Mt Joyce

Sunday morning saw me rising bright & early to head out to Mt Joyce. A little too bright & early in fact - this isn't a sight I see very often

 Mt Joyce is about an hours drive away, heading inland, and as the sun rose the views were of classic Australian farming land

But the desire to get out and enjoy it was held at bay by the outside temperatures - before this I didn't even know the temperature guage had a negative sign!

By the time we reached the carpark it had warmed up to 2 or 3 degrees. We rugged up and headed out on the ride, which started off down a tarmac road that ran below the dam and was freezing cold but then climbed up the ridge to the high point here. We soon warmed up.

You can see the lake in the middle-distance, with the car park next to it 

Enough sight-seeing. The trails have been built over the last 6 months and are designed to attract mountain bikers from Brisbane and other high density populations out into struggling rural areas. I hope it works - as it was the carpark was about a third full of mountain bikers when we got there at 7.30am, and full of picnicing families and dirty sweaty mountain bikers when we left.

The trails themselves have been built with an eye to the flow, that mystical feeling where the bike rides itself and you're just hanging on for the ride.

 There are a few drop-offs, plenty of bermed corners and even the odd table-top

 and even the odd wall ride

 It's not all about the gnarl though. The climb to the top is a bugger but once you're up there it's easy to find your way back down again whilst keeping all your wheels on the ground if you're as timid as me. The only problem is that once you're at the bottom you want to do it all again, and the adrenalin only wears off once you've committed yourself to the upward slog.

There's also downhill tracks and, on the other side of the spectrum, some lovely looking lakeside meanders. I can see this place being a popular weekend spot!