28 March 2010 - Appin

Shov, Mark S. and Stephe took off on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, for a visit to Appin.

This was the final instalment for Shov of the introduction to Sydney's big circuits (North / Ourimbah; West / Yarramundi; and now South / Appin).

Not much to say really - it was unbelievably fantastic.

For a variety of not good reasons, we had lef the start quite late and left before getting in a few more laps - but it was still just plain great. Perfect conditions, and much fun. Life good!

Some of the photos:



Full set of photos are up here; and track (.kmz) here.

19 March 2010 - The Oaks

NicMcVic and Stephe managed a cheeky week day ride up at The Oaks trail, and it was pretty well perfect.

Conditions were ideal - a beautiful autumn blue sky, enough warmth in the sun to keep the blood flowing without overcooking on the climbs, and so much fresh air it nearly killed us!  Trail conditions were excellent, the climbs were fun, the descents were even more fun, and the single trail at the end rocked.

We also checked out the sign at the end of the fire trail section, and something like this needs to go up at Manly Dam and everywhere else real soon - it sets out a very simple and clear 'code of conduct' for riding in the bush, but - more importantly - has good 'reasons' for each suggested conduct.  Very straightforward, but hopefully powerful to folks reading it.  It was also at that point that Stephe discovered (from the altitude graph on display) just how much downhill the trail is (which perhaps explains why the 26km were disposed of fairly readily!).

Some of the photos from the day below, including some cute flowers, a Very Big Ant Indeed (with apologies to him or her, for very poor photography), and a really beautiful red bellied black snake that we interrupted from a lovely snooze in the sun...



An excellent days riding, and yet another ride that we must remember is out there!
The limited photos are here; and a .kmz of the ride from the car park is here; the train trip from Glenbrook to Woodford is here, and the actual trail (albeit with some wacky numbers in it) here.

Sunday 14 March 2010 - Yarramundi

As part of the ongoing guided tour of Sydney rides, Shov, Darcey, Cooper, Ethan and Stephe all ventured West to Yarramundi, quite late on a Sunday afternoon.



A couple of early falls set the pace, and caused some grief (including a DNF from Ethan - hence, sadly missing from the late in the lap photo).

But, the rest of the ride was a pleasure, followed by a 'hot lap' by Shov and Stephe (well, if you look closely at the .kmz file, you'll perhaps see that 'hot lap' might be a little optimistic!).

Was fun, and the track was in great condition.  Looking forward to the rest of the 'series'!

Photos here, .kmz file of the track here.

Wednesday 10 March 2010 - Ourimbah

Pete, Shov and Stephe meandered up to Ourimbah for a quick mid week blast.

It was fun!  And part of the 'introducing the returning biker, after ten years away' process of checking out rides South, North, then West (started with Menai, on to Ourimbah today, Yarramundi next, and Appin to finish off the 'prepared' circuits).

We also spent a bit of time playing on the various bits, and even managed to get some photos (albeit, without Doug, not very good ones!).



All photos are up here.  And, a .kmz of the track here.

Sunday 7 March 2010 - Menai

Shov and Stephe made it down to Menai early on Sunday morning (having managed to forget the way down at least twice along the route!).

The key take out of the day was the zillions of little gnats flying in 'clouds' pretty much across the entire track.  And the other primary learning was that Stephe shouldn't try tricky rock descents when 100m in front of his colleagues, with Oakley shorts that snag on the seat... the outcome was very ugly (and involved lying very still for a few minutes, while the body recovered at least a little).  But the bruising was a joy to behold!

[There is nothing quite like the joy of having to aggressively move back across the seat, when your weight is already too far forward, as you take on some tricky rock hops - then catching your pants on the front of the seat.  Not only is it then all too late (the over balanced weight now trapped at the front end of the bike means you're already goooooone), but as you go down, you've managed to completely upset the balance of the bike, and any chance of falling gracefully.  When put together with a 'high' starting point:  ugliness is the only outcome!]

After a bit of whingeing we resumed the circuit, albeit with a little less aggression than usual perhaps...

The weather was perfect, the bush was beautiful, there were many riders out.  All in all, could have been a great day (!).

No photos, but here is a .kmz of the route we took (albeit with some wacky 'totals' - presumably after the gps took a big hit...  it looks like total distance of around 15kms?).