Dirt ride to Heathcote

Fuzzy Dunlop

Unleash the inner wombat
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Wanted to ride somewhere new on Saturday so I poured over Google maps and came up with what should be at least a 50% dirt ride to Heathcote and back. Turned out to be a pretty good little ride and probably 60% dirt, though I had a bit of trouble getting over the hills east of Lancefield due to roads disappearing into farmland. The dirt was mostly well groomed, with a bit of roughish farm track thrown in, as well as the absurd Mount William Road.

I almost thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew following Mt William Road. Passing through a gate, the road turned into rough steep track, with a disturbing right-left angle on it. The photo below doesn't really capture how steep the 'road' was but a little of the surface. Didn't look crazy bad, so I gave it a crack.

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​Got to the top and the road disappeared into grassy double track over the top of a hill. I got off the bike and went to take a look and although I couldn't see all the way to the bottom due to the incline, it didn't look too bad. How wrong I was.

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The track got incredibly steep, eroded and rough, with a V shape to it, with great clumps of tree roots sticking out from the sides. I inched my way down it as there was no possibility of turning around. Had to use the front brake as I had the training wheels out and was shitting bricks all the way down. Might have been better off going faster but the weight of the bike and myself gave me doubts that I could stop if I need to. The Tiger 800 is NOT a dirt bike. Fortunately made it down without falling off and found myself in a paddock, as the road was fenced and had been left alone to become a massive tangle of trees and fallen branches. Impassable. It soon became apparent that I would have to go back up. This proved to be less nerve wracking than coming down, although the tree roots seemed determined to force me into the eroded ruts.

Couldn't find a way east to Lancefield so I ended up taking a big loop around to the north, eventually finding my way onto High Camp Road. I kept expecting to see Julian Clary. Nice twisty road with great views as it wound its way between the hills. Burke and Wills Track was also quite fun, although sealed, and the rest of the way to Heathcote was wide, well maintained dirt and gravel so I made good time.

​Decided to take a break In Heathcote and while sitting at a park bench, an old timer came over to me and asked me what kind of bike I had. Turned out he was an 80 year old mechanic who had a life long love affair with bikes and used to race them when there was a track in Moorabbin. He was particularly fond of Velocette bikes in the 50's. lovely chap and we had a great chat.

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I had some errands to run and all the dicking about on unsuitable roads had made me a bit late. I had intended to do a bunch more dirt roads but instead I took the direct route to Strath Creek when I lunched at the pub. Had a good chat with a couple who were fellow motorcyclists and interested in the Tiger 800s, but it was the KTM RC8 the bloke was riding that caught my eye.

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Route was follows. I have the Garmin and .gpx files if anyone wants em.

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Fuzzy Dunlop

Unleash the inner wombat
Couple of dead ends in that track log.. :lol:

I wonder if PAR rules apply in Victoria?

Yeah bloody farmers had it in for me. GPS might be good at a few things but its pretty useless as an actual map.

Almost forgot the best photo too. OP amended.
 
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