Getting to Gingers the long way round.

The first proper hit out on the Tenere, turned out to be a beauty! I got word that a group of central coast boys were planning a night out at Ginger’s Creek, so I decided to hook up with them for a few beers and a yak around the fire. A quick ring around and I had Moose and Fossil keen to tag along for a bit of adventure riding in the hills behind Wauchope. There were a few trails that I knew were there but had never ridden so it was a great opportunity to give them a go. Saturday dawned white and frosty, and we all met at Moose’s place for a coffee prior to departure.

We had one extra starter as Tim turned up on his Tenere, with the intention of pulling out during day one to attend a party that night. So the 4 of us, took off from Moose’s place with the frost still heavy on the ground and wasn’t it bloody cold! Little did we know we were going to experience even colder conditions before the weekend was over!

We headed up through Pappinbarra and got up onto the range via Cook’s road before dropping down one of the new trails I wanted to try, it was pretty bloody steep in sections, so much so, we took the punt that it actually went somewhere and we could continue along it, as we had dropped down past the point of no return for adventure bikes. Luckily, the trail continued on to Forbes river road and we could then make our way to the Oxley Highway and up onto the top of Yarras Mountain. Cracker view from up there,

From there we followed, Yarras Mountain Trail until we hit Doyle’s river road.

That is a great run through some private properties, with exceptional views across the Great Divide. We stopped for a breather at Doyles River before heading onto Elands for lunch at the Ellenborough Falls Kiosk.

We had full intentions of heading into the Cells for a look but I spotted a huge storm cloud looming over the mountains and it was decided to make a mad dash to Ginger’s Creek before the weather hit. We nearly made it before the heavens opened up with rain, thunder, lightning and a bastard of a wind, so the last 25kms to Gingers was in the flogging down rain.

We got to Gingers and promptly grabbed a few beers and got the fires going as we knew the other guys would appreciate it when they arrived after dark as it was already trying its hardest to snow.

The accommodation at Gingers was excellent, with the cabin sleeping about 14 people and a 2nd bunkhouse sleeping another 10. The meals were first rate and there was more than we could eat and the refreshments were reasonably priced.

After dinner we retired to the fire for some well-earned bench racing and socializing.

The wind blew like a bastard all night and I woke up several times during the night thinking that it would be bringing trees down left right and center and as it turns out we were later to find out that the premonition was correct.

Sunday morning was clear but bloody Freeeeezing!

The central Coast boys fueled up and headed off while we had another coffee and hoped the day would warm up a bit before we left but that was wishful thinking!

WE decided to head through Werrikimbe National park via Seaview, Cobcroft and Racecourse trail. It was still 0 degrees when we hit Fenwick’s Creek and with MX gloves on the fingers were certainly letting me know that they weren’t happy!

We had an excellent run across the Plateau, although there were plenty of sticks and branches on the trail there weren’t any trees blocking our way……..yet.

Racecourse trail is always a fun ride, even when it is nearly snowing.

The creek was all but frozen and the boys tried hard not to have to dab a foot in the creek.

It wasn’t long after that we came across our first downed tree, with a bit of team work we got through it and continued on until we came across another that was too big and we had to back track to another trail that would get us down off the range.

The smaller tree.

A smaller tree down caused me a bit of trouble as I went to jump over it like I would on my XR650. I made it over but it wasn’t pretty, I went to continue on and realized that I was unable to change gears. I discovered that the gear lever had suffered some carnage to say the least and I had also smashed the standard plastic bash plate that Yamaha put on the Tenere for shits and giggles. (cant image what other purpose it serves as a condom would provide more protection.)

As you can see the gear lever is also made of cheese.

We managed to straighten the lever and got under way only to be confronted with this 2kms from the main road.

Another bit of team work saw us able to clear a bit off a gap under the log and we managed to get the bikes through.

We finally made it back to Pappinbarra road and then it was a cruisy run down to Beechwood Pub for a few debrief schooners to finish the weekend off nicely.