Mawson trail - Day Two - Tanunda to Riverton 4th May 2015

After a quick coffee, I packed camp and rode the last kilometers to Tanunda. It was a wise move to stop where I did last night, as it took longer to get into town than I had sunlight yesterday.

 

 Ordered a cooked breakfast and drunk another coffee before continuing north through Nuriootpa to Kapunda into a strengthening Northerly!

Garden ornament on the trail North of Nurioopta

Would be tough riding if the tracks were wet.

Escaped the gusty and warming Northerly for a moment and had a sub par pastie, caramel slice and coffee in a cafe in Kapunda.

Back on the trail, the wind was making it hard to make forward progress.

The Mawson trail wove along some amazing small tracks, some barely tracks and seemed to find every hill in the area!

My schedule had me camping in Auburn. But with the wind and potential rain forecast I decided I would stop in Riverton and splurge on a cabin in the caravan park.

It was starting to get late and I still hadn't got to Riverton, the headwind was making it a real struggle!

Unfortunately all the cabins were booked out by a road crew by the time I arrived in town, so I pitched the tent and showered before walking to the local takeaway for a healthy dinner of fish and chips. After dinner I sat in the laundry to escape the mosquitoes and read whilst my clothes went through the dryer.

The clouds looked threatening but only let a few big drops fall. The forecast was for more wind and some rain which would make tomorrows long day even more challenging!

Ride details 91.87km

 Elevation gain 1146m

Mawson trail - Day One - Adelaide to Tanunda 3rd May 2015

I woke early and headed back up the road to the nearest cafe for a cooked breakfast, before packing up and heading out on the Torrens river path. By the time I got on my way it was already after 9am,  far later than I'd wanted. 

Fortunately the Torrens river path runs both sides of the river as shortly after I started riding I had the field of a half marathon heading towards me! A quick switch to the other side got me away from the chaos and allowed me a cruisy ride out of the city. I'd underestimated how far out it was to the start of the Mawson trail proper and rode close to 15km of sealed path till I found myself finally riding up the scenic Gorge road into the Adelaide hills.

A descending mountain biker stopped for a chat and quiz me on my set up and where I was headed. When I mentioned the Mawson he warned me about the hike a bike (HAB) ahead. I had already read much about it so knew I would need to walk at some point today. It was another 5km or so when the first of many Mawson trail markers was sighted and signed me off the main road and first section of many kilometers of dirt to come.

First dirt of the Mawson 

Soon enough things got steep and first of two HAB's were required.

Didn't take long to gain elevation. Looking back towards Adelaide.

The Adelaide hills are very beautiful and offered lovely sights at every turn.

After Lobethal, I misread one Mawson trail signpost and only discovered my mistake after a flowing 5km downhill! So had to climb back uphill before continuing on to Birdwood. Here I raided the pie warmer for a late lunch, then continued onward along dirt roads, through pine plantations and vineyards.

 

 

 

 

It was just prior to the big descent down towards Tanunda when I veered a short way off the trail for a stealth camp. I had originally planned to camp in Tanunda, but with the late start, extra distance to the start of the Mawson trail and wrong turn I had run out of light. 

With the sun dropping below the horizon, I heated up my dinner of rice and tuna followed by a hedgehog slice I bought at lunch in Birdwood.

Ride details 97.32km

elevation gain 1666m

Mawson trail - Adelaide bound 2nd May 2015

I had grand plans to ride a couple of overnighters to test out my gear and bike set up. In the end the closest I got was setting up the new tent in the back yard and spending the night a few metres from my back door. This meant the first time I got to ride loaded was the 500m ride to my metro train station at 5:20am!

It couldn't have been any easier getting into Southern Cross station and on to the 7:05am Overland to Adelaide. Was nearly a roll on and off experience; unfortunately there were 3 other bikes so I had to take the bags off the bike.

Other than being a long and bumpy ride, the journey West was painless. I got some sleep, had an okay coffee from the dining carriage and the train pulled into Adelaide earlier than scheduled just on dusk.

I'd booked a non powered site on the other side of the city, so I loaded up the bike and headed across town with only a few wrong turns on the way. Once set up, I rode back the nearest shops for dinner and then was off to sleep early. The ride starts in earnest tomorrow!

Campsite at the caravan park on the banks of the Torrens river the morning after.

   

Mawson Trail Overview

Whist contemplating whether I wanted to continue racing after my crash racing on the velodrome and subsequent recovery from the collarbone surgery, I was told about the Mawson Trail in South Australia.

The idea of touring especially with heavy panniers has never taken my interest, but along with hearing about the Mawson trail I was told about bikepacking. This is the idea of using lightweight camping gear and various softbags to carry it on the bike had me intrigued. I began investigating the trail and bikepacking gear further, started shopping for equipment and booked two weeks leave for the following May.
  
The Mawson Trail is a 900km mostly off road route than meanders from Adelaide, through the Adelaide Hills, Barrossa and Clare Valleys, the dry hills around Burra till finally traversing though the Flinders Ranges to finish at Blinman, the highest town in South Australia.

 The trail was perfect for my first bike packing trip. Well signposted with accompanying trail maps, many towns to pass through for supplies and finally transport for myself and bike back to Adelaide. Due to its meandering circuit, if I was too ambitious with my schedule or stuck in the renowned red clay that catches out the unwary as soon as it rains I could take the tar and cut a few corners to make up time.

It was a tough itinerary I'd given myself; 11 days of riding included a few short days in the Flinders Ranges. As it would be my first visit in the area, the shorter days were so I could fit in a couple of day walks at Wilpena Pound whilst passing through.

I planned to ride the trail North; riding away from the city so the trip could climax with traveling through the rugged Flinders ranges. Although going this way meant I'd have to time my ride to perfection to make Parachilna by Wednesday night. This was critical so I could catch the twice weekly bus South first thing Thursday morning to then make the Friday morning Overland train back to Melbourne.

It was fortuitous with the Overland train schedule fitting my two weeks holiday perfectly. Train to Adelaide left first thing Saturday morning and returned the morning after the bus back to Adelaide. Why take the car when I could take the train from home? No fear of speeding fines or the issue of figuring where to leave my car for a couple of weeks. Was also cheaper than if I drove!

    

Lilydale to Wangaratta 4 day tour Nov 22-25 2015

This would be my first gentle foray into a touring, being a point to point credit card tour staying in accommodation along the way.

My friend Andrew had mapped a mostly offroad route that would take us 489km from Lilydale to Wangaratta. It would include some extremely rough and steep terrain between Mirimbah and Whitfield which added to the challenge.

Day one saw four of us on the train out to Lilydale, where we were to start the 163km days ride to Jamieson. Roughly half  of day one's route was sealed - to Warburton via the rail trail, Reefton Spur, Eildon Warburton rd (not one car!) and then over a tough climb at around 140km in to finally descend into Jamieson.

Bike set up using my Revelate Designs Viscacha which works amazingly including numerous jumps over water bars day two!

Eildon Warburton rd

 

Day two Jamieson to Whitfield over Mt Stirling 133km and some extremely steep and rough 4WD tracks.

No 3 Road view at around 1550m above sea level

 

Day three 104km. Was to go over the back of Mt Buffalo via the Goldie Spur track, but the inclement weather had us taking the safer option to Myrtleford and then onto Bright.

 

 

Day 4 88km Cruised into Wangaratta via the rail trail and spent a couple of hours enjoying the three course degustation option at Gapsted winery before continuing on to catch the train back to Melbourne ...

Kurth Kiln Gravel Grind 26th October 2014

This was to be my first real ride in a number of months. I had been commuting again, but only after a long enforced layoff due to a crash on the velodrome; hence the long time between posts...

Metalware, a frozen shoulder and a number of months off the bike was the result!

Given I had only just regained close to full mobility I was somewhat concerned how it would handle the rough terrain.

The ride was an organised gravel grind hitting my local hills on the roads and tracks less travelled, so was keen to take part and explore somewhere new! A number of riders exited the train at Boronia and we slowly made our way up to the Basin shops and the official start of the ride.

Soon we were away and hit the front side of Mt Dandenong. The gradient and congestion at a pinch point meant this would be the first section of Hike A Bike (HAB) for the day. The circuit mapped out offered a great array of tracks and fire trails; only taking the bitumen when no dirt option existed.

 

Due to one rear flat approaching Yellingbo, we only just made the general store just on closing and only after the others has stripped the shop bare of all edible foods. I ended with a Chicken and gravy pie which I regretted for a number of hours afterwards!

 

 Some gems of the Kurth Kiln section was the sealed Sheepstation Creek road linking from Yellingbo to Gembrook road and the many quite dirt tracks through the Kurth Kiln park. We eventually arrived in Gembrook, where another feed was in order. Here the options and quality was much better so we enjoyed our food sitting in the shade before continuing on. Again many out of the way dirt roads were followed although more cars now as we got closer to Monbulk.

 

The final cruel HAB section was straight up Chalet rd to Olinda. Marked on the map as a road but barely wide enough to walk the bike! Last run back to the Basin shops and finish was down the gravel Basin Olinda road, one that I had ridden a number of times up on the road bike but never down. Having the wider tyres on the CX bike made it a breeze!

All up just over 100km was travelled over some great little tracks. Shoulder did hold up to the abuse, so felt like things are finally on the improve.

Ride details  114.8km

 

2897m elevation gain

 

Mt Baw Baw from Noojee return 28 December 2013

My only memory of the Baw Baw climb was as a teenager driving up to the snow one cold and wet night; wondering if the car would actually make it up to the resort so steep was the road!

Many years have passed, and due to this distant memory and the climbs fierce reputation I hadn't till today attempted to ride it. I'd had a busy Christmas break with not enough riding and had to get out. The weather forecast was sounding nasty with high heat and strong northly winds, so the steep winding roads up to the Baw Baw ski resort sounded the best option....

The alarm sounded way too early, but I wanted to make the drive to the small town of Noojee before the heat kicked in. The drive was uneventful and somewhat boring along the M1 through the ever expanding outer suburbs of Melbourne.

Once in the small town of Noojee, I unloaded and was out on the road and heading towards Mt Baw Baw. It wasn't long before being confronted by Vespers Hill (9.1% 2.83km) which definitely got the legs working! The road continued on initially through rolling farm land around Icy Creek before weaving through wonderful stands of tall treeferns and even taller eucalypts. There didn't appear to be one metre of flat roads so I  was either climbing or descending till hitting the start of the climb up to the Mt Baw Baw resort.

Here the climb started calmly enough (5.58km @ 4.2%) and could easily lull any unsuspecting rider into thinking Baw Baw isn't so tough. Those who have done their research know this is merely the calm before the storm...

Once at the Gantry where the old Toll house was located is the first sighting of the road balking skywards. Here it hits double digits (3.5km @ 13.1%) and continues at a painful gradient from this point to the top. I still had the mid cage derailleur fitted so slotted in the 13-29 cassette. Even with this there were many points where my cadence was under 50 rpm.

There were a few sections where there was a slight easing in gradient such as the left turn towards the resort, but really not enough to offer much respite. Especially when shortly after the turn was the aptly named Winch corner hitting over 20%!

The top section 2.23km eased slightly back to 11.6%; though it wasn't till the last 700m to the resort when it finally relented.

Once I rolled through the resort entrance I stopped found a shop that has a few tools as my left cleat had a bolt nearly completely undone. 
 

Then made my way to enjoy an expensive coffee overlooking the rolling hills of Gippsland below.

Soon enough it was time to point the bike downhill and head back to the car. Given the gradient, it was a cautious ride off the mountain. Other than a blue tongue running alongside and nearly running over a snake I made it back down safely.

I'd saved a bit for the ride back as there were a few climbs I had to ride over. Towards Noojee it was getting a lot hotter and I was running low on water so glad to finally roll into the carpark. Immediately after topping up the water bottle and loading the bike into my car I headed straight for the Latrobe river I'd parked next to and enjoyed sitting in the cold water.

Ride details 97km 

2976m elevation gain