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.