We had another good turnout for the traditional alpine run this year and I thoroughly enjoyed it once again.

There was some pre ride anxiety about both fuel availability (which came to nothing) and the weather as quite cold storms resulted in snow dumps atop Mt Hotham (part of our route) on Friday (the day before our crossing.

Despite this, a good size group assembled in Officer (in rain)

and we set off promptly at 0800 on Saturday 20^th March with Sam doing Tail End Charlie duties.  Thanks Sam.  Included in the group were Tez and his son Shamus plus my son Greg along with Greg’s mates Alan and Kevin – who is quite new to riding.     

In view of the wet roads and vision issues, we used a bit more freeway than normal and made very good time past Moe before checking out the Yallourn Power Station

(Ian, one of our ride group, worked on building it many years ago) and on to Heyfield where we stopped for fuel and a break.  We did have a bit of a communication hiccup with one member on the route from the servo to the bakery, but all was overcome after he initially left town without us!  No names will be mentioned.

A local friend of my son’s met us at Heyfield and then guided us along some great backroads vi places such as Briagolong, Glenaladale, Wy Yung and Tambo Upper to Bruthen where we stopped for fuel and lunch. Many thanks Pete – I think all were impressed with the roads, route, lack of traffic and avoidance of major towns. It all just flowed.

In Bruthen we were met by branch members Suzanne and Pat who had ridden on ahead and were advised of reports of some thick snow atop Hotham on the previous day.   I had checked out the live snow cameras and discounted those reports as exaggeration bit was later corrected – Oops!    Two other members Barry and John and ridden on ahead after riding up with Suzanne and Pat.  They rang us from Mt Hotham and advised us it was “fairly cool” (use your imagination for other descriptors) up there. After a chat and lunch, we rode off up the Great Alpine Road which crossed some mountains and then follows the Tambo River upstream.  Put simply, it is a great riding road with some odd speed limits in tighter sections and which warrants paying attention.   I added a couple of sealed side roads

around Ensay to vary the route and add a bit more riding enjoyment and we then all reassembled in Omeo

for a rest break before climbing the mountain.  The road was a bit rougher than I remembered but still a very enjoyable ride in spectacular alpine country.  Just after we passed through Hotham village (approximate elevation1900 metres) we found evidence of Friday’s considerable snow dump over a quite small area. 

Most was just a very light smattering of snow beside the road.

It was then a steep tight and technical descent down to Harrietville before turning off the Great Alpine Road and riding up the Tawonga Gap to a brief rest stop with a view over the Kiewa Valley. 

We then rode into Mount Beauty, fuelled up

ready for more riding on Sunday and settled in for the night at the Mountain Creek complex in Tawonga.

 Branch members Barry and John had arrived well before us after making it a two day ride.  Mike also joined us after taking a much more direct route following commitments in Melbourne.     

Drinks, dinner and conversations followed.

Sunday morning was sunny and clear with a bit of mist over the Kiewa Valley. 

We rode off early with Peter doing TEC duty this time and headed north before turning off and enjoying the delightful Happy Valley Road to Rosewhite before riding north via Stanley

to Beechworth where we all stopped for breakfast.

Then it was more pleasant backroads before joining the Hume Freeway near Glenrowan.  We did a freeway at a good clip before stopping at Euroa for some fuel and a rest.  We did have a bit of a hiccup there as to exactly where we were stopping.

After a short rest and fuel (still too early for lunch) some headed back to Melbourne on their own depending on destinations.  A good size group of us rode south via Creightons Creek to Ruffy & Terip Terip, where we saw sobering evidence of the recent and tragic bushfire in that area.

Despite the devastation, it was good to see regeneration of foliage

Then it was on down to Yea for another rest break and some lunch.  At lunch we were met by three more Melbourne branch members

who couldn’t manage the weekend ride but still popped out for a ride to meet us.  Great!

More people then broke off in various directions to head home.

Those who took part from Officer this year were Paul, Gary, Jack, Jeremy, Christos, Terry, Shamus, Carlo, Vaughan, Andrew, Peter, Ian, Samuel, Greg, Alan, Kevin and me.

Barry, John, Pat and Suzanne rode on a day ahead.       

 Some History                                                                      

This ride first happened late May 1998 under the name of Autumn Ice Run as a challenge to cross the highest sealed road in Victoria before the road was closed for the snow season.   Over the years we had a couple of "black ice" incidents and eventually we changed to date to March to avoid such things and have more daylight to complete a long day's ride.  There was still snow on the ground as we crossed Hotham yesterday and conditions were bad up there on Friday!

By some good fortune, we have now managed to do this annual ride 29 time in a row. 

I ‘m pretty sure I will be scheduling a 30^th Consecutive Melbourne Branch Autumn Alpine Run in March 2027.  I plan to schedule to avoid school holidays and Easter etc.

Keep an eye on the calendar and consider taking part in some way, even if the full 560 km challenging ride in one day night be a bit too much.  

Cheers John Cook