Ride Reports August 2004

Thurmont Breakfast Ride
July 18, 2004 (led by Laura Chaffiotte - was supposed to be led by Bill Smith)

The weather forecast was for rain - LOTS OF IT! And thunderstorms. The ride leader's alarm sounded at 6:30 a.m. - he arose, looked out the window; the ground was wet, it was drizzling and he was tired. So he went back to sleep until 8:00.

Well, go figure. At eight o'clock the ground was drying out and things were brightening. The weather forecast was unchanged. Would anyone show for the ride, which was scheduled to leave fifteen minutes earlier. Oh yes! Dr. Laura Chaffiotte, Regine Pacchiana and Bill Pakenas rode their version of the covered bridges ride while the (former) ride leader was in church, thinking about cycling. They found the Kountry Kitchen, and, according to Dr. Chaffiotte, had the best omelet she's ever had.

The (former) ride leader will endeavor to, in the future, give weather forecasters the same degree of trust that he gives politicians.

Ride Leader Atonement
July 24, 2004 by Bill Smith

To atone for his previous week's sins, Bill Smith re-led the Thurmont Breakfast ride six days later. Joined by Glenn Angus, Randy Buxbaum, Laura Chaffiotte, Lisa Gastele, Regine Pacchiana, Charlie Welch and Joan Wicks, despite a poor weather forecast we cycled into a strong headwind to breakfast. The clouds parted and we enjoyed some sunny skies and 75-degree temperatures - absolutely wonderful for July!

No Trail Too Far
by Ann and Fred Abeles

Is there a limit to how far a biker will travel to ride a trail? Probably not, but I think we pushed the limit this spring by traveling halfway around to world to Australia to ride the Munda Biddi Trail. The impetus for our trip was a short note in the Winter 2004 'Rails to Trails' magazine, page 4, mentioning that 'Western Australia [was] developing its first long-distance off-road bicycle trail - the Munda Biddi Trail...' As you Pedalers know, we are great fans of rail-trails and love bicycling on them because, in general, the grades are not steep and there is no automobile traffic. The article said the first 180 kilometers (about 111 miles) of the trail near Perth was open. Since the trail was going to use rail corridors, bush tracks and firebreaks to make a recreational facility for people of all ages and skill levels, we thought it would be perfect. We downloaded the information on the trail from the website www.mundabiddi.org.au and started planning.

After we arrived in Perth, we picked up our car and checked into City Waters, a small downtown hotel with efficiency units. Next we looked into bicycles. We did not try to ship ours from the US as our bicycles are not mountain bikes and the shipping is expensive. The Cycle Centre at 282 Hay Street, just a few blocks from our hotel, had adequate mountain bicycles in our sizes for $210 each. They agreed to buy them back for 50% of the cost when we were finished, in about 3 weeks. We thought this was quite reasonable as this was less than half the cost (about $475) of renting bikes for the same period. We also bought a bicycle carrier for the car with the same buy-back arrangement. The bike shop gave us several booklets with suggested rides around Perth using the many paved bicycle trails.

We spent the next several days exploring Perth while bicycling along the Swan and Canning Rivers. This gave us a chance to check out our gear and get accustomed to the new bikes. Perth is a beautiful, bicycle friendly city and, at City Waters, we were just one block from the Swan River bike paths. We were also walking distance from the Perth Mint, the Perth historic district, the pedestrian malls and the Western Australia Visitor Center. While sightseeing, we bought maps to the Munda Biddi Trail from the Visitor Center and picked brochures with additional information on lodging in Western Australia.

Next we moved to the Mundaring Weir Hotel (www.mundaringweirhotel.com.au). It is located about an hour, 40 km, from Perth in the Darling Range, a group of rugged hills east of Perth. This lovely hotel is on the Munda Biddi Trail about 8 km south of the small town of Mundaring. We used it as our base for the next several days while we biked some of the northern sections of the trail. Although we had expected a 'rail trail', we discovered that most of the Munda biddi is really a mountain bike trail. We found the trail challenging, especially some steep sections surfaced with loose 'pea' gravel. Even with the knobby tires on our bicycles, we found it difficult to bike up some of the hills on these marble - like stones and frequently had to walk our bikes. We did enjoy riding the section of the trail from the hotel back into Mundaring as this part was in good shape. In Mundaring, we discovered that the Munda Biddi connected with a rail-trail, the Railway Reserve Trail. This trail makes a 40 km loop from Midland (a Perth suburb) up to Mt. Helena, east of Mundaring and back to Midland via a more northern route through the John Forrest National Park. We spent a pleasant day biking this trail and enjoying the vistas where the trail passes through the National Park.


The Mundaring Weir Hotel

We next moved about 100 km south and stayed in a refurbished railway carriage at Whitby Falls near Mundijong about 10 km from Jarrahdale, the next town located on the Munda Biddi. Unfortunately there is no motel in Jarrahdale and the only B&B has closed. The owners of the Whitby Falls Carriages also are going out of business so lodging here may be hard to find. For those willing to camp along the way, there are campgrounds in Jarrahdale and Dwellingup as well as two camp sites located between Mundaring and Jarrahdale and another between Jarrahdale and Dwellingup. The trail campsites are equipped with a shelter with bare bunks, a pit toilet and a large tank to catch rain water. However, these do not always have water as Australia is quite dry. Likewise, as fires are a big danger, campfires are forbidden. We met two bikers who were riding the section between Mundaring and Jarrahdale and camping. They said that the trail was very difficult for them with their loaded bikes because of the steep grades and loose gravel. Since this is a new trail, I suspect that there will be some realignments of the trail as well as some surfacing in order to make the trail more tour-friendly. The trail north of Jarrahdale was the best section that we encountered as here the trail followed rail grades and good forestry roads. This section of the trail passed through the former WWII Balmoral POW camp where many Italian POW's were held. It is a tribute to the Australians that many of these POW's asked to resettle in Australia after the war.

Finally we moved our base to Dwellingup, a small town at the southern end of the open section of the trail. When we were there in April, this was the end of the trail. Another section of trail leading to the town of Collie was supposed to open in May, 2004. We stayed at the Dwellingup Community Hotel - Motel on Del Park Road. This town, in the midst of the jarrah forest, was destroyed by a devastating bush fire in 1961 and has rebuilt as a charming tourist center for biking, bush walking and canoeing on the Murray River. The tall jarrah trees, Eucalyptus marginata, were the center of a major forestry industry around 1900. Much of the jarrah lumber was shipped out to be used as street paving blocks in cities such as London or for railroad ties. Unfortunately, many of the surviving trees are now under attack by a fungus causing dieback. The Dwellingup visitor center, just across the street from the hotel, has exhibits about the forestry industry and the 1961 fire. There also is an historic steam and diesel railway that operates during the summer from a station next to the visitor center. At the edge of town is the Forest Heritage Center with an interpretive visitor center and the School of Wood, which teaches woodworking featuring Australian woods. Again we used Dwellingup as a base for several day trips along the Munda Biddi. We also had one of the best meals of our entire trip at the Mill House Cafe & Chocolate Co. in Dwellingup.


Wind Sculpted Trees

Having completed as much of the Munda Biddi as we could handle, about 90 km or a total of 180 km since each of our trips were out and back rides, we packed up and drove to the south coast to see the giant karri trees. The beautiful view out of our bedroom window in Walpole and the idyllic scenes along the shore almost tempted us to cancel the rest of our plans and stay there for a month. We enjoyed the next few days hiking around the inlet and in the forests of giant karri trees (E. diversicolor). The Tree Top Walk in the Valley of the Giants, just east of Walpole, was a big thrill for me.

We next headed to the town of Augusta on the tip of Cape Leeuwin, the most southwest tip of Australia. We stayed in Augusta for 2 days so that we could bike the rugged coast out to the historic lighthouse where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. We also enjoyed biking around the quiet countryside north of town. Heading back to Perth, we took the scenic Caves Road north through the Margaret River wine region. As we drove through the Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park, the light through the majestic stands of karri eucalyptus was magical. We stopped in Busselton to walk out on their historic, mile-long jetty and to tour the Underwater Observatory in Geographe Bay at the end of the jetty.

Back in Perth, we stayed at City Waters again so we could, reluctantly, return our bikes and rack. Although the bicycling part of our adventure was over, we spent a couple more weeks exploring Western Australia. We drove north to the Nigaloo Peninsula for several days of snorkeling on the Nigaloo Reef. Then we headed into the interior for some hiking in the deep gorges of Karijini National Park before finally returning to Perth and the looooong airplane ride home.