Marysville – Jamieson 2 Day Ride[/size]
28/29 July 07 By Wade Evans
When Craig says it’s a clubman ride, you know you’re in for a tough two days especially after some of wettest weather Victoria has had for months making trails extremely slippery.
Starting from Marysville Caravan Park it seemed that the KTM 300 was the weapon of choice for 5 of the 9 riders, just love the smell of 2 stroke in the morning. So with light rain falling we made our way onto Lady Talbot drive and then Sunds road here, the fun begins. Storms in the area recently leaving us with no fewer than 10 log crossings to negotiate, some of could be crossed in the usual manner while others had to be completely bypassed altogether all very physically demanding and only 15 minutes into ride. When Sunds road had finished battering bike and body a short squirt along the black top to had us at Cambarville and onto several other tracks varying from fast open flowing to, steep hill climbs and 1st and 2nd gear single rut, multiple root infested bog holes and everything in between, yes the Big River area has it all.
A tailmans view of Fenchmans Gap Track
Taking our leave of the Big River valley via boundary track climbing higher towards Corn Hill track and some challenging hills.
Craig headed up a short but nasty hill, having slippery red clay and a random dispersion of all kinds tire shredding, sharp rocks and tree roots sticking out of it and not looking one bit friendly to me, fortunately there was an easier alternative which I took. More hills followed no easy way out this time and while mere mortals struggled up, mild mannered supermen flew up in a single bound, kryptonite boulders would not have stopped them.
Al, Dave and Rowan take a break
Along Corn Hill track heading towards Frenchmans Gap we encountered burnt out forest, strangely out of out of place amongst the drifts snow left over from the recent storms.
Corn Hill track for the last few kilometers had been bulldozed 150m wider in places acting as a fire break unfortunately; this has taken place on many tracks all over this area and seems to me like the DSE may have done just as much damage as the 2006 fires.
At Frenchmans Gap the police were dealing with some 4WD people and apart from a quick chat to Craig, were uninterested with the rest of us as we filed across the main road to the Old Coach road and onwards to Woods Point our lunch and refuel stop. Rowan finally had time to work on 300’s mysterious electrical problem while the rest of us patiently waited for our hamburgers to cook.
Lunch time maintenance session at Woods Point
Woods Point itself was left untouched by the devastating bush fires and was business as usual on the now dry and sunny Saturday afternoon. With fuel tanks full and the last mouthful of my delicious burger with the lot downed Craig is on his bike ready to go. Bouncing our way back up the Old Coach road is a great way to digest your lunch so I took it easy as you do when you’re the tailman.
German Spur track normally a fast run was strewn with trees brought down by strong winds just days before our ride, and no one had been through before us. With no way of getting over the tangled mess a way had to be found to get past or back track some 15km. Back tracking are not words that enter into Craig’s vocabulary, so down the side of the spur we went dodging, heaving, pushing and swearing our way around numerous obstacles. Rob at this point broke his clutch lever after dumping the green machine, more swearing. Fortunately Al came to the rescue with a spare from his Yamaha after a bit of modification. Finally with everybody back onto the track again we moved on, with sporadic tree crossings along the track until we hit the main road at Knockwood. In bright late afternoon sunshine the group made its way following Gaffneys Creek then Flourbag track then finally Jamieson and there to welcome us was Ian our backup man in his Hilux and Dennis Kelly arrived a short time later to join us for the evening.
The Court House Hotel for $30/night offers basic, comfortable accommodation including breakfast, great meals at reasonable prices and a shed out the back for our bikes. After a shower, a nice meal and few beers I retired and sleep like a log while some the keep going to midnight.
Day 2: after brecky we suited up and headed down to the servo to fuel up. Vince was tailman for the day leaving me free to have some fun on the way back to Marysville. Climbing up Polletti Track to Mt.Terrible we stopped to talk to some 4WD people who camped in the hut over night and checked out more evidence of DSE firebreak clearing.
Following Mt.Terrible and Ryan Tracks and back into Big River Valley from here we retraced our tracks from the previous day and safely arrived back at Marysville at about 2.30pm. Thanks Craig for a well thought out and organized ride. Also thanks Ian for carting our extra gear for us.
Survivors Were:
Craig Dawson 300EXC Ride Leader
Cameron Dawson 300EXC
Mark Salter 300EXC
Dave Smith 250EXC-F
Rowan Smith 300EXC
Vince Brooks 300EXC Tailman day 2
Rob Celewa KLX400
Alan Mason WRF250
Wade Evans 450EXC Tailman day 1
