Category: Friends

I love riding with large groups of friends, and was delighted when thirty eager riders turned up at the top of Mount Glorious for a tough ride.

The “Super V” trail starts in mountainous terrain at the top of the D’Aguilar Range, running all the way down to England creek, before a gruelling climb back up to the top. We thought we’d make this outing a little more interesting by adding an extra loop of hills and creeks.

The result was an exhausting but stunning adventure through one of South-East Queensland’s most scenic areas.
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This weeks adventure was a group ride to Harrys Hut with about twenty friends.

Eric and I scoped out the route last week, making it easier for us to relax today, and enjoy this amazing ride
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Eric has been planning an overnight ride from Toowoomba to Brisbane for the last six months.

I’ve ridden sections of the route with him before and joined a few of those courses together into one big route that he could do in a couple of days. I was unable to do this ride with Eric, but Becca decided to join him on this adventure, and they set off from Toowoomba early in the morning after being dropped off the night before.

The ride started with an exciting descent through Jubilee Park, falling almost 500 metres in the space of 8km. When your ride has such a big descent at the start you know you’re going to have to repay it at some stage.
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For the first ride of the year, my friend Dean invited Darb and me to ride with him on some of his favourite trails at Bayview Conservation Park in Redlands between Mount Cotton and Redland Bay.

I’m pretty used to riding off-road for half a day in rough country, but there’s something really challenging about riding nothing but single-tracks. They’re narrower and more physically demanding than fire trails and gravel roads, but they’re a lot of fun.
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Becca emailed me a couple of months ago…

“I was wondering if you could link the following up to make a rideable loop….”

Then she rattled off a list of improbable places all over South East Queensland ranging from Moggill (near Ipswich), to Mount Glorious, Samford and Bunyaville.

She signed off by adding, “Please feel free to tell me if this is a daft idea”.

After a few exchanges with her, I eventually sent Becca a route labelled “Becca’s Suicide Loop” and the comment “Don’t do it!!!!”. The original route covered 112km and involved 3,000m of ascent. I’d never done a ride that tough, and felt a strange combination of guilt, worry, and goulish curiosity as I thought about my friends following my directions on this tough adventure without me.

As you probably know, I’m recovering (very well thanks) from knee surgery, and am unable to get out on the bike for a while. So I feel a bit like the colonial government in 19th century Australia, sending vulnerable explorers like Burke & Wills, and Buckley (of “Buckleys Chance” fame) into the hostile wilderness.

I was relieved when common-sense prevailed. My riding buddies: Becca, Eric, Jason and Paul decided to try about half of the original loop, starting at Upper Brookfield, and riding into the D’Aguilar Range via Mt Nebo before looping back via Camp Mountain and Gap Creek. It was still going to be a tough ride, with a hell of a lot of climbing, but I was now pretty sure they’d all get back alive.

My ride notes to Becca started off like this:
1. Start at the Cricket Ground opposite Brookfield Cemetery at 548 Brookfield Road
2. Head west along Upper Brookfield Road
3. Consider how much this ride is like a bottle of Gin. It starts off pleasantly. By the end of the bottle it will kill you.
4. Turn right and ride up into the national park

Upper Brookfield is a beautiful green part of the world, with rolling hills, plenty of trees and quiet creeks. But once the riders left the bitumen and hit the dirt, they discovered how tough it can be.

Steep climbs, rough surfaces, water damage from recent rain, and ruts from motorized traffic had turned the park entry into a rugged hike-a-bike section that required a lot of walking.

The ride up to the water tank and shelter on Scrub Road was a 16km up-hill slog with about 650m of climbing. In parts the gradient exceeded 22%. As Becca signed the guest book in the shelter, everyone rested, ate a few snacks and secretly thought a few angry thoughts about the evil architect of this loop – yours truly.

Most Mountain Bikers love the long fast descent down to the creek crossing on Scrub Road. After all the climbing it’s a delight to feel the cool breeze cutting through your sweatty clothes as you roll down-hill.

Jason is often on the lookout for ancient indigenous tree markings, historical remnants, or wildlife. It was no surprise when he jumped off his bike at the bottom of the hill and tried to convince this bearded dragon to pose for a photo.

Despite its steepness, Scrub Road a great place to ride or hike, but it’s best done in drier weather. After rain the track becomes muddy and difficult to traverse.

The riders left Scrub Road and followed the paved road towards Camp Mountain. This is another tough climb, but as Becca explained, “The climb up Camp Mountain seemed like a piece of cake after the steep hills at Brookfield”.

Once again, Jason spotted some wildlife on the road – a huge worm / millipede creature, and yelled out to Becca “Don’t run over the slug!!!” (When you’re in a hurry to save something, getting a correct taxonomic identification is not high on the list of priorities).

Luckily, the worm / millipede / slug creature was saved from death by mountain bike tyre, and gratefully agreed to be photographed by Jason.

The views from the lookout at Camp Mountain are always spectacular – especially if you’ve worked hard to reach the top. On this day, however, everyone decided to keep riding, and rolled past the lookout towards the “Short Side” track down the other side of the mountain.

Eric explained that a couple of trees had fallen on the track which slowed everyone on the way down. Becca said the short side was “a lot of fun as usual”. I think any mountain biker would agree that it’s much more enjoyable riding DOWN the short side of Camp Mountain than riding UP.

The trails eventually led the riders to the Bellbird Grove picnic area followed by another long climb up the paved drive way to Mount Nebo Road.

“Look out for cars on the way up”, Eric said. “Drivers are usually looking out for a picnic area and won’t see you”.

Ironically, an elderly driver collided with Eric as she passed him. He was ok, and banged his fist on the side of the car as it pushed him off the road. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you”, the elderly driver explained as she got out of the vehicle.

I suspect Eric was relieved to reach the top of the hill and get back onto the dirt tracks away from the dangers of motor vehicles and careless drivers.

It’s only a 2km climb, but it’s hard work climbing out of Centre Road towards the end of a ride. Eric described it as a very hot and tiring climb. Becca added that because much of the route is in open unshaded terrain this would not be a good ride to do in summer.

Once they were back on South Boundary Road, Eric, Becca, Paul and Jason headed towards the single tracks at Gap Creek following the “Death Adder” and Boscome Road trails towards Gold Creek Road. Thankfully this final 10km section was mostly downhill, and gave everyone a chance to recover before finishing back at the sports oval at Upper Brookfield.

This ride covered 45km in just over 5 hours. During that time the riders climbed about 1,600m in vertical ascent.

When I asked them about the ride, three of them gave it 9 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter, with one person giving it 10 out of 10.

Jason described it as a “hard slog” and a good training ride for anyone wanting to “toughen up” before a race.

Eric said it was “as hard as I had anticipated” and thought that aspirations had exceeded abilities.

Paul said he would have liked more hills. I really hope you were joking, Paul!

And Becca said it was “Fun” and “A good loop if you don’t mind walking”.

Considering these people are some of the toughest mountain bikers I know, I’d suggest you only attempt this loop if you’re very fit.

Congratulations, everyone, on a huge effort. Mostly I am sorry I didn’t get to share it with you. But if I’m honest, part of me is relieved too.

And Becca, in answer to your original question:  No!  You are no dafter that I am 🙂

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!