August 13, 2025
Day 4: Wungong Hut to Dandalup hut
We had a trail talk last night and decided to be on the road by 8:30. Ben, Maggie, Joe and I camped out in the delightful tent pads in the bush about 50m from the hut. The loudest noise there was the highway which sounded closer than I thought it was. We rolled out by 8:40 which was pretty good going, especially considering Noah’s front tyre had gone down again.
There were some different trees with smooth white barked gums coming in to the forest. We had to divert around a shooting range which meant three sides of a square on not great fire trail but then there was some more excellent singletrack towards Jarrahdale. We passed some mountain bikers out for the day, one of whom had just taken a stack and had a massive bloody knee but they all seemed chipper enough.
We had our last group rendezvous about 8k from Jarrahdale then headed for the general store, every man for himself. Not really, we’re trying not to leave anyone behind so Jimmy stayed with Noah to help fix his third flat tyre. They rolled in not too far after us and we took over a corner of the verandah of the Jarrahdale general store. Actually the ring neck parrots ruled the roost we just squatted.
After refuelling, Ben, Maggie and Jimmy headed out while the rest of us stayed with Noah fixing his tyre again. Eventually he put a new tube in. Joe and I walked down to see a King Jarrah log which was as tall as me in diameter. They’d installed an indicated pole to show how tall the jarrah used to be which is a bit sad.
Eventually we rolled down the hill to the Serpentine River which didn’t seem accessible to me but apparently Jimmy got down there to soak his shirt. There was then a steep climb up a road then some climbing single track along the side of the steep valley. I was trying to keep up with the faster crew and looked up to see someone pushing their bike. I thought it was Noah and was relieved I could push mine too but it turned out we’d caught up to Jimmy and Maggie.
It was very windy and hot so even once the single track levelled out it was not relaxing to be going downhill on a narrow track on the side of a valley. Eventually we came out onto a road for an even steeper climb.
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It then thankfully levelled out.
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We crossed another sealed road, not heading in our direction, and Joe almost immediately got a flat. Ben and I stayed with him while the others went on. He just swapped the tube. Then we continued down off the scrappy ridge forest. We crossed a log that someone had built a little ramp over and it seemed like we entered a magical land of wildflowers.
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With Ben and Joe I felt like I was pushing a bit to keep up or maybe just that the track was relentlessly rocky but I found myself almost longingly thinking about the Bibbulmun track where you just walk not hurtle down hills hitting every possible rock.
we came out into some farmland and found Jimmy walking up a hill again. We decided to take the road down to North Dandalup Dam instead of the parallel trail as it was starting to spit rain.
After the dam wall, there was another steep climb and then short descent out to the Dandalup hut which is set on the edge of the escarpment, looking over to the coast. It was extremely windy and started raining about 6pm, with the wind blowing the rain most of the way through the hut. I set up my tent in the hut cause everything seemed so wet and hoped the sound of the rain on the roof would drown out other noises.
Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 164 km (102 miles)
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