Timmy Doman and I organized a ride for this morning and neither of us were quite brave enough to pull the pin this morning as we awoke to the sound of rain pattering on the roof. It had been scheduled for a late start (0930) to make full use of a sleep in day and by some miracle, there were even sections of blue sky as I pedaled up to our meeting point. Clearly the weather gods thought sleeping in should be rewarded.
We didn’t really have much planned although I had a half formed idea of exploring around the back of Teralba to see if I could find some way to link it through to Killingworth. I knew I wanted to do a sizeable day in the saddle and I also wanted to have a little more of a look around the North side of the link road. A big loop was starting to take shape.
So we headed out along the GNW and linked it through to Munninbung. I showed Tim the grassy low line around the bottom since I was too chicken to try and ride it on the single speed again but was stopped in my tracks by a turtle! I have seen all manner of animals wandering along trails in the past, but this was certainly the first time I have seen a turtle – pretty cool really. In turn, Tim showed me a section of single track off the western side of the quarry that I didn’t know existed. There are quite a few options in there however we chose the steepest and gnarliest bit. It was classic behind the seat descending and really got the adrenaline flowing.
After this, we took the cycle way around speers point and turned off to Teralba following the GNW signage. We crossed the train tracks at Teralba station and continued to follow the GNW signs up a steep climb and into the heart Newcastles mines. We found some promising looking trail, however it was quickly obscured by recent buldozer works. We followed a newish looking fire trail along until it became clear we were deep in the center of a mining area. We backtracked out of there and then continued along the main road until we felt confident we were past all the mining.
A faint vehicle trail led off into the bush so we decided we would follow it. It became progressively more and more faint before arriving at an T junction. We took the left branch and followed it into the deepest, darkest bowels of a swamp before it petered out and forced a back track. We then took the right branch and experienced much of the same although we had to negotiate a nasty little creek first. We could hear traffic close by, so we beat our way through the bush and popped out on a large, wide, unmarked road. We had no idea where on earth we were. I was looking for the prominent aerial towers on Mt Sugarloaf and couldn’t for the life of me spot them. It turned out I was looking 180 degrees in the wrong direction. We had gotten so turned around and disoriented on the sneaky fire trail that both Tim and I were stumped.
It quickly turned out that we were somewhere we should have been. Some kind of haul line for B-double trucks carting stuff from the mine. One of the trucks pulled over to let us know we really shouldn’t be there. He seemed pretty pissed at us to start with but seemed to calm down when our first question was “how the hell do we get out of here”. He said “go back the way you came”. We just looked at him blankly – we had no idea where that was. He said “how did you get in here” and we just shrugged our shoulders and said “no idea”. He laughed his head off at us – clearly making the link for the first time that these two guys on bikes, covered head to toe in mud probably hadn’t ridden in along the asphalt road. We deduced a course of action and high tailed it out of there in case security showed up and read us the riot act.
Funnily enough, we were about half a kilometer from the Killingworth turn off and quickly beat a path to the sweet single track. With all the rain we have had of late, riding in Killingworth was probably not one of the smartest ideas. We attempted to stay high and avoid the swampy areas however there was water laying everywhere. Since Killingworth was more of a waypoint than a final destination for this ride, we decided to press on and were sated with a quick spin through the Killingworth sweetness.
From there, we rode up the old downhill trail. Timmy was now toying around on my single speed while I flailed along in the distance trying to keep up with him on a geared 26inch bike. We rode most of the way up sugarloaf – Tim riding more than I did, before dismounting and hike a biking up the ‘staircase’. I had a wobbly moment and fell backwards down a step as a shoe slid off the wet rocks. Thankfully I landed fairly softly and there was no other injury than to my pride. We rolled across the single track ontop of sugarloaf before hitting up ‘the other downhill track’ on sugarloaf. It is pretty gnarly in parts and I walked a couple of sections. Tim had a crack and came off twice but lived to tell the tale. This bit of trail is just sensational – there are some bits that scare you to death, but it just goes on and on and on an was a worthy reward for making the climb up in the first place. It was a seriously good piece of trail.
From there, we squeeked our way into West Wallsend. Our chains had long ago gone dry now every pedal stroke was accompanied by the sounds of a dying driveline. We hit the bakery for a coke and a sausage roll which was declared by Tim to be the greatest sausage roll he has ever had. We sat, ate and were happy – how good are bakeries!
Our next port of call was the link road. We noodled along some fire-trail at the south western corner of the bushland before following it through to a roundabout and connecting to the trail on the northern side. Tim had a rather special piece of single track he wanted to show me and it rather blew my mind. Despite feeling pretty fatigued, this bit of trail was just some of the most grin inducing things I had ridden all day. It was hard going with plenty of screaming descents followed by pinchy climbs, however almost all of it was rideable on the single speed and it just went on and on and on. At last we popped out at the super toob. I’ve described it before however words can’t do justice to how surreal and hillarious it is to ride through this pipe. You have to duck to get into it and the only light once your in there is the small glow at the far end of the tunnel and the reflection from the water along the bottom of the pipe. Otherwise, it is completely dark, so surreal. At the far end, I came to a stop as we snuck across the ledge to the exit point. I had rolled a little way up the side of the pipe and without warning, the front wheel started to slide down the pipe. Before I knew what was going on, I was in the water at the bottom of the pipe with bike above me. My desperately flaling hands and feet found no purchase on the smooth concrete pipe as I looked at Tim who was laughing so hard he nearly fell into the pond. He summed it up best “I’ve never seen anyone do that before”.
We rolled along an old rail corridor into Wallsend and linked some cycle paths all the way through to the Junciton. Tim had one more surprise up his sleeve for me and we turned off the cycle way in Jesmond park to climb some awesome single track up to the JHH. It was hard going in a few spots with weary legs, however, it was a really rewarding climb which allowed us to descend back to Adamstown and the finish.
In total, we rode for somewhere near 6 hours and since neither of us had a working cycle computer or a new fangled GPS thingo, we have NFI how far we went. I would suspect it would be somewhere between 80-100k’s but that is just a guesstimate. I guess I need santa to bring me a GPS.
It was a great days riding and its brilliant to explore new trails which are right on your doorstep. Not all exploration leads to a great find – sometimes it brings you out infront of an angry B-double driver, however, when it all comes together, there is no more satisfying feeling.
Happy Trails!
the unknown rider 