go today anyway. After all, fortune favours the brave, and as Woody Allen once said, 99% of success is simply turning up.

So we set off on our bikes from Ferny Grove Railway Station shortly after 7am, hoping to arrive back their later in the day by train.

This time I think our determination paid off. The rain didn’t really hassle us too much until we got to the misty high-point of the trip at the top of Dundas Road near Mt Nebo.

From there the track became steep and muddy. The rangers have taken a grader along the fire trail recently to smooth it out. This is normally a good thing, but in the current wet weather it made the trail loose and muddy with a consistency in some parts similar to peanut butter. Some of the descents are steep, and I think we did well to keep the bikes under control and not fall off.

By the time we got to Fernvale, the bikes were caked with mud, and the chains were clogged with grit.

Darb had a brilliant idea to hijack the firehose at the local petrol station (after asking them first) and blast the mud off the bikes. I think each bike lost a couple of kilograms of weight in the process.

From there we followed a few of the quieter gravel roads south to Walloon. The rain got heavier, the roads got muddier, and we eventually rolled into Walloon dirty, drenched, cold and thirsty.

I read somewhere that beer is one of the fastest drinks to re-hydrate and replace minerals lost due to hard work. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but we decided it would be worthwhile trying it out. I think we agreed.

The ride was trickier due to the rain, but easier because we avoided the “Wall of Dirt” due to the wet weather. Almost 70km, about 1,350m ascent / descent and 3,900 kcal. On the tough-o-metre I’d still give it 9 out of 10.

This morning I rode from Lawnton to Walloon (west of Ipswich) via Samford, Mt Nebo and Fernvale. This was one of a series of exploratory rides to check out some tracks in the western part of D’Aguilar National Park to make sure they were ok to bring a group of riders through in a few weeks.

One of the guys on the MTBDirt forum christened this hill “The Wall of Dirt”. It’s on the “Carbould Loop” trail at Banks Creek. You can’t ride up it. It’s pretty scarey riding down it. And there’s no (legal) way around it 🙂 So any trip west from this part of the forest includes this hill. Dont’ worry, though. Even though it’s steep, it only goes for about 200 metres.

It’s not all steep trails. Some of the tracks have amazing views on both sides. It’s a beautiful place to ride.

The trail eventually comes out on Banks Creek Road – a quiet gravel road out the back of Fernvale. It has lots of creek crossings, so it could be impassable in wet weather.

The upper reaches of the Brisbane River flow quite rapidly through Savages Crossing. I’m told the banks of the river had a lot more vegetation than this, but most of it was ripped away during the January floods.

After a tough ride through D’Aguilar National Park, Dean thinks a sausage roll and something sweet really hits the spot.

Total distance: 82km, with just over 1,600m of vertical ascent and 4,400kcal of energy in about 5 hours. 8 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter because of the Wall of Dirt and the distance.

Incidentally, we caught the train back from Walloon – a 2 hour trip. I got to use my Go-Card for the first time and was pleasantly surprised that it only cost me $4.85 to travel 80km on the train.

As part of my plans to take some friends on a ride over the D’Aguilar Range in a few weeks, I thought I’d investigate a bit more our planned route.

A riding friend, Dean, kindly offered to ride with me, and we met up at the Dundas Road water tower.

There are a few shelters like this throughout the forest, using a rain tank to provide emergency drinking water to hikers and mountain bikers. If you pass by here in the afternoon you’ll often see hikers setting up camp for the night.

After a long, steep, and loose ride down Dundas Road, we eventually hit the bottom of the range.

Banks Creek Road starts from the bottom of the D’Aguilar Range and can take you all the way to Fernvale, north-west of Ipswich. We’ll be heading down here in a few weeks. For today, I just admired the old Hoop Pines (Araucaria Cunninghamii).

Here’s another steep descent. With more skill, and dual-suspension, Dean flew down most of the hills and over the water bars. I was more circumspect, and often ended up just eating his dust. In fact, I lost traction in one spot and fell off, but luckily I was going pretty slowly and only suffered a few minor scratches and loss of pride 🙂

Eventually we reached the bottom of Cabbage Tree Range Road, which is where we stopped for lunch – after riding in the forest for a few hours, you really work up an appetite.

Dean rode a total of about 100km today and chewed through three toasted cheese and bacon sandwiches and numerous jelly snakes.

A vehicle which runs on toasted sandwiches and jelly snakes – who would have thought????

I rode up Cabbage Tree Range Road today non-stop.

It’s a 7.5km climb which gains about 500m in altitude, and takes about an hour.

Last time I rode this, I had to walk some of the steeper bits. Today I kept my head down, kept pushing the pedals, and nailed the hill!

I really enjoyed today’s ride, and felt great having nailed that last hill. Unlike Dean, I only rode 37km, but ended up climbing almost 1,500m, and burned about 3,500 kcal. On the tough-o-meter I’d give it 8.5 because of the long climb.

I spent today exploring some trails south of Fernvale because I’m planning to visit here in a few weeks with some friends on an over-the-mountain 80km ride from Ferny Grove Railway Station. Since this section will be the final part of the ride, and we’ll probably have a few tired riders, I thought it would be worthwhile to double check the area to make sure everything was ok.

The original plan was to follow the Railtrail south from Fernvale. The problem is that this area had some very heavy rain earlier this year, and parts of the trail are still being repaired, and are unrideable.


As you can see in the photos, the Railtrail bridge had been washed away, the creek was too deep to cross, and the trail was closed. So when my original plan was foiled by the “Trail Closed” sign, I had to improvise and find a new route!

I headed off down a gravel road and took some wrong turns which found me at a few dead-ends in the middle of a couple of horse paddocks.

Eventually, I persevered down a track called “By Road” which my GPS insisted was there, but which just appeared to be more paddocks with thick grass, scrub. logs and spider webs. I persevered and eventually scrambled out the other side on a “real” road.

Some of the roads aren’t as imaginary as By Road, but they’re still quite rough. But that’s what makes them so much fun to ride on a mountain bike.

The gravel roads and tracks continued south to Haigslea, just off the Cunningham Highway.


In the mid to late nineteenth century Haigslea was settled by German migrants. Some of them are buried in this cemetery.

Here’s a picture of the original church around the turn of the century. While the girls in the white dresses may no longer be there, the pine trees are still on the corner where the road meets the highway as you drive to Toowoomba.

This blazed survey tree is across the road from the cemetery.

I followed the road which comes to an end and turns into a track, and then into a lovely bit of single trail which winds into the town of Walloon, where we’ll be catching the train in a few weeks 🙂

All up, about 60km, with 750m of ascent, and 2500cal. I’d give it about 6.5 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter. It’s an easy pleasant ride, which is perfect for when I bring a few friends next month.

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.