Bungendore Flashpacker ..... the ride.

Four starters for our opening weekend Flashpacker. A 285k loop out through Braidwood and then south to Captains Flat and returning to Bungendore. Dan Hunt was a late inclusion on Saturday morning joining myself, Andrew Stephenson and Mark Simpson [aka Simmo]. Myself and Dan riding rigid front fork hardtails, Andrew with front suspension and Simmo with the lot.

Simmo and Andrew had made an early strategic decision to take an overnight pub stop at Braidwood [150k] and left the sleeping kit at home. Dan and myself intended to push on a little further after dinner .... oh yeah? Day 1 - 148k and 1600Vm The first couple of hours out of Bungendore was slow going on the little used rail service track. 20ml of overnight rain had filled the low swampy sections and there was sticky sections to work through but all rideable. Fortunately the rain had cleared and the day was cool with intermittent cloud cover.

After a quick refuel in Tarago we made good time over to the Shoalhaven River with a nice 20kph westerly behind us. The shire roads were all in good nick and settled from the recent rains.

The Shoalhaven River was less than waist high so we managed a gentle crossing without getting too wet and took a lunch break. After a short spin north along the Nerriga-Braidwood Road we diverted on a loop through a new sub-division road eventually returning to the Nerriga-Braidwood Road and then south on to the Charley's Forest Road down to Mongarlowe all on rolling fast shire roads .... not so fast on the climbs and not so fast for me, paying the penalty for running tubes and picking up some blackberry thorns.

A few freezing rain/hail storms added to the fatigue level as the day drew to a close. The final 15k into Braidwood is on the tar seal. The Braidwood pub offered modest accommodation $70 for the room with four beds..... with a hot shower thrown in it was too much temptation for Dan and myself. We split it by four to get the value down to about what it was worth. An ordinary Pizza a few doors down did the job for dinner and we set the alarm to hit the Braidwood Bakery shortly after their 5:30am opening time. Day 2 - 135k and 2300Vm

Beautiful morning rolling out of Braidwood before the day's work started from the turn up Hoskinstown Road.

After turning south on to the Bombay Fire Trail the serious climbs start on a FT that has a fair amount of 4x4 pig hunting traffic but not a lot else. The Bombay FT is a smashing ride coming the other way off Louden Forest Road and will most likely be included in some changes to the 2017 Cloudride route.

Similarly, further on in our weekender ride, Sawpit Gully FT is worthy of reinstatement to the Cloudride route. This had been part of the original Cloudride route but had suffered the misfortune of being bulldozed in early 2015 and with the addition of rain had become unrideable bog swamp. It's now well compacted from a lot more traffic and is also a fun fast two track section to break up the forest and shire road sections.

By early afternoon a few rain squalls had built up necessitating multiple jacket changes .... too cold, too hot, too wet... eat something, have a drink .... bring your own straw.... note to delf, ride tubeless watch out for spikey things...

Captains Flat arrived, Dan and Simmo managed a burger, Andrew had dropped of the pace and was 30 mins behind and I was stretching my legs somewhere over towards Wild Cattle Flat.

Simmo arrived back at The Bungendore Royal Hotel at 4:20 with Dan a few minutes later after making good time over the final 30k with a nice 20kph sou'wester on their shoulder. Andrew rolled in a while later accompanied by his wife who had ridden out towards Hoskinstown to meet and ride in with him. Unfortunately my domestic pick-up arrangements didn't materialise quite as well as Andrews and I took the strategic decision to ride directly back to Canberra from Captains Flat getting in at 7:30pm. SUMMARY I'm sure we all gained something from the weekend ... improved fitness is a certainty! There's always the opportunity to refine your packing/gear arrangements and brush up on navigation. A few missed turns by everyone served to underline the distractions of riding as a pair or small group and not paying attention while talking crap. Minimising time off the bike ... lube stops, toilet breaks, clothing changes, eating .... do several/all at the same time. I was reminded of the "20 minute Rule" on countless occasions. I'm hot, I should take off a layer. I'm cold, I should put on a layer. It's about to start raining I should put on a jacket...... give it 20 minutes and in all likelihood you'll be just fine! COOMA Flashpacker 275k and 4,500Vm Weekend 12-13 November I'll publish the final route next week..... probably Start/Finish at the Namadgi Visitors Centre