My third attempt at Mt Clear was at
last triumphant...well kinda :-)
The 10 odd kms
to the Horse Valley Hut were as awesome as they had
been the last two times I had been here, the donwhills
just get better and better as you go, I had never been
lucky enough to make it to actual hut before and I am
glad we did this time, the last downhill to the hut is
long and fast, finishing in a beautiful open valley
with the hut in the centre.
Then we headed for
Mt Clear up the fire trail, for a greuling climb and
then nice descent to the gate at Left Hand Creek. It
would seem that here we made a mistake, although the
map clearly shows one purple line (Fire Trail) that
looks easy to follow with no turnoffs (and we rode on a
trail with no turnoffs that I can remember), the GPS
track logs show us drift off the trail to the
east.....by about 2 kms! Unaware, we climbed again and then
we turned South, which is what I read off the map
and GPS as the correct direction. We could see the
mammoth Mt Clear before us. We stood in awe at it's size,
then hit the saddles again for another nice descent
which bled all of our build up altitude as we descented
like fools into the Murrumbidge Valley, ending up
around 'The Gap' creek.
Our position seemed correct
on GPS and we were still facing the mighty moutain
in front of us, but we were in fact 2 kms to the
east of were we should have been, next time I am
taking a bloody ruler to check the map distances
properly, but as I said, the map shows one trail and we
'appeared' to be right on it.
We then headed south on
the east side of The Gap and descended further
downhill, these runs are great fun out here, but we were
getting tired and completely out of water, Mt Clear was
now showing up as to our West on map and sure enough
there it was on our right....looming over us like a
monster :-) This puppy is huge and you don't really get a
feel for how huge until you stand in the valley just
below annd look up at it. We now knew for sure now that
we were too far east and had to get back over the
range to the campground (this is something I didn't
realise, Mt Clear isn't just some hill, it's part of a
range of them....all ~700m vertically from the valley
floor). We picked a spot in the range and followed fairly
major looking trail along the valley until we found a
trail heading straight up the mountains from the
valley....and I mean straight up!
We climbed and climbed
and climbed....every time we thought we saw the top
ahead, we would make it there and there would more
bloody mountain in front of us. Up until about first 250
vertical meters of this ascent I was feeling great, but
this was slowly sucking me dry of energy...we barely
made it to the top, considering our options of camping
out here overnight, in the cold, in our tshirts and
shorts...completely unequiped...
But victory was had, we made it
to the peak of the range, Chris spotted a gate back
into Namadgi and we hopped over, happy to be back on
the trail we intended to ride the whole way....from
here the ride home was easy, and excellent fun!
Downhill all the way (15kms) and loaded with obstacles and
great views...it is a pity that I was too tired to
really enjoy it though....I was just doing my best to
get back to the car where I knew cold beer, red wine
and food by the tonne was awaiting me....
:-)
We rolled into camp at 7pm, 7 and a half hours after
leaving there....slow going as we pushed our bikes up
2500 vertical meters of steep and slippery ascents,
but the reality is for all 2500m of it, we had to
come back down, and it was great!
This place
seems to be tauting me to come back and perfect the
run. It's total crap I have been here 3 times and not
managed that yet.....but we will.
Both Chris and I are
keen to be back and we will....next time with the
knowledge of where we wrong and the supplies to make it
more enjoyable :-)
Dist: 40kms
Time:
7:30
Climbs: 2500m! Ouch!
Rating 8/10
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