Ride Report for Hills of Gold Nundle 2012

Thanks for the report Aaron
I’m at work wishing I was there with ya’s
The only down side of this weekend would be the dust, but that is out of our control, even to us Old Bulls.
Keep the reports coming. :woohoo:
Cheers
Murph

Epic weekend despite the bloody dust. Thanks to all the blokes who made the effort to come and ride, from the comments made last night it sounded like everyone had a good ride. Best of all 3 days riding, no one hurt, no bikes destroyed and everyone smiling. Thanks to King Bolls for todays tour de rock latte sipping tourist ride to wind the weekend down, classic change of pace and ride along with morning tea at the Sheeba dams. Many highlights for the weekend but best of all was the huge grins on Nick and Sam at the end of a classic bit of Nundle loam single with 3 x 250’s flat out, bermed corners and fast, Boony was going to join the race but found a bog hole and played at filling everyone in. To quote the Dude – “SWEEEEEET”

What a blast :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

Thanks to all the Tamworthians for hosting a fabulous ride :woohoo:

Snowy’s singles were superb both days :woohoo:

The Berry patch did their usual fantastic feed

I only had five offs :blush: :whistle: two were step offs one was a lay down in the soft grass
and two involved bouncing and tumbling :pinch:

Sunday was inspiring almost spiritual :huh: so much so Sam and I decided to take the kato’s on an adventure ride home :ohmy:

We drove Barry road out of Hanging Rock across twenty creek crossings down to Ellerston in air conditioned comfort with no dust true adventure biking the katos handled it well although we did have to re-tighten the straps a couple of times :laugh:

Sam said King Bollocks mystery tour was enjoyable he found the knowledge of the King inspiring (if it was true :laugh: )

Thanks to all that participated to make it a great weekend

Adam.

PS see you all in Coffs :woohoo:

Had fun

http://youtu.be/GSAKVpQ8FCU
fridge hill

Saturday

I woke up early and gave Chris a shout before heading out into the van park , everyone was up and looking very keen for what was about to come. Today we were also joined by Pep ,Bollocks, whanny, Kenny ,Steve from cycle tune and Kevdog on his new crf250. We geared up and rolled out of the park just after 7.30 , Boony took us up the mountain and into some nice twin trails , we took a rocky downhill which grabbed your attention straight away and I had a feeling I knew what was about to come. Sure enough a little creek crossing and a decent uphill known as ‘ the steps ‘ ( I think ?). It was a great arm pump hill and halfway up saw Krusty loose momentum and lay the Kato down. I followed Bollocks to the top impressed by his nice style on the new Crf450x. 
Once we were all up the first hill everyone was frothing for more and the pace was on. 
We entered some pine singles and I had a dice with Krusty who was getting along great in the tight stuff. I ended up behind Pep and thought I’d try to hang onto him , he was riding Bols Crf and I struggled to keep near him riding well out of my comfort zone. After hitting 3 trees with the barkbusters I decided to back off and admit defeat. Pep rides so well and floats through those pines at warp speed , it was great to watch.  

I stopped on a corner and had a bit of a wait before Chris-T showed up looking sheepish. Turned out he too had taken on a local and came off worse. He got behind Aaron in a sweet pine single and lined him up for a race , by all account he hung on for a while but Aaron goes really hard and Chris overshot a corner and folded his rear brake lever back on a stump. 

Once we started heading to the berry patch we were in some nice 3/4th gear fast flowing single line trails and made our way to Parachute Hill. Boony warned us it could be loose so I entered with caution , I’ve heard so much about this hill over the years I took it slow at first. About half way down Pep and steve flew by so I let it go a bit and really enjoyed this long long downhill. I’ll take Boonys word for it that it’s a big drop off the side as I didn’t look  

It was a nice fast ride to the famous Berry patch where a well deserved rest and top notch BBQ and ice cream dessert was enjoyed by all. 
A splash of fuel and we hit the forest again , the ride back had the lot , some fast twin track , native bush singles , creek crossings , pine singles and a rocky mongrel of a climb called Fridge Hill. 
Once again Snowy gave me a nod that the next section was gold and Sam and I slotted in behind him for a super fast single , smashing corners and flying over erosion mounds. I think Sam would agree this was another highlight  

About half an hour before the end of the dirt the fatigue was setting in for a few and a couple of little offs were happening. Adam had a huge get off as did Krusty on the same erosion mound with a rutfest landing. Both riders hit hard but got up unscathed. 

Once on the tar Boony and Snowy announced the engine off rolling race down a steep tar hill with a couple of hair pins. I got a good start and ‘planked’ my bike trying to gain speed, soon Sam appeared to my right and glided past . We caught up to a 4wd right on a hair pin and I saw my chance with an inside pass to get the lead off sam . I thought I’d got it when ChrisT appeared out of nowhere and the three of us laughed and whooped all the way to the finish line!! 
Chris won by a length then sam by a wheel. Bugger  

Once back the first thing everyone did was dive in their Esky and hook in , we hit the pub again and had a great night also raising a few dollars for the local rural fire service. Back at the park the fire pit was face peeling hot so more cold beer was needed and plenty of laughs had. 

As I had a big drive home I sadly missed Bols ride on Sunday but I’m sure it would have been a cracker  

Huge thanks to Boony and Snowy for putting together a very well organized ride with a great mix of terrain in a great location. Your both legends  

Damus , Polly and Bol for doing a great job sweeping and the locals that welcomed us to their trails. 

I had a great time guys thanks heaps  

Nick 

No pics or vids from me , left the goggles at home

Nick