Day 8 Jeffries Track to Judbury
24.9km, 11.3°C Minimum temp and 19.4°C max with some rain. Ascent 241m and descent was 902m. 2.21 hours of riding time. Ave 10.59km/h and Max 37.39km/h, Start 7.45am
6.10am wake up when someone decided to stop near my tent and take off again. I assume they are dumping more rubbish but there could be other reasons. I get up at 6.40am after an interrupted sleep. The rain pitter-patter on the tent overnight plus the tent on an angled slope meant I was slipping off the mattress and pillow kept waking me up. It wasn’t cold but I still had my socks, long johns, T-shirt and puffer jacket on.
I didn’t have the usual breakfast but decided to have the rest of the trail food bought at the shops the day before. I was also short on water, down to about 300ml and would need it on the ride. While on the Trail the first 2 brooks were dry so it was some time before I was able to fill the one bottle up. With running creek water. I was riding most of the way up this morning too. Though the grade is about 7-8% I’m able to ride it in 1st but when it gets steeper that’s when I’m now getting off unlike early in the trip I was getting off the bike on 4% grades. Its hard to know the grade of the hills as when I walk the GPS stops viewing it. There is a few campsites that could be used when you reach the Pine Forest but you might be in the misty rain. The track before then is steep on both sides.
The road turns into a 4wd muddy, track just after the first turnoff to the pine forest. There are 2-3 abandoned cars to be seen and at times it is hard to know which way I should go through the mud, rocks and steep ruts. The Track gets worse with a steep section of rocks but slowly and surely I reach the top. The Track turns to the White Timber Trail, but no better than the Jeffries Track but is narrower, more water and rockier. It’s hard to know when you’re at the top of the hill and on the descent as the White Timber Track goes up to 840m before coming down and your walking around the large muddy puddles and concentrating so much on the trail you don’t have the time to look up and around. Once the track turns off to a rough logging road and the pine forest appears on the left the definite downhill begins. Since I departed the overnight camp the weather has been misty with light rain so I have my jacket on but I’m soaked through and now the wind from going downhill I’m starting to get cold. There are some quarries on the left of the road to collect the stones for the logging trail I guess. The logging road ends at the Jud Creek Bridge and dirt road appears more often though unmaintained. You travel past a sign saying Billy Browns Falls hike 1.5hours return. It would be a wet walk as there was a stream of water going down the trail which then goes down the road before entering Judds Creek before a bridge. A couple of cars were going up but you would need a serious 4wd to get to the falls trek starting point.
You turn left to enter Judds Creek Road, still rocky but you can go faster with the brakes on standby. I stopped for a cyclist going up the hill, he has a pinion gear box and I let him know it’s going to be wet and muddy. He seems pissed off with that message as I view his nice clean shoes and bike he obviously washed clean from the day before. He had left from Devonport and done the East Coast before going up the middle following the Tasmanian Trail back to Devonport.
It was all downhill from there, forest making way to farms and then bitumen road, across the main road to the sportsground. A person moving the sprinkler said I can camp anywhere and use all the facilities such as the power, lounges, toilets and table. He said not many stay here, once again I was the only one. I set up near a huge log but saw the weather forecast and as evening approached moved undercover without a fly. There’s no sign to camp but referring to the map for the first time in the Trail book it was near the cricket nets where a few boys were playing in when I arrived. The QR code on the building to check in doesn’t work. To get water you need to go in the toilets and use the tap to fil up a water bottle. Lots of kids and parents accessing the playground and facilities which is great to see.
Just reading up on tomorrow, the last day, there is another mountain to cycle/walk and 28km to Geeveston then 3 more to Dover. I thought I planned to stay in Geeveston but obviously not. I have lunch of Corn thins and canned chilli tuna and afternoon tea of a noodle cup. I have a dehydrated dinner and hit the tent about 9.30pm as the clouds are descending lower of the surrounding mountains