21 August 2012 Border Markers near Mt Clear - ride and stride

Sam Aboud's dunny/A little snow and mud on the Mt Clear fire trail/C37 blaze

Maps: Bredbo and Colinton 1:25000

Getting There

This walk was organised, led and enjoyed by me as a private Tuesday walk:

Tuesday 21 August - Border Markers near Mt Clear - ride and stride - H. Ride from the Mt Clear car park via the Long Flat FT + new alignment. Work the border on the crest of the Clear Range, looking for border markers. A combination of ride and walk. Around 40km and 900m climb. Maps: Bredbo and Colinton. Leader: John Evans - john@johnevans.id.au, 0417 436 877.

1hr 15min reasonably careful drive (because of early morning kangas) to the Mt Clear camping ground car park.

Further Information

Riding back from Mt Clear on 27 Oct 09 was 16km in 2hrs.

Photographs

You can access all Picasa-stored pics here.

Ride/Walk

Track maps: thumbnails are active - click for a larger picture
Track overview	Track 1	Track 2	Track 3	Track 4

Certain advantages on a solo event - I can leave early, have minimal stops, finish late and do what I like. But the company's not much good and today's event did not turn out as planned (maybe better in the end) and I lost a lens from my magnifying glasses (good thing I took those and not the prescription ones).

In summary, found 22 border markers, found 1 blaze, found 2 Mile markers, visited 1 border marker (U38 Mt Clear trig) that I'd seen before. Visited the locations of a further 5 border markers and 1 Mile marker which could not be found.

17.1km with 660m vertical ascent ride in to Mt Clear in 3hrs 5mins, including a 5min stop at Sam Aboud's dunny and hut site. Had to walk a bit of the way going up the Clear Range Fire Trail, not only the steep bits, but where there was a bit of snow and mud on the fire trail. I wasn't planning to do this, but I was well past my first check point for border marker hunting before I knew it.

5mins of morning tea whilst I sorted out what to do.

Left the bike and went North down the border. Found T36, S36 and R36. Could not find Q36. Rang home. Found P36. Could not find O36. Found 99 Mile, N36, M36 and L36. Could not find K36 nor J36. Found I36, H36, G36 and F36. Could not find 98 Mile nor E36.

I can get to the border markers N of here by riding up the Left Hand Creek Fire Trail and coming S along the border via the Clear Range fire trail. But that includes a 270m drop off the crest, so it might be wise to leave the bike at the top!

It was now 12.25pm. I turned about and walked 3.3km and 480m ascent back up the Mt Clear fire trail in 1hr 10mins. I was pretty weary when I got back to Mt Clear.

A quick bite of lunch.

Just before 2pm, and with an eye on the time which was slipping away, I headed S off the top to hunt a few more border markers. Found them all on this leg - V36, W36, X36, 100 Mile, Y36, Z36, A37, B37, C37, a lovely C37 blaze on a living tree made my day, D37, E37 and F37. Back a few metres down to the fire trail. Now 2.40pm.

Walked 1km with 80m climb in 15mins back to my bike at Mt Clear. Now 2.55pm. Rang home to say I'd be a bit late.

17km with 280m ascent included in the going down in 2hrs 3mins, including getting some water at the ford of the creek that runs out of Long Flat. The sun was down and it was getting chilly by the time I got back to the car. I was very, very weary.

A quick beer at Val's store eased the pain.

Distance: 43.5km (ride 34.1km, walk 9.4km) Climb: 1500m (ride 940m, walk 560m). Time: 7.30am - 5.00pm (9hrs 30mins), with 25mins of stops.
Grading: H

Note: Walking with Alan V last Saturday, he reminded me to pull the total ascent from my GPS. For this trip, doing it the old way (a rough estimate from the OziExplorer trip height profile) I got around 1400m. The GPS gave 1522m.

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Border Markers near Mt Clear - ride and stride

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This page last updated 1Sep22