Sunday 31 July 2005 – Redhill loop

Redhill last weekend was a blast, pity for those of you who missed it! Unfortunately, that included the camera man, so we’ve got bugger all to show for it (which is a real pity, because it involved Brian finally discovering that he too is human (ah, how the mighty fall…)).

Hard to pick whether the best bit was when Brian did a face plant in the gooey quicksand (with his front wheel so deeply embedded in the mud that it took about five minutes just to get it out!), or when he fell from a great height to be fully submerged into Deep Creek (boy, did it look cold!). Ah, the joy of not being the complete goose on a ride....

Sunday 17 July 2005 – Redhill loop

Well, that was an interesting diversion! Skipped Old North Road, in favour of a short one. Started at Sport & Rec, went straight up the hill, and rode around a bit longer before we got on to Whisperer’s singles track back to the rocky bits. Had some fun on the rocks, although Brian was feeling a little less self confident than he has in recent rides (perhaps it was all that soft snow last week, that highlighted just how hard the ground is looking these days!). Then cruised across to the Oxford Falls side, and had a fairly good run up the singles track to the road, and a very necessary morning tea break…

For variety (and to keep Doug cranky and on edge!), on the way home we explored the alternative route down to the falls at Duck Pond Creek (is that what it’s called?), which was an absolute hoot – lots of ‘rideable’ rocky bits, which we managed to munge up fairly badly. In any case, could be lots of fun for future rides down to the Creek, although we may need to sedate Doug first (despite his clear skills advantage, he continues to insist on walking down anything bigger than a single step – yet still does 100km/h down loose rocks at Mooney – go figure!).

A quick scoot along the creek, and then back to Sport & Rec. All in all, quite a pleasant and quick outing.

Photos here, but here are some previews (including the snazzy new Google Earth satellite image!):

Sunday 3 July 2005 – Mooney (but, alas, not “the bucket”)

Bah humbug. With so much promise, we achieved so little. Started out ratty (at around 4.5degrees!), in what was a fairly beautiful background – lush and green, with enough water on the ground to make it interesting, but not too much to cause any great problems. But we never really got our collective act together. By the time we’d done the climb, and arrived at the water tanks, the joint wisdom was that ‘the bucket’ should be left for another day.

So, we quickly did the little singles track, and then headed back down. The trip down was, as ever, an absolute blast – enhanced by the fact that Brian completely lost his mind and did around 100km/h down the slippery wet slope, with us chasing him like madmen. That there were no injuries says more about the existence of a higher being, than our skills…

Managed to make it almost all the way home before coming off in a rock bed puddle – sad, cold, shin sore, home we went cleaned up, and dreamed of doing this right one day!!

And, to top it off – still no GPS / profile action, just a map. Photos here, but some of note below: