URE Rd? U R got to be joking!

It was to be a shortish ride around the back of Kirth Kiln.

Jurgen muttered something about needing to attend his wife's birthday party, Helen claimed her bike was in for repair and Kirsten pleaded work.

That left Mike and myself to carry the can.

We knew where we started viz Emerald, and where we wanted to get to, viz coffee at Gembrook. We had 50% if the route mapped out and the sun in the East and moss on the trees to guide us the rest of the way. 

Gembrook then L into Ure Rd. We'd been told that whilst Ure Rd ends at the entrance to Kirth Kiln, it was still navagable beyond that point to roads connecting back to Gembrook.

Having successfully navigated predatory cows on Ure Rd we reached the point where it becomes a track. That's where our 50% planning ended. Mud, potholes, rocks, moss, tree roots, inclines, 2km per hour riding for the next 4km. Pretty, but not all that nice. And the track finally ended in a T intersection,.... not  a sign post in sight. Flip of the coin and go Right. Hills! More T  intersectipns. More coin flipping. More hills. Finally we spotted a 4wd who knew where we were and how to get out. It ended well for into Kirth Kiln we ploughed, a climb to Gembrook and refuelling at the cafe. Homewards via the climb up Stilwell's Deviation, which, after what we had just experienced, was a pleasure. 

Jon and Mike

Riding "DOWN" Phillips Rd does not count Jon even if the views were speccy !

A Merlot or two while i take in the view !

Said view !

The Back entrance to Kurth Kiln - the track looks ominous ! 

Nearly an early bath - Jon surveyed the puddle but mysteriously forgot to tell me how deep it was ! 

We're lost - the sun, the wind and a coin become our back up navigation tools !  

Kurth Kiln 

SCHEDULED RIDE: Thursday June 4th

Meet 1000hrs at "House of Mudgway"

10 Spear Crt., Bulleen. 

Melways ref.32E7

50+km, sealed and gravel paths

Suits dirt and road bikes. 

A gentle ride through multiple suburbs, lead by John, abetted by Kirsten.

Back O Bourke !

A beautiful ride from Emerald to Gembrook and return with Jon, Jurgen and self along Burkes Creek Road, Morrison & Bessie Creek Rds.

Bourkes Creek Rd - stunning scenery !

Bessie Creek Rd - long gradient mainly up !

Mullem Mayhem or FTG to Diamond Crk

Ferntree Gully to Diamond Creek

Ferntree Gully to Diamond Creek

The ride started well with six enthusiastic participants. The weather was good and Helen led us off at a brisk pace on a devious route to the Mullum Mullum trail via Ringwood lake. All went well until we were about 5 or six km's in to the Mullum Mullum trail when several walkers advised us that the trail was blocked further on. While we had no reason to disbelieve them we decided to ride on anyway to investigate this ourselves. Sure enough we soon came across a temporary fence and various signs forbidding us to venture further. We considered the possibility of ignoring these however being a law abiding bunch we decided to find an alternative route. This is where things started to go wrong. Karlo said he was sure he knew a way of getting back on the trail if we took the Eastlink trail and rode through the dreaded hills alongside the Ringwood freeway bypass. He was confident and so we were until we found ourselves in suburbs that none of us recognised. There was much discussion about which way to head to get back on course none of which helped much. In the end we decided if we followed the road we found ourselves on in a generally northerly direction we just might come across the trail or at least some part of Melbourne we did recognise. Luckily this turned out to be a good tactic as we eventually came across Warrandyte road and rejoined the Mullum Mullum trail near Daisy's nursery. From there on it was plain sailing and it turned in to a very enjoyable 88km ride which was actually enhanced by getting lost and discovering parts of Melbourne we had not ventured in to before.  

Carrum Ride

A lovely 70 km return ride to Carrum to catch up with former Warbies Noel & Rick who took on New Zealand in a Covid shortened cycle tour in March

Rick and Noel 

Keep to the left.....No! the other left.

A pelaton of 8 circled the Stud Rd. Stadium carpark, ready to launch to places foreign under the guidance of Kirsten, with Helen as back up for the directionally challenged. On your marks.... and Jurgen's front axle decided not to play ball. A dousing with water on some previous ride led to delayed bearing collapse. So, after a record short ride of 2m, Jurgen retired to the pavillion.

Heading to Eastlink, we encountered multiple tribes of tiny tots, joyously trying their new trainer cycles, whilst at the same time, learning what "Keep to the left.... No! the other left" means.  Too much for us. We abandoned Eastlink, about turned and headed fot the Skyrail trail.  Many suburbs trangressed, a few of which were new to Ian, viz... Caulfield, Glen Iris, Glenhuntly (where all the  beautiful people were absorbing sun and coffee), and St. Kilda.

Beach Rd. wecomed us with cold sea spray and side winds. All other bits of the ride were in cool sunshine. Not Beach Rd.  Mordialloc then Waterways(?) and Kerri's puncture. Werner with his bike repair skills extordinaire to the rescue. Onwards to Dandenong and the Stadium with John M feeling a touch weary after a reasonably quick 80+km. 

Our burnt offerings must have worked for we threaded the needle weather wise.

Thank you Kirsten.

Jon

SCHEDULED RIDE: Wednesday 27th May

FTG  to Diamond Creek

Start 1000hrs FTG carpark

Any bike type ok

Leaders Helen & Jon

80km maybe

We can meet anyone wishing to start at Bayswater at 1020hrs thereabouts.

Lunch @ Maccas

Flooded Wetlands

Fallen trees

Reluctant Kirsten’sExploration_200520

Tuesday evening the weather forecast a window for ideal cycling, ready for the taking, the next day. Kirsten was not convinced and agreed to confirm the following morning. Overnight we had around +20mm of rain so we were in for some wading. Arriving at Stud road for an 11 am start she was still less than convinced so the two of us headed for Berwick under mounting darkening cloud. It took about an hour or so before the wind began to rise and blew the cloud away and Kirsten began to smile as the sun positively shone. As we worked our way through the Doveton Wetlands we were forced to devise new rites of passage away from flooded pathways. Onward to Berwick then more with the Hallam Wetlands, exploring various options as the headwinds increased before lunching in Hampton Park Macca's car park and the added bonus of a visit from Yvonne. On-On to Cranbourne via some very dodgy roadworks. Some colourful comment on the state of Kirsten's cycle pants from a "passeed" walker. Then some long loping kilometers through new roadways in the outer suburbs as we worked our way back to Stud Road via Berwick and Doveton's rising flood waters. Looks like a promising new route for long loping kilometers.

74.5 kms

Helen

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Variationon a Theme_190520_Mike’s Ride (See Jon’s Map)

Cold morning in Emerald as we arrived to find Warby Gordon, co-designer of Gordon's Revenge checking out the arrivals bay at Emerald Library car park. Turns out t'was merely a coincidence! Shortly thereafter, five contenders, Jon, Yurgen, Helen, Werner and John B, pulled out to tackle a variation on the dreaded Gordon'sRevenge, collecting Mike a little lower down the hill. Mike then lead a plummet down a long 13% gravel race followed by several series of curves, steep inclines, steep descents then more steep inclines, steep descents and several series of curves. Eventually we climbed back up to a ridge where we could briefly ease back into the saddle to bask in farmlette ambience, the cool autumn air and views out to the not so far off mountains. At the intersection of Mackelsfield and Beenak Roads we were distracted by the lure of Yellingbo's infamous coffee and succumbed. Back and up Beenak Road we labored. When crossing Monbulk-Seveille Road John B. offered a variation which lead us through some very fine country, up toward Wandin North. We then turned south, heading toward Wandin East making our way by a collection of variations on a theme, from various quarters. Back for a brief taste of the Lilydale-Monbulk road at Silvan, before spinning off at the Old Emerald Road. Another little taste of the traffic (and trailers) on the Emerald-Monbulk Road before pulling into the track up past the old Emerald Railway Carriage café where most were defeated by the incline! Great ride. Good fun and looking forward to the next adventure.

Helen

That's one hill done - only 100 more left ! 

--

Scheduled Ride: Sunday 24 May

Meet at Stud Rd Stadium

1000hrs

Road bike:  85km

Lead by Kirsten

Scheduled Ride: Friday 22 May

Meet at John Mudgway

10 Spear Crt., Bulleen.

Melways 32E7   

1000hrs     60 - 90 km    road bikes

Fwd: Gutter ride

Gutter ride

Sunday 17 May

The picture says it all!!

After enjoying the ride from Dandenong to what was meant to be Blackburn, we got as far as Nunawading when Karlo's rear wheel wasn't working properly.  
Turned out to be a spoke problem and after venturing to the bike shop and being told it would be a 2 week wait for the workshop we look at an alternate way to get Karlo back to his car. Bobs wife to the  rescue.
After a much needed coffee and cake and all tables unavailable, the warm concrete looked inviting to enjoy it.
We returned uneventful  to our cars to find Karlo waiting for us to return Bob back to his home.
Being a glutton for punishment Kirsten followed me home and we continued on another 30 km ride with me lagging behind as usual.

Yvonne   

MTB riding NZ

Iconic Ride with Accommodation Huts - NZ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6ppUbLAjOU

Gutter ride

Sunday 17 May

Sun Seekers: Thursday, 140520

The day dawned bright and crisply cold. We had been given back the right to mingle and ride our bikes en masse with a cap set at ten persons, continuing to maintain social distancing. 

Down we raced to the Stud Road Stadium in anticipation of a heavenly throng of enthuastic cyclists - and there were just three shivering souls on this absolutely perfect, crisp autumn day???

Not to be deterred we three united in the cause, set off to chase the sunshine! First stop Seaford via the Wetlands; on to Mordialloc; Beach Road to Brighton East; right hand turn into the North Road; Oakleigh; returning to Dandenong via the Skyrail; finally reaching Stud Road 99.3 kms and just short of 5hrs later.

Helen

-

--

THE HOT AND COLD HILL RIDE

Another exploratory ride by Jon, Mike and Jurgen; always on the lookout for a new route. The temperature at the start in Emerald was 5.5deg. The ride on the downward stretches to Monbulk, with wind chill factor must have brought the temperature down to zero. Why didn’t we wear proper full gloves? Frozen fingers were incapable of changing gears. Ironically when a hill came on approaching Monbulk it was welcomed. A rare phenomenon. It was a way to warm the body but unfortunately not the fingers yet. The next stretch to Silvan dam along  the busy Monbulk to Lilydale road was relatively flat and almost pleasant to ride along except for the near misses from the constant traffic. Now came the never ending uphill climb along Silvan road to Olinda. Up, up and up it went. We were sweating. A cool breeze would have been welcomed – so would a coffee, but there was nothing suitable in Olinda. So we decided to go downhill to Kalorama. Once again on this descent our tits and fingers were again freezing off. The sweat from the climb a few minutes ago had turned to icicles. We badly needed a hot coffee. Nothing doing at Five Ways nor at Kalorama, so more downhill along Olinda Creek road back to Silvan reservoir through the cold forest. We badly needed another hill to warm up. “A hill, a hill, my kingdom for a hill” was in our thoughts. It wasn’t until we got back to Monbulk that we had our coffee. Sitting in the sun was a rewarding experience. From there it was back to Emerald via The Patch. All said and done, it was a great new ride for us.

Jurgen

"Bloody hell did we climb up from down there" !  

We're happier heading down !

SCHEDULED RIDE Tues 19th MAY

Scheduled Ride   -   Tuesday 19 May

Gordon's Revenge ... for those yet to do it.

Start:    Emerald Library Carpark   1000hrs

48+km.    Not suited to road biles.

A few very scenic hills.   Convener:   Mike L

Scottish Cycle Intro

A short vid of highlights from self and Kevin Henley's 2019 Scotland Cycle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBhzPH2Ukjc

Check out my walk on Strava. https://strava.app.link/L9YoHvLit6

ANOTHER BLOODY WALK

These are sad times when you can’t find a cycling partner and have to resort to going on a walk.  Walking just isn’t cycling.  Where is the adrenalin rush?  The feeling of terror when screaming down a hill at 60 + km/hr. Where is the feeling of the wind whistling through one’s non existing hair? All these things are missing  on a walk. What happened to our Thursday rides. Come on K, H etc., forget about the secret women’s business rides. We MAMILS, or should I say OMILS love your company. Let’s get our Thursday rides back on again, otherwise we will have to rejoin the Ghosties and wait for the ladies on their ebikes at every intersection.

In Keeping with History

After an hours riding we were singing the praises of JB who had not only had planned todays ride from spider like lines on Google Maps (read back roads) but had somehow discovered the only 3 flat roads in the whole of the Dandenongs !

Another 5 minutes on and we were ready to string him (nicely of course) up a lamp post as in keeping with VE day celebrations he'd guided us down an umarked road / path / trail / swamp that bore great similarity to the field of the Somme after battle (I know, I know that was WW1)

We'd started the cool morning by Emerald Library and proceeded this time down Stillwells Deviation heading in the general direction of the Yellingbo conservation forest (we didn't even know there was one) before finding our nemesis Evans Rd

The initial trail riding soon brought us to a swamp that looked just marginally short in area of the Florida Everglades. Sending Jurgen out on an exploratory mission we found a bypass through thick bush, over a rickety home made bridge, through someone's rural backyard and under (read commando crawl) barbed wire to finally get back on track

Joyful at being alive we took in the spectacular hill top scenery of god knows where before making our way back to Cockatoo (passing Warby Gordon and Sue) for a well earned coffee. From here it was a good but hilly ride back to Emerald along Paternoster road to complete a uniquely enjoyable day !   

Evans Rd

Jungle Warfare

We had to crawl under the barbed wire

The great Escape

            

JURGENS PAT(C)H

Something untried in the back blocks of our domain was on the cards for Mike and myself once more, having been stimulated to enjoy punishing rides by Gordon's previous exploits. 

Emerald to Jurgen's domain at The Patch was quite a climb, made more challenging as we were passed by a pelaton of six fit fellas doing twice our speed. (Not hard seeing we reached 5kph at times ). 

Then to Cook's Corner (easy) followed by a detour up (and up, and up,  and up) to wind swept Ridge Rd. (b....y hard), a high speed (70kph) descent to Hancock's Corner (easy) and onto cattle tracks back of Menzies Creek (designed to cause piles and punctures) eventually hitting Selby Aura Vale Rd. On past Werner's to Cardinia Dam(no welcoming coffee there), the Daaammmm wall and the 56% gradient hills (my estimation of their steepness) to Upper Beac where we allowed the lactic acid to take root in our legs. Then the grind (' cos we were stuffed) back to Emerald.

On reflection, it seemed to be a 50km ride of endless climbing.

Not sure we would do it again.

Jon and Mike

KK_060520

Kirsten's Kaper

Two doubles and a single left Dandenong on an especially fine morning with the promise of shifting headwinds as they tacked south, destination Sculpture Park, adjacent Frankston. Maintaining social distancing not in question with Kirsten and Werner battling out the lead; Jürgen mistakenly aboard a heavy mountain bike giving him a taste of back marker for the day; with Jon and Helen on occasion dealing with the traffic lights. Kirsten succumbed to an early puncture, Jon nobly rescuing the situation, with Werner demonstrating the fine art of resetting a tyre back over a congested inner rim, due to an earlier application of puncture proof GOO. All much to the joy and amusement of an elderly Chinese gentleman. 35km/h easily maintained tacking south , reduced to half that on the reverse tack. Excellent fast ride with good long kilometers of guaranteed headwinds. See Jon's Strava effort.

Helen

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Gorden's revenge revisited

Our last endeavour with "Gordon's revenge" saw Mike and myself focussed mainly on the dirt roads so as to remain upright. It was time to revisit the route and this time, enjoy the scenery. 

Werner joined us and riding at the prescribed social distance or better, we launched into the exercise. That is, after a fast descent down a long hill, Werner remembered to tighten up his rear wheel axle.

For nature's scenery of near every kind, it would be hard to beat. It is one of those  "Zen" rides, where you let your mind relax and go to that other place in your soul. It may be only 48.09km long and as Strava bears witness, there are a lot of steep climbs. Yet, in no sense do those items detract from such a peaceful experience.

Jon