Cave Hill Ride - 21/22 April 2012

[Davey_sprockeT]

Pity.....Sounds like a great ride though.
Maybe it could be re-planned over a long w/e later in the year .

Maybe the UglyAdventurer and the stormtroopers of the dark side might take it up?

[jono]

I just arrived back Saturday evening from a 4 day trip out to Cave Hill.
Traveled out via the Brookton Highway and Hyden, camped the first night at the Breakaways. The next morning called in at Mc Dermid Rock (Nice camping spot half way along the Hyden Norseman Rd). Took the Queen Victoria Rock Road towards Coolgardie and picked up the first track to Cave Hill. This track was really windy, overall the surface is quite firm but there are occasional wash outs, ruts and some sandy patches, would make a nice dirt ride but you would need to go easy on the throttle as the bush is quite lush and thick and the road throws many corners and a few surprises at you.

Its about 50Km on this track to the back of Cave Hill. Great camp spot at the end of the camp site. Plenty of shade, a great dam a short walk away and full of yabbies. If you venture up onto the rock you will find 4 more man made dams, really quite amazing to see. They are all holding water and are quite large. Had a refreshing swim and walked to the other side of the rock to look at the cave.

I would not recommend this as an overnight ride return destination, its too far. If you come back via Coolgardie and the Great Eastern Hwy its 700km to Perth. Yes you can do it in a day but then you really don't have enough time to have a good look around the rock and it is worth spending a day there.

Also if you plan traveling in on Cave Hill Road, off Queen Victoria Rock Road (we went out that way), be advised there is a fair bit of dry soft sand on an otherwise fast track. The road conditions change quickly and the danger would be settling into a fast run and then coming up on a sandy patch, corner or the odd fallen tree. Queen Victoria Rock Road is in pretty good condition but does have some heavily corrugated sections.

Otherwise a top spot for a visit, we only saw one other group camping there one night the rest of the time we had it to ourselves.

Cheers
JonO

[_Wilks]

Good stuff Jono.

Pics? Which bike did you take? How many went?

I agree with your assessment of the first track to the east off Victoria Rocks Rd (which takes you the back way in to Cave Hill). IMO it's certainly do-able on a large GS bike in the right hands; should not be a worry on a mid size adv bike.

There's a second track to the east further north on Vic Rocks Rd (approx 50kms north of Lake Johnson) which maps show as a good secondary dirt road in to Cave Hill. That was the Rd I was going to use for this ride.

[Digger]

Good stuff Jono.
I agree with your assessment of the first track to the east off Victoria Rocks Rd (which takes you the back way in to Cave Hill). IMO it's certainly do-able on a large GS bike in the right hands; should not be a worry on a mid size adv bike.

It is certainly doable on a GSA...i did it a couple of weeks ago with Chris, Anthony and Bowe (all 650's) . Provided you take it easy and ride according to the conditions, most riders should be OK

[bully1]

that road out of cave hill is a cracker, 37 miles according to the marker on the tree at the Vic Rock end




awsome surface to ride on