Shut Up and Ride

Wednesday 21 October 2009 - Two Creeks Track

2009-10-21T13:47:00.003+11:00

Pete and Stephe ducked out for a quick (well, not so quick, actually) cruise from Middle Cove to Two Creeks Track and back.

Checked out the scenery on the way, practised various bits of skills, and generally revelled in the beauty of the morning. We made it as far as a National Parks sign that appeared to indicate that we weren't welcome to continue (although, heaven alone knows how we were going to do more harm than the folks walking along there). But, it was a good enough run in any case...

17kms, great weather, and only a limited amount of skin lost - all good, really!

Track here (.kmz).

Sunday 27 September 2009 - Ourimbah

2009-09-27T17:16:00.027+10:00

Given that it turned out we didn't ride for some time after this one, it was fortunate that it was such a goodie!

A really cool day out riding, good company, great conditons, no mechanicals and fun, fun, fun.

Liz, Matt P (hey, he still can turn up on a xc bike!), Bob, Chris, Phil and Stephe arrived around 7.30am all prepped and ready for fun. Paul J. turned up a minute or two later (just long enough afterwards to miss out on the group photo...).

Donal was there not long afterwards, but we managed to miss him, and he and Louis did a lap on their own. When we did finally catch up with them, Louis had had a big 'off' and was moving sufficiently tenderly that it was agreed it might be a good thing for Donal to administer some first aid... so we set off again without their company.

No photos on the track, because we were just having fun. Unfortunately, Bob proved that he had lost none of his training riding fitness, and managed to egg Stephe on until he finally cracked (well, it didn't turn out to be that hard, I fear), and much skin was lost on a downhill slide. Bugger!

Liz was entirely undaunted by the boofy blokes, and showed that treadling to work is a great way to keep bike fitness in place, and Matt, Paul and Phil continued to demonstrate what legends they are (all of them taking it to Bob who was looking for the 'hard man' title of the day). Chris appeared to enjoy himself, but hasn't been itching for a return trip, so we'll need to find out about that one in due course!

Photos are here, and the two laps (.kmz files) are here: lap1 and lap2.

Thursday 24 September 2009 - Manly Dam

2009-09-24T16:54:00.001+10:00

A cheeky morning ride, with Pete joining NicMcVic and Stephe for his first ride out.

It was a great morning for it, and Pete managed to learn stacks in a very short period. We went back over anything that was challenging, fun or a learning experience, and probably set a new record for longest time on a Manly Dam lap - 95mins for the 10kms (thank goodness Nic had already managed to pull off a quick lap before we arrived!).

The photos are below, and the track (.kmz) is here.

Sunday 20 September 2009 - Mooney (short)

2009-09-20T17:06:00.013+10:00

It was one of those days... beautiful, excellent mountain biking weather, bikes in perfect condition and filled with much promise.

But, by the time Doug and Stephe had made it to the water towers, we were each more than satisfied to call it a day and head back on home.

Not sure why (and, as the photos prove, it was beautiful out there), but - for example - having started off feeling strong, and with a clear and dry track both Doug and Stephe had made a couple of dabs barely one third of the way through the climb from the dam to the top. After that, it was a case of seeing if it was possible just to do a 100m or more without a dab.

Ah well, the fact that Mooney is a cruel task master is nothing new to us I suppose - one for a reprise when we're feeling stronger.

The gps plot (.kmz) is here (less than 20kms in almost three hours, hmmmmm), and the limited photos are here.

Sunday 13 September 2009 - Appin

2009-09-13T15:03:00.002+10:00

At Paul's urging, we decided to revisit Appin, and it was a great day to do so!

Chris, Hamish and Stephe met Paul at Appin at around 7.30am - it was already getting warm, but not too bad, and the sky was a beautiful blue colour.

Chris started with the entertaining stretching exercises for which he is rapidly becoming famous, but proved what a good idea they are by 'getting on with it' when he jumped on the bike shortly afterwards.

Hamish, on his first ride out with us and one of his first off road, looked every bit a road bike rider, but performed with admirable skill and confidence on the day - a few tentative moments, followed on the second lap with a few more aggressive moments, followed by a (some might say inevitable) OTB incident (no photos I'm afraid - and fortunately, just a bit sore and sorry, and nothing more serious).

Chris meanwhile was aggressively chasing Paul around the loop until the second lap, when he discovered he had lost a screw from the cleat on one shoe - so we missed him for the balance of the lap. Paul, of course, remained on fire, as always...

A great morning for a (relatively short - 18kms) ride, and an excellent start to the day (even if we weren't back to Middle Cove until 11am...).

Full set of photos (missing Doug's skill and care) are up here, and the .kmz gps plot of the track is here.

Sunday 6 September 2009 - Menai

2009-09-06T12:19:00.002+10:00

Abandoned callously by the regular crew, Stephe was fortunate enough to be joined by Bob for a short, sharp Menai ride.

It was (after some technical trouble at the outset with Stephe's front wheel!) a blast.

Unfortunately, it turned out that Bob is a very capable rider, which meant that there were few opportunities for sitting back, relaxing and pretending not to be having a shortness of breath induced heart attack. But that did make it much fun... No photos (for the same reasons). We do need Doug back...

Standard Menai lap (the gps plot (.kmz here) credits us with quite a few more kilometres travelled than actually was the case), but it was a glorious day, and track was a bit torn up by dirt bikes, but still fantastic fun.

Was good. Life good. Home by 10.30am (indeed, I think we beat the sad road boys home!).

Wednesday 2 September 2009 - Hunters Hill

2009-09-02T11:57:00.001+10:00

A good ride on a beautiful day...

Having managed to kick off the day's other activities early, to allow for a quick ride in the middle (before getting noses back to the grindstone!), Chris and Stephe escaped for a short, sharp ride. We left from Middle Cove, down to Lane Cove, along the river, across the M2, up to Hunters Hill (with a quick detour into Joeys to say G'day), then stopped for a short coffee / donut. Then back up Burns Bay Road, down behind the industrial parks and back along the river to the golf course and Chatswood. Where Chris' tyre blew out and we discovered just how shredded it had become...

[note to others: walking all the NPWS areas, of course]

Generally, it was fun, although Chris may have a slightly different take on it... But, good for clearing the cobwebs and making for a more productive latter part of the day.

No photos (the more amusing of which would be censored by Chris anyway, given that occasionally he was upside down), but the tracks are here - part 1 (to Hunters Hill, 16.5kms) and part 2 (the return journey, 10kms).

Sunday 23 August 2009 - Old Great North Road + Spiders

2009-08-23T23:59:00.004+10:00

An Epic Ride - absolutely beautiful, big, exhausting, great fun.

Perfect weather, perfect track conditions, great company.

Life is excellent, and mountain bike riding on a day like this, in Dharug and Yengo National Parks, is a great way to be reminded of that!

Whisperer, Dylan (aka LadyToast) and Stephe set off at a leisurely 7.30am from Chatswood, arrived at the 'chook shed' end of Mangrove Mountain at around 8.45am. Where we bumped into Glen, who was also about to set off on an explore of the Old Great North road environs, and convinced him to join us...

So, we all set off together, down the big hill, across the valley floor, up Simpson's Track to Ten Mile Hollow and then up to the Western Commission Track junction with OGNR.

Glenn demonstrating along the way that he was a fit bugger, so keeping Dylan company, and Whisperer being kind and keeping Stephe company a little way behind on the hills. We then stepped up the pace a little on the single track, although Glen had to leave us about five minutes in so that he would get back in time...

The track was beautiful and flowing - the air was clear and the sky a fantastic shade of blue. And the riding was fun - all of which distracted us from taking too many photos unfortunately.

We did stop and play on the two stage rock platforms for a while, where Dylan discovered major front wheel tyre burping (more than once) on the challenging rock step - which kept he and Whisperer amused for a while on a "technical review".

From there it was smooth sailing along the ridge to the Spiders Track turn off, where we grabbed a bite to eat. The temperature was getting up, but still pretty near perfect...

Our first real shock of the day was when we started down from the obviously graded turn off point to discover that the grading continued along the Spiders Track itself. Turns out that it's now a major two lane freeway (give or take...) graded in for burn off access, running the entire length of the track until the launch point for the downhill run.

But, as it happens, that just made the ride to the top of the descent a good little blast - and then the fun started...

Apparently a bunch of (400!) horses had been through recently, with some major churning of the soil cover (and lots of hoof marks on the sandstone along the track generally). The net result for the descent into the creek at the end of Spiders was that there was a lot of sand filling in the bigger rocky bits, and a lot of sand loosely covering rocks - which made for a fast, broadly uncontrolled descent with one or both wheels slipping at any one time. It was a deadset hoot and a holler. Ear to ear grin stuff. Much goodness.

In any case, we made it to the creek alive, tried to do 'limited dabs' along the creek with varying degrees of success, and then emerged into the farmland at the other end, where we bumped into Ranger Richard (apparently he does South Yengo, and Ranger Jeff who we previously met out there does North Yengo). We had a good yarn about horses, erosion, burning back, the meaning of life and such like, and then headed off on our way out to the road.

After an uneventful passage on the road, and then a challenging (now getting hot) ride up Shepherd's Gully, we made it to Devines Hill where Stephe demanded a rest and another feed (the healthy lads had been pushing the pace all day, and it was beginning to show on the less fit members of the crew (well, actually, just Stephe) at that point).

We then cruised back along the ridge line, with Whisperer and Dylan challenging each other on each of the climbs (as elite athletes are wont to do!). At Ten Mile Hollow we diverted up to Clare's Bridge, and then down Donny's Trail - which was yet another absolute blast - including a fast and sketchy drop back to the valley floor.

Not ashamed to say that at least one member of the crew was using the granny gear up the big hill back to the chook sheds at the end, after more than six hours of elapsed riding (but only four or so actually riding, according to Whisperer's records - hmmmm).

The track looked like this:

The minimal photos are here, and the .kmz of the track is here (a google earth 'flyover' of the track, with 'terrain exaggeration' turned on to 2 or higher, is *really* cool... Don't forget to turn off all the waypoints though (it works much better just doing a tour of the tracklog)).

400 elapsed minutes, and 64kms of pure bliss... and we all slept very well that night!

Wednesday 19 August 2009 - Terrey Hills - Waratah Track

2009-08-19T19:54:00.002+10:00

Donal, Chris and Stephe managed to wrap up a hard day's work with a quick blast out at Terrey Hills...

We headed out of the shops, and down the single track that starts off the edge of Mona Vale Road, to join up with Duckholes Track. From there up the road out to West Head, to the Waratah Track, which Chris and Stephe hadn't been on before.

Donal managed to provoke the mountain bike gods by thinking how well he was riding, and was spat off in the most unlikely of places - leading to some attractive grazes (ooops).

Some entertaining pinch climbs along the way, and then out to the 'lookout' at the end for some fabulous views, with a whole heap of very gorgeous flowers out looking great (what a cool time of year this is!).

There was even time for some childish photos, before a hurried return back along the Waratah track, down the road, and up Centre Track and along the road back to the shops...

Another great short and sweet ride!

The full set of photos, albeit limited, are up here.

Sunday 16 August 2009 - OGNR - Donney's Loop

2009-08-16T21:21:00.004+10:00

An excellent short ride: with a long downhill, a flat, a good uphill, a downhill flat with a challenging hill at the end, a fast downhill and a long uphill back to the cars... 26km of fire trail, but fun nonetheless.

Ben, Doug and Stephe set out a little after 6.32am, and arrived at the Mangrove Mountain chook farm entrance at around 8am (ooops, a little later than anticipated!). We bumped into some lads from Turramurra Cycles at the turning circle, scoping out a ride for a couple of weeks away - anyone know who they are?

In any case, we then set off on Ben's first ride on a mountain bike. Turns out, as always, that fitness counts for much - and, without anything technical, Ben was comfortable the whole way. That said, at three hours for the ride, we weren't breaking any land speed records, eh!

We road from the chook shed down to the valley floor, then up Simpson's Track to Ten Mile Hollow. From there, we meandered up to Clare's Bridge, and then to the junction of Donney's Trail and OGNR North. A quick bite to eat, and then along Donney's Trail back to the valley floor, and a long climb up the hill to the car.

The wattle was beautiful, the wild flowers were out, and we even took the chance to do a little more investigating the Mangrove Mountain settler's cemetry, taking good care not to disturb any of the fairly old site... Was very impressed to see that the early settlers at Mangrove Mountain managed to live pretty decent lives (92 and 93 years old in 1947 seems impressive even by todays standards with 'modern medicine' etc).

There was even time for a quick relax before the final hill, and a look back at the ridge over which Donney's Trail travels:

Profile tells the story, even if not a real long ride:

Back at the cars, happy and pleased to have taken Ben on his first ride out...

All photos up here (thank goodness Doug is back!), and the .kmz is here.

Wednesday 12 August 2009 - Coba Point

2009-08-12T21:48:00.001+10:00

A quick opportunity to get out on a beautiful day, with Chris, Toby and Stephe managing to work their way around the various other things to do on the day - to check out the hills and wildflowers that make up Coba Point.

Parked the car at the end of the road, then meandered out for a quick out and back to the lookout (eschewing the 'proper' out and back to the end of the ridge...). We then came back past the cars once more, and headed off to Smugglers Ridge. The flowers were fantastic the entire way - with Chris' need for the occasional stretch giving us plenty of time to check 'em out.

Over the end of the ridge and down the drop was fun as always, and then back along the bottom to the base of the climb out. At which point Toby's legs started cramping up - putting him in just the right frame of mind for the climb out, eh.

In any case, he made a very fine effort on the hills, particularly for a man with both legs cramping - and only just behind Chris and Stephe with no such challenge.

Photos up here, and .kmz is here.

Wednesday 5 August 2009 - Two Creeks Track

2009-08-05T22:36:00.000+10:00

Chris and Stephe snuck out for a cheeky midweek ride along Two Creeks track in fantastic weather.

The ride was brilliant, even including the bits we had to walk the bike along to comply with NPWS rules designed in the dark ages... On the way back, we dropped down to North Arm and had a quick kayak, just to top off a very grand day indeed.

No photos, but the .kmz of the track is here.

Tuesday 21 July 2009 - Old Great North Road - Short

2009-07-21T11:30:00.001+10:00

Taking advantage of the school holidays, and yet another beautiful winter's day, Sue, Cooper, Ethan and Stephe travelled to the Old Great North Road. We came in from the 'alternative' Mangrove Mountain access, rather than the pumping station - so we had a very big hill to start (down) and finish on (up!!!).

The plan was to do Simpson's Track, then OGNR to Ten Mile Hollow, then up to Clare's Bridge, then down Donny's Track back to the start (except for that jolly climb to actually finish).

And, the plan worked out beautifully.

The boys were looking cute, and we saw the sights along the way:

Check out the profile here:

The rest of the photos (such as they are) are here, and the .kmz GPS route is here.

Wednesday 8 July 2009 - OGNR

2009-07-08T23:33:00.002+10:00

A cheeky mid week dash out in the sun, and it was very good indeed.

The Old Great North Road was in beautiful nick, the sun shone, and the bikes hummed.

Excellent.

No photos, but a track plot (.kmz) is here.

Weekend 4 - 5 July 2009 - Stromlo

2009-07-05T19:23:00.002+10:00

Demonstrating a new found commitment to mountain bike riding, Brian, Joe, Cooper and Stephe braved the chilli weather of the South, and headed down to Canberra for an exploration. The plan was to check out Stromlo on Saturday, and then try Sparrow Hill on Sunday.

After a bit of a slow but amusing road trip - where we discovered that Blackberries are harder to configure than initially anticipated (!) - we arrived at Mt Stromlo in the early afternoon - to find that there was a road riding event on, and we had to navigate our way through a race in progress just to get to the Stromlo Forest Park car park, which was almost completely full of various roadie types, young and old. It was a very festival like atmosphere, and was a good sign for the forthcoming ride.

We navigated our way up to the top of the hill, along the fairly easy perimeter track (the whole switchback thing taking all of the sting out of the climb, which is fairly easily accomplished without much fuss). The view from the top was terrific, but the trip down overshadowed that with much hooting and hollering as we traversed various sections of the ride.

Joe and Brian comprehensively demonstrated fitness and technique on the way up the hill, and Cooper demonstrated irrational speed on the downhill sections - a joy to watch, when you overcame your fears! Unfortunately, all that pace appears to have taken its toll on Cooper's rear Larsen, and he lost air pressure about 3 or 4 kms from the end. A quick stop for a tube gave Joe and Brian time to perfect their see-saw technique (again, some scary moments there), and we were on our way again. Stephe's "whispering" skills needs some refinement however, and Cooper punctured the new tube shortly thereafter and walked the last kilometre back to the cars... After some quick tooling around on the mountain cross track, and a little roll off or two, we called it a day, very impressed with Stromlo indeed.

After a *freezing* Canberran night, we kicked off the next day with bacon and eggs, pancakes, ice chocolates and hot butterscotch milkshakes in Manuka - and figured we needed a ride just to get the stuff we'd just eaten away from our hearts. Despite the initial plan, the time at Stromlo the previous day had just been too much fun, so we went back for more.

This time we discovered that the huge map signs actually had maps on them (!), and we planned our ride accordingly - following a specific route around for the morning run. Again, a slow and not too long climb to the top, and then from the top we meandered back across the front of the track (Skyline?) and down "the Luge" - which was more fun than you can poke a stick at. Cooper managed to come off spectacularly twice, but was striaght back on, and continuing like a maniac. Brian and Joe maintained a safe distance, but any time they got in front made it a challenge to try to bring them back in.

We hit the bottom with silly grins on our faces, and decided to take on the intermediate #3 run, with the aptly named "Heartbreak Hill" as the route to the top - up the centre of the hill. Turns out that not all paths to the top of the hill are really easy! However, having made it to the top, we were able to then do a large section of the northern perimeter of Stromlo, which was again much fun, and involved a whole bunch of excellent downhill sections.

All in all - Stromlo rocks, and we'll be back!

Naff all photos, but those that there are, are here. We *really* need to get Doug back on his bike!

Sunday 28 June 2009 - Two Creeks

2009-06-28T19:07:00.001+10:00

Brian, Joe, Cooper and Stephe took advantage of a clear winter's day for a quick blast from Middle Cove to the Two Creeks track and back (17 kms), playing on various urban and non-urban bits of amusement along the way...

It was a very good way to spend an hour or two on a Sunday, and should be repeated regularly!

The limited photos are here, and a .kmz file of the route here...

Sunday 21 June 2009 - Yellowmundee (at Yarramundi)

2009-06-21T20:01:00.000+10:00

With a week of wet weather still ongoing on Sunday morning, things were looking a little grim for a ride. However, despite a bunch of 'almost going to make it' folk pulling out at the last minute, Paul, Cooper and Stephe travelled out to Yarramundi in the early afternoon, to see what the weather had done to the Yellowmundee track.

We arrived at 3pm, just as car loads of young folk were pulling out of the main car park, following the "Jet Black" cross country school championships (or something like that). Some very impressive looking kit, and we were told by an organiser while she was packing up that they had around sixty schools there for the event.

In any case, by then it had stopped raining, and was actually a very pleasant 19 degrees.

Cooper joined Paul and Stephe for half of the first lap, and then pulled out, with Paul and Stephe wrapping up that one, and then trying a little more aggressively on the second. Unfortunately, this had the effect of once again demonstrating that bike fitness comes from riding a bike, not sitting around at home eating ice cream - ah well, lesson learned! In any case, there was no third lap...

The track was in really good condition, with lots of smooth hard packed sections. There was a new twisty short downhill section with some interesting steps, which Cooper managed to almost lose control on, only to regain the bike, but then overcook the front brake in his excitement at having won back control. Which led to an interesting front wheel 'stoppie' down a hill, and then the inevitable semi-vertical tree hug. Amusing to watch (given that there were no broken bones).

Some interesting slick black skin on the hard packed mud made for sliding technique practice on the back half of the course, but no harm was ultimately done and much fun was had.

Another excellent time on a mountain bike, and another opportunity to drive home the lesson that you've just gotta get out there...

Our only three photos that worked (dodgy as they are) are here..., and a .kmz track of the loops we did is here.

Monday 8 June 2009 - Sparrow Hill (Canberra)

2009-06-08T23:30:00.001+10:00

The long weekend continued its run of surprises, as Brian, Gabbie, Joe, Gus and Hugo joined Sue, Stephe, Cooper and Ethan for an investigation of Sparrow Hill.

Although we were not too sure exactly where to go, it became clear as we approached the twenty or so parked mountain bike carrying cars, that we were in the right place. After some kerfuffle with lost skewer bits, we managed to get underway.

And what a delight underway turned out to be... a lightly overcast Canberra day was perfect for disappearing under the canopy of the pine forests. We navigated on to the rim track, and stuck with it for around 25 km or so. A simple and enjoyable track, which clearly offered many more challenges, or was happy just being enjoyed the way it was.

Another one to definitely return to!

CORC's map of the area (.pdf format, 400kb) is here.

Sunday 7 June 2009 - Stromlo (CORC Social Ride)

2009-06-07T23:23:00.000+10:00

Cooper and Stephe turned up to meet the nice folk from the Canberra Off Road Club, who were nice enough to show us around some of the lower level cross country tracks at Stromlo.

We both had a chance to do our first ever see-saw, followed by a couple of subsequent attempts, together with a very cool ride back down including a decent berm... the joys of novelty, eh! We also had the pleasure of the company of a dozen or so locals, all of whom were very nice to us, and ended up in the middle of a time trial for some women from the Institute of Sport, each of whom was very impressive.

Despite being a fairly desolate place, seems clear that it will be worth exploring much further in future - in particular, climbing the hill and doing the berm track back down. And the fact that the car park can have quite a few cars in it, but still not see too many folk on the tracks can only be a good sign of much goodness spread around.

Our not overly ambitious (13km in two hours, but there was *lots* of talking...) track (.kmz) is here.

Friday 5 June 2009 - Terry Hills

2009-06-05T23:13:00.000+10:00

Donal and Stephe managed a cheeky little Friday afternoon wander into Terry Hills, including yet more track that Stephe had never seen before.

Turns out (again) that the many years of 'dissing' Terry Hills may have been a tad harsh (although there was still mainly firetrail and some bitumen transitions). But there were also some great and challenging hill climbs / descents which made for a bit of fun. As did finding our way back out of the place as darkness fell, without lights.

No photos, and even the GPS decided to give up on me. Ah, bugger.

Sunday 31 May 2009 - Ourimbah

2009-05-31T23:04:00.001+10:00

It was wet when we woke up, it was wet when we left, it was wet as we were driving, and - somehwat suprisingly - it was wet when Whisperer, Steve K. and Stephe arrived at Ourimbah.

We spent a long time hiding under Steve's van's shelter, and it didn't stop.

It did, however, stop when we left...

Ah, Mountain Bike riding - you're a cruel master.

Sunday 17 May 2009 - Terry Hills

2009-05-18T09:52:00.004+10:00

Well, well, well...

For a long time now some of us have thought of Terry Hills as something to be avoided, unless it was time to take the family out for a dawdle or a training ride. So, while Whisperer's suggestion that we head that way for a quick midday ride was happily accepted (it's nice that a registered 'roid' still wants to ride with us!), there was still some apprehension about the potential fun to come...

Turns out it was, as pretty well all mountain bike rides are(!), a hoot.

Phil, Brian (on a very freshly spruced up mount), and Stephe met Whisperer at the Terry Hills shops around 11.45am - a beautiful sunny day, and lots of roadies and a few other mountain bikers around. We headed off along Mona Vale Road, dropped down Duckholes Track to the bottom - which was much more fun than previously anticipated. Who knew that such an entertaining bit of single track was just sitting there waiting for us - albeit a relatively short stretch.

From the bottom, we wandered back up the bitumen to the Center Track (sp? waiting for advice on how much of this I have described correctly), with a very sharp and solid climb off the road to get back into it - which was a good challenge, and eased off into a decent climb back to the top gate of the National Park.

Another quick road section, to take us back to the lofty heights of Terry Hills, and then we were on to the Perimeter Track. Which turns out, if you are being pushed along by healthy people (!), to be quite a bit of fun... A few adjustments along the way (it's always handy having a bike whisperer along, eh), a quick opportunity to check out the view (about three quarters of the way out the Long Trail), and much fun was had.

By the time we'd finished gawking (and chatting to some of the many other riders and walkers out at that time of the day), time was running short and we headed back - slowed only by the sad and less fit members of the crew (tragically, very much aware of their limitations!). Oh, and the spontaneous race that emerged between Phil and an eight year old girl, where he was roundly and satisfyingly whomped...

Turns out that we managed a very respectable 32kms, came back happy, and had been introduced to even more possibilities in our own backyard - so that can't be a bad thing, eh!

Photos are here (sad, without Doug, of course), and the .kmz is here.

Sunday 3 May 2009 - Menai

2009-05-03T20:58:00.002+10:00

A perfect day (albeit one that started out cold!), for what was intended to be a short ride around Menai, and then on to the basketball - Chris, Cooper and Stephe:

Track in good condition, although the motorbikes had churned a fair bit of it up recently - making many of the more challenging sections even more difficult. As some sort of karmic equaliser, we did see a couple of broken down trail bikes out there today - so perhaps the God of Mountain Biking is looking down and keeping things a bit more even!

Fair to say that the place was looking great, as ever:

Chris hadn't ridden for a while, and decided to push a few of the technical bits - leading to a little bit of skin scraping and the like - but it appeared as though he was having fun... Cooper was pretty happy until a bit over half way, when he discovered that the promised one hour ride had already covered that, and we were at the most remote point at that stage!

Unfortunately, things got worse as Stephe took a wrong turn on what was intended to be a short sharp run home - and we ended up meandering around a bit longer than anticipated.

That said, it was just a 15km dash in all, but much fun - as always.

The photos, such as they are, are up here.

Embed video pages

2009-05-02T10:51:00.000+10:00

Here's a Metallica clip:

Sunday 19 April 2009 - Old Great North Road

2009-04-19T22:45:00.002+10:00

The day started with a lot of rain, and an exchange of text messages about the potential for ongoing inclement weather (including from an un-named Celt (who really should have known better)). Nonetheless, after a bit of to and fro, we were sorted and a convoy headed up to Mangrove Mountain (sans Akis who was detained with some challenges at home, but at least he had a real excuse and wasn't being wussy about the weather!).

Doug figured it would be wise to avoid the weir given the ongoing rain, so we diverted to the alternative entry point - stopping at the top of what turned out to be a truly humungous hill down to the valley floor (and about fourteen times longer on the way back...).

And so it was that Doug, Brian, Nicole, Donal, Whisperer and Stephe set off - at around 8am, with a light rain and fairly cool conditions... The ride down was entertaining, visiting the cemetry on the way, and enjoying the scenery - but tempered a little by the inevitable thinking about "what goes down, must come up".

We didn't see too many folk on the way up the hill to Ten Mile Hollow, or further up the hill to the ridge line proper. Various break away groups formed as we rode up the hills, and along the ridge line - with Whisperer taking on the challenge of anyone who wanted a hurry along, and circling back when needed to keep his movement up (he and Donal using the ride as a warmup for the Dirtworx in two weeks). Brian was strong up the hills as ever, and had a welcome return to technical form, and Doug seems to have also recovered his 'mountain bike' legs, after worrying that it was all going to be beyond him last week at Mooney. And Nicole and Stephe cruised along smelling the flowers...

When approaching Devines Hill we were aghast to see that the magnificent single track has been horribly vandalised to make an open fire trail, some two or more kilometres further along the ridge than ever before. This provided a bit of a sombrebackground to the quick bite to eat at the top of Devine's hill, before we started to head back.

Doug and Brian had a time constraint and so struck off at a consistent pace - and were not seen again, arriving back at the cars around 1.30pm. The rest of the bunch had a fairly relaxed trip back - stopping to check out Donal after a (very silly!) fall, and waiting for folk as they needed to catch up on the hills - all the while with Whisperer zooming ahead and coming back to check out new lines and generally keep his pace up.

On the subject of new lines, to finish the ride, we headed left from Ten Mile Hollow, up to Clare's Bridge, and then down Donny's Trail - meeting some lads we had seen earlier coming in from Wisemans Ferry, on their way back up Donny's trail. Given that we've now been *down* that track, we have every respect for anyone silly enough to actually come up it!

Then, on to the huuuuuge hill back to the cars - a long, slow, but not too bad climb - back at the cars at 2pm, and a lot of happy and smiling faces! Around 55kms in all, and a jolly good time to boot.

Compare routes and profiles for the extension at the end:

The full set of photos are up here; and Whisperer's GPS route (with the Donny's Trail diversion) is here.