Border Ranges Bikepacking Part 1

Getting myself out the door for this ride was proving to be a bit of a challenge. I was still up at 10pm the night  before, going over my route maps and cue sheets. I had known how important it was to have my planning squared away before my last trip, yet I still headed out on that one under prepared  I had paid the price with some sub-optimal navigation that lead to a reroute. Not that it particularly worried me at the time but this time around I wanted to stick closer to the plan and feel more confident of the route.

This left me still packing my rig on the morning of departure. This is a job that you don't want to rush as you are bound to leave something vital behind. Now, not that I rushed it at all...but I left my arm warmers, towel and tail light at home! The beauty of the first 30km or so being through suburbia was that my lovely wife just met me along the route to rectify these oversights. I would be glad of the tail light especially over the next two nights.

The first part of the ride was along various sections of the Logan cycle network. Connected isn't a word I would use to describe this network. Nor would I use informative to describe the Logan City Council's webmap of the network. One small scale map with some lines that are about 1km thick going by the scale make it less than easy to follow. Still, I managed to find my way out to Teviot Road at Greenbank and onto my first dirt road in a fairly efficient manner.

What is wrong with this picture?

Soon I was pedalling along quiet dirt roads with only the occasional watchful magpie as company. This is what it is all about.

I soon came to my first creek crossing which was unexpected. The crossing on Undulla Rd had obviously been washed away in the floods, cutting the road with a fairly permanent looking "road closed" sign blocking my path. No problem on a mountain bike though. I just picked my bike up and walked across the creek.

Just the other side of this crossing was my first section of "questionable" route planning. Brennan's Dip rd/Nixon Rd was a road in name only, being a gazetted line on a map and nothing else. I was pleased to see that the farm gate did not have a private property sign hanging from it. I let myself in and followed a dirt track which more or less followed the gazetted line on the GPS. 

Nixon's Rd goes where?

I soon came to a point where the official road diverged at 90 degrees from the track I was following. It was time to don my Moxie Gear gaiters and "head bush". 

From here on I was on snake watch big time. I was glad that the cattle had kept the grass short in this paddock but I still made a point of keeping to the clearer areas. This isn't to say that every second stick and branch lying on the ground didn't give me a fright as I mistook it for a snake! 

Coming to a creek line I was a bit stumped for 5 minutes or so as I searched for a point to cross that was not a 20 ft drop to the dry creek bed. I eventually found a cattle track that led me into and out of the creek.

 This proved to be the only difficulty on Brennan's Dip rd/Nixon rd and I soon found myself looking down through the trees onto the dam wall at Wyaralong Dam. Having studied the maps so much in planning this ride I found I didn't need to consult a physical map at all. I knew the terrain so well that I could recall features from memory to navigate my way. Good stuff!

Wyaralong Dam

I then began my way along the shoreline track. I had not ridden this track before so was interested to explore it. It proved to be quite sandy with a lot of short steep pinch climbs and sharp descents which made keeping a good average pace tough work on a loaded bike.

After a while I came to the old homestead where I took the opportunity to top up my water from the water tank. This would be the first test of the Steripen to sterilise some water. And it was an epic fail! I had put fully  charged  Nickle-metal-hydride batteries in it and now the little blinky light on the pen was telling me it needed new batteries! Another mental note: test your equipment before you leave home...... 

It wasn't the end of the world though. I still had plenty of water but part of my game plan for this ride was to top my water up at every opportunity as resupply points would be hit and miss on this ride.

The Shoreline Track proved to be quite long and the sun was getting low in the sky by the time I reached it's western end. As I rode along I had been weighing up my camping options. While I had originally planned to just camp where ever I ran out of steam, I now had a desire to camp at Darlington Park campground, some 27km south of Beaudesert. I was currently about 25km to the west of Beaudesert. So that equated to something like another 50km. No probs. I would wing it and see how I felt.

Rolling into Beaudesert having survived the traffic on the main road I headed straight for the local Woolworths where I purchased 4 lithium batteries for the Steripen plus some water and more food. 

While inhaling a bottle of flavoured milk I noticed that I was sitting next to a cafe'. Very soon a good old fashioned burger was following that milk and I felt like a million bucks again....well like twenty bucks anyway.

Yeah, I know. Gaiters are on wrong legs....but it works.

I decided to push on toward Darlington Park so switched my blinky tail light and Ay-Ups on before pedaling into the darkness. The next 27km went by fairly quickly and I was surprised how good my legs felt. No cramps or soreness. I felt nothing at all and could have quite easily kept pedaling. But I wanted to see what Darlington Park looked like and as it was dark when I arrived I would have to camp to see it in the morning.

Riding up to the owners house, he came out to see what I wanted. When I asked if it was okay to camp and if he wanted me anywhere in particular he asked "where are you"? "Here" I replied. "No, where are you parked" he asked. "Here" I replied again. "I'm on a push bike". "Oh, I thought I saw vehicle lights" he said. "No, they were my Ay-Ups" was my reply. As I set up camp I chuckled to myself about how good Ay-Up lights are. Most non riders have no idea how good lighting systems are these days.

It was about 9pm by the time I climbed into the hammock. With 152km(95mi) and 2130m(7000ft) climbing I was a bit tired and was looking forward to a good nights rest. 

The route so far with everything going to plan...

Then it would be up early and into Day 2 and some interesting terrain........

Preparations

I have been planning another bikepacking trip for a little while now. "Planning" is a very loose term actually. I looked at the map, looked at some other riders GPS tracks, looked at how much time I have and came up with a suitably squiggly line that will be challenging and might be fun.

There will be some tough Hike A Bike in the Christmas Creek area down near the NSW/QLD border which may just prove impossible to lug 20-odd kilograms of bike and gear over. It looks okay on Google Earth (but then so does Mt Everest!) however, the topo map shows some close contour lines which equals HURT.

If I can't manage the H.A.B. section I do have a "Plan B" which involves backtracking somewhat, though the elevation profile on my "Plan B" looks like it will hurt a lot as well.......

 

With the Great Cycle Challenge underway, I have been smashing myself up, trying to get back on an even footing with my average kilometres after missing days on the bike due to work. This culminated in an 80km ride yesterday in near record (for this time of the year) heat of 38C(100F) that saw me drag myself home on my lips....which sort of put me off bikepacking today, despite the cooler temperature here today. Still, I have managed 304km(190mi) since Friday so I am ahead of the curve again.

The route I have selected is pretty slim on resupply points and with the heat in mind, water top up was a very important consideration. After much thought on the subject I decided to purchase a Steripen so that I will have drinkable water pretty much anywhere I find a water source. Being a public holiday in Queensland yesterday, I could only find the "Classic" and not the "Adventurer" in stock at the local outdoor shop, so will have to wear that weight penalty.

The good news is that I feel pretty good today and my legs will feel even better tomorrow, when I plan to start pedalling pretty early. You can follow/stalk/ignore my progress via my Spot tracker at the following link. (From the 9th October Australian time.)

Border Ranges Bikepacking Trip. 

Cheers and thanks for reading.

"CYCLE EPIC" - The Movie

Photographer, Dean Saffron was at the Flight Centre Epic this year to make a documentary style movie. And what a great job he has made of it too !

He has finally posted it up and I think it captures the spirit and feel of the weekend extremely well. Many of the main players from "Screw" Turner (Mr Flight Centre), to Robbie McEwen(former pro road cyclist, Tour de France stage winner and MTB race virgin), to Hayden Brooks(trail builder and organiser extraordinaire) down to participants on the day all ooze the infectious vibe that surrounds the Epic weekend.

Enjoy the show. You may even spot a certain redheaded girl, her brother and dad as well as our...er.. their  campsite.

Cheers.

October Challenge

Ok, fellow bloggers. I have set myself a challenge to ride my bicycle at least 1000km (620mi) during the month of October. No, I am not up to the challenge of Ocsober.....

Why would I want to do this I hear you ask? Well, it is actually for a good cause. The Great Cycle Challenge is raising money for children's cancer research. Being blessed with two healthy kids of my own, I thought that was a good enough reason to try to help others not enjoying such good fortune.

So, I am going to have to pedal at least 33km(21mi) each and every day from today to make my goal. I am not off to a good start though, going to work in about 30 minutes for the next 2 days.....but therein lies the challenge. To punch out 1000km despite life getting in the way.

My request is that you think about making a small donation to this worthy cause....and giving me some inspiration during my self imposed sufferfest. You don't have to sponsor me (but it would be nice), but if you can spare any amount it is tax deductable for Aussie donors and feel-good for you international readers.

My page can be found here https://greatcyclechallenge.com.au/Riders/DaveHoswell and you can also see how many kilometres (metric miles) others are riding as well and how much is being raised for these kids who are doing it pretty tough.

Cheers and thanks for reading.

Got My Mojo Back !

I haven't been feeling much love for trail building for the last few months. In fact, you could say I was over it big time.

Today, we had a regular planned repair day on the lower section of Wallum Froglet trail to fix some of the minor "blues" that we made before we had a solid understanding of trail building principles. That is not to say that anything was too sketchy or poorly built. Over time several sections would have deteriorated into ugly rutted puss.

So, we took responsibility for the mistakes that we made, manned up and got it done.

I must say it was actually nice to be on the business end of a mattock, shovel and rakehoe at various times this morning. The business end of a wheelbarrow....not so much!

Creating something out of nothing with a bunch of like minded mountain bikers is soothing for the soul. I really appreciated the fact that the guys who turned out this morning shared my vision for the trail and they did a fantastic job adding features to the trail that will be there long after I have parked my last mountain bike.

Massive thanks go to Geoff, Andrew, Kev and Aaron for your efforts today. May "Trail Karma" pay you back tenfold.

And me? I can hardly wait for the next trail care day now......

Cheers.

Getting Epic'd....2013 Style

Well, another Flight Centre Epic has been done and (very) dusted. Yes, about 2000 "nutters", to quote Robbie McEwen, rode around in the dust and heat out at Spicer's Old Hidden Vale this past weekend.

While there was a stellar line up of elite riders fighting for the win, for most it was a battle with just themselves. I must admit I have not been feeling much love for MTBing lately with too many competing interests like work and family getting in the way of any meaningful training. As a result I wasn't motivated enough to even bring a camera, so I apologise in advance if this post is a bit "wordy".

Having said that, I have done what I can, where I can. This has involved some running while on work overnights and longer rides when I found some time. I am not sure whether the running is a help or a liability though as it seems to pound my knees pretty hard. Better than nothing though when I don't have access to a bike....right?

Our weekend started on Saturday afternoon with the kids races. I had one entered in the 4km Mini Epic and one in the 11km Minor Epic. I figured that the youngest would be fine by himself doing the 4km race and I had probably better shadow "Miss 11" in the Minor as the track is pretty technical, even for some adults. Not helping her cause was the fact she had felt unwell all morning and suffered the indignity of hanging out of the back seat of the car, throwing up in the gutter in Rosewood at 11am!

But she was DETERMINED to race and race well. She even lined up in the blazing sun about 30 minutes before the race start just to get a good starting position! A big deal when you are a fair skinned ranga (red head for my US readers).

From the start she was going hard and I headed to the mid way point for the race as there was no way of getting through the traffic to catch these fast moving kids!

As the racers climbed out of "Gully" track she was the first female I saw. Unfortunately, her stomach was giving her a hard time and I tried to give some sage advice like "slow down, sip some water" and generally cheer her up. She had been going a bit too hard in the heat and seemed to recover a bit with this advice. But, did I mention she was DETERMINED? I have tried to ingrain in the kids that it is about having fun and enjoying the challenge but Lucy wanted to WIN, big time!!

She re-passed two girls on the big climb out of "Western Creek" and we had the eventual 2nd place finisher in sight for the remainder of the race (yes, we saw your dad running alongside you holding up his Camelbak for you to drink from) but were unable to up the pace enough to catch up.

Anyway, Lucy finished in 3rd place and considering how the day had started out, she was pretty happy with the outcome. Needless to say, I am proud of her efforts.

Mr 8, in the Mini Epic, managed to come in 7th position. He was a bit disappointed with his result but there were 40 kids in his race, so 7th is still very respectable.

As I was flying solo this weekend Sunday morning was blur of getting the kids up, dressed, fed and covered in sunscreen before getting myself ready to roll. This was both helped and hindered by the fact that we were camping at Hidden Vale.

Having done about five or six Epics now I wasn't worried about lining up for 30 or more minutes before the start. A few of us joined the "grid" just as the Elites were starting their race which meant we only need stand there for a few minutes before it was time to be off and to be honest, at my pace it doesn't make any difference!

File photo

My race strategy was to find an easy pace and drink lots. It was going to be hot and cramps were the enemy that will stop you in your tracks. Last year I upped the pace while the masses crawled the first real climb up Grinder and passed dozens of riders. This year, with the lack of training, I stayed in the conga line and spun easily. Keeping my heart rate right down would be the key to keeping the cramps at bay later in the day.

File photo.

The next major climb I stuck to the same strategy and granny geared it to the top before whooping down the steep rutted descent toward the little township of Mulgowie.

This section is open country road and the secret is to hop onto a pace line of riders to hide from the wind. If you find yourself all alone here you are going to hurt bad, which doesn't put you in a strong place for the 300m climb up McGarrigal Rd and back into the Hidden Vale property.

 I will admit I wasn't strong enough to take a turn on the front but figure it is all swings and roundabouts. So, I hid behind a string of faster riders.

Grovelling up that climb I chatted with Neil, one of the Daisy Hill regulars. He had a massive blister on his rear tyre and wasn't at all confident he would finish before it blew. He decided to press on up the climb, leaving me to keep thinking positively....on my own.

The next section of double track is always the same each year. It is hot, bumpy and gets very steep as it follows the ridge line of the range of hills. Nasty stuff. My easy pacing strategy was to swallow my pride and walk the really steep sections, thus saving my legs from some hurty spasms later in the day.

File photo from 2012 but the hurt is the same.

Finally we were into the sweet single track that Haydz had cut for last years race to remove some seriously ugly downhill sections. As soon as we were though, a female called track left (where there was no hill !) and pushed past. I had just walked past her up the previous hill and was thinking "where do you think you are going?" as there was another conga line of slow, walking riders (oxymoron?). After a few minutes and a few "rider up!" calls we were through the traffic and descending at speed.

We began talking as we rode, me following as the pace was perfect for my race. I discovered that she was up from Canberra and was racing the course "blind". Here was another swing and roundabout where I could help out a bit with some course information as she was running low on water. The plus for me was twofold. Having an awesome female call "track" and "2 riders" had guys pulling over and letting us through pretty well immediately! The second benefit was having someone to chat with, which made the time fly and before I knew it we were back at Hidden Vale resort.

I didn't catch her name, being old and deaf, but reading James Downing's blog it turns out it was his partner, Kylie Webb. Yes, the Kylie who won the 50km elite female race. Thanks for the fun 15km Kylie !

Rolling through said resort my bottle hand-up team were nowhere to be seen. Not surprising really as their average age was 9.5 years and there was a free swimming pool at hand! So I trundled across to our camp and grabbed a can of Coke from the esky, topped up my water laced with more Nuun tablets and munched some salty macadamia nuts. I had planned to lube my chain but in spite of the choking dust it was still performing flawlessly!  Ride Mechanic Bike Milk really is the schiz, keeping it well lubricated and shifting smoothly.

Mmmm ....Salty.........

Into the final 37km of the race, one might think that they were well past half way. Not so, with the "back 9" of this race being all single track or rocky fire road. Both are demanding of attention and energy. There really is nowhere to hide.

Maybe that is why I grovelled some parts of the course like "Yowie". The various parts of my body were competing for attention in the pain stakes so I adapted Naughty Boy's LaLa lyrics to suit my situation.

I'm covering my ears like a kid

'Cause your pain means nothing, I go la la la

I'm turning up the volume when you speak

'Cause if my heart can't stop it, I find a way to block it, I go

La la, la la la la la na na na na na

It wasn't until I started chatting with a guy about our rubbish  North Wave shoes and how uncomfortable they are while climbing "Grinder" for the second time that I felt like I was definitely going to finish this thing. For the proceeding 45 minutes I really just wanted to throw my bike into the scrub and sit down. Not a feeling I have had before in a race.......

At this last check point they were loading some poor bugger and his bike into a ute. He was cooked. I on the other hand was cooking down "Epic" trail for the third time today. Woo Hoo!

I had only had a twinge of cramp in my left thigh so far. It was time to empty the tank, backmarker-Fred-style! And an empty track went with my empty CamelBak and empty head, so it was almost as fun as following Kylie through on the previous lap!

I managed to roll across the line in *ahem*, 6 hours and 11 minutes.

Not stellar, but only about 15 minutes behind my best ever time, with no training. I was pleased that my first 50km time was sub 3 hour while keeping an easy, low heart rate pace. My nutrition intake remains way lower than it used to be with one banana, one gel, one protein bar, a handfull of salted macadamia nuts and about 5.5 litres of fluids consumed for the whole ride...er race.

Stats are as follows.

My motivation before the race was at an all time low. Now, a day later with the 20/20 vision of hindsight, I am quite pleased with how much I achieved based on how little I put into preparation. Apart from catching up with friends, the real highlight of the weekend for me was watching the kids have the best time being outdoors riding, swimming and having fun.

A massive thank you to Hayden and Fleur Brooks and their massive team of volunteers for putting together another flawless even. We will be back again next year.....in spite of the heat and dust.....!




Cheers and thanks for reading.

Touring Townsville II

The second day of my work trip dawned bright and clear. Got to love the dry season in the tropics.

I planned to walk along the waterfront, then loop around the western side of Castle Hill to find the Ironbark Trail that my knees have refused to take me down the previous day.

As I said in my previous post, Townsville has some interesting architecture. It was obviously an important town in Australia's early years as evidenced by the old stone buildings along the river and near what would have originally been the port.

The old post office is now a micro brewery that makes some delicious beers. If in town, I recommend you try the Ned's Red on for size.

There are plenty of old buildings along the river. I imagine this would have been the main port back in the day.

How much do you like spiders? This on is about 15ft long!

Yes, we are on the Great Barrier Reef here.

Townsville was a major US and Australian base during WWII. There is a large section of park along The Strand with various dedications to those that made the ultimate sacrifice.

And Castle Hill watches over EVERYTHING!

For you fish and chips?

There were many artists setting up art works all along the beach and park lands. While I don't know anything about art, I know what I like and I liked quite a few of the pieces.

This old Ag cat is on floats and was in the Phantom movie back in 1996. You can go for joy rides over town these days.

The view across to Magnetic Island. Nice?!

And the reason for the vinegar? Yep, stingers. These little buggers will kill you.(remember Finding Nemo?)

Much safer to swim in the kiddies pool.

The floor boards must be bolted down in this house. Facing out to sea, I could imagine this place getting some "lift" with a category 5 Cyclone(Hurricane/Typhoon) bearing down upon it!

And finally, I was back around Castle Hill for the trail that I missed yesterday, The Ironbark.

I am glad I made the effort as it turned out to be a nice trail. THen it was time to drop down the face again and suit up for work again.

Stats for the morning are below. I am not sure about this hiking/running thing. It appears to be pretty hard on the knees.

But it gets you to some magic places when you don't have a bike!

Cheers and thanks for reading.