7 of us turned up, but 30 minutes into the trip it was pretty clear that Vic and his daughter were going to struggle with the distance, luckily we had ridden in from the Homestead on Bullock Paddock Rd, as it meets up nicely with Warks Rd where you can either turn left and climb the Brindy's, or turn right and duck back out onto Brindabella Rd where the cars were parked. Vic decided to take the offered escape route, and the rest of us started the ascent up Warks Rd to the top of the range.
Warks is a long way up, but so lush, the views are stellar and it's a nice steady climb to the top. We had two 20 minute stops on the way up (and a couple of 10 min stops with Vic), one as we got to Old Mill Rd and another when we hit Mt Franklin Rd, just a tad above Picadilly Circus, so it took us 3 hours to get to Two Sticks itself, an hour slower than anticipated. We were planning on doing the length of Two Sticks, but time was running out, so we made the call to do Coree, then duck out on Pabral Rd, as I thought it was a short cut... turns out it is, but not by much!
We rolled down to Two Sticks and onto Coree, where no matter how many times I see Coree from the start of Two Sticks, I'm left in awe of it's height and steep rocky shape. It's a mean looking mountain! :) Everyone decided to have a crack at it, so we pedaled up, it's takes around 30mins to get up there, and it's hard hard stuff. So many rocks that your constantly having to keep pedaling harder than you would like to keep the momentum up, I peaked out at 94% maxHR on the final ascent to the summit, they concreted this stretch a couple of years ago, but some of it is still exposed loose rock and very tricky. I got stuck on a rock and didn't make it, a fate the rest of the crew endured as well. Oh well, there's always next time... ;)
About halfway up Al gave an unplanned demonstration of the effectiveness of tubeless tyres with Stans Goo in them, he copped a big hole in a tyre and the goo was spraying out, I was impress ed by how well it was coming out and could see with a smaller puncture how well it might work. In this case though, the hole was too big, and a tube was needed. He did tell us a story where he had recently copped 4 blackberry thorns, he stopped and pulled them out to hear a quick "hiss", then silence as the goo filled the holes and he was able to ride off without even pumping the tyres! I want this setup on my bike now! :)
The summit greeted us with perfect blue and warm Canberra winter skies, and we sat up there contemplating the world and soaking up some nice warm sun for 20 minutes, taking time for a well earned snack! Then it was time for the tricky descent down Coree (those rocks are even more tricky on the way down!), then straight down Pabral Rd, which is a wicked water bar filled descent. Pabral Rd is awesome fun, many a giggle and scary moment was had by all :)
Then it's up the quick climb onto Brindabella Rd and along the bitchumen back to the cars, checking the track logs later at home I found it's only 5kms shorter than doing the whole Two Sticks Rd going this way, so it's barely a short cut all! There's a surprising amount of bitchumen to cover and going around Two Sticks would have been more fun I think. Something to remember for next time...
Perfect weather and a great crowd, what a top day, thanx for coming out lads!
The crew:
| Brendan | Norco Dually |
| Simon | Chezza Bomb |
| Mal | Rocky ETSX-50 |
| Jason | Giant Trance |
| Al | Giant Anthem |
The Stats:
| Distance | 61kms |
| Time | 5:30hrs |
| Climb | 1535m |
| Date | 17/06/07 |