Barrington Tops Hill Training Long Weekend

Upping the Training 

It's not uncommon for a person to avoid activities they are weak at and focus purely on their strengths. As a bike rider, I believe I have fairly decent endurance but I'm not a particularly good hill climber. So when Pete Selkrig invited me to train at Barrington Tops over the June Long Weekend, it was an offer I couldn't refuse.

As we were driving up to Barrington Tops, the heaven's opened and rain pelted the car. It was looking like it would be a wet, cold and tiring three days.

The plan was to set up at the camp site and meet up with Jason English and Jamie Vogele for the initial climb up the mountain. 

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Formidable Training Partners

Now Pete is a strong rider and, with a few weeks of hill training under his belt, he would be hard to stay with. But then there was Jason English, five time World 24 hour Champion...and some guy who just happened to train with the aforementioned enduro champion. The initial part of the climb was fairly painless but the problem was it never levelled out but just kept going up. I dropped off the back and soon the others were out of sight leaving me to fight the discomfort alone. The total vertical climb was 969 metres which was by far the biggest hill I had ever attempted.

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We traversed the top of the mountain and suffered crossing a barely rideable trail known as the 'Link Track'. It was supposed to be used by four-wheel drives but driving this trail was a myth lost in the midst of time. The rain continued to fall and the temperature fell to 5 degrees. We clambered over and under fallen trees and down slippery descents until we eventually found a series of trails that headed across the escarpment in a multitude of directions. Jason and Jamie left and descended the mountain to continue their marathon training ride elsewhere leaving Pete and I alone in the rain. As we rode away a large stick jammed into Pete's rear derailleur and bent his hangar. Poor chain guidance would plague his next two days.

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The Boyz of 'The Big Hurt'

As we explored the top of the mountain we came across Careys Hut, which we believed 'The Big Hurt' boys would use to stay that night as they passed through the area. It was no more than a bus shelter and provided little protection from the elements particularly as the sign outside said it had been built facing the fierce wind coming off the cliff opposite.

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The Link Track was our route out and we suffered it's indignity on our return back to the caravan site.


The second day was mainly hill training and we climbed the mountain several times; interestingly, my times improved as I settled into the task of climbing and started to build a comfortable rhythm. We did explore a few tracks off the side of the mountain and our curiosity was rewarded with insanely steep climbs to return to the main fire road.

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On our final day, we arranged to join up with Jason English again and on the Link Track a snapped chain added to our misery. We missed our meeting with Jason and after constructing an arrow to point him in the right direction we continued on. Shortly after, Jason had caught up with us and was soon driving the pace up as we skirted the top of the mountain. The rain began to fall once again and the temperature plummeted but trying to keep in touch with Jason kept some semblance of heat in the body.

Jason English

We started to descend but mud flew up off the fire trail, making it almost impossible to see ahead. This continued for what seemed like an age but eventually we reached lower ground. It was warmer now and quite dry and it was almost like we had been transported to a different climate altogether. Jason turned off to continue to Gloucester and Pete and I cycled across the rolling hills past hungry cows and temperamental bulls and several water crossings until we reached the solace of the caravan park barely before the sun had set.

We were tired and dirty but happy. It had been a great weekend and one we would love to repeat in the near future.

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