21 October 2011 - Garrigal (Castle Cove etc)

Chris and Stephe ducked out early on a Friday afternoon for a short ride...

Not early enough, as it turns out - we abandoned the car halfway to Castle Cove and did a semi-urban ride.

Was fun, albeit nothing to write home about...

Track is here.

25 September 2011 - Old Great North Road - Whisperer's farewell ride

Whisperer's farewell ride was going to be huge, but the weather had other ideas...

It was cold, sad and miserable.

We almost pulled the pin before we got started (having adjourned to a local coffee spot following the abandonment of the initial start), but some quick Doug pep-talking managed to get the crew into a better state of mind, and we returned to kick off.

Whisperer, Stephe, [Pete?], Dylan, Brian and Donal (not in photo) and Doug (not in photo) headed off.



Got very wet.



Retired halfway (with at least the partial excuse that we broke Brian's bike)...



At least we had fun!

Full set of photos here.  And track (such as it was) here.

18 September 2011 - Yarramundi

NicMcVic and Stephe managed to get a couple of laps in at Yarramundi, which was - of course - excellent.

Unfortunately, this post prepared some time after the event, and recollections now hazy!

But, did capture Nic in action:



Track here...

10 September 2011 - Mooney

Mooney is unreal.

A truly pleasurable experience dropping by - both on those days when the Gods are with you, but also even when things do not go like clockwork.

The smells, the sounds, the sights - all add up to a really enjoyable time on the bike, with lots of challenges thrown in for good measure.

Doug and Stephe were up early for a return trip, 'testing the water' to see if Mooney was still as it used to be... turns out, it was even better!



Some work had been done on the lower reaches of the track, for example, this is what smartarse creek now looks like (not much scope for being caught out trying to be a bit cheeky here now...):



But, pretty much all the other challenges remain, for example, Stephe getting the crossing wrong:



The dam was full and nice to see the water flowing, and the track remained quite wet further up - but still great. Some quick shots:



We also shot some Contour footage, which will get up on YouTube and post here shortly.

A few photos here... and our .kmz track here.

4 September 2011 - Appin (again!)

Cooper decided it would be a very nice thing indeed to take Stephe out to Appin for Father's Day, and we were fortunate enough to be joined by Bob.

It was great - perfect conditions, and much fun.

Cooper continues to improve his skills, and is a 'natural' on the bike...

No photos, but two tracks (of each of the laps that we finished, before running out of time and heading home) are here: Lap One, and Lap Two.

2 September 2011 - Appin

Donal, Doug and Stephe nipped out for a quick couple of Appin laps.

Much fun had by all - although with time constraints Stephe was only able to get two laps in, leaving Donal and Doug to contemplate just how long they could keep meandering about!

Written too long after the event to recall just how Doug injured himself, and became cautious for a little while - but I do recall we were very sympathetic indeed... (!)



A few photos here... and our .kmz track here.

Here is a quick video of Doug proving that he can be cautious and sure footed on a bike when he wants to be:

28 August 2011 - Redhill and Oxford Falls

Chris, Little Guy and Stephe saw that the sun was going to shine and figured a cheeky little Redhill run would be good for us. So, bright and early Sunday morning we set off for Redhill...

Turns out the place was quite wet from recent rains, even though the day itself was entirely fine.  So, lots of claggy mud, and we had to be particularly careful to avoid creating any further erosion damage.

In any case, was fun and a healthy little blast (being careful, of course, to walk the bikes through any restricted access areas along the way).

Quick view of Little Guy during and after...



A few photos here... and our .kmz track here.

15 May 2011 - Yarramundi

Matt, John and Stephe meandered out to Yarramundi for a quick lap or two, before a Sydney shop held their new bike day...

Was fun, but demonstrated an ongoing lack of fitness from at least one of the crew (who shall remain nameless!).

Matt and John at the halfway point:



A few photos here... and our .kmz track here.

And, proving an ongoing lack of skill with a camera, Stephe's attempt at two still shots of Matt and John::

17 April 2011 - Old Great North Road

Ah, we went back to the spiritual home of mountain bike riding, and the weather gods were good to us (as always). No rain, but there was lots of water about.

Doug, Matt, Brian, Joe and Stephe started off around 7.40am at Mangrove Mountain, and then kicked off. Some of the 'older' folk were assuming Joe would find the going tough at some point, and planned around having a break sooner rather than later. Turns out that Joe was the only one that was fresh as a daisy at the end... with Stephe definitely bringing up the rear, with a sad and slow ride up the last 500m hill...

In any case, limited photos until we got to Devine's Hill for a break:



Doug's bike during ride, and at the end (ooops, wasn't supposed to get any dirt on it(!)):



Some riding snaps:



And, Joe in particular:



Full set of photos here... and our .kmz track here.

Doug also took some great video, but it's huuuuge, so not yet entirely certain how to put it all up, but one excerpt of our final leg home loaded on to YouTube here:

10 April 2011 - Tathra

Ben, CJ, Cooper, Imo and Stephe at various points had a chance to play around on the fantastic single track created at Tathra.

It was so enjoyable, that we collected no photos, other than two of the younger folk when we got back to the accommodation.

There are some excellent links on the web to the Tathra single track, and our .kmz tracks are here (the first little explore), the second one (where we got lost) and the third (where we just did the intro downhill and return).

A quick snapshot of Cooper and Imo:



And a bit of footage of Cooper rolling down the driveway for amusement (click on the image for the movie, it's a biggish file, so wait a while!):



Need to get back down there again, and do a few circuits of the full track!

temporary hiatus

mountain bike riding off the agenda for stephe for a brief while (6 - 12 weeks).

Foolishly entertaining other forms of go fast activity, stephe crashed a go kart into a tire wall, with fractures to lumbar verterbrae 1 and 3. Out of hospital, all stable, prognosis good, but not much activity for some weeks...

12 December 2010 - Coba Point and Smuggler's Ridge

After a couple of alternative ideas were floated, Bob and Stephe finally settled on a relatively short local ride out to Coba Point.

Eschewing the more usual out and back to the view first, we headed off straight for Smugglers Ridge. Was excellent, as ever. Great flowers out, we were a bit wussy on anything with a slightly technical bent, but that just leaves plenty of improvement for the next visit, eh!

Some quick snaps (the whole, limited, set is here):






Great ride down the ridge, loooong ride back up the hills. But fun.

The track (which is embarrassingly short!) is here.

4 December 2010 - Ingar Creek

After a bit of a debacle on the camping front (the weather was less than fully kind to us), Brian, Joe, Gus, Hugo and Stephe, Cooper and Ethan thought we should try to at least check out the proposed camping ground at Ingar Creek.

So, we parked the cars at the top of the fire trail, and rode down the 10kms to the bottom (pedaling maybe twice along the way!).

It proved to be a very cool camping ground, and quite possibly worth a future visit.



It was not at all clear how to get to the nearby fire trail that connected with Andersons, although the NPWS summary was hopeful "This camping ground is set among scribbly gums. The dam on Ingar Creek is suitable for paddling and swimming, and you can also walk or ride your mountain bike to Bedford Creek, via Murphy's Fire Trail."

In any case, given the fact that we had to ride back out in the cold and wet, up an entirely vertical climb, we decided to give exploration a miss to another day...

At least we had plenty of food to amuse us when we made it back to the top:




All in all, was good, but might be more fun in good weather and starting from the bottom!

My .kmz of the downhill track is here, and some more photos here.

28 November 2010 - Old Great North Road

It continues to amaze, how you can turn up to an Old North Road ride and re-discover what an excellent place it is each time. Surely, eventually, the message will stick, and we'll simply ride here every weekend!

Paul R joined Akis (yes, he's back!), Mark S, John S, Whisperer, Peter and Stephe at the Mangrove Mountain entrance to the ride at 7.45am.

Group photo of the gang - from left to right - Mark S, John S, Stephe, Peter, Akis, Paul R (Whisperer taking the photo):



Weather was perfect - slightly overcast, but spots of blue sky, and just the right amount of spitting rain occasionally along the ride when we needed to be cooled down.



Much amusement along the way, some reasonable pace at points (Paul R did get 'out of the gate' aggressively, and was probably regretting that on the way home, although did his best not to show it). Fair to say that the slog up the bitumen road to the cars at the end seemed a long one to a few of us...



We also tried our skills at climbing up a *massive* rock wall - about 5-25m in vertical climb, honest injun - although, peculiarly, in this video it looks somewhat more tame... (and, yes, we really did make that many lame attempts... ah well!):



And, while I'm on an embedding roll... here is Whisperer's garmin page of the ride:


A couple of additional photos here.

All in all, a fantastic day out, may there be very many more in the future!

13 October 2010 - Manly Dam

John S and Stephe took the opportunity for a quick blast around the dam.

It was excellent.

John discovered that his trusted hard tail 29'er actually seems to do a better job of many sections of the dam than the more apparently well qualified Cannondale leftie... ain't it good that life continues to be full of surprises.



Just in case, the .kmz of the track is here, and the photo album here.