Mawson Trail RAID

Ride one of South Australia's iconic trails. Similar to the famous Heyson (walking) Trail, the Mawson Trail will take you through some of the most scenic parts of the Mount Lofty Ranges, Southern and Northern Flinders Ranges. And of course the beautiful valleys in-between. Views from on high, and history all along in the stone ruins.NOTE:  This RAID can be ridden in either direction. The same brevet card is used for Adelaide to Blinman or Blinman to Adelaide. There are no close times for the intermediate controls. Just fill in signatures from top to bottom or the opposite. (Map for Blinman - Adelaide ride . . . https://ridewithgps.com/routes/34343574)The best time to ride is in autumn and spring, to avoid the summer heat and winter cold. In autumn the northern ranges will be showing off all their red colours, with little grass to cover the ground. But in early autumn the southern paddocks will still be brown. In spring the southern farming areas will be showing off healthy crops of green cereals and yellow canola! And the northern ranges will be a mix of red rocky outcrops speckled with bright green. Spectacular! But of course spring can also be quite windy and wet!The controls are spaced out at about 120km, representing a day's ride followed by a good sleep. So, if no weather events cause long waits for boggy sections to dry out, this RAID could be completed in 8 days. However the Raid rules allow a maximum time based on an average of 100km/day for sealed sections and 50km/day for unsealed. This raid has 143km sealed and 774km un-sealed roads. So the calculations give a maximum time allowed of 17 days.There are no close times for the intermediate controls.There is no minimum time. i.e. riders do not need to sleep at the nominated controls, but can move on to the next town, or sleep 'under the stars' if desired. References: https://www.facebook.com/groups/198260994337150http://www.davidhume.net/mawsontrailhttps://payhip.com/b/EmFN?fbclid=IwAR3rM8GdVLjnNf-8kbYisFz-O0K_NQu2ar3nqiaMP6E0uClD_S1EJSU1Vko https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4KZOwUvgPZaUzI4WTI4UlBmT0E/view?fbclid=IwAR063AsO1uu_gME7ejPiLuBax4BPPnhiE-ymHGZ1JvytysU3M9WuJxq9A3s Checkpoints: Accommodation: