Gravel Grind and Sand Slide, Caloundra to Beerburrum

Text from Jenny. I laughed for a while.

Last Saturday didn't go to plan. So this Saturday I didn't have one. Other than ride my bike for a while and get on a train when I felt like it.

I didn't look at maps or timetables before I left, I reckon I saw enough of the whole area last weekend to be able to get through the forests. And it worked pretty well. I left Caloundra at around 10am, after helping Jenny pack the car and kids. I still struggled a bit to get around a large road works where Bell's Creek Rd crosses the highway, but by following forest trails in a generally southerly direction and hooking up with tracks I used on the way up I was able to make my way to Beerburrum. The majority of the ride was gravel forestry road but there were some beaut trail bike tracks that had loamy bits, woops, jumps, berms and lots of mud.

Give myself a tat.

 There was a minimum of bitumen. I clocked 47km, and had time in Beerburrum for a toasted sandwich and coffee before I got on the train.

Here is the link:


http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/599679281

When a 32km explore becomes a 83km dnf.

 

I had fun today. But the day certainly didn't all go to plan. I had mapped out a route that would take me through forestry roads from Beerburrum to Caloundra. Online cycle maps indicated tracks that would get me through and I was hopeful of a good start to our family holiday with a moderately adventurous morning spin on the Funstar.

The first adaption to the day's plan happened last night. When checking the Translink website to work out what time to get on a train to Beerburrum, I noticed some red alerts on the timetable. Track work, buses running instead. I didn't like the sound of that so I decided I would ride into Roma St and get on there. Another 20kms, a nice warm up.

I left at a good time. I had a good spin in, and made it to Roma St with 20 minutes before departure time. I asked some friendly Translink staff where I cold get a good coffee. They recommended a hole in the wall place across the road from the station, and I ordered a coffee and toasted sandwich. The friendly lady who served me assured me it would be ready in time for me to make my train. So I started waiting. And waiting. I knew it was an hour between trains and I was eager to get to Caloundra at about the same time as Jenny, to help her unload the car and to get the bikes off the roof.

Eventually the couple 3 orders in front of me collected their order. About 12 coffees! I picked my sandwich up off the counter and left, no coffee :(

Another friendly Translink staff member helped me get into the station, as I was finding it fairly futile trying to swipe my go card on a painted logo and not the actual card reader. I scanned the fancy timetable and started to get a bit (more) unsettled. (Really needed that coffee) platform 7 Caboolture @  8:04 platform 9 Nambour, Caboolture  express 8:00. It was 7:58. I carried the (not) featherweight Funstar up to platform 7, and then realised that Caboolture is before Beerburrum. And I watched my train depart from platform 9.

New plan. Ride from Caboolture to Caloundra. (Had plenty of time to think about this as the train stopped at all 22 stations). Only another 15km and I'm feeling fine. (Except for the no coffee headache).

Get to Beerburrum only an hour behind schedule. First foray into the forest didn't end well. Lots of ominous signs and machinery, before a guy in a D9 catapillar blocks my passage and tells me to go away. I futilely tried to ask if I could please just ride through the quarry, it's not like I could carry many of their precious rocks in my pockets.

I had better luck turning off Steve Irwin Way a bit further up, and for the next hour or so I was having a ball. Coochin Creek is a real hidden treasure, just off the motorway. The Funstar was absolutely eating the gravel and sandy roads. But then my first oh dear moment. The track I was riding had a dirty big fence and locked gate across it, with blah blah blah trespassers prosecuted blah blah blah. This could go badly, I thought. I had no idea how badly. Time to check some online maps. I found another forest road that cyclist had mapped. So I backed up a bit and headed east. When I got to the turnoff there was another gate and the same sign. These plantations are privately owned?

Advice dads should give, rule 29: always make the decision that makes for the best story.

So instead of giving up trying to get through to Caloundra on the east side of the highway, I made a cunning plan. Bells Creek Rd, which I was on, runs very close to Bells Creek in one spot. The Pelican Waters subdivision is just on the other side. As a little tacker I remember wading across Bells a Creek with my Uncle Lyn. We were pumping Yabbies.

But when I got to the Creek I found quite a wide, ominous watercourse. I thought I'd try and wade

across. Within 5 metres it was over my head. I swum across. Couldn't touch the bottom till almost the other side. I was in Caloundra, but the Funstar wasn't. And it had a flat tyre.

I swum back and rang Jenny. To ride from where I was, back to the highway, across the highway, through the a forestry and then up the Steve Irwin Way to Caloundra would be several more hours riding. We made a loose plan, she would unpack and then ring me to see where I was and then we'd work it out from there.

With my tyre pumped up and a great tailwind I flew back to the highway.  I had to backtrack to Roy's Road, and headed back into the forest trails from there. It started to rain. I'd had enough. Jenny and I arranged to meet at servo at the Mooloolah Valley Turnoff. We arrived at about the same time. The hot box chips that the kids and I shared sure filled a hole. 15km drive back to Calondra, defeated this time but very educated on how to actually gravel grind to Calounda. Pushing the Funstar with the big tyres wasn't much fun on the bitumen but the old girl was really at home on the forest roads. I rode past countless side trails that looked like future adventures.