Here’s some photos from a recent ride I did with some friends from MTBDirt.com.au at Clear Mountain.
The tracks are not far from my place, so I get to ride them once or twice per week. But I enjoyed this ride even more than usual because I was able to share it with friends. I suppose when we share with others something that’s familiar to ourselves, we experience it for the first time again – which adds to the enjoyment.
We started the ride on a couple of sections of tight twisty single tracks, followed by some steep lung-busting ascents and descents, then a climb to the summit of Clear Mountain, and finally a fast snaking down-hill run to the bottom.
Everyone got back happy but exhausted.
I’d rate a big loop of the tracks at Clear Mountain as about 9.5 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter. You need medium to high fitness. If you’re going to try some of the steeper descents, drop-offs and downhills you’ll need at least medium technical ability or better. If you’re not confident with some of the more intimidating sections, there’s nothing wrong with playing it safe and walking those sections.
Total distance: 41.29 km Total climbing: 757 m Average temperature: NAN Total time: 04:12:44
I slept in this morning and didn’t have a clear plan for where I wanted to ride today. I just knew I wanted to go for a long-ish ride and visit some places I hadn’t been before.
I eventually decided to head out into the hills west of Dayboro and see what happened.
It’s amazing what you discover on a bike when you have the time to look around and enjoy the view rather than focusing on goals. (That’s one of the main reasons I don’t do races) This tree stump had an odd mark on it: MP 4 1/2. “What the heck does that mean?” I thought to myself. After a short time I figured it out. It was a “mile stone” marking the distance to the nearest town. Mount Pleasant was about 7km back along the road, so this marker was telling me Mount Pleasant (MP) was 4 and a half miles (7km) away. This got me day-dreaming about what life would have been like here in the early 20th century…
… Not much further down the road I came upon this old building. My friend, Leith Barter, tells me this was the old Laceys Creek Community Hall. It doesn’t look like much today, but I’m sure it was the hub of local social activity on a Saturday night in days gone by.
Leith tells me that Wirth Road is named after the Wirth Family who grew Bananas at Laceys Creek after World War II. The road is a bumpy dirt track which leads up into the hills, so I decided to follow it. As I progressed down the road it became narrower and steeper and the surrounding vegetation became thicker and greener. It took me about an hour to ride to the top, where I discovered I was on one of the main Four Wheel Drive tracks in D’Aguilar National Park – Range Forest Drive. The climb is about 6km long and rises about 500 metres, so it’s hard work.
At this point, I had two choices. The easy option was to roll back down the hill I had climbed up. The more challenging option was to head north through the park until I came out at Mount Brisbane, north of Dayboro. I decided to head north.
“Butcher Shop Creek Road” is one of the roads heading off the main drive to the North West. It’s gated which means 4wds and Motor Bikes can’t drive on it. I would have checked it out but it was heading in the wrong direction for me. I’m not sure where it got the name from, but I’m pretty sure you can’t buy good cuts of meat at the end of this road š
Jacky Creek Road is another gated road heading off to the North West.
The main road follows the ridge line along the top of the range. Some of the views to the east and the west are fantastic. I found myself stopping too often wanting to take photos and enjoy the view, then reminding myself that it was mid-afternoon and I needed to get out of the park before dark.
As it turned out, Range Forest Drive is a fairly easy track to ride, so I had plenty of time, and stopped for a few more photos.
When I eventually got to Peggs Road I realized I had made it, and let out a few loud cries before zooming down the steep descent to Mount Brisbane Road below.
On the way back to the car I stopped one more time for a great view of where I had ridden. The track pretty much followed the top of the range in this picture.
55km with 1290m of ascent in almost 4 hours with 3,500kcal of energy. This one deserves 9.5 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter. Do it in the cooler months. Some of those climbs would be horrible in summer.
Total distance: 56.34 km Total climbing: 1341 m Average temperature: NAN Total time: 04:25:17
For our Anzac Day holiday today, my son Lachlan and I rode through D’Aguilar National Park down to England Creek and back up to Mount Glorious. I’ve donethe ride a fewtimes in either direction, and I wanted to share the experience with Lachlan.
We started from the bottom of the Goat Track at Highvale, riding up to Dundas Road at Mt Nebo, then followed Goodes Road down to England Creek.
Goodes Road is a fairly steep descent, and I was worried how Lachlan (who hasn’t done much off-road riding) would handle it. Instead of his usual hybrid bike with slick tyres, we put him on a similar bike with more agressive tyres and more powerful brakes to make sure everything went smoothly.
England Creek, as always, was beautiful. The water was crystal clear. On this particular route it’s the perfect spot for a quick break, because after this point, it’s about 80 to 90 minutes of uphill climbing.
Lachlan nailed the long climb. I was very proud of him š
We took a bit of a breather halfway up Joyners Ridge Road to enjoy the view out towards Wivenhoe Dam.
The rainforest at the top of Joyners Ridge Road is one of my favourite parts of the National Park. It’s a wonderful feeling to ride through the tall piccabeen palms and ancient figs in the green light. It’s also a bit of a relief at this stage to realize that the long climb is finally over.
35km, with 1050m of ascent and 3090 kcal. With todays cool weather and the social pace, this one rates 7.5 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.
Total distance: 35.34 km Total climbing: 1061 m Average temperature: NAN Total time: 04:05:04
Mount O’Reilly is a forest covered mountain west of Samford, east of Mount Glorious, and sandwiched between Cedar Creek to the north, and the South Pine River to the south.
Our aim today was to ride to the top along Harland Road, and then follow a steep fire trail southward under some powerlines to the main road, 500 metres below.
To get there, Simon and I took “the scenic route” from Lawnton to Bunyaville, then over the Samford Range to Ironbark, along the Lanita rail trail, through the back blocks of Samford Valley, up the Goat Track to Mount Nebo, and then up to Mount Glorious.
At Mount Glorious, we turned down Harland Road which meanders through some spectacular forests before devolving into a dirt track which goes over the summit of Mount O’Reilly.
Once at the summit, we turned south to follow an overgrown fire trail southwards. I found the traces of a track on Google Earth and thought it would be worth a try. The only problem is that Google Earth didn’t show you how rocky or overgrown it was.
But the thing that stopped us dead in our tracks was a land slide halfway down the mountain. The road follows the side of the mountain in some places, and in one spot, the side of the mountain had fallen away. There was a gulf over a hundred metres wide, which was too deep and dangerous for us to cross. There was no way around it, no way through it. So we had to turn around and head back up to the top of the mountain again.
Once at the top, the alternatives were to grind our way back up Harland Road to Mount Glorious (a tough climb), or to scramble down the northern side of Mount O’Reilly to Cedar Creek following a trail that Darb, Graham and I took a few weeks ago.
Simon and I decided to try our chances scrambling down to Cedar Creek. It was as thick and as overgrown as last time, and the views were just as spectacular.
We eventually made it down to Cedar Creek and slowly made our way home to Lawnton via Winn Rd.
All up the trip was just under 90km and took 7 hours. I took it slower than usual so Simon could enjoy the ride a bit better. With over 5,300kcal of energy burnred, and 1,730 meters of vertical ascent, it was still a challenging ride. I’m giving it 8.5 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.
Total distance: 88.89 km Total climbing: 1818 m Average temperature: NAN Total time: 09:25:15
Two years ago I asked a few friends if they knew of any way to ride a bike from Cedar Creek (a few kilometres north of Samford) up to Mount Glorious. At the time, no one had any clear ideas about how to do it. But today we found a challenging way to go the other way, riding down to Cedar Creek from Mount Glorious.
Tony, Graham and I started the day from Samford, heading west to the D’Aguilar Range via some local Pony Trails. We made our way up the hill to the Dundas Road water tank and campsite before taking a long descent down Goodes Road.
Goodes Road descends almost 500 metres in 4.5km. That’s a long way down in a fairly short distance. It’s a lot of fun to ride down, provided you keep your wits about you. It’s very hard work to ride up.
After the long descent we eventually we reached England Creek. This beautiful clear creek meanders westward through the National Park eventually draining into the Brisbane River near Fernvale. Today it was full of beautiful fresh water. Tony and Graham rode through it effortlessly. I however, stalled midway through, fell off and got totally saturated.
Since England Creek marks the bottom of the descent, and the start of the long climb out, we decided to take a quick break.
Graham broke his chain while riding up Joyners Ridge Road, and didn’t have a spare link or chain breaker with him. Luckily I did, so he was able to get back on his way fairly quickly. The only problem was that leeches found us while we stopped in the damp undergrowth, so we all had to pick off a few of the horrible little creatures before setting off again.
The climb up Joyners Ridge Road from England Creek is about 10km in length. But during that time we had to make a total ascent a total of 835 meters. So by the time we got to the top we were quite hot. So the cool rain-forest at the top of the climb was a delight to ride through.
After a quick break at Mount Glorious, we headed east along Harland Road, past an old saw mill near the summit of Mount O’Reilly to look for a way down the mountain. Harland Road is beautiful to ride along. It slowly gets narrower and more overgrown until it eventually disappears completely.
At this point we just steered the bikes down the hill along what appeared to be a ridge-line until we could no longer ride, and had to walk the bikes, scrambling down some very steep hill sides.
My predefined route was useless at this point. It went off over the side of the hill through terrain that we would never have been able to negotiate.
Eventually Graham found a rough 4wd track. Rocky, and overgrown, it was still too rough to ride, but it slowly improved until we were able to finish riding down the hill.
Eventually we made it down to Morrison Road at Cedar Creek. Looking back over my shoulder, I thought “did we actually ride down that?”
Well – we probably walked about 600m of it, but we did ride the rest.
Thanks so much, Tony and Graham, for helping me to answer my “what-if” question today š
All up, 55km, 4,300kcal and 1,600m of vertical ascent. This one rates a definite 10 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter. Just doing the Goat Track, Dundas Rd, Goodes Rd and Joyners Ridge Rd is difficult. But adding Harland Rd into the mix, and scrambling through some thick undergrowth to get down a steep hill side made it insane (but fun).
Only try the Harland Road part of this ride if you’re willing and able to scramble down some very steep, overgrown, rocky hill sides carrying your bike. Don’t try it solo – it’s too dangerous to do alone.
Total distance: 56.36 km Total climbing: 1662 m Average temperature: NAN Total time: 06:47:26
After tworecent unsuccessful recent attempts, I finally managed to ride from my place to Scrub Road / South Boundary Road via Camp Mountain.
On my third trip along this route in a month, it was starting to feel a bit repetitious, but I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.
It’s challenging because there are a few tough climbs involved (Camp Mountain, Scrub Road, South Boundary Road northward), plus a couple of short nasty climbs in Bunyaville and Ironbark. All up it involveds about 1,600m of climbing, so I wanted to nail all of them in one go just for the sake of it.
DERM has recently graded the trail to the summit of Camp Mountain, but it didn’t seem to help me. I still took just over 13 minutes to climb it, and was exhausted and gasping for breath when I reached the top. This Goanna (or Lace Monitor) looked at me suspiciously, sniffing the air as I tried to catch my breath, so I grabbed a quick picture of him while I had the chance.
Then I had a quick ride up the bitumen along the hill tops to the trail head for Scrub Road.
The last time I rode this track it was so muddy my wheels clogged up and stopped turning. Thankfully this time the sun had dried up the mud, which meant a nice smooth ride for a couple of kilometres to the causeway at the bottom.
But, as every rider and hiker in D’Aguilar National Park knows, what goes down, must go up! So I put the bike into “granny” gear and spun furiously for half an hour to get out of the valley and back up onto the ridgeline at South Boundary Road.
I really appreciate the shelters and water tanks that DERM has built in the national park. Once I reached the shelter at the corner of Scrub Road and South Boundary Road, I took a bit of a break and cooled off under the water tap. It felt wonderful!
Since I had a bit of a whinge about DERM in a previous post I wanted to put on the record the fact that I do appreciate the work they do maintaining our parks. I love having such a large and diverse park so close to home, and despite occasional muddy fire trails, the park is very well maintained.
Just on a side note, did you know that Mount Coot-tha forms part of the D’Aguilar National Park system. It’s only 5.5km from the Brisbane CBD. I can’t think of any other capital city in the world that has such a large national park so close to the city centre.
All up 81km, 1,600m of ascent, and just under 5,000 kcal burned. This one is 9 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.
Total distance: 81.86 km Total climbing: 1695 m Average temperature: NAN Total time: 06:59:44
Thank you, Lesley Hunter-Nolan (editor, Pine Rivers Press) and Nick Kuhn (photographer) for running this story in the Pine Rivers Press yesterday. I admire Nick for agreeing to come for an hour trek in the hilly forests of Clear Mountain with me so he could see some of the damage done by the DERM bulldozers.
Journalists get a lot of criticism from us at times, but I appreciate the job that the local press does – keeping us informed about what’s going on in our area.
