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Anyone want to skive off work and ride on Thursday?
I've got a rare as hen's teeth/rocking horse $hit day off on Thursday! The wife will be at work and my daughter at daycare which gives me a FREE day or other words A GOLDEN TICKET TO RIDE! so I want to make the absolute most of it whilst I can.
Is anyone else not working that day or can skive-off and want to join me?
I'm thinking about heading up the GNR but won't go there alone midweek. Totally open to other ride options too but would be good to put in a decent 100km of fun riding ie, not training pace (unless you want to)
Any takers? I'll post it up if there's interest.
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I'd be up for a big ride but may be limited by dropping off and/or picking up the little people from school in Manly, I'll confirm times and get back to you. I've not done GNR before so that would be fun. Otherwise if there's a good loop we could do closer to home I'd be in.
Happy to work around your kids. FYI It would be easier on ride-time if you only did one school run shift. Have a word with the boss and let me know.
If you've not ridden the GNR then you're in for a treat. It's AWESOME fun.
If I had some leave owing I'd be tempted to take a day off as well.
I know of a reasonably good loop up at GNR that is about 60km without doing too much backtracking, you can add another 10 odd by going back up the first hill and then down Shepards Gully at the end. Spiders is always worth a laugh too if you aren't riding alone.
I actually don't mind the out and back nature of the GNR. I see it as double the fun! All those lovely rock gardens you roll through on the way out but now in reverse. The 575 gobbles them up.
GNR is in great shape Phil. Up there on the weekend - a few puddles but nothing you can't navigate around.
Would be great to get out there with you but heading to Parkes on Friday for the Bigfoot. Can't take off two days in a row.
Happy trails !!
Shepherds Gully is a bit wet so make sure you pick your lines.
Hey man, my mate and i are riding The Oaks if you wanna join
Starting at 900am. Just posted on the main page
Eddy
I can offload one dropoff (maybe two) so it shouldn't be an issue. How long is the full 100km going to take? It's got to be at least 6 hrs at social pace plus transport each way I would have thought. I'll be on a XC hardtail so let's see how those rock gardens go shall we
I managed to injure my knee on the weekend but it's on the mend, I'll go for a couple of laps of the dam on Wed to see how it shapes up so there's a slight chance I'll need to pull the pin if it's still on the blink
What route do you take to find 100 km around the Great Nth Rd?
Enjoy the weekday freedom!
I don't think Phil would be suggesting 100km at GNR. Doing 100km there in around 6 hours wouldn't be classed as a social ride
If you ride to the very end where it meets Mogo Ck Rd and then return via Shepherds usually clicks up the 100ish mark. Not sure of the exact distance, it has been a while. I know Brian rode up there a while ago (before DW) and he managed to hook up the Womerah side. He put it up on Garmin connect. I'll see if I can find it.
This is the one from Sunday. The worst bit is the road from St Albans to Shepherd Gully as it seems to go on forever.
There's also this that does GNR out and back
Edit: this had a bit of back tracking on GNR mid ride as we thought we lost someone over the edge.
lol, you're not wrong there Brian. (My best DW time is around the 6.25 mark)
But something around the 7+ mark will be a nice social pace. Chuck in a few fuel stops here and there. But we'll see how the day goes.
yeah I imagine that link between St Albans and Shepherds would be a right PITA! It's a tough loop that one Brian. You enjoy the Grinfest of Jacks Track but miss the Shepherd's Grinfest. How much road would you say makes up this loop?
14km in the middle plus a few at the start and end. Jacks track is also the wettest I have seen it so be careful.
Good to hear the GNR is is great shape. Sad to hear you went to play up there without me
Good luck in Parkes. Have fun!
Maybe you know it, but there's a seriously steep trail (barely drivable fire trail) tha comes off Wrights Ck Rd (off Shepherds Rd, about half way between St Albans and the bottom of Shepherds Gully) and goes up to the top of the GNR. We do regularly. A real challenge. That way you can head the back way down to Clares Bridge, back up GNR, down GNR and down Shepherds!!!!
'fraid I don't do the gps thing, I'll look on the topographic and see if the steep trail has a real name — it's the "Escher Climb" to me and my mates.
I think I know the climb you mean, it's pretty killer. I went down it one time looking for the loop behind the back of the Monastary but ended up in a paddock at Wrights Ck and face to face with a very pi$$ed off black stallion. The trail disappeared and we couldn't find our way out to the road so turned around and climbed back up onto the ridge.
I got a GPS of it here:
Is this the one you mean?
EDIT
@brian
This would be a great way to avoid the road section from St Albans AND you get to enjoy a killer climb, Shepherd's and remove the boring Western Commission FT frm your loop! WOOT! To get to the start of this take the left off Settlers Rd as though you're doing Dirtworks, but don't take the hill on the left. Stay on the flatland and follow it around until you get to the start of this trail at Wrights Creek.
with all this talk and garmin files.....it's becoming very tempting to join you on Thursday.
We'll see.
Well there's only one way to cure that itch!
Hmmmm the more I think about it the more I might mix it up a bit and make it a combo of Brian's loop and tack on my Wrights Ck/GNR. It'll be like Dirtworks but without the run into 10 Mile Hollow and canoe bridge. What do you reckon Dan?
EDIT
@Brian, so you turn right at the bottom of Jacks to get back into St Albans yes?
Yes. Turn right when you come out of Jacks track which takes you to St Albans, you cross that main bridge and you're then at the pub.
Sounds easy enough - thanks
So what's the overall duration we're talking about here? Having never been there it's all greek to me. It's starting to sound like a great hit out, the perfect last training effort before Bottlebutt
Don't forget to factor in where you can get water. You can't always trust there will be some at the temple as I have seen it empty before.
This hybrid loop doesn't actually go past The Temple but if we're running low then we can easily detour at the top of the climb. I have seen the water quite low at the Temple a few times. More so in Summer than winter tho.
I'm a bit of a camel and can conserve water quite well particularly if it's cool. I rode last years Husky 100 on just 1 litre, but will carry a couple of litres for this ride plus a bottle of liquid lunch just in case.
I'm guessing there's water in St Albans? A tap at The Arms? Can anyone confirm?
I can't confirm a tap at the Arms. If they are open I couldn't see it being an issue but don't forget the town is on tank water so outside taps may not be suited for drinking, but hey, what's the worst that could happen from drinking bad water
Hmm I reckoning maybe around 80km mark. So around 5hrs of riding? Let's say we hit the trail at 8.30 we can be off it by 1.30 and be enjoying a beer and a burger at the pub at Wisemans before making it back in time to pick the kids up from school. What do you say to that Dan?
I'm getting quite excited now should be a good day in the saddle. I'll post the ride.
http://nobmob.com/node/30802
Couldn't be any worse than what you can get at The Temple tho can it? Only one way to find out
Yep Phil, that's it. All you needed to do was follow down to the bottom of the trail then swing round to the right along the creek, across a bridge and you're on Wrights Ck Rd. Easy if you can get past the wild brumbies!
We did this but it we got to a locked gate into another paddock. It didn't look like we were going to get anywhere that way so went the other way across to the property on the other side of the creek, but the property also looked landlocked and we couldn't get through, and the horse kept following and charging us. The environment wasn't friendly and we fully expected some banjo playing cousins with 12 gauges to come out of the property and tell us in unsavoury ways to get off their land... or worse. So we turned around. It was only after looking at the GPS when I got home that I saw just how close we came to Wrights Ck Road.
Hi Phil
My knee is still flaring up pretty badly so it's best to consider me as a no-show for now. I'll go smack the crap out of it on a lap of the dam tomorrow and if it's going to be OK I'll let you know. I was/am looking forward to this one too, bugger.
How'd you go at the Dam today?
I gave it a go, did 33:40 on the new track (probably equates to 35m on the 'old' dam), so was off a fast pace but still pretty happy. I didn't think about the knee once so I consider that to be good enough for me. Let's go play.
To get there for half eight I'm assuming we need to leave about half six (eek) given traffic and distance. Want to come in my car? I've got a soft-roader thingy that can take three bikes if you take both wheels off