Usual place (Meryla) – but new tracks

What, with time on my hands given my recent redundancy and a fine day the idea would be to go for a ride …….. Right?

Well, yes one would think so but the idea of heading into a forest for a ride whilst the wind was so strong was a little daunting to say the least, but undeterred I kitted up and headed out.

Now, I know that some people get sick of hearing the same stuff about the same tracks with the same photos and all, so I won’t give you that this time. But suffice to say that yes the ride was in the usual place at Meryla and did involve some of the same or usual tracks, but today I explored, so onto the exploring report.

A mate had told me that he would try to make this outing so I decided to dawdle a little but did not find Ozy at the arranged place so after waiting around I guessed that he was late or held up as he had some other stuff to do first, so in I headed. Now every time I ride this trail I always see a small sidetrack but had never taken it ……………… until today and it turned into a fun decision.

The track is a single track and starts fairly open with no obstacles but as the track progresses the undergrowth becomes more overgrown and the track a little more rutted with a few obstacles thrown in for good measure.

Well, I did say it is fairly wide and open at the start.

But you do need to be careful as you never know what may be falling from above (no, didn’t happen while I was there).

But the track does narrow a bit.

Although there are other open parts with small obstacles that launched the front

The first obligatory DR shot.

And narrows again

There were a few ruts and small rutted steps, nothing dramatic and all easy but it was dry and they looked as though they could be very slippery if wet.

And more obstacles

Followed by more narrow track

This single track does exit onto one of those main tracks and so it was onwards to the next destination I had in mind, which was to see if a little ‘something’ I had seen on other rides had potential. Well, if potential means finding something interesting that I suspect is a part of the history of the area, then yes the exploring sure had potential as I found what almost looked like a coal seam and old time mine.

The early parts of the track, all wide open and easy.

A closer look at the hill, now usually photos do not do a hill justice, well this time they do as the hill was short and easy.

Nothing special, just found the patterns in the bark on this tree interesting.

Now, not far along I came to the first problem a fallen tree,

Which with a little effort was cleared sufficiently for me to continue (now, remember this tree for later)

Not far from the tree was a small creek that had to be crossed, so it was off, check depth and base which was all good, remount and onwards.

After some fun track there was another obstacle.

All good however as someone (well, actually I expect a lot of people) had been there before me and made a track.

So, this looked like a nice place to stop.

Looking around there looked to be a watercourse to the right.

So a little explore was in order only to find this which I determined wasn’t a watercourse or made by nature.

Looking further along I noticed an interesting pattern in the rocks of the bank.

So now my interest was up as the discolouration looked like coal I decided to look further along the track there was a little creek which held a little secret of it’s own, what looked to be more of the mine if not the main entrance.

May come back in summer with a torch ……………….. Who wants to join me?

The last bits of track before it ended, I only walked this

No it isn’t what you may think, but is the same rock as the layer in the wall in the other photos.

And all this amongst some lush forest.

Sadly, the track that had been providing so much fun did not progress much beyond the old mine, so it was a somewhat eventful return back the same piece of track. Now, I say somewhat as you may recall that tree that I had partially cleared off the track from earlier, well it bit me on the return.

Yep, that’s right, it bloody bit me.

Heading back out I moved to the far right of the track and just tried to paddle my way through, only to have the bloody branch shift and come down lightly on my head and shoulder but with enough force to knock me over. Damn and bloody (although I did say something else).

Ok, so bike picked back up it was onwards and back out before taking a slight detour to another short sidetrack where a little stroll found an interesting water hole but no pics taken today. Now, here is where stupidity kicked in as I tried something in order to turn the bike in a tight area, result was the bike on its side again and me laughing at my lack of skill and stupidity. I also made a deal to not try to do that again.

Now it was back to the main track which I decided to follow out with the intention being to take the usual Gunrock Creek Firetrail back out to complete the loop.

Well that didn’t quite happen as the little find on the sidetrack had really brightened the day somewhat as up until that point I had been struggling for motivation and wasn’t really enjoying myself as I had hoped. But finding the mine, seeing the rock formation and basically just being somewhere new really reinvigorated me as I rode along the main trail so rather than Gunrock Creek I decided to keep going with the full intention being to explore another side track.

And so it was to come about as I saw the track I was after and had a small little look, which turned out to be a bit of fun again.

This track started as nothing and was quite wide in truth and was wide enough for a 4WD which given a few wheel marks had been using the track. After a while there was a small junction and while I could see that to go right mean main road, I decided left for more exploration and soon found myself on another interesting trail.

The track just after the left at the junction with the main road

A small double creel crossing. The base was solid and quite easy.

The creeks, something about them just looked so damn refreshing and inviting.

Have to prove that the DR was there as well.

Like most tracks in here, there are erosion mounds to play on.

This would have been fun had it rained.

Most of the track was like this, although there were a few smaller sections of rocks and the like, but all easy and fast for a skilled rider (which means slow for me).

And another or the might blue pig.

Now eventually the new trails had to end and it was to come so I returned to the more commonly used (by me) trails and headed up Gunrock Creek only to find myself fully enjoying the day (did you know that DR’s can fly?). Taking the left turn it was onto the Gunrock Falls, climbed the hill with a brush of the tree (the mirror took more than a brush) and then out onto Redhills Road before a quick blat in the single track on the opposite side and off home.

Ok, remember how I mentioned early on that Ozy has mentioned that he would try to make it and so we were going to try to meet up around 1100?

Well he also said that if he wasn’t there that he would come in and see if he could find me, which needless to say didn’t happen through no fault of his as I was kind of off the beaten track a bit. But, after emerging from the mine track all I could see were damn tyre tracks all the way through and along both Gunrock fire trails, so apologies Ozy as I reckon you went through while I was off the main track, will catch you again soon.

Garry