Another Misadventure

So with my time at home coming to an end I thought I would get in one more quick ride on the 690.

I have driven the twisty parts of Putty Road at the Bulga end plenty of times but had never ridden them so I decided now was as good a time as any. I headed up the Hunter Expressway to the Golden Highway and put to Bulga, not the most exciting route but the quickest. The plan was to ride Putty out to Commission Road and through to Denman.

Along the Putty Road I came across this trail that I had wondered about when driving past before and so decided to check it out.

It is a great run with some short sharp steep sections as challenges along the way and some nice views.

It wasn’t showing on my GPS or on google maps so I wasn’t prepared to follow it to the end. I turned back after 7 or 8 km’s and spotted this sign.

One day I will get back there and see where it goes.

As I made my way back to the tar and up towards Commission Road the sun disappeared behind some dark looking clouds and I thought might soon rain. As I hadn’t brought my wet weather gear I decided to cut the ride short and head back through Howes Trail and that’s where it happened. I entered through the first gate and headed down the road enjoying getting a little air time over the woo boys. About 200m before the second gate I launched over another then grabbed the front brake to slow down a little but grabbed it a bit hard locking the front wheel which had the bike and I sliding down the track for what seemed like forever with my helmet ploughing the field.
Now had I been wearing all my safety gear things would have turned out better but I wasn’t wearing my pressure suit or knee guards. The end result being skin off both knees and one elbow. Also sore left wrist, right foot, right shoulder and stiff neck. The bike picked up a few scuff marks as well.

The helmet didn’t escape unharmed either.

From there it was a more cautious run through to Wollombi, out to Mulbring and home to East Maitland.

Every ride I went on this time home had some sort if misadventure, from fuel issues due to a blocked breather hose coming hom from Sydney to Al’s electrical issues in Myall River SF to a fall only 200m from where my fuel issue started the week before but hey, that’s half the fun isn’t it.