This is basically a gradual climb along the southern shore of lake Samsonvale, and then a monster climb to the top of Clear Mountain.
Coming down the other side, you can achieve speeds of up to 100km/h but it was raining heavily, so we were alot more cautious.
To mix things up a bit, we added some dirt riding as well. All up I burnt 2160 kcal on this ride – one of the toughest I’ve done.
Some of the gradients on the bitumen were 20% (one in five) which is difficult even for a car 🙂
I really enjoyed the dirt section best. It was slow, dirty, and I was covered in mud, but MTB’s are built for this sort of thing. I would have taken more photos, but it was raining lots, so I couldn’t take the phone out of the plastic to take photos – otherwise it would have got soaked!
I’ve just realized how lucky I am to live so close to so many good quality dirt tracks. But sadly, developers are circling like vultures. New housing estates are springing up everywhere, and soon the best dirt tracks will only be on the roads marked "No Tresspassing".
I often look at Google Maps to find new places to ride. Some of the roads look fascinating going through some beautiful country. The problem is a lot of them don’t exist.
Mistake Road is a classic example. Driving along Dunlop Lane in Kurwongbah, if you read the Google Map, you’d expect a nice ride through to Shea Road. But the bitumen gives way to gravel, which gives way to dirt and mud, and in the end, all that is left is a horse trail.
And off that horse trail is Mistake Road.
So Steve and I bashed through some bush on the bikes, down Mistake Road. It went through a creek that was knee deep, so I cunningly took off my shoes and socks to keep them dry and waded through, holding up the bike.
The next creek, Steve said “Ride through it, it’s easy” so I did, stalled mid-way and soaked my lovely dry shoes.
At this point the track disappeared and we found ourselves in a paddock near a farm house.
“Woops, we’re accidentally trespassing” I thought. And just as we were about to get out onto the main road, we met up with the land owner driving her car out.
I had my spiel all worked out “I’m really sorry. We’re lost, can you tell us how to get out of here?”. But before I could, she congratulated us telling us that they’d only just prepared a new horse riding trail through their property, and we were the first people to come along it on our bikes.
Wendy was really friendly, and I was relieved that we hadn’t antagonized some old hermit of a farmer who was going to set (in my imagination) hungry dobermans onto us.
But the point is that there are hundreds of old roads that are on maps, that “aren’t really there”. But if you ride down them on a bike, just at the point where they “disappear” you can bash through the bush and find horse trails that are probably more than a century old.
I’ve got a hunch that the “Old North Road” from Brisbane to Durrundur came through here somewhere.
Constance Campbell Petrie writes about a Indian fellow by the name of Shake Brown who kidnapped an Aboriginal woman and sailed to what is now Noosa Heads. After he’d had enough of roughing it, he came down the Old North Road on his way back to Brisbane, where he was met by some Aboriginal relatives of the kidnapped woman who exacted revenge from Brown and killed him on the banks of what is now Browns Creek.
Browns Creek runs through this area, as you can see on the map, so it’s very likely we rode today near where Shake Brown was killed, which is also where the Archer Brothers would have ridden their horses in the 1840’s on the way to Durrundur Station near present day Woodford.
So next time you drive your car to the end of road that really ought to be there according to the map, remember that the road probably still is there – you just need a good horse (or a mountain bike) to go any further.
Some pictures from our ride to Redcliffe this morning.
“On the morning of
July 17th 1799
Lt MATTHEW FLINDERS
landed near this spot
from the
Sloop Norfolk
and called it
Red Cliff Point
He was the first white man
to land
on this peninsula”
Â
“Lt JOHN OXLEY
Surveyor General of
NEW SOUTH WALES
Landed here from
HM Cutter Mermaid
December 2nd 1823
The Brig Amity
under his direction
brought hither the first
Moreton Bay Settlement
under Lt Henry Miller
Commandant
September 12th 1824”
Dohles Rocks is a beautiful place to cycle in the morning. The only downside is dodging some busy traffic to get there!
Today I spotted about a dozen kangaroos grazing beside the road and managed to capture a photo of one of them just staring at me.
The waterfront is beautiful too. This morning a hot air balloon was drifting slowly in the breeze a few kilometres away, and the water was serenely calm.
It’s a bit out of the way – no traffic passes through Dohles Rocks (the road stops there!) But if you’re interested in hiring a boat, relaxing by the water, or fishing, it’s a great place to visit.
The land at the top of Armstrong Street, Petrie, known as “Murrumba Hill”, is special for a number reasons.
Tom Petrie, a pioneer of the area during the nineteenth century, had good friendship with the local aboriginal people. He spoke their language, attended their initiations and bunya feasts, and treated them with a respect that was 150 years ahead of his time.
In return, tribal elder Dalaipi advised Tom to build his house on this hill, and keep his cattle here. He promised that the North Pine tribe would look out for Tom’s family.
So Murrumba Hill is a symbol of rare early mutual respect and friendship between Aborigines and white men.
On this hill you can find some impressive old specimens of Hoop and Bunya Pines, and (until recently) a forest that had been untouched for almost a century, named “Dalaipi’s Forest” in honor of the great aboriginal leader who befriended the Petrie family.
The Petrie family sold the property to the Catholic church in the 1950’s on the proviso that the old homestead remained intact. Sadly, the chuirch renegged on the deal and demolished the homestead about a year after getting their hands on the property.
The Dalaipi Forest was left alone, but it was neglected. Due to lack of maintenance by the new owners, it became infested with Lantana and other noxious weeds.
And then last week, the church decided to bulldoze the Dalaipi Forest to construct another building and more car parking spaces.
Ironically, all this happened in the week of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, where people are debating the effects of land clearing on Climate Change.
Forests like this can sequester almost a thousand tons of carbon per hectare. They are habitat to many native species of birds, animals and insects. But more than this, a forest like this brings magnificent peaceful beauty right into the middle of our suburbs.
What a tragedy that it is gone.
To borrow an old phrase from the Dean Brohers demolition company:
“Catholic Church. All we leave are the memories….”
I see this Eucalyptus Tree every day from my front deck, and never grow tired at looking at it. I’m very grateful that we have such beauty at our front door – literally!
What amazes me is how the same tree can seem so different each time I see it
This historic hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), in the St Paul’s School grounds, Bald Hills, is believed to be approximately 195 years old.
Prior to Eurpoean settlement, the banks of the North and South Pine Rivers were home to many Hoop Pines and Cedars. Most of these magnificent trees were felled for their valuable timber, so that few of them remain today.
John Oxley first noticed them in on this day (1 December) in 1823 on the banks of the North Pine River near present day Petrie.
The old building in the background of these pictures is the administration building for the school. It was originally a farmhouse built by the Stewart Family in the late nineteenth century.
