Mountain Biking the Victoria Reservoir

Perth, Western Australia

By Nate Morse , May 1999

This is the third installment from the USS Carl Vinson's WestPac '98/'99 cruise. I've just finished up the most intense and enjoyable days of riding that I've had in a long time. I met and rode with some of the most interesting and hospitable folks around; you've all GOT TO GO down under and experience Oz for yourselves. . . . To steal a line from Dick Vital, the basketball announcer, "It's OZ-some baby, with a capitol 'O'!!"

Frank Palermo and I arranged via e-mail for my friend Jess and I, to meet Frank at the Helmscott train station between 9:00am and 10:00am. We arrived at about 9:20, looked around a bit and then proceeded to the nearest phone to give Frank a call, since he lives close by. Within a few minutes both Frank and Tina were there to meet us. Unfortunately, Tina had to work that morning and wouldn't be able to join us for the ride, so we loaded up the bikes on Franks car and we were off...

Within 10 minutes we were somewhere up in the hills southeast of Perth/Fremantle. Beautiful area Western Australia is!!! We were going to be riding a loop to Victoria Reservoir. We unloaded our bikes and we were off. . .

The weather was PERFECT for riding; around 80F with only a couple clouds in the sky with low humidity; we couldn't have asked for better!! As far as vegetation goes, there were lots of small leafy trees (don't know what kind they were), grass trees (which are slow-growing "trees" that are literally made of grass) and Parrot plants (similar to Holly but without the red things). The Parrot plants grow everywhere along the trail can be quite painful if you brush by. There were other shrubs and stuff too mostly plants you'd find in a drier type climate. But since this isn't a botany list (yawn), I'll just leave it at that.

The trail gently climbs up the rugged hills and was fairly wide at the beginning which was good since it gave some time to warm up and chat along the way. The area is a base of reddish, clay dirt with lots of jagged, loose rocks and a few sand traps thrown in which really tested my ability to pick a line both on ascents AND descents. 'Course I STILL can't seem to pick a line very well so it was an interesting ride. There were also patches of pea gravel which I was told was "evil stuff" and it was. Your front tire would literally sink about 3 inches into the stuff and if you weren't prepared, you could easily be separated from your bike. Luckily we didn't run into much of it on this ride and when we did see it, we were climbing usually.

The trail narrowed as we got closer to the reservoir and then it spilled onto a gravel road which we followed to a another car park. Then we caught a nice, well deserved downhill run to the dam. Downhills are like a fountain of youth for me 'cause I feel about 10 years younger and find myself taking the harder (fun) way down just so I can catch a little air off that rock or this root. . . gravity is definitely a clydesdales best friend when going down!!

We took a little break at the observation look out to snap a couple shots for posterity and generally took in the beauty of the area. From there you could see the reservoir on the left, the dam straight in front, a valley between the two hills and the Perth skyline right between the two hilltops. A postcard if I've ever seen one. From the lookout to the dam was very long set of wooden stairs that Jess just HAD to ride down. Morbidly, Frank and I stayed up top so I could take "the picture" if he lost it on the way down ;-) But being an seasoned mtb racer and quite a good bike handler, he was able to ride it all the way until the last landing where the turn was just too tight and was forced to dismount and walk the final flight. All the way down, Jess was trash talking something about us being chicken. . . or not men enough to do it ourselves. . . But I couldn't clearly hear what he was saying since I was busy gobbling pebbles for my gizzard and checking my pantyhose for runs. . . :-) I got some good shots of him anyway.

We rode along the top of the dam and then made a fast descent down a paved road the trail below. That's when we had the first mechanical of the day; Frank's rear wheel caught a rock and put a good sized ding in the rim which pinched a gash in the tube. He was riding his GT Zaskar with Velocity Aero Heat rims. I was pretty amazed that the rim was STILL true even with that ding in it; definitely well built wheels. We replaced the tube and within minutes we were off. Now I must make a shameless plug for the tire removal/installation tool that Jess used. I forget the name, but it hooked onto the bead and extended and attached to the axle. Frank was running Kevlar beaded Conti's which are VERY tight fitting tires which can be a bear to install with standard levers and it stripped then off and installed them EFFORTLESSLY in literally 2 seconds. What a great product!! If you don't have one, GET ONE!!

We rode up and over that hill and down through the next valley. We made our way up the final long climb of the day which included switchbacks and some hike-a-bike for Frank and I, but Jess (aka: The Boy Wonder) seemed to ride most everything!! How does he do that?!?! When we reached the top, we took in the view for a minute or two and began the long, fast descent down to the car where Tina was going to be meeting us. Max speeds reached 29.6mph on my computer with the average speed probably closer to 20mph. Plenty fast enough for me. . . Using your breaks was really tricky since the surface was very loose and rocky. One thing that really helped me on the descent was my Thudbuster seat post; it enabled my to actually sit down and get some extra weight on that rear wheel which kept it in contact with the ground and making braking much easier. About 1/2 mile from the car, Franks rear tire (or is that spelled "tyre", hmm) blew again, probably from the ding in the rim. So with a fresh tube in place and aired back up, we made our final descent to the car, where Tina was waiting for us. All in all, it was about a 9.5 mile loop through some wonderfully different terrain ridden at a recreational, "soak in the sights" pace.

From the car park, we rode about 1/4 mile down a trail that follows the road to a really nice picnic area and that's where we had lunch. Frank and Tina pulled out all the stops and threw some "steaks on the barbie" (must be said with the appropriate accent for full effect ;-) ) along with some sausages, salad and a host of other good things. The national park had free (YES that said FREE) gas powered grills for BBQing which keeps folks from burning down the area using briquettes. A REALLY good idea that maybe park managers in the U.S. should think about doing!! After stuffing our selves silly and sharing some great conversation, we cleaned up the area and rode back to the car where we made arrangements to give Tina and her two young boys, Martin & Sean, a tour of the ship the following day (unfortunately Frank wouldn't be able to make it because of obligations at work). Again we loaded up the bikes and Frank gave us a ride out to the Midland train station there "Part 2" of this most excellent day began.

I really want to thank Frank & Tina (Martin & Sean too) for all the warm hospitality they showed Jess and I, a couple of complete strangers when the day began who shared a common passion for bikes and nature. We all parted with a few new friends, a head full of memories and BIG smiles. I hope someday they can all come and visit us in the U.S. so we can return the favor.

That's the end of Part 1 of my Perth adventure. Part 2 is my evening ride with Rob Merrels later that day; another wonderful ride! Till then. . .

Nate Morse
Bremerton, WA
USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70)