Munda Biddi - Walpole to Fernhook Falls campsite

This was a day of mishaps. After a relatively incident free 4 days, occasional flat and tumble in the sand, this is the one where things change. Not hugely so, but a bit of a wake up call. Jon fell over and cut his arm and my rack fell apart and I lost my speedo whilst negotiating my way under some fallen branches.

Refer to Munda Biddi trail map 7 Northcliffe to Walpole.
Distance covered today = 70km. Temperatures 17 to 26 °C . Rained last night, very humid today 86%, no wind.

We saw quite a few animals today: the emu, kangaroo, carnaby cockatoo and western tiger snake.

(Not my photos, my camera is not capable of such zoom magnification, and the snakes did not want to hang around. Click on images to get their source. Incidentally, I am very happy with my camera in general, it is an Olympus Tough - waterproof, shockproof, HD, GPS ; lasted for trips to Nepal and many walks & ski trips. )

Mark and Nev, feeling tired after 4 days of riding decided to move on to Northcliffe via the bitumen and take it easy luxuriating in a motel. It was also raining last night and humid today so I guess that precipitated the decision. It's everyone's holiday and I respect that this decision was made, it means time for recovery and enjoyment of the rest of the trip.

Today and the next day will be more demanding as the intent is to do the trip in two days instead of three, bypassing Kwokralup Beela campsite. There is a lot of single track, fire trails and hills plus side trips.

After a quick shop, 1) to replenish stock and 2) to buy an 'o' ring for Jon's Whisperlite stove and 3) to coffee and bon voyage Nev & Mark we were off at 8:30am. Whisperlite stoves, butane stoves, let the debate begin! I'll stick to good old Trangias for bullet proof reliability and less mess - anyway back on track.

The rain quickly diminished in the morning. It left us with a humid day, but it had a major benefit in that the sandy trails became firm. The forest was in recovery mode after fires and had many interesting flowers and shrubs.

Most of the time we were well aware of our position and path track, the Munda Biddi signs are regular and other signs indicate the location of water (handy if you are for some reason doing this trip in the summer) and that 1080 poison is used to kill foxes (handy if you a are a literate fox). Well, most of the time -You still need to consult the map and recognise where single track excursions on the side of the fire trail or road are likely to occur. I carried a gps just in case, taking waypoints every now and again and compass. A compass and map is the handiest bit of navigation gear. GPS can be hampered by thick forest and is useless without batteries.

Many a tree has fallen, also there are many sticks to deal with. The adventure and scenery more than make up for inconvenience. I see a few articles where people took trailers. I suggest that it is not a practical solution. Do what I did, weigh everything and be critical on gear requirements, get light gear and share equipment. Days of mountain biking are going to punish you and your gear so do a careful think and test your setup prior to leaving.

If things are protruding they are going to get ensnared. I lost my speedo going under a fallen tree, a branch must of caught it without be realising. Derailleurs are vulnerable and you have to pay attention to stick that fly up.

Panniers, they need to be secured with extra strapping. Jon and Ed were regularly losing theirs with them bouncing off. See how I have a web strap securing the pannier to the rack.

We stopped at Swarbrick recreation site. This is worth doing as you get up close to some very big karri trees. They are stunning trees, towering up into the sky. This site had an interesting polished stainless steel mirror with information leaves showing the history of the forest and various history periods of man. Then a nice paved path circling through the forest. I didn't think much of the sculptures, but art is a matter of opinion - what better art than the living sculptures of the trees ?

We carried on to a junction that took us down Copeland road to Mountain Frankland road with the view to visit Mount Frankland. As we were going to backtrack and there were long sections of ups and downs we elected to take our panniers off and take a small backpack for lunch.

Going down the fire trail to the road was quite an exhilarating ride down a long slope. We passed a western tiger snake, which did not hang around for photos, quite beautiful with shiny black skin and yellow underside. Snakes like this kind of track, sunny with quite a few sticks and leaves to hide in. Not much to fear on a bike though as you are often going too fast and elevated.

Jon left a dna sample on the trail, luckily only suffering superficial damage to his body.

This proved to be my undoing as the bolts holding the pannier side rails to the rack were working their way loose. I lost a pannier extension and three bolts on this little side trip. I had to go back after our side trip to rescue a rail I lost. Somehow I found it in the middle of the road, luckily it did not fall in the stick strewn trail on the way down (where the bolts probably are).

Every day I follow the routine:

lubricate the chain, wipe it clean.
check the derailleur
check the allen head bolts and torx key bolts
check the cables
check the tyres
check the rack
check straps retaining the panniers and fill water bottles

Perhaps because the rack pannier sides were a new acquisition, only a few days before leaving, because the panniers obscured them. I did not check the rail bolts ! I also left the Loctite at home, sitting on the table so I forgot to treat them as well. Murphy's Law will prevail - put luckily he was not too mean and left me enough bolts so that I could secure the rack on the lower two beams and ride without the two upper ones. The rack, once jury rigged performed admirably with no further issue.

The Thule 'Freeload' rack is a great rack for dual suspension bikes, but it does have a lot of bolts. The bolts need to be Loctite treated and nuts replaced with Nyloc or double lock with shake proof washers. Better fasteners are required for this otherwise well designed product. The frame clamps will also leave marks, so you need to spread the load - I used a piece of rubber tubing.

Mount Frankland, I am uncertain of whether it was worth the effort. Ed and Jon seem to think so, so I will put that the fact that there were a few incidents to cloud my judgement. On Mount Frankland there was a transmitting tower on the top of the mountain and some ugly rail to prevent less capable persons from making bad decisions. To get to Mount Frankland you need to leave the lovely single track and fire trail and travel a few kms on the pea gravel surface of the road. On the plus side, there was a nice shelter to have lunch, some toilets and a viewing platform, and some nice people to chat with.

Due to the side trips and incidents, it was unlikely that we would have reached the Yirra Kartta campsite before dark, so we elected to stay at Fernhook Falls. There happened to be a couple of small huts at this location. Not to the standard of the Munda Biddi ones, but comfortable anyway. The water here was just palatable, tasting strongly of tannins.