Same spot as two days ago
Tuesday 29 Jan 2019
A bit of a disappointment, I had to give up my attempt to continue. Last evening I did some more scouting around based on the trail shown on the topo map and I was astonished to find an actual trail marker! I followed the track a bit further and felt quite accomplished having figured out where the trail goes. I should have followed the track a wee bit further……
I got up an hour earlier than normal, so I could hit the road at the crack of dawn. Easy enough to where I had scouted it out last night, but then — and the guidebook does mention it — the cattle pad you’re following goes in and out of Dry Creek. What the guidebook does NOT mention is all the deadfall one has to deal with. It was a constant in and out of the creek bed, hauling bicycle and BOB over fallen tree trunks, up and down steep little detours to deal with the deadfall, constantly having to scout ahead first to find the best way to deal with it. It was exhausting and anything but pleasant. I made it 3km in, hadn’t even reached the steep section, and that took 2½ hours. I decided I wasn’t made for this. Maybe 20 years ago I was, but certainly not now. And the strange thing is that none of it looked the least bit familiar either.
Track?
On top of all that my derailleur hanger broke off. I guess it must have hit just one too many logs. And that was a secondary deciding factor in calling it quits. I’m now on my last replacement derailleur hanger and I cannot afford to break this one also.
Anyway, back to Jack’s Hut where I arrived at 10:00, a bit early yet, so I continued on. There was nobody at Moogams Camp, nor at Grasstree, so I kept going. The Timbarra River had actually risen a bit as it was now flowing a bit over the causeway. Finally at 14:00 I got back to my old campsite of two days ago. Eight hours of pushing, lifting, scrambling, frustration and backtracking.
Tomorrow I’ll try to get to Tenterfield. It’s about 42k but a steep climb up to the tableland. I SO hope there will be someone to give me a lift, but I remember from before that there isn’t much of any traffic on that road. Maybe things have changed!
Total 30k 4:20h 350m+ 475m-