Old timers - anecdotes required

Rob,
No photo's or the like, but I remember having hair when I started on Red Hill so it was probably 13 years ago.

No seriously, I used to only ride Red Hill on my GT Avalanche (read fully rigid, 18 gears, cantilever brakes). My favorite loop was to ride down Itchy and Scratchy, riding up the Drop Zone (it was tough but you could ride without dabbing from the bottom until about half way to the very top - up to the cascading rock shelves). Remount and ride all the way up to the top. The top lip was only 2 foot high and on a good day with full lungs you would clean this and ride away.

Next we would go to 4WD Foley. The centre line was doable on a rigid but we usually took the left hand drop offs - more fun. Continuing on we turned right at the next junction and you could ride everything (the drops were so much smaller). At the junction to the trail leading to the Wakehurst Parkway we would sometimes turn around and ride back up because you could. I had to walk the rock shelf at the bottom of 4WD Foley, but you could ride the rest of it (the left hand line was easiest) all the way to Mr MotoX without having to dismount.

I also remember riding the chute at 100 Metre Hill, it was always either muddy or loose peddles so they rear brake was locked and it was a mixture of controlled and uncontrolled slide.

The ride from the Aboriginal carvings to Grizzlies wasn't super technical just a test of fitness but we did this because Grizzlies was also another favorite, especially when we went full sus. I could ride down all except "the big drop" (I never had the balls) and it was possible to ride up a majority of it as well.

There were a number of smaller offshoot trails which aren't on the map and still exist although most are overgrown - I sometimes explore them when the mood takes me.

The lost amazings thing I have seen at Red Hill are;
3rd place - the animals (kangaroos, snakes, echindnas, emus, foxes, black cockatoo's)
2nd place - the devastation of 2 bushfires.
1st place - a one legged MTB rider powering down the Drop Zone - clipped in and with skills I could only dream of.

Sorry Rob, no photos. But I had dinner with someone the other day that lives in and around Red Hill. Their account ties in with Paul's. The Red Hill trails have been there over 20 years or more. This person even remembered the bmx track near the Red Hill car park being there at that time. So most of Red Hill must be quite old. Surely there are plenty of old timers out there that know more?

I used to ride dirt bikes at Red Hill, Oxford Falls and a huge quarry at Terrey Hills hmmmm, let me think, 35 years ago. It was incredible the number of bikes around then, the Terrey Hills quarry almost looked like an ants nest there were so many bikes.

Thankfully we don't see too many around these days....noisy, smelly, environmentally bad.

Glad I made the change to MTB's!

I grew up on the Northern Beaches and have been riding BMX, Motor Bikes and MTB around the trails since 12 years old, which is, oh crap 26 years ago, man I didn't like working that out.
Allot of the trails you ride around the dam were built/cut by a group of us and we called ourselfs the "Dam Buster" I use ride the Nth Blagowlah BMX track, Ride my moto up at Terry Hills where the big Bunnings is, and ride moto around the Water Tank track(part of the dam trails), red roads & Oxford Falls. I can remember my first mtb was a beach cruiser(oversized BMX) and use to ride Red Hill, Dam . I know the Allambie Jump park has been there for a long time I can remember watching older kids hitting it up when I was about 6. I can remember when you could ride all the trails of the Dam and not get into trouble , argh those where the days.

Jason

Rob. I'm pretty sure Oxford Falls was used for a State DH race in the mid to late 90s

Top stuff alchemist! Particularly since I have been told by one official that, "the single tracks up there [Oxford Falls] are poorly aligned in places and not designed for bikes". Going on Keith Shugg's report that's exactly what they were designed for.

So what put an end to all this racing and merriment?

I am getting the impression that MTB as a sport is a victim of it's own popularity. I mean, when one or two folk are riding out there it was not a big deal, but when many more join in that's when trails can become degraded... especially when there is no-one officially maintaining them.

As we have seen at Manly Dam with the wonderful work Nicole & co have done, if you get organised the trails can cope with the traffic numbers they are now seeing. This is of course what we'd like to see happen all over the Northern Beaches.

No split with the road club as far as I know, we're still freinds and the road club is undergoing a bit of a revival at the moment after dropping down to a handfull of members.

Main issue from what I can tell was with the residents, paticularly related to shuttles up Morgan Road.

I'm pretty sure I raced a state round in '98 at Oxford Falls. Won Juniors too if I remember correctly (had to slip that in), with Rick Boyer second, and Shane Mirfin won elite or expert or whatever it was called then, a second or two quicker, so yeah it was probably a short track. Those were the days. Good gnarly course, and they had a ghetto blaster on the start line cranking out the Offspring's Smash album to gee everyone up. I spewed in front of a family, and half into my full face at the end of my run. Thanks for the nostalgia, it's been fun.

I remember a vid called Sydney Off Road that came out in 99 or 00 that was warning of the soon to be demise of Oxford Falls...