Butcher Bird

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Here’s a few photos I took of a juvenile Grey Butcher Bird (Cracticus torquatus) sitting in a tree at our place this morning.

They have a beautiful song, and are quite agressive in the nesting season. Birds often attack cyclists in the nesting season. A Plover will scream madly at you until you go away (they nest on the ground, and have a lot to lose if thet don’t chase you). A Magpie will give you a warning cry before attacking, and will often snap their beaks close to you, to scare you off. But a Butcher Bird will slam into the side of your head without warning, and then warble happily about it afterwards, as though she was laughing at you: “Gotcha, you nasty cyclist. Stay away! Don’t come back!”.

For the rest of the year they’re fun to watch, and to listen to…

DID YOU KNOW that there was a vindictive court case in Brisbane in 1882 (Spry vs Minchinton) about the theft of a Butcher Bird?

Underwater History

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Lake Samsonvale is a large body of water west of Strathpine with a fascinating history. Today I explored the far side of the lake, near Kobble Creek with my friends Russel, Jason and Paul.



We started at the western end of Whiteside Road, and just kept heading east towards the shoreline. This road used to be the main route between Petrie and Dayboro before the North Pine Dam was built. But the resulting artificial lake permanently flooded the road, which split Whiteside Road in two., This meant that a new road (Dayboro Road) had to be built further north The eastern section at Whiteside is still an important road for local residents, but the western half has been transformed into a very quiet road which devolves into a disused gravel road before disappearing under the waters of the dam.





Whiteside Road crossed the North Pine River at a place called Quinns Crossing. Although the crossing is submerged we were able to ride within a couple of hundred metres of it. I’ve been told by local recreational sailers that in times of drought it’s possible to see the remains of the old bridge just under the water.



Some of the grass in the area is pretty long. I thought it was nice that the guys agreed to follow me through the grass even though they couldn’t see the ground in front of them.



This creek was too deep to ride across, or even push the bikes across, so we had to carry them, while taking care not to slipp on the muddy bottom and get soaked.



We eventually found a spot by the edge of the dam where we could enjoy a cool swim and take refuge from the 35 degree heat.



We swam quite close to the submerged spot where Isabella Joyner built Samsonvale House in the 1860′s.

Even though Samsonvale House is gone, we were able to sample some mangoes from an old tree that was planted not far from the house in the 19th century. Paul thought they were delicious!

All up we rode about 30km in about three and a quarter hours, including stops and breaks. For most of the ride we kept an easy pace in the heat, and just pushed the pace a bit on the way back the steep bitumen climb on Postman’s Track. Considering the high temperatures I’ll rate this one 8 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter. In cooler weather it would probably rate 7 out of 10.

Cooling Off

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Most of Australia has been experiencing a heat-wave. This makes riding a bit more challenging. So to beat the heat on my ride today, I thought I’d take a break at the half-way point and go for a swim.

Many of the trails around the lake are kilometres from anywhere. Knowing that the nearest person might be several kilometres away often gives me a wonderful feeling of solitude.

The views are great too.

So I just found a quiet spot, parked the bike, and jumped in.

I loved the feeling of having such a large lake all to myself, and enjoyed cooling off. The water was delicious. I think I could make a habit of this!

Why Ride?

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For my first ride of 2013 I decided on a short tough ride through the familiar trails of Clear Mountain. It has a bit of everything – winding single track, thick forest, fast firetrail descents and tough climbs.

While I was riding on the single tracks, I spied this mushroom in the middle of the track, growing out of a pile of manure left by a horse. I thought I’d try taking a picture of it, but when I did, a fly perched on top of the mushroom. He didn’t budge no matter how I contorted myself to try and get the best picture.

I’ve probably said this to you before, but:

I don’t ride to get fit. That’s just a side-effect.

I don’t ride to break records or win races – even though I sometimes try to grab a KOM or two on Strava.

The thing that keeps me coming back is discovering new things, exploring new places, and sharing those discoveries with my friends. That’s why I really enjoy riding with people, and writing about what we find.

I’ve ridden this track hundreds of times, but I got a buzz out of the fact that on yet another familiar ride I was able to discover something new.

I mean – it’s not every day you get to write about a bug on a mushroom in a pile of manure

Happy New Year!

Fat Bike!

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A Fat Bike is a mountain bike with really fat tyres that allows you to comfortably ride on loose surfaces like sand and mud. My friend Murray let me ride his spare fat bike (a 9:Zero:7) yesterday while we did a bit of exploring on the trails between Coolum and Noosa.



We started our ride heading north on the beach at Coolum. As soon as we hit the sand, I had a manic grin on my face – riding on a long wide beach was so much fun! With the wind at our backs, it was effortless to zoom along the damp sand. People we passed looked at us with a mixture of amazement and envy. Riding a bike along the beach is not something you usually see.



Once we arrived at Peregian Beach, we left the sand, and headed west through the Weyba section of Noosa National Park.



The thing that impressed me was how well the fat bikes performed on normal forest trails. They just soaked up the bumps over tree-roots and rocks. I rode as fast as I normally would on my dual suspension 29er. The ride was smooth, and I had heaps of grip from the big tyres. But the rolling resistance was low too. I didn’t feel like I had to fight against any sluggishness from the big tyres….



… but when we DID hit spots of sand, I just floated over the top instead of getting bogged down.



Eventually we made it to Wooroi Forest at Tewantin. Wooroi is a beautiful place. It’s hilly in spots with many of the tracks winding through the rainforest.

Murray took me around some of his favourite tracks, and we finished by zipping down a fun new downhill track called “Milk Maid”. The fat tyres on the bike soaked up the bumps while giving me lots of grip on the track. I didn’t miss my rear suspension at all.



After a bite to eat at Tewantin, we followed a few bike tracks back through the outskirts of Noosa before hitting the sand dunes in the Lake Weyba section of Noosa National Park.

It was quite challenging riding on the loose sand, and took a lot of effort getting to the top of the hills. We both found it difficult to control the bikes in some sections until Murray let a bit more air out of the tyres.



We left the national park at Marcus Beach, where we got back onto the beach and rode south back to Coolum.

All up, this ride was 61km and took a leisurely six and a half hours including breaks. We climbed a total of 588m, and I burned about 3,000 kcal. I’ll rate this one 7.5 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.

Coolum Epic

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Rather than drive the car to our usual summer holiday spot at Coolum, I thought I’d ride the bike up from Lawnton. The route was just under 120km in length and included a fair bit of riding off-road through state forests and national parks. My friends Tony and Wayne rode with me for most of the way.

The first leg of the trip took us up to Caboolture on quiet roads, and then to Beerburrum East State Forest at the end of Pumicestone Road. It took us just over an hour, which was a lot quicker than I anticipated…

…which was just as well because Wayne got a flat tyre after running over a thumb-tack. Unfortunately it was in his non-tubeless tyre, so it went flat and stayed flat. But two spare tubes and 3 CO2 canisters later, we were on our way again – still ahead of schedule. We made good time even when equipment failure struck again and cleat fell off Darb’s shoe. Luckily, he didn’t lose any screws and was able to screw it back in quite easily.

I like this forest because of the variety of different tracks. Plus it’s relatively flat which means you can easily cover long distances without much effort. We picked a few narrow tracks and rode off between the pine trees.

We met up with a friendly forest ranger along the way who just happened to be a mountain biker. He told us how much he liked 29er mountain bikes and tubeless tyres…. but he was preaching to the converted

Our first major stop was at the Wildhorse Mountain service station where we topped up on “bike fuel” and water.

To maximize the amount of off road riding, we kept riding northwards through the forest until were able to pass under the freeway at Mellum Creek. From there we entered the Beerwah section of the forest and headed North-west towards Landsborough.

Dullarcha National Park lies just north of Landsborough. The main trail follows the railway line north through the rainforest.

Part of the trail is actually on an old disused railway track, which passes through a tunnel. The fun thing about the tunnel is that it bends enough so you can’t see one end from the other. This means when you’re riding through it, it’s pitch black. If you don’t have lights you need to be careful

After a tough climb between Mooloolah and Eudlo, Darb and Wayne left me to continue the final part of the trip at Palmwoods, near Nambour. They’d ridden to my place before the start, and had already covered about 100km. They caught the train back and I continued eastwards over Kiels Mountain. I’ve often seen the overpass while driving up the freeway to Coolum, but this was the first time I’d ridden over it.

At this stage of the ride, it was hard work grinding up the steep road over Kiels Mountain. Halfway through the roll down the other side, I caught sight of Mount Coolum in the distance which marked the end-point of the ride.

In keeping with the “off-road” nature of the ride, I chose a dirt track which skirted around the western side of Mount Coolum via another national park. Unfortunately rain had made the large rocks on the track slippery, and the gradient was a bit much at this stage of the ride, so I took the “safe” option and pushed the bike up the last hill.

All up, this ride was 115km. It took just under 8 hours including stops. Moving time was just under 6 hours. I burned about 5,200 kcal.

It was easier than I anticipated – mostly flat except for the Eudlo and Kiels Mountain sections. I’d definitely do this ride again, especially with great riding buddies like Darb and Wayne. Thanks guys

I’ll give this one 8 out of 10 on the tough-o-meter.