2013 ADV Style OBT Birthday ride report

See if you can work this one out. Black Lines for the trip up and back and Magenta for the Saturday loop.

Highest Point was 1226M ASL
405 Km Friday
230 Km Saturday
415 Km Sunday

We decided to ride to this years Old Bull Trailriders Birthday ride Get Together up near the Cells on the Oxley Highway.
Start was set at 8.30 at Freemans Waterhole. Joe was so excited he was an hour early. Mickp and myself arrived and the three of us motored out soon after.

Back roads round Maitland & Morpeth

Cambra and Black Camp Rd

Monkerai Rd was next and when I saw an available off shoot onto Trevor Top Rd that looked like was only a small detour – well let’s just say we never let the GPS track get in the way of a good ride.
There was one small problem as the last section back onto the road was through a road with a sign saying Monastery. Well we soon met the Monk. No he wasn’t adorned in a robe and I don’t think they were even his best tracky dacks. But he did use the holey word when he called us (f— C—s) that always rip up his driveway. It must have been the other two rat bags as I hadn’t been there before.
:pinch: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
All smiles we turned around and went the other way before he got more abusive.
Now the smart thing would probably have been to turn back. But that’s not enough adventure for us and we furthered along the ever rising trail thinking this was too good a trail to go nowhere.

When we reached what we thought was the bottom track to the main road we had a break, thinking we were out of the woods so to speak

Mick found the Drain Valve for Chichester dam

The next obstacle was a crossing that had been washed away. One side real deep the other 3 Foot deep with major goolies to attend with. So we took on the 18” wide Dam wall that had water flowing over and with a 50% squint and trembling bars we took it on and surprisingly made it. Whhoooo…

What a relief to get back to the road. Next time we will have to try the Left at the top instead of right.

We found a couple of extra washed away crossings and then took on Cherry Tree Road/Lane which ran up to Berrico Rd, Upper Avon Rd and cruised into Gloucester for a late 2 pm lunch at the bakery.

Bundook was next then Tiri Rd an Knorrit Flat

Finally we took the flowing Knodingbul Rd all the way through to the Oxley to meet with the OBT trail riders Birthday Bash. Fun and Festivities. It’s always good to put the name to the face behind the writing we read. And festive it was.

Joe kept on laughing at me and saying why are you taking photos of your saddle bag, the sky or my helmet. Action shots. Some even worked.

Saturday the main event.
The plan was to take a heap of, not too main dirt roads to Ellenborough Falls for a nice morning Coffee then run up to the Gingers Cr for lunch then loop around the cells till we had had enough.
Riders for the ADV ride were……
Boony
James
Mickp
Tryhard
Gavb

All keen to sleep in and take off a bit late after a nice breakfast.. We still started before the other guys..

James

We took Ralfes Trail, Goanna Rd, Doyle’s River Rd, Frenchs Creek Rd,
Joe

Boony lost his bundle of the mighty XR and had to go back to retrieve it.

Boony showed us the Blue Knob……..Lookout. Must have been wee bit cold when they named it.
It was the clearest view I had ever seen from there with not a cloud in the sky

Along Blue Knob forest rd we went and tucked into Lewis Rd which was a strange green colour from the moss. Moss is slippery. But when it’s growing on the moist red clay that doesn’t see daylight, that’s when the excitement of punting a 180Kg bike sideways gets the wahoo’s roaring.

We stopped at a perfectly good bridge and a stick was jammed up under my tank. Upon pulling it out the balancing fuel line was ripped off and fuel gushed out quick as you like. It was a bit of an issue as one needs 3 hands to hold the bike and stop fuel coming out from 3 different spots. But all was fixed easily. The bridge looked too easy so we took the adventure way through the crossing….

Boony

James

Tryhard

Mickp

Gavb

All safe & Sound we cruised on into Ellenborough falls.

We must have been having fun as it was lunchtime already. The home baked pies were almost ready and we know the food is always good here so we settled in for a drink. It was worth the 5 min wait.

Best pie I had ever eaten. Sorry should have taken a pick before I took a couple of bites.

Now it was off to find the bottom of the Cells Rd. The road I was looking for ended up being a handle bar width track that you may need a parachute on. So we took the next option of Murrays Creek Forrest Rd. That had everyone grinning from ear to ear as it was loamy and heaps of erosion humps and felt like it went down for 10km.

Boony’s Blue Steel

50 Km long, we had never been up the Cells Rd before and it looked extremely twisty on the map. I don’t think there was a straight more than 200m long the whole way.

The horses we quite excited to get a bunch of visitors passing through.

Except this one

Stock Yards and only a few Gates

Towards the end there were heaps of roo’s and it was getting a bit late as we got into Gingers Creek for some fuel.

.

Boony & James and Mickp did the sensible thing and headed straight back as the day was drawing close the end 3.30pm. Daylight goes quick in the mountains.
It was mentioned that we could get perhaps an hour or so before dark so I took the hint and Tryhard and myself took the long way back.

We took Stockyard Crk, Part of the Clay Rd, Corn Cob down to the press

The light was now starting to fade so we took a few more trails. Jeep Trail which all of these were excitingly slippery and muddy. Causeway rd was really nice and then with the failing light took Deb Rd and the old highway to the Oxley again. Now that’s a day out.

We joined back with the Old Bulls and had a blast of a night. Thanks to all. The Auction was a classic and ring of knowledge round the fire kept everybody entertained well into the night.

See The 2013 OBT Birthday ride report report here:
http://www.obtrailriders.com/index.php/forum?view=topic&catid=2&id=131943

Sunday Return Home was sooo quiet. There was the aftermath from the night before. But worse still Joe had lost his voice. We were using the blue tooth communication and he could hear me and I could see him talking ……….with his hands…….but all he could get out was a whisper.

The green stuff in the middle of the track is moss, not grass.

Warp speed

We went down through Enfield Rd then Enfield Range Rd. It was still cold. Ice in the puddles at 10.00am & still frost on the track at 11.00AM

My vote for next years Old Bull.

Bundook

& Belbora Cr Rd

Titaatee Creek Rd

Firefly

Manning Hill Rd & lunch at Bulahdelah

Nugera Lane

We popped out at Karuah from The Branch Lane and headed for home.
Thanks for a top weekend to everyone. Hope there wasn’t too many photos.