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Big day out on the bike today.
Being only my second ride back from the shoulder surgery the ride was meant to be a cruisy run on fire trails. I had a planned route on the GPS to head out through Stroud into the Myall River State Forest, head north and eventually make my way to the Monkerai area into Dungog and home again. That was the plan anyway.I headed out from home around 10ish and headed through Clarence Town but not before heading bush to see if last week’s fuel container was still lying around, sadly not though. Past Clarence town I turned left and made my way to Black Camp road which turns to dirt, through some farmland and made my way to Stroud. I topped up the fuel there and headed into the bush around 11.00am,,,,,, and that’s when the trouble started.
The area had obviously had a lot more rain than I had realised and it wasn’t long before I found myself floundering up a particularly greasy clay hill (those that rode to Buladelah for the houseboat weekend may remember it as the one where we turned around and decided to slab it there instead). I got probably ¾ of the way up but was really starting to struggle so decided to head back down and see if I could find another way. Got to the bottom and thought I may be able to get to the top if I made my own track through the bush but that too ended in failure so back down I went again. By this time I was sweating like a pig, had wasted at least half an hour and was really starting to wonder if this ride was a good idea at all.
But stupid is as stupid does (I think Forrest Gump said that) and I continued on, things were going well for a while, I could see on my GPS where my road was and I was more or less tracking along side of it for a while. The road was in good shape and I was punting along at a reasonable clip when I hit some of that horrible red clay, I saw it coming but it looked pretty dry so thought I would be ok. There were a number of Oshit moments but I got through ok. Further on the was a trail to the left heading in the direction the trail I wanted to be on and so I turned onto it and a few k’s later I was where I was meant to be (things are looking up,,,,, wrong).
One of the trails I turned onto actually had a road closed sign (but that’s just for cars), a couple of km’s into it there was a bridge that had mostly collapsed leaving only a section wide enough for bikes and I guess the reason for closure (actually it was at this point I realise I had ridden my Transalp through the same road a year or so earlier. Now I have called this a trail and the sign said road but it was little more than single track for much of it.Broken Bridge
The “trail seemed to get gradually worse as it started heading down into the valley and things got gradually slipperier to the point where the DRZ was stuck fast in a bog hole. I managed to pull it free with a great deal of effort and considering I have been virtually a lounge lizard for the last 2 months and also considering I had already exerted myself earlier, effort was starting to run in short supply.
This is the last photo I took, from there on I was either too busy hanging on and not wanting to stop or too tired to care.From there it was a slipper slimy climb out of the valley up some very steep hills covered with rocks the size of lawn bowls. I t wasn’t all rocks though, in between the rocks there was the slimey clay to add to the “fun”. Again after much effort and some exceptional riding (even if I do say so myself) I made it to the top. These hills would not have looked out of place on a Murphsberg ride I reckon and I am pretty sure I rode up the same hill/s on one of Huskybloke’s rides.
By the time I got the top I was knackered and it was about 1.30pm and I hadn’t eaten. With that in mind I reset the GPS for Buladelah. It had me going along another very slippery trail, although at least it wasn’t steep (I still managed to come off though when the front end washed out. Eventually it came to one of the main trails which was a big relief and I actually started to get cold as I rode along. Again I decided to change direction and in fact head back to Stroud so punched it into the GPS and away I went in the same direction that I had been heading until the GPS said turn off, which I did. Now this trail had been bulldozed in the last few months but not finished with a road base so it was quite soft and again started heading down into the valley.
The further down I went the worse the trail got until I came to a section that had trees down across it in a number places. (Now a smart man may have taken that as a sign, not me though I saw a challenge) and continued down lifting the bike over and over again as I dropped it on all the loose timber and mud time and again until I couldn’t lift it anymore. At this point I decide to walk down further and see what was down there. The GPS said it was only about 600 meters to the next trail.
I wandered down and came to a creek that wasn’t very deep, and actually had a pretty solid rock base. Problem was it was very slimey and I had a bit of trouble just walking on it. The trail on the other side was much steeper than the one I had come down, just as slipper y and also had trees across it so I decide that the best option was to go back the way I had come. I had considered the idea that I may need to either sleep in the bush overnight to refresh myself or leave the bike and walk the to get out, neither sounded appealing so I persevered.
By the time I got back up the hill to the bike I was exhausted and so had a little lay down for about 10 minutes. After that I got up and walked back up the hill to clear some of the loose branches and stuff out of the way to hopefully make the ride back up a little easier.
The final assault didn’t go as well as planned with a few drops and another little lie down along the way but eventually I made it back to the main trail , I had been stuck on the side of that hill for around 2 hours.I followed the main trails until I finally made my way back to The Buckets way (but don’t think I didn’t hit anymore slimey clay on the way out because I did), by this time it was around 4.30 so I stopped to let the loved ones know I was ok (on the off chance they cared) then put all the warm gear back on and slabbed it home, got home around 5.30 with every muscle in my body aching.
Still, beats working, but only just today.
Yeh mate, someone to do all the heavy lifting would have been great
When you said you were tired I didn`t realise how silly you really went today :dry: :laugh:
Thats one hell of a solo day out soon after the op mate :blink:I would have thought it to be a bit more solid under foot up there too, must have had a lot more rain than us lately :laugh:
Rest up tomorrow mate,
Deano & I may be onto you for a ride next weekend
Cheers
Hey Jeffro,
Big effort mate! I think i would be shagged too going through all of that too, especially the big bog hole. :ohmy: :huh:
Glad you got back ok and the shoulder held up ok.Cheers,
LeftyKrusty wrote:Your a madman Jeffro!!! Glad to see your back in action….Good read Jeffro – I think Krusty is right
Reading the post brought back memories of the Losta recovery weekend :whistle:
Hope you have a spot tracker, sounds like you need one :laugh:
Good to hear the shoulder is holding up :cheer:
Better get out to the garage and do some work on the bike to get ready for Nicks Northern Rivers Ride, hope we dont come accross that sort of terain with fully loaded bikes
Mickp
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