Today I had a pretty sweet ride! After getting up at the late hour of 7am, I rolled out of bed, made a bowl of porridge, and generally antagonised about going out riding bikes. It seems that since I have begun my new office job, riding is done at 5am or not at all- a far cry from what my prior habits were when working in the bike industry!
Anyway, after packing hydrapack, gathering food for several hours, going to garage and attempting to clean inch-thick caked on mud from by bike with a piece of card from a tube packet (don't ask), forgetting to check my tyre pressure, riding down the road, riding back when I realised that I had forgotten to check my tyre pressure, relocking the garage, and finally hitting the road to meet Donna and Susan at the Dam, I guess I was already late. Oops.
But even though I was struggling pretty badly this morning, I am so happy to have actually gotten out! We rode up Manly Dam, to the Bantry Bay trails (which are now all bricked up and illegal) but then went straight to Cascades, climbed up Heath track, to Oxford Falls, Up and over and across Wakehurst Parkway to Red Hill, sloshed around there for a bit and then back via the desccent of the dam.
One bone to pick: Illegal Trails. Us lucky folk on the northern beaches now only have one MTB trail that is legal. WHAT THE? And it's a vicious cycle, as Manly Dam, hubbard capital of Australia, gains higher use because of the closure of trails due to potential erosion, it too becomes a superhighway of massive 2m wide lines, where there was a rocky gnarly section.
What was once a rip-roaring, technical, fun descent, is now just like riding downhill on smooth grass. And the increase in useage has only really been for a couple of months. What's it going to be like after a year? Two years? The trail has already been completely rubbished by chopping down all trees on the descent, and now because of high-volume usage and hubbardage, evil track-widening means that the dam is not challenging any more.
In a nutshell, Sydney's going to the dogs. You're a criminal if you want to ride your bike now days. When rangers and conservationists see what a dogged mess the only designated trail in Northern Sydney is, it is justification for the closure of all the others, when in reality, it's the closure of the other trails that's ruining the fun parts of Manly Dam.
Anyway, that's my rant.
Back to the mini-epic. It was heaps of fun. Next time I will take a camera to document. We were at Red Hill, and riding down a set of rock stairs in line, Donna, Myself, then Susan. Donna hits the bottom drop first, and screams. The whole ride she's been freaking out about getting her feet weet. Though it was hard to see, the last rock drop landed in probably near two feet of crystal clear water. Stunned, Donna stops, just as I am careering towards her. AHH! A near miss. We all end up in this water, so close to having a massic, wet, pileup of bikes and girls. It was quite hilarious.
It was a great day, and I "whoo-hoo"-ed a lot.
Top top it all off, after finishing the mini epic, we had big salads at the best cafe for big salads ever, and double macchiato's- Emporio! It was awesome, however now leads me to be a bit jaded about doing housework...oh well, till later,
AB