23 Jan 2023
I packed everything up as quickly as I could and got on the bus at 7:45am. Callows Coaches had a lot more luggage space in their buses than tassielink so it was easier to get my bike in (and they can definitely fit more bikes too!)
It rained for most of the bus journey, which made me suddenly realise that so far it had only rained during the night on this trip, which didn't really bother me that much because I'm inside my tent. Although, this is the first trip I had used my 'new' tent on a rainy night. Previously I had only used it for two nights on my south gippsland trip and it was dry both nights. And 2022 held a disappointing lack of bikepacking to continue testing it out, so it is now a year old and being used for the second time! This tent is the Gossamer Gear The One and it comes with 8 pegs, but 12 potential places to put them. So I thought it would take me a few different combinations to get it right for what I might prefer. However, on this trip I have found that I will need at least 10 pegs if not 12 to get it to the taughtness that I would like. I do not understand why it doesn't just come with 12 pegs so that people can then choose to leave some behind if they want, or to take all of them. It has been sagging a lot when it gets rained on, so the fabric touches my feet/quilt and condensation on the inside of the tent ends up getting my feet and quilt damp (this is a single wall in case you are unfamiliar with the model). Sometimes condensation will drip onto my face in the middle of a rainy night, which is I think the most unpleasant aspect. Hopefully the extra pegs I will order before my next trip will fix these issues! Otherwise I have been really enjoying the low weight of the tent.
We arrived in St Helens at 9:20. I was a bit tired from the previous night, and I don't think my body really wanted me to cycle again today. So I first got a couple of items from the IGA, then went to my caravan park to eat a big and long lunch and set up my tent. By the time I was ready to leave it was 12:30 and the sun had come out. Guess I won't be cycling in the rain for even a second of this trip after all!
I was apprehensive about needing to take the highway to the mtb park, but it was only about 3kms. However, when I got to the highway, I noticed there was a bike path on the coast side of the road. So I followed that until it ended, then spotted a new track on the other side of the road. I started following it and soon realised it must be one of the park's mountain bike trails! I got abit worried halfway that perhaps it was supposed to be one direction, that being the opposite of the direction that I was going in. But when I got to the end, which had a big 'trailhead' sign, I had a look at the park map and it seems I had taken the 'townlink' which was the one two-way trail of the park. I guess that makes sense, so that mtb-ers can avoid the highway. So it would seem you can get to the park without riding the highway very easily from the st helens town.
I am still a green mountain biker as it is really inconvenient to get to a park without a car from where I live, and I don't have a car. So I just went around some of the short green ones a few times before heading back down the townlink to the caravan park. I've done more mountain biking on bikepacking trips than at home! It was a really nice ride, and the blue and black runs looked quite good, though of course I am not at a level to try them out myself. But there wasn't an obvious way to get drinking water up there so I think you need to take whatever you want yourself.
And the end of those couple of hours of mountain biking signalled the end of this trip. My slow but thoroughly enjoyable trip. Since it has taken me a while to make this website, I can say now that I have indeed ended up going on some weekender trips throughout the year, so look out for more posts here and on my youtube!
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