Pushing On

 

As Covid outbreaks continue to wreak havoc with forward planning via snap border closures, flying is being cut right back and pounding the pavement around the warehouse is becoming the "norm". As such, I needed something to look forward to so when Deano suggested another Sub 24 Hour Overnight bikepacking ride I said "lock it in"!

I am glad it was locked in as by the end of the week I was pretty stuffed and the last thing I felt like doing was riding a heavily loaded bikecycle up a bloody big hill. However, we took it pretty loose with the departure time and that allowed me to decompress and by the time we had bought beer, food and unloaded the bikes I was looking forward to the ride.

This was partly because we were riding up that old faithful, Duck Creek road with it's superb, hidden campsite. I last camped up there in 2015 (I think) as the road has been closed since cyclone Debbie washed away a section of the road in 2017 (as well as much of south east Queensland!😳). It would be interesting to see what the problem with the road actually was.

Rolling out of Beaudesert, where we had left our cars, it was still pretty warm and quite muggy even though it was almost sunset.

We soon settled into a rhythm and got off the slightly busy Kerry rd onto an even more "back" road. It was dark well before we got to the base of the climb but there was little traffic and we were lit up like christmas trees with our blinky lights.

Being not very fit (and getting quite tubby with little riding) we were off, walking pretty much all of the climb. This was ok as we didn't have a deadline. Just plug away and get there when we get there was the theme of the night.

We managed to find the camp site at around 2130 and with our Tarptents quickly set up, we sat on a log in the dark, eating Subway washed down with Balter XPA. 😎 This was livin'.

After taking in the lights of Brisbane in the distance for a while it was time to turn in. I slept really well in just my SOL bivvy. Yep, no need for a sleeping bag here in SEQ at this time of the year.

I was awake just after sunrise and punctuated the serenity by pulling the plug on my air mattress! Even though breakfast was at least an hours ride away we took our time packing up, trying to take some half decent photos in the low light. I didn't really succeed. 

We eventually got rolling at around 6am taking it easy as we kept climbing up towards O'Reillys resort. This section of the road is much less steep and soon plunges into the rainforest.

 After a few more photo stops we emerged at the Canungra - O'Reillys road.

It was basically ~30ish mostly downhill kilometres to Canungra....and breakfast. 

But first we decided to take a 500m detour up to Kamarun lookout. This proved to be a great idea as we stretched out on the lush grass and took in the view of the Gold Coast hinterland for a while.

Deano, always smilin' ! 

Kings of the world!! 

Returning to the road we enjoyed the long, fast descent. It is amazing how fast you can hook these heavy bikes around the tight twisty bends (in just a foam helmet and some lycra!). I don't think I'd be any quicker in the actual corner on a motorcycle. The exit may be a different story though!

We were soon in Canungra enjoying some breakfast and coffee, looking at all of the motorcycles parked up and those cruising through town. 

Next came the bit of this ride that I hate. It is a 5 or 6 kilometre section of main road with almost no shoulder, populated by motorists who can't possibly be delayed by 10 seconds. 🙄 

I would suggest not trying to pronounce that name lest you do yourself an injury but my Kiwi readers would be like "here, hold my beer"! 

We survived!! and began along another dead end back road. 

This was the bit of the "loop" that I was concerned about. We would need to enter some private property to follow the gazetted road for a few kilometres so that we could link onto another quiet back road and complete the ride into Beaudesert.

About to enter the paddock from hell.

Easing into the paddock we were greeted by my worst fear. No, it wasn't blocked, meaning a 40 kilometre backtrack, worse still, the grass was chest high and the "track" had seen no traffic along it in quite a while. 

The fear stems from Australia having something like 9 of the 10 most deadly snakes in the world and the grass in this paddock being not only chest high, but as thick as a jungle. In a vain attempt to keep feet off the ground we pedalled on, pushing slowly through the grass and hoping that our front wheels wouldn't disappear into a massive hole. There was no time for photos here as it was HOT and muggy in this windless, shadeless snake pit of a paddock. 

We crested a ridge line then found a track with much less grass cover that the cattle had trampled into a rideable track. This soon had us out on the back road, headed towards the cars in Beaudesert.

Riding into town we went straight to the Beaudesert Hotel for a cold refreshment to help us cool down. 😉

"We survived"!

We had started out at about 6pm Friday night and rolled into the pub at about 1115am Saturday after 110 kilometres and about 1700m climbing.

Not a bad way to spend a Friday night. 

Cheers Deano!

Getting Out

I took a quick jaunt on the BMW last week to check out some road conditions around the Scenic Rim. It was also time to get some decent kilometres(metric miles) under the wheels!





It is VERY dry here at the moment and I was almost caught out a couple of times with large kangaroos bounding out of the high, dry grass on the sides of the road. The lack of carcases along the roadside lulled me into a false sense of security but in my defence, I have never seen the big Eastern Greys this close in to the coast before. It is usually just the smaller Wallabies. I guess they are looking for something to eat.

The first thing I wanted to do was check out Duck Creek Road. I have ridden this road many times on the mountain bike and have driven it a couple of times as well. April 2017 saw an ex tropical cyclone drift over the south east corner of the state and dump biblical rains. So much so that this volunteer funded road was washed out in a couple of places. Being on steep mountain sides it is beyond volunteer fundraising efforts to have it reconstructed, so Duck Creek rd has been closed since that time.
Bummer.

Since that time I have presumed that it would be traffic-able on my mountain bike but didn't want to go all the way out there only to find that the road had been barricaded off. Well, today I rode in to see what I could see.
What I could see was an entrance road in better shape than I have ever seen it! I guess the lack of traffic has allowed the access road to be relatively low-trafficked and stay in great shape.
I only went to the gate as I didn't want to be pinged for breaking any laws but when I come back on the mountain bike......? Well, lets just say mountain bikes can go anywhere.

I then rode down to the very end of the Kerry road, as far south as I could go on public roads. You tend to hit up against the Border Ranges which form a formidable barrier to accessing northern NSW. Turning around I then began my way back up to the Darlington Connection Rd which took me up a short, sharp climb then dropped me into the next valley west where I turned left into the Christmas Creek area.

End of the road.

I had ridden the mountain bike down here on one of my early bikepacking trips and the story of the Stinson Crash was explained in that post. Today I wanted to remind myself what the Stinson Park camping area looked like with a view to bringing the family for a lazy weekend before it gets too hot to camp again.

From here I headed to the little town of Rathdowny for a coffee and something to eat. In the 16 years I have been in Queensland I have never stopped in Rathdowny as it is just too close to Brisbane and a trip has either just started or is about to finish when passing through it. Well, today, on my "old man bike" I was just tooling around and the "must get going" guy wasn't in charge.....
I stopped at the quaint store and a very lovely young lass with a hint of (Irish?) accent took my morning tea order. I then sat myself out the front and watched to world go by for 30 minutes or so.

Done with sitting, I suited up and took the back way past Maroon Dam to mt Alford, then on to Boonah. The road was pleasantly twisty.

 It was also single lane in places and I got to test the BM on the dirt at 100km/h as I made way for oncoming traffic.

I stopped briefly at Maroon to take a photo in front of the local church. The towering Mt Barney can be seen to the right, looking down on us.

I then took a fairly uninspiring, circuitous route back to home via Peak Crossing and Ipswich Rd. I was looking to go to Johhny Appleseed for some RAM mounts to set my phone and GoPro up on the bike but when I got there I found the store had moved.......about 6km back along the route I had just come in on. It was now 29C according to the bike's temperature gauge and I was sweltering in my RST suit. "Bugger it, I'll come back another day" I told myself and so hightailed it home!


I put together the following video from my GoPro time lapse stills. It isn't that interesting but if you would like to see what the Australian countryside looks like, albeit in drought, grab a coffee and press play!

Taking it up a notch (or twenty three), here is an extremely well made and quite funny review of the F800GSA by FortNine.
Humour me and watch it through. You won't be disappointed (unlike with my crappy vid above)

Cheers and thanks for checking in!

S 24 O

S 24 O. W.T.F. is an S 24 O I hear you mumble?

Well dear reader, it is a Sub 24 hour Overnight. How it works is someone, me in this case, chooses a camping spot. I get the latitude and longitude and send it to other like minded bike-packers. Then we ride as much or as little as we like from wherever we choose to start with the only fixed point in space being the camping spot.

I threw this out to the other crazies um, I mean keen bikepackers to see who could make it. Being a Sunday night, Andrew of Briztreadly fame, was the only one to put his hand up for some stealth camping.

I had a problem with my plans in that I was helping man the BBQ at the last Brisbane South Mtb Club Summer Sprint round. This meant flipping bacon, eggs and snags from 6am to midday then rushing home to spend 3 hours packing my bike up. Did I mention I was away all week beforehand and had not even set eyes on my new frame bag? No? Well I am spread thinner than salmon paste on a cowboy's sandwich at the moment!

Anyway, the races went well with large fields in all categories, especially the kids races. MTBing is in a good place as long as somebody gives these kids something to aim for. Below is the start for the A grade kids. Some serious body language there!

Once home I quickly threw my gear together, stopping briefly to admire my new frame bag from Bike Bag Dude. It has been custom made to fit the Muru frame and also sports some inspiration that I sort of hope will be conversation starters as well.

I always amazes me how much gear you can fit into bikepacking bags. Too much sometimes!

I was eventually ready at about 4pm and jumped in the car for a 45 minute drive to Beaudesert, my starting point. I had wanted to ride from home but time was against me. Andrew was also starting out from Beauey but I had no idea how far ahead or behind me he was. I would just meet him at the camping spot.

I pedalled off into the evening light and into the serenity that only cycling provides. The first 20-odd kilometres were sealed, so I made good time as I watched the world roll by.

Open fields on one side........

.....and crops on the other. My destination for the night was on top of that range of hills just to the left of centre.

The sun was sinking more rapidly now but my light was working a charm as I sped along, pumping out good wattage from the dynamo hub.

And generating good charge was of increased interest today as I am running my cache battery. It is a Limefuel Blast L60X with 6000mAh capacity and weighs in at a mere 131grams(4.3oz).

 To give you an idea of it's size, it is like an oversized cigarette lighter.

The beauty of it is that it can take charge from my USB charger while it is simultaneously outputting to my gps/phone/camera/headlight. It also has a neat LED light in the end of it for rummaging around in the tent or saddle bag.

I was soon turning into Duck Creek Rd and stopped for the obligatory photo. I have ridden this road a few times before so if you want to see what it looks like by day, please check here.

A kilometre or so along the road I noticed a blinky red light in the distance ahead of me. That must be Andrew! I powered on and very soon we were chatting away. 

Well, until the climb began that was. We got to the base of the climb just as total darkness descended. Well, not total darkness as there was a third quarter moon shining quite brightly which gave some light to our steep climb.

I waited at the first lookout for Andrew and saw the very last of the twilight fade.

We spent the next hour grinding up the long, slow climb. The next lookout seemed to arrive quite quickly and I let my eyes adjust to the moonlight and took in the vista out toward Mt Barney in the moonlight while waiting for Andrew to arrive.

We soon moved on to the camp site which was only a few hundred metres further up the hill. It did not disappoint with sweeping views back toward Brisbane and lights twinkling in the distance. We quickly set up camp. Andrew had a cup of coffee in his hands in record time, then we both ate a hot meal thanks to our jetboil stoves. Mmmmm....Moroccan Lamb.....

Not a bad afternoon's ride at all! 

Some mates had ridden up the road earlier in the week and having the co-ordinates of the camping spot, left us a little surprise. A good surprise that is. We soon found a lovely bottle of red wine, thanks Chris, but alas neither of us drank red wine! Andrew kindly offered to haul it down off the mountain. It would make a good "brownie point" earner for him later on at home.

Trying to keep the weight on my bike down, I had left my sleeping bag at home and was sleeping in a Sol Escape bivy with a silk bag liner inside. The Thermarest air mattress that I bought second hand a few weeks back was also getting it's maiden test. Sleeping in just shorts and a merino undershirt I did wake up during the night feeling a bit cold, so added my down vest to the ensemble. Despite me being a bit chilly, even though it was a warmish, if windy night, I slept about 8 hours so I had judged it about right for the night. Any less sleep would have warranted a proper sleeping bag. The Thermarest was quite comfortable, if a little narrow but feels very thin and susceptible to puncture.

Andrew said he was snug in his minimalist setup. He was rocking a sleeping bag, inside a Sol Escape bivy, upon a groundsheet, under the stars. Nice.

The view in the morning.

All packed and ready to roll, Andrew was going to accompany me about 1km up the hill to see the point where the vegetation changes from open Eucalypt forest to rain forest. Yes, it is that abrupt. 

Exchanging good-byes and thanks, Andrew peeled off down the hill while I continued up the road, past Luke O'Reilly's farm and onto the main road to Canungra.

It was then time to put my head down and get my arse to Canungra for breakfast and more importantly, water. I was a bit light on for water last night, only packing about 3.5 litres along. I rationed it overnight but found I still had plenty so drank freely this morning.

There are some pretty spectacular views as you drop of the mountain and it helped having a clear morning to take it all in.

Into Canungra for some fuel and water, I wasted little time getting on the road again.

I took the back way through Biddaddaba(don't do yourself an injury trying to pronounce that one) which presented me with nice quiet roads.

Quiet, because it was a "no through road".......except for mountain bikes. I snuck along a gazetted road that was overgrown with long grass, just following in the tyre tracks. No, possibly not best practice health and safety.....

After bouncing along in the hoof prints for ten or fifteen minutes I stopped to take this photo in a slightly more open area when I noticed that one of my bags was open. 

Of course, my phone wasn't where it was meant to be. Oh shit! It is going to be a nightmare to spot in all of that long grass!

I turned back, thinking the worst but hoping for the best. I must have been kicked up the arse by a rainbow at some stage because it was lying on the track in one of the only spots that didn't have 2 1/2ft high grass!

The remainder of the ride was just dirt road grinding with a little traffic dodging on the blacktop into Beaudesert. I arrived back at the car quite refreshed, if not a little disappointed that I couldn't keep riding.

I had covered about 110km(70mi) and climbed 1200m(3900ft) in a total of 7 hours cruisy riding. The bike was heavy to manhandle being loaded up but it was still quite pleasant to pedal. It still climbs well even with the added weight of all my bike packing gear which was a nice revelation. Maybe the gym work and training is paying off? I just need to get some aero bars set up so that I can duck out of the wind a bit more and I am pretty well set it the bike department. 

My Limefuel cache battery did it's job. It ran my gps all evening, charged up my phone from almost dead flat in the morning, then ran the gps again. When I checked it at home it was still fully charged. It should have enough capacity to see me through the Tour Divide as today was a mere 4 hours pedalling.

Now, I just need to find more time to get out and do some more of this................

Cheers and thanks for checking in.