Sunday 25 January 2009 - Yarramundi

After a scorcher of a week, it was with relief that Chris, Nicole, Phil and Stephe arrived at Yarramundi at 8am on a nicely clouded over, and relatively cool, Saturday morning.

With a long slow warm up, a second lap was always going to be more fun - and it was. Chris discovered the joy of a 'non-retro' mountain bike, Phil demonstrated that he was a dark horse, with far too much adventure racing under his belt to just sit back quietly, and Nicole has yet again discovered that clip in pedals would be an excellent idea! And Stephe was most pleased to be told by Phil that the time you take to warm up is proportional to how fit you are (a comforting thought to someone who takes a minimum of 30 minutes to get up to speed, but tragically not one that seems borne out in practice...).



The layout at Yarramundi was a little different to our last visit, with the first lap just under 8kms, and the second lap just over 8kms - but it was still moderately enjoyable. Google Earth view below (with the .gpx here for lap1 and lap2 for those interested):



All photos are up here.

Friday 23 January 2009 - Hunters Hill

A ride that turned out to be just a little bit ugly...

Donal, Sue and Stephe figured they'd do a quick blast in the morning (Middle Cove to Hunters Hill and back in a big loop through the bush), and then catch up with their other obligations once back at the ranch fully invigorated, happy and excited.

Unfortunately, Donal's maintenance schedule continues to be a little less than robust, so we didn't actually get going until around 11am, once he had finally mounted a new tyre... Then, the starting urban section through Chatswood was probably a taste of things to come, as various cars tried to kill us, and the temperature soared up into the 40s. Once we'd dropped down to the river and made it on to trail (carefully avoiding anything that NPWS didn't want us to ride on!), we started having a bit more fun, with Sue demonstrating that fitness is a much better aid to mountain bike riding than stupidity (pretty well making each of the step ups and downs that we encountered along the way - despite a minimum of experience on the bike).

The heat was still getting to us, and after a few more hike a bike sections, we arrived at Hunters Hill with Donal out of water and Stephe in his usual "luvin' hills" state, but with the added complication of having torn out the derailleur cable and so stuck in 1st gear...

We did another urban section, and when faced with the choice of dropping back down into Blackman Park for the second half of the ride, or bailing via the roads - we did the sad thing and scummed it home...

Google Earth snapshot of the track below, with the original .gpx here:



Ah well, at least we got out (and were able to fall into a pool on our return home!).

Sunday 18 January 2009 - Terrey Hills

Although we completely failed to wake up in time to make it to Hans' NobMob advertised Terrey Hills run, a couple of families did get out eventually...

A good run to the end of the Long Trail and back - it was blistering hot, but still a hoot. Perhaps we will see more of some of these folk (Joe and Cooper starring!) at some stage in the near future!

The boys in particular loved the two goannas spotted along the way...

Photos up here, and some samples below:

Saturday 17 January 2009 - Ourimbah

With Sydney experiencing heat wave weather in the preceding week, we were a little worried about cooking on this ride, but (as always with mountain biking) it turned out to be perfect: a little rain on the way there, and then it cleared to a beautiful 23 degree day, with perfect track conditions!

Paul, Nicole, Akis and Stephe arrived safe and sound at 7.45am, before too many others had filled the car park. After an excellent warm up lap, it was clear that a second lap would be in order, and it was a good run. By the time we were back at the cars, we were a little tired, but the conditions demanded a third run - which was also excellent, although we did end up fairly knackered (turns out that charging up the hills, and then charging down them again, is very hard to do for a long time! Where do the 24hr folk get their stamina from??).

Photos are up here, but here are a couple of samples (Paul, Akis and Nicole respectively):

Sunday 4 January 2009 - Redhill / Oxford Falls

It was getting a little hot out there today, but still ok for riding (we wouldn't have wanted to do a big one though...).

Matt was keen to get back to our roots and do a Redhill / Oxford Falls loop, and so we met at the Academy of Sport at 6.45am (with the stragglers arriving shortly thereafter... you know who you are!).

Matt was joined by Mark (a rider in a previous era, warming up for the mountains to the Sea ride in March), Whisperer (heck, a ride for entertainment and not training, whatever is the world coming to?), Nicole and Stephe. Photo shows Nic, Matt, Stephe, Whisperer and Mark (and this is the *good* group photo, so it's a bit scary just how bad the photographer is, or perhaps it's just that they're an un-photogenic bunch!):



After some quick silliness at Red Rock (on the climb out of the car park - Whisperer and Matt showing the way), we were off on a bit of riding... (Nic, Mark, Whisperer and Matt respectively):



Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective - although it's clear why some think this is a bit more of a walk than a ride), we also did a bit of playing on the technical section of the Redhill rocks and other points along the way - but it was still fun - and we can always do a "real ride" next week, eh...



Full set of photos (such as they are, Doug's absence continues to trouble us!) are up here.