lol, Murphy's law confirmed one more time. Did you end up doing downhill with the car?

You couldn't boost it with one of your sex toys?

you can't 'vibrate' or 'lube' a car started unfortunately. 'whipping' it makes you feel better but it doesn't produce any other results.

So how long did it take to get home with a broken car?

ok here's the long version. i stopped for gas 3hrs from my house in Canberra and when i turned the car back on it wouldn't start (i hoped this was a one-off). i got a jump start an hour later and got to my campsite at 1am on Friday. When i woke up on Saturday to start my 150km MTB tour that i've been planning for weeks, the car wouldn't start again. I thought others might be at this campsite (which is really just a trailhead), but nobody was. I had enough food for 2 days so I decided just to wait. Finally a guy shows up around noon (I had been awake since 7) and he is luckily there to ride (so we got about a 50km ride done in 5hrs and then he jumped me off). I spent most of the next day trying to source a battery in a town about 1/10th the size of Hakuba and managed to find one 3hrs and 250 bucks later. managed to get another 30km's riding in before heading home.

so the driving part only took me 11hrs as expected, but was the waiting around for almost 8 hours when i should've been touring. Not an epic disaster but pretty annoying way to spend a weekend in the mountains.

Wow I guess a charge kit isnt a bad idea in that far off area.

yeah i think you're right.

I always consider random foul-ups like this a blessing.

Quite frankly, you could have died in those mountains with your skis on. Good thing you were busy trying to drive in the valley.

Don't sweat it. It's frustrating when it happens, of course, but when you get home- it's all done.

I arrived at trailhead after 6 hours of driving to discover a broken toe-piece. So, we smoked a bowl and went home. Oh well. Chalk it up. You can't always champion the weekend away. It's usually quite obvious when you're being blocked. And, that's okay.

The gods move us around like chess pieces. Sometimes pawns stand in our way. Yet- it's not our call to pass them. Be thankful you're still on the board and quit complaining about a dead battery. Honestly, is that all?

Some photos from this trip.... Koscuiszko NP is a nice place.....I think it'll be fun to tour this winter.

Tried to stay as lightweight as possible and didn't pack my tent or my bivy. Not so good when temps got below freezing.

Typical Australian high country singletrack.

you must have turned ur camera setting to "lucious green" otherwise it's a pretty insane background and area to ride through. Is that frost on your sleeping bag?

yup... i got a little stoopid in photoshop with the saturation. and that's frost. early march (i.e. early fall) and it got down to -2C! sleeping bag is rated at 5C - didn't get much sleep.

stillnoprogress wrote:

car broke down in Kosciuszko NP this weekend in the ass-end of nowhere with no cell reception. Brutal. I don't take very good care of my car but when you are camping in remote places, i guess it's your most crucial piece of equipment. 11hrs driving this weekend and had to cancel the tour. Bummed.

Take this from a guy that used to fix cars on the edge of west siberian tundra:
You could benefit significantly by biting the bullet and buying an Optima gel cell battery.
Optima Yellow top and red top are pretty much the ones that rest are compared to.
You can literally shoot holes thru them and they still keep going - the cranking power (max.current possible to draw out of it) is in a class of it's own as well.

If the price of an optima feels a bit steep for an old car etc. Exide makes some that are allmost as good and way more reasonably priced.