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The Golden Ticket to Ride, ride - All aboard the GNR train!


philberesford's picture

By philberesford - Posted on 30 August 2011

When: 
Thursday, 1 September, 2011 - 08:30
Duration: 
5 hours
Come Rain or Shine: 
I'll be there, no matter what the weather.
Ride Database Entry: 
Great Northern Road
Ride Database Entry: 
Womerah Range
Meeting Point: 

Wisemans Ferry - by the East ferry crossing (turn right bottom of the hill). There is a good parking area by the kiosk here.

-33.38142,150.989066 (Park by the Ferry)
Details:

As discussed here

A brisk, fun, social-paced jaunt over Womerah and the GNR for a bit of mid week fun away from work, wife and kids.

Going to mix it up with a new loop I've never tried, up over The Womerah Range (on fresh legs!!!) and down Jacks Track heading right into St Albans and out along Settlers Rd to Wrights Creek. From there turn left into the DW100 course but take the killer climb out of the other side of the Valley (Not the private DW climb) up onto the ridge line to pop us out just above The Temple. Should be all warmed and loosened up by now for the lovely GNR rock gardens before finishing off with the Grinfest of Shepherd's Gully. Final blast around the road in tight formation drafting along the way for maximum warp speed back to the ferry and The Pub for a beer and burger. All up I'm guessing it's around 80kms and around 5hrs-ish in the saddle.

Who's in?

I'll be in a Silver Golf and parked close to the toilet block. But in all probability will be the only car there.

Who's in?
philberesford, donkerr, Discodan
philberesford donkerr Discodan
What Happened?

Were you there and have a story to tell?

Ride Gallery
Brian's picture

This is looking like its going to be a cracker ride. The Bottlebutt is my last Enduro for the year so I'll be keen for some social rides after that.

philberesford's picture

I'm getting quite excited about it. Should be a cracker. Looking forward to tackling Womerah with fresh legs instead of after 70kms of DW legs. So how wet was Jacks on the weekend? Same as DW or worse?

Good luck in the BB. Wishing I'd put my hat in the ring for that one. Sounds like it will be fun. Particularly with the big hill at the start.

Brian's picture

My memory of DW this year was just the start and the technical section before the 50km stop was wet. I thought everything was quite good. Anyway, jacks track was quite wet and slippery on the descent but my 29er just ate it up Sticking out tongue

Brian's picture

You can still get entries for the BB Eye-wink

Brian's picture

If you go via Galston Gorge you will need an alternate route at least on the way home.

http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/roadprojects/projects/...

Dicko's picture

Hill at the 60k mark is the one to worry about.

Think oaks causeway to helipad, but in only 4km

entries still available Phil - get on board - nothing stopping you

philberesford's picture

Thanks for the heads up Brian. Luckily I don't go that way.

Brian's picture

So how did it go today? You gotta love GNR.

philberesford's picture

A rare mid week hit out with Don (Donkerr) and Danny (Discodan) from Nobmob. Took a 17km detour to find the trail out of Wrights Creek that connects up with the GNR. Took in a fair bit of the Dirtworks course but started on Womerah rather than end. Sadly due to our excursion up Wrights Ck we ran out of time to get a play on Shepherds Gully.

Brian's picture

You need to unlock the profile.

philberesford's picture

It was a slog of a climb once we found the trail up to the GNR. Much harder going than I remember, I walked an awful lot of it today, I wasn't in the mood for busting a gut to get up it and blowing my legs out before the GNR fun.

Brian's picture

That's better. So with the detour taken that was wrong, what sort of track was it? Also, once you found the correct way was that the track you took once but from GNR?

philberesford's picture

It starts out as dirt road but once you leave the exit for the DW 'first hill' it becomes a farm track that then opens out into paddocks, km's of paddocks as we followed the creek deeper into the valley. Eventually we ran out of trail and turned around.

Yes it was the trail that I had taken from the GNR - it was a b1tch of a climb. Very messy in places, very loose.

You were right about Jacks Track, it was very muddy on the lower section, great care was needed. We bumped into a local walking her dogs at the bottom of Jacks and she said there was some big horse thing a few weeks ago. The GNR was in a bit of mess with horse hoof marks which had dried and made for a very bumpy rather than flowy ride today.

Brian's picture

I had noticed all the horse tracks. Looks like it was a good day.

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