{"id":999,"date":"2016-05-16T22:06:32","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T12:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cyclingwild.com.au\/?p=999"},"modified":"2016-05-16T22:45:09","modified_gmt":"2016-05-16T12:45:09","slug":"traversing-the-fortress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cyclingwild.com.au\/blog\/traversing-the-fortress\/","title":{"rendered":"Traversing the Fortress"},"content":{"rendered":"
Travelling 46 kilometers in a 24 hour period might seem like an easy overnighter but the Fortress in the Victoria range sure does pack a punch. The technical terrain and unforgiving climbs and descents will have you slowing to a crawl. \u00a0Add in some wild south westerly storms and you have yourself a real adventure. This could be pretty cool day ride but then you would miss out on spending the night in a cave.<\/a><\/p>\n We didn’t exactly make good time getting to the trail-head. A midday start from Melbourne and a missed freeway exit mean’t less than an hour of daylight for our climb into the ranges and the safety of the cave on the western edge of The Fortress.<\/p>\n The weather forecast was looking decidedly ugly but it didn’t deter us from our goal. The refuge of a cave for the night was the only motivation we needed to head out into the dark with the first of the winters storms threatening.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n When the trail went from double track to single track it was well and truly dark. The path quickly turned downhill into to a boulder strewn goat track of rock-melon\u00a0\u00a0sized boulders. Wiping off speed and avoiding ruts the size of graves was perilous. At the end of the thrill ride was a proper walking track. A long hour of pushing climbing and hauling bikes in the dark revealed our 5 star accommodation for the night.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n We got a decent fire going just as the rain came in and were pretty stoked with our little home for the night. As the night pressed on we realized the wind was swirling around the mountain and blowing a light mist into the cave. Our home was not as dry as we had hoped. Packing light we had not brought much more than a ground sheet so we took to fashioning it into a wall against the prevailing forces of nature. We slept in the dirt as the weather intensified through the night. By sunrise a waterfall had appeared out of the cliffs and was only three meters from where we slept, visibility was almost zero and it looked like we were in for a wet day. Upon rolling out of camp around 9am the sun poked out from behind the clouds and we were forced to remove the layers of wet weather gear we had gone to the trouble of putting on. (Unwritten rule #4.4 of bikepacking: Put on wet weather gear and the sun will come out)<\/p>\n