The plan was to meet at the end of the bitchumen on Naas Valley way, near Gudgenby, so being the fool that I am, I thought I'd ride out there and meet the boys at the start, they were much smarter and drove...
It's only 40kms, but there's over a vertical kilometer in it, which really surprised me, especially the climbs South of the Ororral Valley turnoff, it seems to go on (and upwards) forever! It took me 2:15 to get down there, and on the way the boys all past me in the fancy schamncy heated cars (did I mention it was -4'C?) :D
Assembling at Brandy Flat car park, we headed South on Bobyon Road, knocking over the big climb in this ride early, it's a big climb and took us a fair while. As we cruised along, Simon noticed something wrong with my derailuer, the bottom jockey wheel axel had fallen out and gone missing! I am amazed the wheel didn't fall out. I figured my day was over, but Simon came up with the ingenious idea of using a cable tie as a make shift axel, and to my amazement if worked perfectly! I was able to do the next 40kms with it like that. From now on I too will be carrying cable ties in my camel back!
After a food stop at the summit, we started the descent down the other side. It was damned fast, Andrew clocked over 70km/h, not too shabby for a dirt descent!
We continued South past the Mt Clear turnoff and Old Bobyon Rd, down the Grassy Creek Firetrail, which is right at the NSW/ACT border. So far the ride had been dry and cruisy, but things were about to change...
As soon as we jumped the fence and got on Grassy Creek Firetrail, it was muddy. It was fun and first, but it didn't take long to take it's toll on the drivelines and add enough friction to make weary riders get very tired quickly. Stupidly, we pushed on anyway... with the idiot's mantra of "it'll get better around the next corner"... ofcourse, it never did ;)
What did get better was the view... Bimberi and Ginini where covered with snow and as we rode toward them, they made a stunning backdrop. The nearby snow made for some interesting ice puddles and frozen ponds, some of which had 2 inch thick blankets of ice. Andrew threw his bike into one to clean his driveline, while I wondered if it would freeze back over trapping bike :)
Exhausted from fighting the mud and/or trying to ride around it on grass, I went through all of my food and thanked god I had brought "emergency" rations, as I started to use those. You really should always carry extra food on these trips, cause it can come in handy at times like these!
We continued to battle the mud West, and then turned North to head for Old Bobyon Road. Natures fury was evident here, a huge storm must have been threw recently, as masses of trees had been ripped apart and the peices scattered all over the forrest, it looked like some tree hating giant had been through and destroyed the place. The trees blocked our path on the firetrail a few times, but it was manageble, and at least it wasn't muddy here (as we were up out of the muddy Grassy Creek plains).
Before dropped back down into the plains, and the mud, and met up with Old Bobyon Road, for the 10km cruise back the cars. Even though there's no hills in it surpirisingly tough in the mud. With no granny gears (due to chain suck), it was a long strength workout in the mud to get back to the cars.
Sore legs today, and my bike needs a major clean and some repairs, but what can you do? ;)
The crew:
| Neil | Cannondale Scapel |
| Simon | Chezza Bomb |
| Jason | Giant Trance |
| Reedy | Merida Mission |
| Andrew | Cannondale VT800 |
The Stats:
| Loop | From Home | |
| Distance | 51.5km | 92.3km |
| Time | 5:36 | 8:00 |
| Climb | 1175m | 2245m |
| Date | 22/07/2007 | |