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| Rocky MTB Club map of trails. |
There aren't many walking tracks around Rockhampton and Yeppoon that are suitable for trail running on; many are very short, and the only decent one, Zamia Track, has very angular rocks that wobble underfoot and are spraintastic. Every day on the drive into work therefore I have ogled the Seeonee Park Scout grounds over on the northern side of the highway; you can see some of the trails from the road, including an incredibly steep streak of concrete heading up to a radio mast atop the tallest hill!
Although it's right there on the outskirts of North Rockhampton I have never run it as it's private property of the Scouts, and whilst the Rocky MTB Club have an agreement permitting cyclists to train on certain days, it would have been presumptuous to just assume that they wouldn't mind a random runner over there too. Previous attempts to contact the groups seeking permission have failed however - the website about the park is over a decade out of date - and an email to the State level of the organisation last year vanished into the aether unanswered.
Then last week I tried again, and this time hallelujah, a friendly response and permission to go over there! They didn't even want the subs I offered (I was going to pay the same rate as the cyclists do, to contribute to the facility), or restrict me to certain days of the week. So, of course, the first chance I got I nipped over there to check it out; I was also desperately in need of some trail time anyway to get my dirt mojo back, as all trails had been closed since TC Marcia and I have the Beerwah trail race on Sunday. Wednesday's hill session seemed as good an excuse as any, and there was definitely a hill there, I just needed to find which trail led to it and could get in some single track time along the way.
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| Ah well, grit happens.. |
Arriving at the park I decided to just cruise around the trails to start with for a warm up. Being an especially clever sort I'd forgotten the trail map I printed out at home, so just followed my nose and settled in to see where the trails took me. They took me around, and around, and around - I couldn't seem to find a way to get to that hill! The tracks were great however, well-maintained and most Marcia damage had been cleared away. It was great being in the bush again but I was sharply reminded of how long I had been away from the trails when I tripped over barely 2kms into my run and skinned my knees! Damn. I know my leg is particularly clumsy to start with (my proprioception on that side has been off since smashing it + 4 ops), but this is just ridiculous. Luckily nothing important seemed damaged, so I just lumbered onwards, focusing on picking up both feet properly as I went.
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| It's about 22% incline over 1.5kms |
Eventually I found that hill, which was a relief for whilst the trails ran over some hills these were all very minor and short - great for a nice undulating trail run, but not so useful for adding up a decent amount of vert. The hill however made up for all of that - gazing up at it from the bottom, it was clearly going to be a hiking hill, far steeper than even the steepest incline back in Yeppoon and barely runnable. I went straight up it and alternated between running as far as I could, then switching to hiking for 10 paces or so, and back to running over and over until I reached the top. Around 200m from the peak an EMQ Landcruiser came grinding and slipping up the hill behind me in low range and 1st, and stopped for a chat, "are you
running this??! do you want a ride up? you are
running this hill?! want a ride back down?" Haha. They went onwards and I waited to give them some space since it was so steep and I suspected I had better traction than they.
The view from the top was fantastic - I tried to capture the steepness of the track itself as well, but it's hard to do with a tiny iPhone lens and a 2D image. The hill had taken an hour to find and I was rapidly running out of time, so ran back down the hill and out through the gates again. It was disappointing the trails wouldn't be suitable for hill repeats, but great at least to have found somewhere new to run. The undulating trails would be handy for a general kind of long trail run over and around random trails, and easy to trot back to the car for a pitstop to refill the hydration bladder.
Stats: Movescount.
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| Duration 1:40. |
What went well: Clearly needed to get some trail time underfoot, so I am glad I have done that before this weekend's 50km trail ultra. Legs felt good aside from the remodelling of my knees and shin!
Next time: Stay upright you idiot.
Blunders: Two minor, including the fall and a wee ankle roll that gave me a fright but was fine.
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| View across the calderas to the east; Byfield is to the left of shot mostly behind the hill. |
