Centenary Trail as an overnight ride?

[joingler]

Hi all,
I know this will sound a little strange but I'm looking at doing the centenary trail as an overnight ride. I'm after peoples thought and wondering if anyone has done this before?

Apart from roos, are there any huge dangers I should be wary of? I've been thinking leaving home 7pm and getting back around 6am. I've done the trail a few times although not for 6 months. It takes me 9.5 hours including breaks to do it in the day so I'm allowing 11 hours for a night time ride. I live in Crace so would most likely do it anticlockwise, meaning I could stop for food at the shops in Belconnen and maybe Tuggers. It also means that if I time it right, I may get to see dawn at One Tree Hill. Does anyone think that doing it clockwise would be better?

Perhaps it's more a thing to do in summer than in winter but I'm really keen on the idea and the idiot in me will probably do it sometime in the next couple of months. I've got a good sturdy mountain bike. I'll probably do it once more in the daytime before I do it at night just to ensure I'm familiar with the track.

Many thanks in advance for your input.

JohnH

[WarrenH]

G'day, JohnH.

The only issues that I can see that you'd no doubt already know, are the closed gates and the locked gates and to a lesser note any tree branches or limbs that may have dropped ... and coming upon them quickly. Approaching the locked gate at the Northern Border campsite could be an issue, going anti clockwise. If you're above any fog it will look stunning up on Oak Hill et. al and possibly flairing-out in the hollows from your lights.

I inquired about the locked gates a while back and was told that they will remain locked except during special events.

Yesterday here in Canberra at 1.30 pm the apparent temp was 3.1°C. They say, in 'The Game of Thrones', "Winter is coming." If any of the steeper downhills get icy it might slow you down. The smooth metal styles aka the arched cattle grids if icy or wet will be slippery but I'm guessing that the texture of the many metal walkways and bridges, not so much.

That crunching sound of ice breaking under tyres is good in winter but very noisy so carry some dragon glass with you on the ride, just to be extra safe and pick the night well ... "Winter is coming."

Good luck and have a top ride.

Warren.

[nescius]

Be aware that some of the nature reserves that you would pass through will be closed overnight for the kangaroo cull from today (16 May 2016) until 1 August 2016. More information can be found here

The ten sites to be closed for the conservation cull are Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve, Gungaderra Nature Reserve, Isaacs Ridge Nature Reserve (and adjacent unleased land), Kama Nature Reserve, Mount Majura Nature Reserve (and adjacent unleased land), Mount Mugga Mugga Nature Reserve, Mount Painter Nature Reserve, Mulanggari Nature Reserve, Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary and

The Pinnacle Nature Reserve (and adjacent unleased land).

Goorooyaroo Nature Reserve, Gungaderra Nature Reserve, Kama Nature Reserve and Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary will be closed between 3 pm and 7 am each day. The other sites will be closed from 5 pm to 7 am each day. All sites will be closed from Monday 16 May 2016. Sites will re-open from Monday 1 August 2016 or earlier if the program is completed sooner

[cp123]

and in tomorrow's Canberra crimes - local cyclist found shot in the head amongst a pile of dead kangaroos.....



(hope not...)

[joingler]

G'day, JohnH.

The only issues that I can see that you'd no doubt already know, are the closed gates and the locked gates and to a lesser note any tree branches or limbs that may have dropped ... and coming upon them quickly. Approaching the locked gate at the Northern Border campsite could be an issue, going anti clockwise. If you're above any fog it will look stunning up on Oak Hill et. al and possibly flairing-out in the hollows from your lights.

I inquired about the locked gates a while back and was told that they will remain locked except during special events.

Yesterday here in Canberra at 1.30 pm the apparent temp was 3.1°C. They say, in 'The Game of Thrones', "Winter is coming." If any of the steeper downhills get icy it might slow you down. The smooth metal styles aka the arched cattle grids if icy or wet will be slippery but I'm guessing that the texture of the many metal walkways and bridges, not so much.

That crunching sound of ice breaking under tyres is good in winter but very noisy so carry some dragon glass with you on the ride, just to be extra safe and pick the night well ... "Winter is coming."

Good luck and have a top ride.

Warren.

Many thanks for your thoughts. All common sense but great to be reminded of them all. I'm actually postponing this until summer because of the roo cull. In the meantime, I'll just ensure I'm totally familiar with the entire trail. I already am for the northern half between Civic and the Arboretum so maybe I'll venture southside to get to know Red Rock and Isaacs ridge a bit better. I might even do the Forde-Hall section as an evening ride after work to get used to riding at night.

Be aware that some of the nature reserves that you would pass through will be closed overnight for the kangaroo cull from today (16 May 2016) until 1 August 2016. More information can be found here

I completely forgot about roo culling season. Many thanks for the reminder. I'll be waiting until summer comes around to do this type of ride.

[WarrenH]

joingler, that's disappointing with the timing. In the middle of Winter at night, that would have been a real icy adventure with fabulous ambiance.

... a pile of dead kangaroos ...

cp123, sadly, that's too true. What the Australian Capital Territory Govenment calls a Conservation Kangaroo Cull is actually a Roo genocide and so soon after the Territory's last atrocity. Have you ever seen one of Canberra's regular Roo genocides? ... they are absolutely evil.

From something as beautiful as this, like in the Aranda Snowgums Reserve on the Centenary Trail ...



... and on the Centenary Trail in Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve,



... and on the Centenary Trail in Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve,



... to this. Killing Eastern Grey Kangaroos on an industrial scale, on the Centenary Trail at Lake Ginninderra.

http://s225.photobucket.com/user/WildWa ... t=3&o=2147

http://s225.photobucket.com/user/WildWa ... t=3&o=2145

In the past the ACT Government killed between 800 and 900 Eastern Grey Kangaroos in their regular genocides but over the last two years they've killed over 6,000. The worst thing was watching the Roos that had been corralled suffering from dehydration.

http://s225.photobucket.com/user/WildWa ... t=3&o=2148

Warren.

PS, Sorry about the quality of my photography for the last three images. If the shots had of been sharper, they would have been even more horrific. I live in the NW of the ACT and rarely see a Roo nowadays, thanks to questionable science and motorist lobbies.

I didn't realise the genocide was going to be so big this time and killing the wild life in Nature Reserves is more than evil? Not once have I seen Roos over crowding Reserves, and I'm a regular park rider. After Canberra's fire storm, when they needed all the help they could get, Roos congregated on school ovals and Canberrans rose to the occasion ... it would be good if Canberrans rose to their help again.

[WarrenH]

Finally, I checked out the section of the Centenary Trail from Kambah Pool to the dry stone fence, that was the historic boundary between the properties of Yarralumla and Lanyon ... then after leaving the CT there, I continued through the sand on the Murrumbidgee Corridor Track to North Pine Island. For once I had good luck with this Winter's weather. The day was clear, warm and practically windless. The visibility was stunning.

My GPS recorded an accumulative ascent of 456m. I found this figure very surprising. It didn't feel like there was much climbing done, although there aren't many level bits of track in this section.

Please enjoy some shots from Friday 6th August. The gorge is Red Rocks Gorge on the Murrumbidgee River below the Bullen Range.











The highlight of the trip was finding a memorial to Steve Jobs ... not far off the trail.




At the dry stone wall I left the Centenary Trail and stayed on the river and headed to North Pine Island. Next time I'll go up the hill here and join the Bicentennial National Trail and then head back to Kambah Pool Road to make a loop, and not do a point to point like I did yesterday.




From Urambi Hills showing both the BNT and the CT. Mount Tennant is in the background. The CT is the faint trail closest to the Murrumbidgee.




Warren.

[Wing_nut84]

Gorgeous!!