Gravel Sarina
Randell Magtoto
I have had a love of horses as far back as I can remember. I grew up on a family farm near Beemer, Nebraska, where I developed my love of riding from my father, Howard. Not only did Howard ride and use a team of Belgian work horses in his cattle feedlot, he knew every aspect of how to care for horses, including being their farrier and veterinarian. He was always bringing a new horse home, and when I was five he brought me a Shetland pony named Taffy and soon after a part-Quarter Horse named Ginger. Taffy taught me how to ride, and Ginger and I could beat the neighbor boys at a quarter mile on country gravel roads.
Growing up in rural Nebraska, Western Pleasure was the only way of riding I knew. I recall trying out barrel racing at the local livestock show and found out that was not my thing! So I rode on our farm, worked with cattle, occasionally rode in the local town parade, and loved everything about being around our horses. Then I went off to college, began a career that took me to the Washington D.C. area, married, and started a family. For over a decade I was only able to find occasional opportunities to ride. At that point in my life, I had never heard of dressage. A friend who knew I loved horses took me to her barn in Maryland where she had a dressage horse. Before long, I started taking dressage lessons, leased, and later bought a sweet Thoroughbred mare named Obies Indy and began showing at a very basic dressage level. I had many wonderful years learning dressage and doing some shows on my wonderful Indy. After she retired, I was ready to continue to pursue dressage and started looking for a special horse.
I am very appreciative of TDF for the honor of recognizing me as a member of the Century Club. I am now one of three Nebraska women who have completed this challenge. I am not sure I will show again next year, but I do plan to volunteer with the Omaha Equestrian Foundation at next year's FEI World Cup Finals in Omaha. Omaha hosted this show in 2017 and was selected to host this show again on April 4 - 8, 2023. Hope to see you there!
It rained a bit along the way. The weather forecast was relatively rain-free leading up to the day, but had now reached a maximum of 35 mm. I considered bailing, but the weather cleared up a bit by the time we gathered at the ride start, so I decided to go for it. I'm glad I did! We did the Lotus Creek loop as planned. It remained overcast all day, but there was almost no rain.
We did about 167 km of unsealed roads through cattle properties and farms. The recent rain meant the conditions were fairly dust-free, but there were still plenty of cattle running across the road, and dozens of small floodways. There were about six of us when we started, but two left half way through due to other commitments.
I stacked the bike once, when approaching an unexpected river crossing faster than planned (a theme for me). I attempted to brake, but the path was full of sand and the wheels slid out from beneath me. Luckily, sand is very soft so both the bike and I were unharmed.
This was my first adventure ride since getting the new Dunlop D605 rear tyre, and it's been great. It's hard to judge the difference from the stock IRC tyre because I'm a beginner at adventure riding. However, I feel like it definitely has better traction in gravel, and I feel very confident with it. I reckon I'll get a D605 for the front too when the stock tyres wears out.
The new Arai XD4 helmet was fantastic too. I bought it a few days ago because I didn't want to take my Shoei Neotec 3 into dusty adventure rides. This was a great decision because the Arai XD4 is extremely comfortable, doesn't hurt my ears like the Neotec 3 does, and has phenomenal ventilation.
Lighter than a mountain bike and yet more robust than a racing bike: the gravel bike Sliker X Ultimate combines the positive characteristics of both categories and is perfectly suited for longer tours off busy roads.
The founders are a husband and wife team (Sarina and Michael) whose initial vision was to create a t-shirt range with hand drawn designs that cyclists would get. Those initial t-shirts designs definitely struck a chord with cyclists around the world and the brand journey had commenced.
We have been able to greatly expand our range to include several different styles of cycling jerseys , cycling bibs and shorts, MTB Jerseys, technical t-shirts, base layers, lightweight wind jackets, winter jackets and gilets and more recently gravel shirts.
Our cycling accessories range lets customers take co-ordinated kit to the next level. We have cycling socks, gloves, cycling caps, saddlebags, handlebar tape, neck tubes, thermal beanies and more. We're always looking to expand our accessories range to meet demand so we welcome suggestions for any new products we can add to this range.We plan to continue to innovate with our designs and keep producing great value, high quality cycling apparel and accessories for many more years to come!
Cycology has 4 websites which cover Australia and the Pacific Region, North America, Europe and the United Kingdom. We have local warehouses based in each region allowing for super fast delivery of your new kit.
The American Tobacco Trail (ATT) is a 22.6-mile (36.4 km) long Rails-to-Trails project located in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina, running along an abandoned railroad bed originally built for the American Tobacco Company in the 1970s. The route crosses through the City of Durham, Durham County, Chatham County, and Wake County. The ATT is part of the East Coast Greenway and is open to pedestrians, cyclists, equestrians (in non-urban sections) and other non-motorized users.
Starting from the southern end of the trail in New Hill the 6.5 mile Wake County portion of the trail is gravel, followed by a 4.7-mile multi-use section in Chatham County that contains a paved lane & a gravel (equestrian lane), & an 11.4-mile paved section in Durham County on the North End of the trail ending at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP).
There have been reports of snapper from the islands south of Sarina since Easter and with the good weather at the time of writing, this could be a bumper snapper season in our area. It all depends on the weather gods; surely after the massive wet season we can look forward to some decent fishing weather.
The snapper migrate north to spawn and can be found from the bottom end of the Whitsunday Islands down towards St Lawrence around any of the island groups or rock/reef patches. Good numbers are sometimes located over low rubble/gravel bottoms such as that around the Hay Point area. These areas can be easily picked up with a quality sounder.
Best bait for the jewies is a fresh squid, and there are good numbers available in the harbour around the lights. Any small live bait and even slabs of fresh mullet have accounted for many for a jewie from the rock walls.
The pelagics that are around during the winter months include some absolute horse queenfish, which can be found around the islands, the harbour and in the mouths of the larger creek/river systems. They often head for shallow water when small herring begin to burst out of the water in numbers. A popper, shiny or shallow diver in this situation will usually be hammered. Even when bait fishing, it pays to always have a spare rod rigged with either a small shiny, lure or popper at the ready for a quick cast.
When the winds are up, which is all too often, fishing is confined to the creeks and estuaries, where the old mainstays are flathead, bream and whiting. Anyone from south familiar with these species will find them in abundance throughout the Mackay area and a ready source of a few feeds.
Salmon generally put in a few appearances during the winter and the odd jack and barra can also be found. For the latter two look for days when the weather is warmer and there is little if any wind (a pretty tough call I know). Estuary cod are a good target during the winter months and grow to substantial sizes in the creeks and estuaries. Look for them in the heavy snags and around rocks.
In freshwater, the barra are in hibernation mode but will still respond to accurate and intelligent lure presentation. To be successful persistence and patience is needed, but the barra are there and still have to have protein to maintain their metabolism. This is the time of year to really pay attention to your temperature readout on your sounder and look for any warmer water in the dams; 1-2c can make all the difference. The warmer the water the better the chances are of scoring a barra or two.
Again the warmer water is usually shallow, and windless days will be better than a howling gale, so look for these conditions. Stealth in approach is also vital to success as the fish are in the shallows and wary. Use your electric and stand well off the area you want to fish and use longer casts to get your lure up in the shallows.
Remember to keep hammering a spot, as the fish will take some stirring up. I find during the cooler months late afternoon is the one of the best times to chase a barra in spots that have had sun on them all or at least most of the day. These spots can be easily located and a very quiet cruise around with the electric checking water temperatures will get you some likely spots.
Last but not least my old friend the sooty grunter is always a worthwhile target and will be on the chew right through the winter. Like the barra, the sooties will look for the warmer areas in either the dams or creeks. At this time of year, I find it really pleasant to get a light rod, a couple of lures and go walking in the shallow creeks chasing sooties. They will not be big fish, but it is a very neat way to enjoy a couple of stress free hours fishing in some lovely country, and I thoroughly recommend it.
The best areas to fish in this section are the riffles and holes between the 101 bridge and Piling Hole. The holes here change from year to year due to the silting and dredging effects of the river. This area is best fished by boat, but wading can also be productive. Pala Road offers the only access to the South side of the river in this section. You can park at the State park and walk about a 1/2 mile to the river. Moseley Hole(1)and Piling Hole(2) can be reached from this area by the levee system.
As always, care should be taken when wading any area.