Following the resounding success of last Wednesday's night ride, Paul and I went exploring the western side of the Dandenongs on friday. We both agreed at the end that it was certainly one of the best rides either of us had ever been on. At about 25km all up, it was sub-epic, but we covered all kinds of terrain and trail, lots of good descents and climbs, and just had a hell of a good time.

Started at Paul's folks place at Kaolorama again, and did about a k of backroads to the "5-ways" intersection. It took us a while to decide that the Trigg Track, which was the first stage of our trip, was quite unridable. A rocky goat track on the side of a bloody steep hill. Walked the last bit of it, and back to Ridge Road (the main road climbing to Mt D).

A nice little single track opened out to a rough firetrail, which I eventually recognised as Kyemah Track, which runs below Mt Dandenong Observatory, to the plane crash site, and up to the top of Channel 10 Singletrack. Ch 10 ST is getting to be in pretty bad condition. It is always steep and techy, but now there is lots of sloppy slippery mud and crud, and it is getting ugly. There looked to be something black, wet and slimy leaking from the tower enclosure, but it is probably libelous to say that Channel 10 has something dodgy draining out of their property. Oh...the magic word..."alegedly". Can't deny that MTBers have done some damage to this track, and we should probably stay off it, at least until summer.

Channel 10 firetrail is all chewed up at the switchbacks by trail bikes. At the intersection where ch10 track continues to drop down to Doongala and the Basin, we kept going straight...I think it is called Dandenong Creek Track. Good air is to be had off the little crests. Paul tried to hop over the big mud pits and got really muddy. I was planning to go to uni in the afternoon, and wanted to stay a bit clean, so went slow throught the mud. I eventually got over it, and got muddy too. This area is steep, thick, wet forest, and just gorgeous.

After the track crossed Basin-Olinda road, we doglegged uphill on a wide straight firetrail for 100m, then turned south again onto School Track. We assumed that this would climb to Olinda, but instead it turned into a gorgeous descent, which saw my top off-road speed of the day at 52 clicks. Little waterbars were doing their job (ie getting wet and muddy) and were good to jump over (landing on top of the waterbar, rather than launching off it).

A dirt road climb saw us pop out at Sassafrass. We did the blacktop thing, climbed for about 5 km into Olinda, and had a bit of a feed. Another few k's of road, all downhill (managed to break the 60 speed limit...just...) and we got to a cool little track I know. Rough firetrail, which leads you down hill to the top of a really stupid descent. It is about 200m long, fairly straight, very steep, and is made of smooth, slick, wet clay. Paul did the sideways washout thing. I concentrated on trying to follow the fall line without turning at all, and made it down. Stoked.

This hill drops you back on Dandenong Creek Track, just near the Ch 10 Track junction. Rode back to the bottom of the switchbacks, then followed the firetrail that keeps headed north and stays low on the hill. This is called, or becomes later, Fireline Trail. It is a hoot. Lots of dry rocky steep erroded descents (which Paul says are a bit like Red Hill in Sydney, and I said was like my study-break loop near my parents place at Padstow in Sydney), and only one ascent that neither of us made it all the way up. Good technical bits, then nice smooth fast bits. Awesome trail. The climb at the end is not all that bad, and it puts you back at the 5-ways intersection.

From here it was a short road descent (couldn't get over 55...) back to Kalorama.

Generally had a sensational couple of rides with Paul...thanks heaps! Worked really well because we are well matched...I think I got away with slightly fewer dabs on the techy stuff, but he is quicker up hills (damn roadies...). Looking forward to catching up and riding again next time I get myself and bike to Sydney!

Back to the bike page