There are a lot of things that inspire me to get out and ride, glorious weather, beautiful scenery and good company just to name a few. But what really inspires me to challenge myself on the bike are the people who are willing to have a go despite circumstances being less than ideal. A mate of mine, who resembles a rugby player much more than a cyclist, recently rode to Melbourne, another mate did something like 400 km in a day. These people come across as ordinary people yet to my mind, they do extraordinary things.
Strangely the person I take a lot of inspiration from is someone I've never met, a lady by the name of Jill Homer, who has written books and keeps a blog about her adventures. In many ways she comes across as just someone you might meet on the bus, or work with, who struggles with the same problems that we all do in life.
But she's also someone who knows how to slog, who tackles multiday endurance events not because she wants to win, but because she wants to know if she can do it. That's what inspires me, and that's part of the reason I've been challenging myself to go solo and tackle some things that put me a little outside of my comfort zone.
My challenge this past weekend was Stone Hut road. I was disappointed in myself that I was so ready to give up on a road, that a road had beaten me. So I made up my mind that I would find my inner Jill, and have another go at it. I knew that I was going to suffer, and thought that this might be a ride I should attempt by myself. There's nothing like having no one around to help you to see how hard you are willing to push.
Stone Hut road is part of the Mawson Trail, the part that takes you up into the Adelaide hills. It's a dirt road that doesn't see a lot of traffic, in fact for most of my ride I was the only one on the trail. The surface is predominately loose gravel and it is often rutted where water has flowed across the road. It is a difficult road to traverse, it is also one of the most beautiful I have ever ridden.
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| Stone Hut Road |
Saturday dawned bright and clear, perfect Autumn weather and hardly a breath of wind. Carl left early for his race and I leisurely organised myself before heading out. The first part of the ride was easy, back along my favourite path, Linear Park. There were a few people out enjoying themselves, which was good to see. I ended up stopping and chatting to a guy from South Africa, who was looking for a place to take his grand kids for a ride. He'd been up at Fox Creek and decided it was too technical, but thought Linear Park was just about perfect. Personally, I couldn't agree more!
With Linear Park and Gorge Road completed, I turned right onto Batchelor Road and the beginning of Stone Hut Road. The first 20m or so of this road are actually slightly downhill, but it turns up pretty shortly after that. With loose gravel underfoot it was only another 20m or so before I decided that I'd better get off the bike before I fell off! Thankfully, there was a conveniently located photo opportunity, and while I had forgotten to put my memory card in my point and click, I still had my phone.
This really set the tone for the ride, pedal, push and photo. Given that I took about 70 photos in total and Stone Hut Road is only about 7km long, it works out that I was stopping for a photo (read: gasping for air and needing a break) on average every 100m. Actually, I was going a little further, most stops involved multiple photos. In my defence, the views were amazing!
I remembered the first hill from my attempt at this road last year. In particular I remembered trying, unsuccessfully, to start pedalling on the climb. This time I just marched up the hill, gravel crunching underfoot as I pushed Contessa to the top. Eventually the road levelled out for a bit and I managed to get pedalling again. I made the mistake of looking at my Garmin, which told me I had traversed all of 200m.
Riding wasn't to last, and as I left the vineyards and entered the bush, the road deteriorated and headed back up. I'm not the most confident mountain biker at the best of times and combining that with jelly legs meant that I ended up walking probably more than I needed too. But at least it was forward movement, albeit slow.
The road crested and dipped slightly between two peaks and I resolved to use the downhill speed to help me up the next uphill. However I was not prepared for the site that greeted me as flew down hill. Looking to my left I glimpsed a huge lake, glinting between the trees. It was such a stunning sight that all thoughts of speeding up the next hill left me and I stopped to take in the view. I realised shortly that I was looking at the Kangaroo Creek reservoir, however the perspective was such that you couldn't tell at first glance that it was a man made structure, it just looked like a beautiful, calm alpine lake and for a minute I forgot I was in Adelaide.
I took photos, though they hardly seemed to do it justice, and resumed my ride. Well ride, walk, let's just say I resumed moving towards Fox Creek. Soon I had reached the place where we had turned around last time and I stopped to let Carl know I had made it this far. It's a bit odd being surrounded by bush and not being able to see a single person yet still being able to contact the outside world so quickly.
I had it in my head that where we had turned around previously was pretty much the high point, so you can imagine my surprise when I turned the corner and there was more up. I didn't know it at the time, but this would pretty much be the situation for the rest of the day. Each time I crested a hill, around the corner, there was another. However, I was blissfully unaware of and as I reached a power station with a road sign I thought I had made it to the top!
Obligatory photos ensued, then I cheerfully took off down a road I figured would allow me to have a relaxing pedal to Fox Creek. I managed a couple of hundred meters before the road headed back up and I started to get the idea that the rest of this might not be as easy as I imagined. After more pushing I reached another peak.
My legs were jelly and I was starting to talk to Contessa, a sure sign that the slog was getting to me. Still, I promised I wouldn't leave her behind and I'm sure she agreed not to throw me off if it got too technical. Still, we were about to traverse a ridge line, and I really didn't trust my bike skills so the Countess and I trudged nervously between the steep drops on either side.
Soon we reached another peak, and I had lost count of how many we had crested. But the road headed down so I bravely mounted the Countess and rolled down the hill. I even let go of the brakes at one point, especially when I could see another up approaching!
As I got closer, I realised that I had little chance of riding up this hill, the road was steep, gravely and rutted, worse than anything I had yet encountered. This section, I later found out, had a gradient up to 30 percent and I could only stand there and stare at it in horror. I almost wanted to turn around, but the thought of trying to get down what I had just come up was enough to force me up that hill.
I think there were a few more ups and downs after that, but the Countess and I kept going and soon we were rewarded with a sign telling us we were close. It was also at this point in time that Carl called to let me know how he had gone in the race (he was shattered) and to let me know he would be there soon. It was all the motivation I needed to get moving.
There were more ups and some amazing views, but soon I found myself on a graded road with the smell of pizza in the air. As I rounded the final corner, the winery came into view and it was the best view of the day! 
Thankfully they are used to riders and didn't bat an eyelid as I parked my bike and downed a couple of glasses of water left graciously at the bar. Soon feeling more myself, I ordered a pizza and a beer as I waited for Mr Carl to arrive. He was pretty happy that I'd only eaten half the pizza by the time he turned up and I shouted him a beer and a pizza as thanks for saving me from having to ride back down.
Stone Hut Road was an intimidating ride but it was one of the most scenic rides I have ever ridden. Even as I was bent over the handle bars, gasping for breathe, I couldn't work out why I was the only person up there, because the beauty of the ride far outweighed the pain. Would I ride it again? Most definitely, at the very least, the pizza at the end makes it all worth it!
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