The Victoria Divide 550 - Day 3

I woke with the sun this morning, not opting to set an alarm to get up too early. I figured I was only about 40km from Mt Buller which equalled lunch and a resupply. I ate the other salami sandwich from the general store in Jamieson and washed it down with a big coffee milk. No need for a refrigerator out here!

Crappy low light photo of the camp.

I got rolling at about 0700 and the trail soon came to a river crossing. So off with the shoes and across I went. Shoes back on and time to filter some water as I had drank a lot last night. That done I started to pedal along the track and I noticed that my gps was saying I needed to be back on the other side of the river.

Fcuk!!

Off with the shoes and back across the crossing.....

Back on the correct side of the river, I had to look very carefully to find the faint trail - you guessed it - going straight up the fall line away from the river. I muttered a curse and then eased the scale on the gps back down to 80m so I wouldn't waste time like this again. An old lesson, re-learnt...again.

After a short grunt up the hill and along some more single track I came a road and I began to pass some nice campgrounds along the river. If only I had pressed on for another twenty minutes or so last night I could have enjoyed the civilisation of a proper campground with toilet block! Another old lesson re-learnt. 

DO.YOUR.RESEARCH!

Anyway, these campgrounds had quite a few camper trailers in them for a week day. The solitude and quiet of my bush camp was worth it. 

The upside to being on a proper road was that progress was much faster.....sort of....when the road went down....which it didn't much.

The river was ever on my left, if a few hundred feet below. It occasionally got noisy when it had to splash it's way across a rocky section of rapids, which made for pleasant background ambiance.

Eventually I turned off the road into a campground. The gps track went straight through the "8 Mile Campground" and up the "High Track". Back onto single track. Yippeee......

This underwhelming development actually became quite the fun section of trail. Fun if you like difficulty and consequences!

You really needed to pay attention along here and I was glad I had come across this section of trail in the daylight. Not just to make it easier to navigate but because it was frickin' spectacular! The low bottom bracket on my Cannondale posed some issues as it had on the Arizona Trail, namely I was having some random pedal strikes on rocks hidden in the grass. This was ok if the strike was on the left, as it would tend to throw me toward the right. But when the strike was on the right, well, being thrown left wasn't such a good outcome.... so I tended to ride along the left side of the very narrow trail to mitigate the chance of being thrown off the trail to the left..... that makes sense...right?

The other "problem" was that there were many, many trees down across the trail. Some could be ridden over but with most you had to lift your bike over. There were also a lot of rocky "headlands" where the trail would wind up to a small rocky outcrop, then drop off the other side. Some I could ride, most needed the bike lifting again. This occurred every 50-80 metres so the going was very slow along here for the most part.

Steeper than it looks. A rocky, rooty "headland" around a gum tree that was too hard to ride up.

As the sun came out, warming this side of the river valley I began to hear rustlings in the grass as I rode past (on the bits I could ride). Rounding a tight left bend in the trail that saw me stop because it was so tight, I spied a big black snake sunning itself of the left side of the trail! Stuck, straddling the bike I picked some stones from the embankment on my right and gently threw them at the general vicinity of said Joe Blake to try to persuade him or her to move on. I wasn't even getting close and it took about six stones before it got the hint to move over and let me past.

This really got me thinking. 

I was waaaaaay out here in the middle of nowhere, on my own. If one of these things bit me I would be toast. I had a snake bite bandage sure, but honestly if I was bitten I could press the emergency button on my Spot tracker then wrap the bandage around myself and wait to die. A rescue chopper would be at least a couple of hours away. With my heart rate already in the 140-150 region from pedalling it would take some "calming" down!

So, I rode with a bit more care, scanning the trail ahead for anything that resembled a snake. Not an easy task when evolution has camouflaged snakes themselves to look like sticks and stringy bark that is scattered all over the trails.....

A boggy crossing.

None too soon I came to a creek crossing and on the other side was hut. As I hadn't done any real research I wasn't expecting a hut so this was a pleasant distraction. It turned out to be Ritchie's hut so I took a five minute break to eat a snack and look around it. I signed the hut "register" and figured my dumb comment couldn't be any worse than most of the others that I read in there. A country of poets and laureates were are not! (nor am I claiming to be as you can see from these ramblings)

This information board outside the hut indicated that I was only about 4 kilometres from the summit of Mt Buller in a straight line. I would be there by lunch time......

So, I pedalled along some more narrow track for a while, past this sign.

Then I got onto some more wide fire road. There was much rustling in the grass along here, especially in the sunny spots so I elected to ride in the left wheel track, away from the embankment. Good choice as not long after, hearing a rustle I saw another BIG black snake slither in behind some grass! Note to self - stay away from the long grass in the sun!!

Than for the next "few" hours there proceeded to be many, many ups and then downs in the road. Any elevation gain was soon lost and I was really beginning to wonder just how far Mt Buller was away? I was sure I had camped about half way from Jamieson to Buller last night. Why was it taking sooo long?!!

Photos seem to be very scarce from the climb. I was entering a dark place as frustration at all this fucking climbing grew. Then, after what seemed an eternity, I popped out at the intersection at Howqua Gap. 

Both the fire roads to Mt Buller were closed (I had a heads-up from Lewis via text that this might be the case) but the single track to the Village was open. Hmmmm...

I had only been to Mt Buller once, about 7 or 8 years ago and I had not rated the single track at all. I remembered it as rocky, too steep and too tight on the climbing turns. 

Two corners into "Trigger Happy" and all these bad memories came flooding back. No way could I pedal this heavily loaded bike up the climbs, nor around the too tight climbing turns. Basically anything that went up was a nightmare and I cursed the trail builders. "Medusa" was equally crappy but Clancy's Run was a friggin' hoot! It was like a totally different trail designer had planned Clancy's as it flowed and I whooped waaay too quickly along it. Hell yea!

I soon came to where they were sealing Cornhill rd (and maybe the carpark) and in a rush not to get told off again (see Day 2 write up) I think I went up the wrong trail. Sitting here at my computer, completly rested and not rooted out of my head, it looks like I rode up Gang Gangs - a one way trail. So, yeah.

Then I got to the village!!!!! It was just on 4pm and I had ridden 65km for the day so far. 

SIXTY.FIVE. only.
In about eight and a half hours.

Fcuk!!

I was never going to get to Albury at this rate.

First, to find the Foodworks. Even better, I just happened to find the lady who was about to open said Foodworks, so I followed her up the street to the shop. I find it so hard to find shops in ski resorts as they simply don't look like regular shops, nor do they ever look "open for business". Dumb country bumpkin I guess.

Anyway, I paraded around and around the store while the clerk heated some pies up for me (she didn't think the pub was open for meals, so a bird in the hand and all). I eventually emerged from the store with that small box of groceries you can see on the table. I wasn't too worried about getting it all on the bike as I was going to devour a lot of it right then! Pulling my Camelbak out to fill it I saw I was literally down to my last mouthful of water. Well judged!!

After charging my phone and cache battery, airing out my sleeping bag and bivy while I ate, it was time to get going again. I sort of hoped to make it a third or half way to Myrtleford tonight, which was according to my notes 126km and 1665m climbing from where I sat. Hmmm, would you believe maybe a third... or a quarter of the way?

Trusty steeds.

At least I knew where Gang Gang trail was to head back out. This led to Cornhill Rd which is just shit, as it was years ago. Stupidly steep up and down and littered with large loose rocks. It may be fun on an unloaded bike when one is out for a two hour jolly with mates but on a loaded rig, with shagged legs it just sucks. When I turned off onto "Woolybutt" trail I was pleasantly surprised by it's flowiness and actually began to enjoy myself again but all too soon it spat me out at Howqua Gap again.

I took the time to look around and read the information boards, look at the maps. This next section of trail would have a couple of huts, so would be interesting

I checked the map in the hut again and thought, yep, easy peasy. Jumping back on the bike I looked at my gps. I was heading toward the pink line. I looked up and there was a road in front of me. It went down. Yeah!! At last, some payback!

Rookie.Error.

I really enjoyed the descent for fifteen or twenty minutes. Until I came to an intersection with a hut and some signs that said "Mt Stirling Entrance".

WTF?!!

I had accidentally dropped down Circuit Rd, not the trail. It was going to be a 7km climb back up to get back on the correct track. 

I thought for a minute.

"If I just keep going straight, I can ride into Mansfield and fuck this stupid Vic divide. Get on a bus to Melbourne and then fly home". I just couldn't stomach the thought of riding those 7km back up the hill. That would take me at least an hour, maybe more. I looked at the map some more. If I went about 5km up the road (to the left in the photo above) I could rejoin the Vic Divide route at the Mt Stirling/Hut Trail intersection and keep going.

Well, I wasn't racing. This was meant to be a training ride and as much as it stuck in my craw that I would be a scratching from any "official" standings, getting on with it would sit better with me when I got home, rather than bailing and heading home defeated.

So, I ground away at the pedals and climbed up to intercept the Vic Divide route where it crossed Circuit rd. (I estimate that I only missed 3-4km of the route compared with what I actually rode - albiet, I rode a much easier trail)

There was quite a substantial hut here but I turned left, across a small meadow and up another trail (Hut trail) and got on with it. The trail was wide here, obviously made for horses and absolutely covered in sticks of all sizes. 

Very soon I picked up a stick, jammed in between my rear derailuer and axle. I immediately locked the back wheel up to stop any damage and was lucky to be able to pull a small pencil sized stick out of the rear mech. No damage done, or so it seemed. A ghost gearchange  in about my 4th lowest gear would rear it's head for the next two days but I opted not to try to tune it out lest I screw up all of the indexing.

Then I came to quite a busy campground, Razorback campground, full of campers and their horses and dogs, one of which decided to chase me for a while. There was a very impressive looking set of huts, which I only stopped long enough to snap a photo of.

Onward and upward though. The trail went on with a series of short, sharp pinches that had me walking again, followed by rough sections that were rideable but quite rocky. Having the setting sun out to my left made for shadow-flicker along here, making it harder to concentrate and see the trail. I finally popped out of the single track at a gate that had an "Epic Trail" sign next to it.

I think I had been riding part of the much vaunted"Epic Trail"?! Hmmm, it certainly wasn't doing much to sell Mt Buller Trails to me. It just seemed like a bumpy horse trail but I was getting a bit tired and emotional by now.

I went through the gate onto No.3 Trail, which was another dirt road. Another rocky, steeply climbing dirt road.... After cresting the first climb it bumped along nicely, being quite rideable. It was getting close to sunset now and the temperature was starting to plummet. I decided to stop at the No. 3 Hut to put my wind vest on and munch another handful of peanut M&Ms.

The sunlight hitting the twisted tree tops behind me was setting them aglow and I tried several times for a photo that did the scene justice.
None did.

As the light quickly faded I found that I was weaving around through a strung out herd of black (Angus?) cattle. They had shit everywhere across the road which added another dimension as I tried to miss the pot holes, sharp rocks, cattle jumping out from behind trees AND now, cow shit. Along here the light faded completely but not before a view to the west of what looked like half of Victoria played out. Again, I snapped away. Again I failed.

To the naked eye this was amazing.

I fitted my light and pressed on. For a while the trail played nicely being a fairly normal dirt road but soon enough it tipped steeply downhill, became quite eroded and rocky and I had my brakes screaming. Trying to stay off them just wasn't possible as 110kg of mtb/person wanted to shoot away plus the loose rocks had me choosing a line as best I could, not necessarily where I wanted to go. I came my closest in the whole ride to having an off down here when the front wheel tucked under on a large, loose rock. I only managed to save it by releasing the brakes and letting the bike gain speed, then riding out of the next crisis this caused...... whew!!

This went on forever (actually only about 3km) before I got to turn left onto Carters Rd, which was a great, wide dirt road. Though I only managed a few hundred metres before it was time to turn right into Buckland Spur Track and pass by the Tomahawk Hut. I checked it out as a place to camp. I looked nice with plenty of flat, grassy space around it. One problem is that I wanted to fill my water bottle/bag before I stopped for the night and the second was that I wanted to at least tick over 100km for the day. I was still at about 95km for the day at the moment so I decided to press on.

Tomahawk Hut during the day by Kate Myers.

Not long after the track took another turn to the left onto Evans Creek track. This did feel like a track as there was no obvious recent vehicle activity and I felt like I was disappearing into a deep, dark sack as the track dropped dramatically down. Again my brakes howled in protest. If only I was an hour earlier and had hit this is the daylight, surely I would be able to make better use of the elevation loss?

After what felt like forever I finally came to a running creek. Thank god as I was getting low on water. Filtering was interesting as anything that my light beam hit would be instantly covered in mosquitoes. I mean, like every mossie in the southern hemisphere! I ended up putting my headlight on flash mode which seemed to stop attracting them but put me into a weird, unbalanced strobing world where I was stumbling around as my tired mind got snippets of vision fed to it before being plunged into total darkness every second.
Loaded up with H2O, I jumped back on and began pedalling. I only made it about 100m before I saw the perfect camping spot on the side of the road. Flat, grassy and off a bend in the track. Looking at the gps I saw 102km for the day. That'll do pig!!

I quickly set up camp and got into my bivy, forgetting to stretch before I did. Bugger! Too late now. There wasn't much to choose from at the Mt Buller Foodworks earlier today so I had a pack of sliced salami and a packet of tasty cheese and crackers for dinner. It was actually quite the feast as I sat in my bivy and all washed down with a Muscle Milk. As I lay down to pass out errr...go to sleep I notice a bloody great huntsman spider crawling over my dry bag, about 30cm from my head. Now huntsman are harmless but this one wanted to be an astronaught....so I helped him out....

Good night Irene!!

Cheers.