Pie Eater 1.01.SE – Ride report: Part 5

Link to  part 1:

Link to  part 2:

Link to part 3:

Link to part4:

Once we hit the fire trails, my mood was buoyed as I could at least ride these bits. There were some serious fire road climbs to get across to Killi and I attacked them with gusto since there was at least a chance I might make it up them.

Riding Killingworth again was just a revelation. The trails haven’t changed one bit. They are still fast, flowing and technical with the odd rock or two thrown in. In fact, with high pressure tyres and all the bumps, it became too much for my frame bag and the Velcro undid. I stopped, hooked it back up again and continued on at mach 2 between the trees – simply awesome.

We arrived at the car park and realized my frame bag had again undone up the top and was now serving as a bottom bracket bag and I hadn’t even noticed it was there. Even after all the logs and bumps I had ridden over! Some trail side cable ties soon ensured there was no way the bag was coming off again and we set off for the last climb of the day.

The old downhill track at Killingworth climbs right up to the top of Sugarloaf Mt. I managed to climb 90% of the way up and was only defeated by some wheel spin near the top. Along the way we were discussing how rednecks loved to take 4×4’s up here and we were greeted by several 4×4’s attempting to climb what amounted to a staircase on steroids. Somehow they managed to get the cars up there which left us scratching our heads about why you would bother…. I am betting they were saying the same thing about us after we went past.

We popped out at the summit of sugarloaf and rolled down the road before taking more fire trail to link up with the Tiny town of Stockrington. At this point, I finished the last of my food and we mounted up lights for the run back into Weston.

We followed the old rail corridor and passed through the old train tunnels as we rode through boulder fields, quick sand and all manner of puddles and trail nasty’s. The rail corrdor popped out on George Booth Drive and we single filed along the road with me at the rear since I was the only one with a red blinky light.

Brad was pushing the pace along the road and I as completely spun out at around 130rpm desperately trying to hold onto the group.

We picked up a fire road which brad affectionately called ‘the yellow brick road’ that led all the way back into Kurri and got us away from the hordes of P platers that were intent on harassing us at every opportunity.

From there, we linked up random ‘back yard trails’ of Brads and bits of rail corridor before arriving at Weston station and the end of the trip. Beer, food and a heater at Brads house were all gratefully received before I dropped AK home and then got to finally have a shower.

I awoke at midnight with stomach cramps and waves of nausea – not good. It was a rough night and when i weighed myself in the morning, I was 5kg’s lighter than before starting the ride. I was sick all Monday and finally started to come good on Tuesday morning. Since Neither AK or Scott were sick, but both Brad and I were, I am highly suspicious of giardiasis from contaminated water. Either my MSR water filter is a flop or the donkey water from the small stream brought us undone as Brad wasn’t well either.

So… What things did I learn from this?

1. Fully loaded with bike packing kit and running small block 8’s – my bike is like a lead tipped arrow downhills – Everyone else had to pedal to keep up with me 🙂

2. Don’t use a 200km bike packing trip as your first test ride on a questionable tubeless coversion. Just because it holds air sitting in the house doesn’t mean it will do so after pounding through a rock garden.

3. Don’t pick the depths of winter on some of the coldest nights to test your summer weight bike packing gear.

4. Make sure you give it a go. Despite all that went wrong – much much more went right. The days were warm, the trails were awesome and next time is going to be even better

Happy Trails

p.s As with the last time, the GPS route file is available upon request – just email me.

Pie Eater 1.01.SE – Ride report: Part 3

Link to  part 1:

Continued from part 2:

When we reached Heaton camp ground, the tap had been pulled off the tank and there was no water. This was a little disconcerting since I now had about 200mls of water left. We then pushed on and tried our luck at Mcleans lookout but were again foiled by the mysterious tap thief. Now our options were to punch back down off the ridge to Freemans Waterhole service station, or break out my MSR water filter and draw water from the god forsaken scum filled funk dam we had just passed. With the light failing and the prospect of hike a biking down to Freemans waterhole seeming very unappealing, we chose to break out the water pump.

Late afternoon view from Mcleans lookout

Where be the tap?

The water that came out of the pump looked an tasted clean so we filled all our bottles and bladders and continued on to awaba. Brad kindly noted that I was again using a flippin’ pump  and it was a fitting way to see you the day!

Somewhere along the way, I decided it might make for a good story if we were to ride the downhill track on the way into awaba. It was all but dark now and Brad was operating under lights but I couldn’t have been bothered stopping to set mine up, so I decided it would be a good idea to take on the monkey trail on a fully ridigd 29er, in the dark, with no lights, with full bike packing kit.

Since were weren’t completely mental, we started at the road gap to bypass the rock garden and made our way down. It was heart in the mouth stuff! We had to get off and walk over ‘battles’ and in the near total darkness, I was hitting all manner of bumps, rocks and jumps without even knowing they were coming up. Somehow I stayed upright and we made it to the end but there was no denying it was now totally black and I would need lights to make our camp site. My brakes were never the same again for the rest of the trip after dealing with the DH track.

We reached our destination at “the club caravan”. Named purely because it would be the ideal spot to set up a caravan as an aid centre for long endures.

We wandered around in the dark looking for a suitable place to set up and eventually settled upon a spot and cobbled together our makeshift sleeping apparatus. I pitched a tarp as lean too off the side of my upturned bike. It went together very smoothly and looked surprisingly stable although I had only brough two tent pegs and really wished I had brought a third so I could tie off my bike to something solid to ensure I wasn’t going to fall over.

Brad set up his plastic tube tent and despite its flimsy plastic construction, looked pretty promising as a bike packing setup. It needed trees to be erected but it did leave the bike free to be ridden independently of the tent.

We made a small camp fire, cooked dinner then headed to bed. We didn’t really know how far we had come since neither of us was running a cycle computer, but I would estimate it to be somewhere around 100-120ks.

Around 11pm, a wind started to pick up and I awoke to find my bike laying ontop of me. A minute of playing around soon proved it wasn’t going to be easy to set things back up the way they had been, so I simply shoved the bike far enough away so I wasn’t laying on it and tried to get back to sleep under the tarp.

It was a cold night. Not quite as cold as some of the nights we had earlier in the week, but I was wearing about 5 layers of clothes plus blankets and a sleeping bag and I was still borderline for warmth. I awoke multiple times through the night and would try to rearrange blankets to maximise warmth.

to be continued…

To Part 4

Pie Eater 1.01.SE – Ride report: Part 2

Continued from part 1:

We followed the GNW through to Millfield and then did some road touring as we rode through to Congewai. There was some beautiful scenery along the way with wide open pastures, lagoons and amazing escarpments that hemmed in the valley.

Ellalong lagoon

Some 12 years earlier, Brad had ridden a section of the great north walk from to top of barabba spur down to Congewai and remembered that it was going to be “uppity” with some hike a bike sections. Engrossed in conversation, we were thoroughly distractred by the scenery and sailed right on past the turn off.

We stumbled across a little stream which looked postcard perfect so Brad decided it would be suitable for drinking water. I was a little dubious and refrained from drinking any since I didn’t really want to get sick so soon into the journey. Brad was washing his face, filling his bottles and telling me how wonderful the water was when an unholy racket started up across the paddock. It sounded like a donkey trying to excrete a watermelon. To top things off, it was coming from upstream. I quickly decided that the disgruntled donkey was sick due to the water and left Brad to frolic in the stream while I attended to my front tyre this time…… DIY tubeless be damned!!!

Donkey stream crossing

More pumping

We motored on and were now on the hunt for the trail junction (not knowing it was several kilometre behind us) and rode until the fire road petered out. A quick cross check of the topo map and the GPS soon showed us the error of our ways and we made our way back to the trail junction.

We climbed the fence to access the GNW and there was a barely discernable trail meandering through the paddocks. It was amazing riding! From this point, the trail began climbing. Slowly at first, as we followed the invisible trail through the paddocks and then more steeply as we linked up to a fire road. I managed to clear most of the climbs on the fire trails however, there were a couple of spots where I stalled and had to push up.

Trail by brail

GNW fence crossings

Soon the fire road gave way to what can only be described as a goat track. This bit was a killer. There was no other option than to get off and push. We climbed a couple of hundred meters and eventually approached the summit where the climb eased off and we could re-mount and continue riding.

Hike-a-bike

The photog using a photo as an opportunity to have a rest from pushing

Finally we could start riding again

Late afternoon sunshine

Mid trail obstacles - quite a challenge in full bike packing kit.

In the late afternoon, we reached barabba trig camp ground. We ate some food, put on some warm clothes as the evening chill was beginning to descend and I re-inflated my front tyre yet again. Brad had decided by this point that he was going to photograph me everytime I got the pump out so my humiliation was complete.

I'm starting to get a bit camera shy with a pump in my hand

Barraba spur was our first camping options as it has the most amazing lookouts and one of the best campgrounds I have ever seen! Since there was still plenty of light left, we decided to push on to Awaba and get some water along the way from one of the tanks at Heaton camp ground.

View from the main campsite on Barraba trig

The fire trail to Awaba was up and down as it followed the ridge line and there was some tough climbing mixed with some fast rocky descending. I burped my front tyre yet-again and needed to stop and pump it up – much to the delight of a Brad with camera in hand.

Not funny anymore!

to be continued…

To Part 3

Pie Eater 1.01.SE – Ride report: Part 1

Another epic ride was had and hence, another epic write up should ensue. The last pie eater was a single day ride with an ambitions agenda of linking three well known local XC trails. This time, the ‘special edition’ of the pie eater was an overnight bike packing adventure as we aimed for a big loop that would include Awaba and Killingworth.

I arrived in sunny Weston around 8am much to the delight of Rocky who showed off his beloved racing Ralph which he adopted on the last pie eater. Amazingly, I am pretty sure you could still get this tyre to inflate despite Rocky chewing on it daily for the last month. This is a dog who can chew through anything! Who said Racing Ralphs were flimsy?

Rocky checking the integrity of the tyres' sidewall

My bike and associated kit

Brads weight weenie kit

We set out into the brisk morning air with the plan of making awaba by night fall. Brad showed off some more of his local trails including Kitchener reserve which is signposted as a MTB friendly site. It may well play host to a HMBA social ride at some point soon as the trails were amazing.

Hooray - a national park area that actually permits mountain bikes

Getting closer to Cessnock

Tom foolery

Brad powering ahead

I was having trouble keeping up with Brad as my bar bag was impinging on my brake cables and levers. I could pull brakes on, but would have push the levers back out by hand to get them to disengage. This was proving to be a tad hairy in some of the tight technical sections (lets face it, most things are ‘technical’ when you have 5-8ks of gear hanging off your bike) so we stopped to sort the problem out.

Cables on the wrong side of the bars but at least they were working again

Testing the new brake setup

Some impromptu cable re-routing and some quick lube to the cables and we were in business. Now I could keep up with Brad again as we made our way to Bimbadeen lookout. We zig zagged through all manner of bush trails, a short tarmac stint or two and tonnes of single track. Somewhere admist this, we followed the moto trail which went over a damaged fence. I looked down as I was riding over it to notice it was barbed wire. 30 seconds later and I was riding on the rim. Cursing my own stupidity, we stopped for tyre inflation number one. Not realising at this point what an omen this presented for the remainder of the trip.

The first of many flats

As it later turned out, the barbed wire had nothing to do with my flat. It was the high speed kookery that immediately followed which pinch flatted my tyre, I thought the trail went right, set myself up for a high speed turn, only to realize that wasn’t the trail at all and proceeded to plow my way through all manner of debris trying to get back on track.

Our first serious climb for the day was up to Bimbadeen lookout. Brad had warmed me that this climb was pretty horrible, some of the steeper sections were walked to save the legs, but it was actually a lot better than I had expected. At this point, we had ridden ‘off the map’. We knew there was a section of the Great North Walk (GNW) that linked through to where we wanted to go but we hadn’t ridden it so were unsure what to expect. As it turns out, this was one of the highlights of the trip.

sunshine and wide open spaces

Half way up Bimbadeen

Food time at the top of Bimbadeen : We were heading for the mountains on the horizon

We were expecting to find narrow hike a bike walking trail with stairs and unrideable sections everywhere however we stumbled across a long downhill section that had everything. Wide open flowing fire trail, water bars, rock gardens, tight single track i.e It might turn out to be a suitable super D course!

To be continued.

The Pie Eater 100: Part 3

Continued from part 2…

After bottoming out in Martinsville, we took the main road through to Cooranbong. It was now about 1600hrs and we found a general store that was open and we trudged in like refugees and our eyes lit up with the sheer enormity of choice available. Everywhere Brad looked, he would let out an “Ooooohhhhhhh” and then turn and find something else that took his fancy and then say it again. We filled our bottles from the taps, ate our fill and then wearily climbed back onto the bikes. At least that was the hard part over as 10 k’s in the Watagans feels like 20k’s anywhere else.

We rolled along a backroad in Cooranbong and then Brad took a sneaky side road that led into a gap between properties used for livestock passage in the ye olde days. This turned out to be some great, flat and fast riding and we were smoking along. Another couple of sneaky access trails and turn offs and we were entering a section of trail called ‘Bangalow’ which is also some kind of wildlife preserve.

Brad and I had motored on ahead seeing who could climb up the ridiculous pinch climbs so we stopped for a break. We caught our breath and then Gaz caught up and we chatted away for a while before I realized “where’s Scott?” I decided to double back as we had ridden some sketchy descents and was starting to get worried. Thankfully I saw Scott coming the other way however he was covered in dirt and had leaves and sticks coming out of his helmet so he had obviously hit the ground pretty hard. On the worst of the descents, he had washed out and stunned himself when he hit the ground and he wasn’t quite sure how long he had been sitting there before he got back on the bike. He seemed coherent enough and said he had o injuries other than pride but it was a close call none the less.

We motored along through Bangalow, popped out the other side and we were at Awaba…. Hallelujah! That sounded like a massive achievement having ridden from Ourimbah to Awaba, then it dawned on me that Weston is still a hell of along way away. We sat down in the car park at Awaba as Gaz had pre-arranged a rendezvu and a ride home. My speedo showed 101 kms so Gaz had done his first century and certainly done it the hard way.

We watched the sun set while we chatted and put our lights on. I had no idea how much longer we were going to be riding for so elected to only mount the bar light. I would use it until it died and then mount the helmet light if needed so that I could effectively double my run time.

We set off to complete our lap of Awaba and then move on to Killingworth although we elected to run the Blue loop since the climb on the red loop just wasn’t appealing after 100k’s in the legs. It was at this time I noticed my speedo had stopped working. I was checking the wheel sensor and scratching my head and it wasn’t until many kilometres later I realized it was the Magicshine light causing interference with my wireless cycle computer. Alas, I now knew I wasn’t going to be able to get a final tally on the overall k’s for the day.

We snuck out of Awaba on Frogmouth rd and then followed Jenkins trail and Becks Rd out towards Freeman’s Waterhole. At this point, Scott was running on fumes and knew he wasn’t going to be able to finish the ride. Admirably, he elected to ride back to Weston on the asphalt rather than call in a lift home. So we parted company at the junction with another sneaky B-rad single track.

to be continued….

To Part 4

Link to Part 1

Link to Part 2

Build day wrap up.

A weeks worth of rain and the ever present grey skies ensured this months build day received limited attendance. Four of us were there with a special mention to the Ronnster who was sporting a hangover and a list of reasons as long as your arm as to why he should have stayed home, yet he came anyway.

With small numbers, a bit of track maintenance was scheduled after all the wheels that went over the trail during last weeks wet club round. The track has held up really well. I was quite surprised at how little damage there actually was. Since it was raining while we were out working, it gave us a good insight into the problem areas and lots of little drainage culverts were dug to try and prevent trail erosion.

Tim added bird wire to the steel mesh bridges for some much needed traction. I think it will prove to be a big success as it already felt much more grippy even just walking on the bridge.

A couple of extra benches were dug in where the trail was clearly creeping down the hillside in a few spots and a little bit of widening was done in the newest section of trail.

My leech count today was very modest, I think I only pulled off 5 or 6 from my arms and a special vampire leech that has attached itself to my neck. Ron on the other hand was bleeding more than an upturned red cross blood courier van. Evidentially the leeches don’t mind ethanol.

There was no riding today, I still have a few nooks and cranny’s that need cleaning on the bike after last weekends club race and with the rain falling, I am glad I didn’t bother to bring it.

Next months build day should see us start working on an entirely new bit of trail that will link S-Bend road to Little Falcon Rd. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into that bit.

Just for interests sake, I took a photo at the big bridge near “little Borneo” which was almost completely dry a month ago. There has obviously been a LOT of rain fall as it is now nearly waist deep.

There is now a hell of a lot of water. If you get the bridge wrong, you are going to get seriously wet 😀