We started out at the top gate, it doesn't open until 8am and we arrived at 7am, so we threw the bikes over and rolled down to the dam, it was pretty cold (1'C and I just love rolling fast down bitchumen in those temperatures :)). At the dam, instead of going around via the Pump Station as planned, I chose to forget that was the way to go and lead the crew over the dam, we jumped the fence and walked across the dam floor to the other side, where we climbed out and onto Bradleys Creek Walk, a steep climb to the top, where there is a nice chair to rest on, so we did :)
From there it's some serious climbs and descents as you head south down Queenbeyan River Fire Trail, we were all riding strong through and rode all of these climbs, bombing down the other side was fast and furious, water bars, corners and load of fun was had.
At the most southern point, we turned for Gelignite Crossing, which takes us west, and should have landed us on the west side of the dam so we could cruise north to the cars. Stupidly though, I was hammering up the far side of Gelignite crossing, a steep ascent, I wanted to make it as I hadn't walked any climbs yet, so I wasn't about to walk this short steep one, I head checked the sign at the Y intersection which had a picture of a bike, so I followed that, didn't check the GPS or anything. Big mistake. We rode 2 km south (the way the crow flies, but it was 3.6km of trail) before I realised we were off course, the GPS waypoints were not accurate either, my map calibration was out by 1km or so, so it was too easy to drift 2km off course. The mistake cost us 7km, 400 vertical metres and nearly 2 hours, as that stretch of fire road is all windy track up and down steep hills, very steep.
It was here that the mind starts to let the body down, I was very nervous and shattered I'd fucked up and led us off course, and fatigue started to get a hold of me. I only had 2L of water and the boys were running out too. I ran out totally. We limped back up to Gelignite crossing and pushed correctly west, to Waspen Crossing, were we took a short cut across the crossing, I wasn't prepared to head south again, which was the route around this crossing. We should have :) The crossing is loaded with spikey weeds, it was awful to push though.
Once on the other side it was clear sailing north on Western Foreshores Walk, but the crew was stuffed. We were crawling. The hills on this side are smaller than the other side, but they were big enough to bring the dehydrated crew to a stand still. None of us took enough food either, so we were bonking. Brendan pulled up the best I think, Neil and I were rooted and Dan is still recovering from being very sick, so he paid dearly.
In the end my guilt of putting us all through it got the best of me and I took off for the cars, leaving the crew to limp out together. I nabbed my car and drove back down to pick up the boys at the bottom of the hill, saving them one climb out. I wish I could have ridden out faster as I could have driven to the bitchumen carpark at Drum Stick point and saved them that climb too :(
Sorry guys, I made a few mistakes there, I've looked hard at them and analysed them below. I won't be making them again...
Having said that though, it was quite a ride, beautiful and challenging. I'll be back for sure, and soon too. Googong beat us that day, but next time, we'll get around clean, the GPS is already recalibrated and rerouted, and we'll take the maps I left in the car this time, and the food and water we should have.
At the start I took us over the dam to meet with Bradleys Creek road. We should have turned East and ridden down the road to the pumping station, there is a back road from there to Bradleys Creek Trail. Instead we rode down the back side of the dam, up the hill on the other side, then had to illegally jump a rail and climb out from the dam floor to Bradley's Creek. If I had pre read the damn map the night before, or taken the stoopid thing with me, I would have seen the easy way around, rather than taking the "straight across" approach, sometimes the fastest and easiest way is not a straight line, a fact I proved again later at Wapen Crossing...
At the half way point we ripped down to Gelginite crossing at full speed, 20m up the other isde there is an intersection, it's on a fairly steep climb, foolishly I head checked (as I did not want to stop pedalling, I wanted to top the climb) the sign there which has a picture of a bike, and followed it. I had a funny feeling it was the wrong way, but the sign has a bike on it, so...
We should have gone the other way. The sign I followed took us 3.6kms due south, on Queenbeyan River walk, which goes to Flynns crossing. When the GPS said we were 1km off course, I got nervous but it looked like the track turned west ahead, which was the way we needed to go. I had a bad gut feeling but I pushed on until we were 2km south of Gelegnite crossing (the way the crow flies), I stopped and did some proper work with the GPS and used the sun as a compass to check it all out. We were going the wrong way.
The error meant we'd ridden and extra 7km, climbed an extra 395 meters and lost 1:51 in time before we gack to Gelgnite crossing... a costly mistake.
Then not long after that I took a short cut that we shouldn't, after correctly heading west from Gelignite crossing, we came to Waspen Crossing Walking Track, here I knew the cars were too our north and that the crew was pretty tired. We had the option to follow a car park sign which was heading south... I did not want to go in the wrong direction again, so I headed us north. Waspen Crossing does not have a track going across it, the walk dead ends at the river, which lucky for us, is dried out from the drought, so we were able to cart our bikes over the river bed, through 50 hard meters of spikey weeds. It was hard going but it got us into Western Foreshores Walk. In hindsight, we should have turned south at Waspens Crossing Walk, that road curves around and heads back north to Googong dam.
The gates to Googong open at 8am, we arrived at 7am. We dumped our cars at the gates and threw the bikes over the fence, rode into the start, I didn't realise it, but this little extra bonus ride would add on 3.2km and 220m of climb to the day. I should have called ahead and found this out first. That extra 100 veritcal meter climb out at the end of the day was killer, it would have been nice to skip it :)
I left the maps in the car, what an idiot. I got complacent with my last few back country efforts being straight forward and having no need for maps. This time, I could have checked the maps during both of those navigational problems and we would stayed on course. Next time, I'll take them.
I didn't take enough water, 2L was not enough for 8 hours out there, it wouldn't have been enough for the 5 hours I thought it would take to do the 50km journey. Next time, I'm taking 3L at least, I need a bigger camel back :)
The crew:
| Neil | Cannondale Scapel |
| Brendan | Durango Ballistic |
| Dan | Turner Flux |
| Jason | Spesh Enduro |
The Stats:
| Distance | 46.2km |
| Time | 7:50!! 2:50 hours of stops (we got tired okay! :)), 5:00 on the move |
| Climb | 1900m!! |
| Speed | 54.5km/h max, 9.8km/h avg (slow going) |
| HR (Jason) | 96% (173 bpm) max, 69% (127 bpm) avg |