Sunday 21 June 2009 - Yellowmundee (at Yarramundi)

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)

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)

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

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

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

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

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.

Sunday 19 April 2009 - Old Great North Road

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.

Sunday 12 April 2009 - Appin

Stephe & Doug managed a quick mountain bike ride during the Easter long weekend road ride-fest (four rides in four days turns out to be quite a lot for unfit middle aged blokes!). But the Appin bit was more fun than perhaps was anticipated...

Profile is cute:



Limited photos (mainly riding and having fun), and by the time Stephe had set himself up to get some Doug photos, a flat tyre intervened, ruining the rhythm. Ah, life.

In any case, it was good, and we need to get back there more often!



Full set of photos up here, and here is the .kmz file of the day.

Sunday 5 April 2009 - Mooney (reprise)

Figured, given how good Mooney was looking the week before, that we should reprise our visit - so Doug, Brian, Akis and Stephe went back for another look. Of course, Mooney being Mooney, the rain in the intervening week had completely changed the place, so that the challenging but "do-able" rocks were now all much less "do-able".



Nonetheless, Brian demonstrated that fitness is a very good thing to possess, even without much time on a mountain bike in between times - demonstrating clearly that "he still has it"! Undone, to some small extent (but frustrating for him, I'm afraid), by the fact that his bike needs perhaps a little more TLC before setting out on the next ride... (and, no, Brian, we're not going to put anything up on the website about the dummy spit - indeed, not even make a passing reference to it).

Akis looked stylish, as ever; and Doug continued the long tradition of smooth riding and dangerously fast descents...

A mere 18 kilometres, but challenging - and the profile, as ever, looks good:



Some other snaps along the way:



Some elegant, some not so elegant...



All the photos, including some embarrassing videos, are up here (ah, 'tis great to have Doug the photographer back!).  The GPS track is here.