Blurring The Line

The first day to dawn bright and clear here in Brisbane for a few weeks was pounced upon by four trail hungry mountain bikers.

We made the drive out to My Joyce as the local trails will be too wet to ride for weeks yet. We were not to be disappointed as the Mt Joyce trails were at that perfect level of moisture content and 'hero dirt" was in evidence throughout the network!

The reason for the ride, apart from curing singletrack withdrawl, was to celebrate Derek's birthday. Happy Birthday Derek!! I think he is like 120 or something but that didn't matter as he has a new bike and we all know you are only as old as the bike you are riding... ;-)

As you can see from the above photo, the Trek Remedy almost pedals itself up the hill, such is it's pedalling efficiancy. You can tell because Derek is smiling and he doesn't smile going up hills. :(

Black Rock was a great place to open the bikes up a bit and have some fun. Troy and Derek were hating every minute of it.

I almost cleaned up a walaby while trying to catch up to the others. I actually got hit by the dirt flicked up by it's feet, thats how close it was.

Some of the thumb tacks thrown in France must have landed on Mt Joyce. Either that or Derek decided on a "rest stop" part way down Black Rock. He is getting on a bit you know...

I am so not going to get invited along in future! He he.....

After rolling along the Gully Trail we hooked back up the hill again. This was done four times in total today and after the first pass of this "blackboy" I just had to stop and get a photo the next time. It is by far the biggest one I have ever seen.

 This being my first MTB ride since the end of June I was starting to feel the climbs. As we were about to roll down Bovine Groove for the last time a guy rolled up on a strange looking bike. It had a downhill look about it but the triangle on the frame was built in. He came up to us and we chatted for a few minutes. It turned out to be an electric mountain bike....or an electric dirt bike with pedals depending on how you wanted to see it.

Weighing 34kg and capable of 60km/h(35mph) I could see the appeal when climbing these hills. But then again, is it just a dirt bike...with an electric motor?

It could be a potential trail shredder in the wrong hands....something else for land managers to lose sleep over and for us MTBers to look like villians again? Time will tell as I think that Stealth are going to sell a shiteload of these things. Blurring the line between bicycle and motor cycle?

Thanks to the guys for a great day out on the bike again. Good company, mountain bikes and perfect weather. It sure beats working for a living.

Cheers guys.

Aerosexual* !!??

There was no time for riding of any sort last weekend. I finished work late Friday afternoon then jumped in the car and drove. And drove. Then I drove some more, eventually rolling out the swag at midnight in a moonlit paddock at Premer. Up at 5:45am, I drove some more.

The reason for this cannonball run? Well it was time to pick the kids up from my parents place and bring them home for school. The reason for the tight timeline? I wanted to spend a bit of time where I grew up before turning around for the 1100km (690mi) trip back home.

A few days before I left an email announcing an aircraft showcase (flying day) at the Temora Aviation Museum landed in my inbox. With the weather forecast looking to be pretty well perfect I decided to drive the extra 300km(190mi) round trip to Temora as they were planning on flying their fighter aircraft, some of which are the only airworthy examples in the world! And located right in the heart of sleepy, small town New South Wales. How about that for timing!!



The kids were keen to go and Dad has always had an interest in aircraft so there was no shortage of companions that could poke me with a stick to keep me from nodding off at the wheel.

We arrived to a glorious winter's day in Central West NSW with a temperature of about 15C (59F) and zero wind. Is was absolutely calm. Perfect flying weather.

First up was the CAC Boomerang, an aircraft rushed through development into production in the dark days of WWII when it looked like we were cut off and would be over run by the Japanese. As a fighter it was pretty third rate for the time and luckily we did not come to rely on it as a batch of P-40 Kittyhawks made it through from the US just in time. Still, it is a pleasure to watch an original example in action.

Next to fly was the Gloster Meteor. This was pretty much the Allies first operational jet fighter that entered service around July 1944. It is very impressive to see this immaculate example fly as the gentle whistle from it's two Rolls Royce Derwent engines sounds very low performance when compared to modern fighter jets. The "blue note" from it's cannon shell ejection ports, located under the nose, adds to the haunting melody.

The Cessna Dragonfly flew next. While the museum's aircraft are mostly types specific to Australian history, in that our Air Force operated them at one time or another, the Dragonfly was operated by the US Air force in Vietnam.  It has phenomenal performance for a jet of it's size and age.

 

At the controls of this two seat aircraft were David Lowy, the museum's founder, champion aerobatic pilot and son of one of Australia's richest men. With him was ex RAAF pilot and now Red Bull Air Race pilot Matt Hall (and apparently a top bloke according to the ex RAAF guys that I fly with). They threw the Dragonfly around the sky, trailing smoke which whipped into a vortex by the aircraft's wingtip vortices, hung in the still afternoon air forming bizarre shapes that had my kids marvelling at the smoke as much as the routine the aircraft was being put through.

Last to fly was my personal favourite, the Mk XVI Supermarine Spitfire. Unless you have been living under a rock since the 1920s this aircraft should need no introduction at all.

One of the most beautiful fighters ever to enter production, the sound of a Rolls Royce Merlin growling past will bring a lump to your throat. Personally, I prefer the sound of the Mk VIII that the museum also owns, but it's engine is in the US for a rebuild, so the latter model Mk XVI with it's supercharged Merlin flew today. Very impressive and worth the trip to Temora on its own!

The kids had a great day out as well, enjoying the sun, the action and the hotdogs with tomato sauce.

Oh, and the reason for this museum being located way out here in central NSW? Well, Temora aerodrome was one of many Empire Air Training Scheme airfields where thousands of Allied pilots were trained during the war years.

The reason they chose Temora over the others? "Apparently", when the founders approached the councils operating the other former EATS fields they were giving a long list of demands and red tape to cut through. When they approached Temora Council they were thrown the keys to the aerodrome and told "there you go"! Not sure of the actual truth behind the story, but this is the one I choose to believe.

With the flying over it was time to head for home with my little sidekicks. An overnight effort saw us back in Brisbane for them to prepare for the return to school and me to work. Yay......

*Aerosexual- A derogatory term applied by professional pilots (who are strapped to an aircraft more than they deem healthy or necessary) to their colleagues that spend their spare time messing around with aircraft. Do fishermen go fishing in their spare time?

In my defense, my hobbies are mountain biking and motorcycling, but remember, we all got into flying because we loved aircraft........

Solomons Sojourn

Today's work consisted of heading up to Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands. Being my first time into Henderson, as is customary practice, I was accompanied by a check pilot to familiarise me with the particular intricacies of the route.

 

As an amateur military history buff I was pretty excited to be going to the site of a MAJOR conflict in the Pacific War during WWII. Guadalcanal, along with New Guinea was basically where the Japanese were stopped in their island hoping campaign across the Pacific, with the intention of cutting off Australia from it's ally, the US, and even though I would not have time to look around, just seeing the area with my own eyes would put so much into perspective. The campaign was made into a movie back in 1998. The Thin Red Line was one of the first "realistic' movies made about the Pacific War(sorry Duke, but Sands of Iwo Jima is just a recruiting flick in comparison) and as a result, very disturbing.

Located on the island of Guadalcanal, Henderson Field is the name that was given to the airport way back in 1942. In the convention of the day it was named after a US Naval Aviator killed during the Battle of Midway. The runway today is aligned exactly as it was back in the '40s, just longer and sealed for jet operations.

The water in the background is Sealark Sound. Known as Ironbottom Sound because of the amount of shipping that lies on the sea floor, it must have been a horrendous place to be in 1942 as the ships we are talking about aren't just little tinnies or supply ships. Cruisers, destroyers and if my memory serves, a big ass battleship. Please read the Wiki page (above) on the battle as it is yet another of the almost forgotten Pacific battles that really was vicious and decisive. Our HMAS Canberra, a heavy cruiser, lasted about "as long as a snowflake in hell" during the battle.

Anyway, we cruised up at 37 000 feet and would have been immune from Zeros at that height and speed.  Coming over the island at 15 000ft to ensure terrain clearance we threaded our way between two cumulonimbus(CB) which I have a sneaking suspicion are permanent features on the high ground.

The airport is on the other side of the island and we were approaching from the same direction as the Japanese troops had back in 1942 as it turned out. While this path looked ugly, these tropical storms are usually quite benign just to either side of the anvil(head) and we had a smooth ride through that cloud. Just don't try it under the build-up!

Overhead the field at 10 000ft isn't the normal approach profile of a 737, so gear and flaps were thrown out and we glided steeply down in an arc to the north, over Ironbottom Sound, to finally re-apply power at 500ft and land on runway 06 to the north east.

Facilities proved to be the expected third world fare, barely adequate and run on pacific time.

Looking back toward the high ground, it was looking a tad damp. I can't imagine trying to trudge through the rainforest covered hillsides on almost no food, trying to keep a weapon serviceable and find someone to fight all at the same time.

The Solomon Airways Airbus had a cracked windscreen (it happens from time to time) which they were in the process of changing out, so we inherited another seventy or so passengers for our return flight.

By the time we departed the CB had slid along the ranges toward the south west and our southerly departure track was relatively clear.

After a comfortable two hours and fifty minutes we were back in "wintery" Brisbane and the 31C (88F) warmth of Honiara was a distant memory.

Today proved to be very interesting and I would love to return to have a closer look around and examine some of the historic sites. While the Solomons isn't the safest place to hang, I think it is getting it's security concerns under control thanks to a peace keeping deal that has been running for most of the last decade.

So, somewhere else I have to go when I have the time......? Definitley!

First Second Half Spin.....

Freshly back from Un Zed I had a text from Dean0 asking what I was doing. My answer, "going for a ride" was soon replied to with a "see you soon". Excellent!

My first ride this Financial Year and the first in just over a week. Last week was a total loss with massive days at work and me just trying to stay rested enough to cope with those long, demanding days after my weekend away, so no time for the usual gym spin sessions.

Getting out also gave me a chance to try out my new winter gloves. Winter gloves here in the sub tropics simply mean full fingers. My old full finger dirt bike gloves are showing signs of severe index digit wear (too much nose picking?!?) after about 7 years of service. Some sweet Pearl Izumis from Wellington fit the bill.

There is never an easy ride here in Cornubia but the climb up Wallum Froglet is certainly a pleasant way to warm up. Meeting Dean0 coming the other way we threw together a couple of laps of Cornubia and a few climbs of the hill.

Dean0 was smokin'.

All of that secret training he has been cramming in is certainly paying off.

Some seriously fun climbing(suprisingly, that is NOT an oxymoron) and chewing the fat ensued with more plans being laid for upcoming bike packing trips. Time to break out the maps and start planning the details.

IceBreaker comfort. Gotta love the Merino.....but not literally....!

More Wellington Wanderings

Now that I am home I can upload some higher quality images of what we saw in Wellington over the weekend. And no, there aren't any more stylin' urinals...

I think we were pretty lucky with the weather. Only a few showers and not too windy. It could have been much worse in the middle of winter.

Wandering around we happened across this bike shop.

The biggest in town apparently. The very friendly staff kindly offered us a tea or coffee even though we were only tyre kicking.

Parked outside was this old girl. Practical as.

We saw this one ride past us, then a few hours later it was resting against a wall at a local market. I know a certain little girl who would love those tyres.

Jumping on a ferry across to Day's Bay we wandered into Eastbourne for a look around.

In town we saw these little fellas. My brother and I learnt to ride in the backyard on a Honda Cub, so they hold a special place and certainly took me back to when I was a boy.

There were some interesting houses in Eastbourne and this one particularly so.

We had a great weekend in Wellington, being able to do whatever we felt like, walk as far as needed, loiter as long as desired, all without a chorus of "how much further, my feet are sore" or "where are we going?" or "are we there yet" et cetera, et cetera......

Add to this the freindliness of Kiwis and the exchange rate and you have a recipe for a memorable stay.

Footloose And Child Free

The kids are currently spending some quality time with their grandparents so we needed to find something to do this weekend.

We remembered that the beer and food were good in Wellington so we jumped on a jet and here we are!

With all of the Kiwi craft beers to taste, I had the good fortune to check out this masterpiece in design and function.......

We have all day tomorrow here as well who knows what else I will discover!

Solo Bike Packing Trip

I am not sure how many posts I have started with the words "Well, it has been a while since my last post" so I will avoid it by saying "Crikey, I've been busy!"

I have had my head down, busy with work and study for sim. With sim successfully behind me for another 6 months, I resurfaced to notice a ride posted by Neil over at Musings. Neil is a regular organiser of "solid" rides here around Brisbane and having a free weekend, I was keen to attend.

Unfortunately, I had bitten off more than I could chew (as usual) by trying to fit Neil's ride around work and also incorporate it into my cunning plans. Something had to give. I made the tough decision to bail on Neil's ride, get some more sleep then head out on a solo bikepacking trip to test my gear and theories. I made the right decision as Neil's ride turned out to be very "solid".

I set out around midday for Gap Creek with a loose plan to climb South Boundary Rd to Mt Nebo, then ride on into D'Aguilar National Park to eventually camp somewhere by dark. 

While I had packed as light as I felt safe to do so, my "normally" 11kg (24lb) bike now weighed in at 20kg (44lb) and I was tipping the scales at 90kg (198lb) with my backpack and camera gear! As there are some big hills in them thar hills, I was very afraid! But South Boundary Rd is like an old friend, almost comforting in it's 25km (16mi) and 800m (2600ft) climb to Mt Nebo.

A pretty solid pedal with only a brief photo stop at the shelter saw me at the cafe' for a warming cup of tea and some carrot cake. Did I mention it was overcast and reasonably cold for Brisbane?

While sipping tea I perused my maps for an answer to my half asked question, "where do I go?" The tea leaves told me to head up Hammermeister Rd (just because I love that name!) then down Dundas Rd, Goodes Rd, The "Side" track onto England Creek Rd and England Creek Camp. 

An unknown factor was how much distance I could cover before dark. While I had lights, I wasn't overly keen on riding unknown trails and setting up camp in the dark. This was to be a proving run of sorts, after all.

One thing I found was that reading from a map, and a "stylised" map at that, progress was slow. Following a gps trace is obviously much easier and quicker but I had forgotten how much so. Having to constantly stop at every small side track to make sure it wasn't one that I needed to take was soaking up time. But then again, I had to keep reminding myself, I had all weekend and so what if it got dark? I could just camp where ever I stopped.

Then I came to a track named "Side" track. I am not sure of the grade but it must have been in the order of 30% as I lost 300m elevation in 1.1km of trail. I was struggling to walk down it. There was no question of riding down.

The camera is level in this photo as I have a small bubble level on the tripod clip, so that is the actual slope. Talk about being pushed downhill by the bike!

At the bottom was a small creek that obviously swells to a massive size during large downpours. It was pleasantly gurgling over some rocks as I passed through.

Down in this hollow it was getting a bit dark, so it was time to put my head down and try to make my "loose" objective of England Creek Camp. A bit of climbing and then some more leg pleasing descent made the distance fly by quickly. I managed to arrive at the camping spot just before dark and enjoyed the ease of setup of my Hennessey Hammock. It was up in just a couple of minutes and keeps me out of the weeds and more importantly, the snakes. I particularly like the fact that you do not need flat ground. You just need a couple of trees or poles about 4-5 metres (13-16ft) apart.

Then it was time to try out my camp stove and dehydrated meal. I must admit, when I last hiked I was a 13 year old boy scout with a cracking voice and no idea about much at all. Dehydrated camp meals didn't exist and excellent little camp stoves like the JetBoil were a distant dream of some visionary. Maybe humping all of the heavy crap that we had in the early eighties helped turn me off the hiking experience? Certainly, all of this uber light, well thought out modern kit has helped hook me back into that world.

It is simply amazing how fast this little stove will boil a cup of water. By the time I turned around, it seemed to be boiling! The Morroccan Lamb meal turned out to be very tasty with some added sultanas. And I wasn't even particularly hungry due to the modest 42km (26mi) ride so far.

 Coming on a solo ride like this might seem a bit irresponsible when my wife was interstate and I didn't have a firm route, but I was able to check in via my Spot Tracker. While I hoped that the green lights meant that my position was being uploaded to someone that cared, the reality was that I make a point of taking measured risks and currently all was ok. The Spot is primarily if things go pear shaped and I need a bit of a rescue......

The night proved to be pretty cold for the sub tropics and in my little hollow it was down into single digits. One of the criticisms of the hammock is it's lack of insulation and sure enough, my back felt like it was hanging out of bed all night despite the rest of me being on the verge of sweating. Not very conducive to good sleep! The light rain that fell all night wasn't a bother with my cocoon remaining dry. The comfort factor was pretty high apart from my back though and I didn't have to fight off any snakes, so I will persevere and look into some insulation for the hammock.

It was bloody cold in my little hollow the next morning and some hot porridge and coffee certainly got me going. Once again the Jetboil had the water piping in less than no time and I was able to warm my hands on a strong black coffee.

Packing up I stuffed the hammock into my seat bag to cut down on the weight on my handlebars. I had found yesterday that my hammock and sleeping bag were too much weight on my bars and made the steering seem ponderous and a bit frightening at speed.

Rugged up for the cold, I quickly warmed up as the ride out of England Creek was all uphill. Very soon I was stripping off layers and my legs were protesting from the effort.

Climbing 350m in the first 5km was a great way to warm up on a cold morning like this and after the first descent of the morning, with it's associated chill, I developed a new appreciation for slogging uphill at 5km/h (3mph).

My plan for today was to head north up England Creek Rd then turn east along Lawton Rd. Lawton Rd had been reported closed last year after the torrential rains of January caused land slips which cut the road. I figured that some repairs would have been effected by now and anyway, you don't need much trail to get a mountain bike through....

Climbing up toward Northbrooke Mountain the road skirted some ridge sides with magnificent views to the west over Wivenhoe Dam.

Coming to the intersection with Lawton Rd I was met with a very weathered "Road Closed" sign and a trail covered in much leaf litter. It certainly didn't look like anyone was using the road. Hmmm. It was a very long way to go back so I thought I would at least have a look. Of course the first few kilometres were steeply downhill and I was very concious of the climb back out if the road was impassable.

I soon came to some slips that had cut the road to half it's usual width but I also noticed that there was a slim trail where walkers, MTBers and dirt bikers had been using the road. A great sign!

Then I came to a huge slip that had taken the entire road away and was about 50ft deep and 30ft across! Bugger! I really didn't want to have to go back otherwise I would be out here all day and half the night. So I dropped the bike and had a bit of a scout around the edge of the slip and found a sketchy, narrow little path across. Testing it out, I left my backpack there and went back to get the bike. Most of the crossing was made across a tangled mass of fallen timber but there was a 6ft section where the tread was about 4 inches wide with nothing to hold onto and a huge drop into the slip on my left. Slightly heart in mouth I managed to manhandle the bike across, all the time hoping that there were not more of these further along the road.

As it turned out, this was the final hurdle and I happily climbed Lawton Rd toward Mt Glorious Rd, where I could hear the buzz of motorcycles echoing around the hillsides.

As I stood here at the gate to Lawton Rd several dozen motorcycles whizzed past. Mt Glorious Rd is one of THE roads to ride your road bike in the Brisbane area. With it's litterally hundreds of bends through the forest and several coffee shops along it's length it is a magnet for motorcyclists....and it was Sunday morning.

For me, the tough part of my ride was over. I rolled along the sealed road quickly. I stopped for a coffee and some eggs on toast which filled the hole I had created by climbing out of the forest. I was surprised to feel how cold it was when I emerged from the coffee shop and rugged up again with my bright yellow rain jacket. This would prove to be an important safety move.

Shortly after getting back on the road I was almost T-boned by a stupid woman in a people mover who was far too intent on getting into a parking place on my side of the road than looking to see if there was any oncoming traffic. "Sorry, didn't see you"!! I couldn't have been more visible in my "rescue yellow" rain jacket and suggested this to her. All I got was two fingers up from her though. So much for her being sorry she nearly ran me over and made my children fatherless. I almost pointed this out when I noticed a baby in the back seat of her car. How do you make these morons responsible for their action behind the wheel.

Anyway, I was buzzing with addrenaline and completely forgot to stop and take some photos of the 100 or so motorcycles that were lining the road outside the coffee shop at Mt Glorious!! I will have to come back on the R1 another sunday morning and soak up the atmosphere.

Turning on to South Boundary Rd I had the feeling that I was "almost home". Funny how this road is now becoming so familiar and comforting despite the 25km and 400m of climbing that still lay in front of me!

Rolling through Gap Creek I had the trails to myself, with no other riders around. On arrival back at the car I had covered 93km (58mi) with 3000m (10 000ft) of climbing for the weekend. My legs were feeling pretty well toasted as I had smashed it down Sth Boundary Rd.

Once I arrived home and checked in on Neil's ride on saturday I was glad I had not added Harding's Paddock and Flinder's Plum to my ride as they covered 50km (31mi) and also did about 1600m climbing. However, with some good rest pre-ride, maybe I could cobble together a route which takes in both of these areas......

As a test of my bikepacking gear the ride had been a success. I had packed about the right amount of food and clothing. The bike handled well enough being loaded up as well. I do need to come up with a better option for water when out in the bush. Carrying sufficient supplies is hard work. A Steri Pen to sterilise water from the various creeks I happened across looks like a "must have" and trying to build some sort of gps trail that I can load into my gps to help speed up navigation also needs looking into.

All in all, I was very pleased with how the weekend panned out and I can't wait to get out there again!