Last Tuesday my mate Dave and I headed down to the Jagungal Wilderness KNP for a couple of days Mountain Bike Packing/ flyfishing, our plan was to start from Round Mountain carpark and head down Happy Jacks Road then turn right onto Grey Mare Fire Trail and head toward Mt Jagungal, depending on conditions and how we felt our route was flexible.
As keen bushwalkers, flyfishers and Snowshoers, we had been in the Jagungal Wilderness many times including 2 previous bike packing trips but we had never been on the section of Grey Mare FT from Happy Jacks Road to Farmyard Ridge or visited Mackeys Hut before.
This was my first Bike packing trip on my Scott Scale 29er and with my new bike bag setup, Dave had just purchased a second hand Fuji 27.5 hardtail MTB and used a more traditional rear panier setup, both of our bikes and gear weighed in around 25-26 kg.
The March Flies were terrible this year and lycra was no barrier to them, when we stopped we had to put on some long pants. Before we turned off onto Grey Mare FT we stopped at a beautiful spot near the upper Happy Jacks River for a quick fly fish.
Grey Mare FT to Mackeys Hut was good with not too many steep hills, we stopped at Mackeys for afternoon tea then headed off toward Mt Jagungal, as we got closer to Mt Jagungal the trail got steeper and the hills got longer, we had hoped to go a bit further but by the time we reached O’keefe’s we were both hot and tired and it was getting late, O’Keefe’s was very busy so we rode on a bit and found a nice campsite net to a creek with million dollar views of Mt Jagungal.
In the morning we decided to head to The Tooma River via Hell Hole FT and do some more flyfishing. The Hell Hole FT was not maintained as we all as Grey Mare FT and Round Mountain FT and we found the going hard at times as the road had lumpy over the Alpine grasses, near The Tooma River we had to climb up over a very steep hill, to steep to ride, it was hard work pushing the bikes, the decent down to the Tooma was interesting with some very steep -35% gradients in some places.
We fished for about an hour before heading to the Tooma Dam on the Dargels FT and then back to the Car at Round Mt Carpark, which was much harder than we expected, 11.5k with 400 meters elevation gain (500 meters climbing) and it was hot on the bitumen.
All up we rode 92k, with 2400 meters of climbing, 17k on bitumen, 25k on good dirt road and 50k on fire trails.
Tony
Jagungal Wilderness Bikepacking trip Xmas 2015
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Re: Jagungal Wilderness Bikepacking trip Xmas 2015
Postby grantw » Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:31 am
Awesome adventure. Great photos too.
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Re: Jagungal Wilderness Bikepacking trip Xmas 2015
Postby RonK » Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:00 am
Looks like fun Tony. Looking at your backpack - seems a lot of gear you're carrying for an overnighter.
But where are the pics of the fish.
But where are the pics of the fish.
Cycle touring blog and tour journals: whispering wheels...
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Re: Jagungal Wilderness Bikepacking trip Xmas 2015
Postby TonyB » Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:48 pm
Thanks Grantw, I always enjoy that part of the country.grantw wrote:Awesome adventure. Great photos too.
Hi RonK, even though I had a bit more gear that I would have liked, looks are deceiving, the backpack is a 50l bag and is no way full, I used that bag as it is most comfortable on the bike, we had food and leave passes for 3 days 2 nights but as it turned out we did not need the extra day, I also carried a bit more cooking gear that I would have if I was on my own.RonK wrote:Looks like fun Tony. Looking at your backpack - seems a lot of gear you're carrying for an overnighter.
But where are the pics of the fish.
What small amount of fishing we did was not the best, at Happy Jacks River Dave had 3 bites but missed all 3, at Tooma River it was the wrong time of day, though we saw a large trout feeding in a big pool, Dave cast to it bit it spooked easily, we only had Tenkara rods which are limited in casting range, if you want I have plenty of fish pics from previous trips to the area.
Tony
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Re: Jagungal Wilderness Bikepacking trip Xmas 2015
Postby }SkOrPn--7 » Tue Jan 05, 2016 2:34 pm
Wonderful Tony perfect weather looks like even if no fish for dinner would have been nice and relaxing tossing a line.
Cheers Ricky
Cheers Ricky
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