Photographing the Hunt 1000

When I was first introduced to bikepacking, the Hunt 1000 was like a mythical unicorn, the kind of unachievable route that was far beyond my reach. It’s not just the length of the route that was daunting, the rugged and remote terrain and huge amount of vertical metres also added to the challenge.

I’ve made several false starts at tackling the Hunt 1000, actually getting pretty close to starting it in 2018. Luckily injury struck just before the event that year and I ended up tagging along as a second shooter, navigator and general assistant on a short Hunt 1000 film. I say this was lucky for a couple of reasons. Firstly because in hindsight I was woefully underprepared to complete the ride; not so much in terms of fitness, but with regards to my backcountry confidence and knowledge of the gear I needed, or didn’t need. Secondly the experience of working on the filming, travelling the backcountry between Melbourne and Canberra by car, foot and bike, gave me a great deal of media and adventure experience that has served me invaluably ever since.

The bike and setup I used for bikepacking the Hunt 1000

In 2022 I finally got around to completing the Hunt 1000 by bike. I hadn’t been planning to do the ride that year, but I was asked to contribute some words and photos from the route to a bikepacking book and the opportunity was too good to pass up. So, over eleven days I rode my bicycle the 1000km from Melbourne to Canberra, taking photos along the way and having one heck of an experience. Below are some of my favourite photos from the trip that didn’t make it into the book.

keebles hut, geehi hut, kosciuszko national park
photo of O'Keefes hut in the Jagugnal Wilderness
nalgene bottle and sea to summit stretch-loc strap bikepacking the hunt 1000
bikepacking near melbourne

If you’re interested in riding the Hunt 1000, check out the official website here.

Hunt 1000 Trail Notes

Distance: 1000km

Duration: 11 days (that’s how long I took, you can go as fast or slow as you like)

Start/Finish: Canberra / Melbourne (sometimes the other way around

Author: Mattie Gould

Mattie is an adventure writer and photographer that specialises in hiking, bikepacking and camping. He writes for Australian Geographic Adventure, We Are Explorers, Walkers Journal, Bike Gear Database and more.