Driver Reviver

With the holiday season upon us the kids have been down in New South Wales spending time with their grandparents.  Being time to come home and who better than to do the 1100km(690mi) drive home than Dad?

I must be getting old as the prospect of doing the drive in one day, as I have done for the last 10 years, was not at all appealing. Best split the drive into two manageable bits, right? Right.

Armidale in central NSW is a very pleasant country town located high on the  range. It is about half way between Sydney and Brisbane, so a perfect location to break the drive.

As an added bonus there is a sweet little trail layout just to the north of town. "The Piney" was somewhere I had ridden a few years ago. Back then, I had snuck out early while my family slept. This time the kids had their own bikes and were dead keen to ride the trails. GAME ON!

So it was up early and into the car for the short drive out to the trail head. 

Everyone was all smiles, keen as mustard until we rolled into the forest and the trail went uphill. I got the "I don't want to do this" from Miss 10 (regular occurrence early in a ride) which I duly ignored. As soon as the trail leveled out and went from fire road to single track she was gushing about how much fun it was! Women!?!

The trails wind through some old growth pine forest as well as some more recent plantation. It makes for a very pleasant ride destination in summer as the elevation of 3200ft keeps the temperature down. It also seems someone had naming rights on a particular section of trail.

It was a glorious, clear morning with just a hint of dew on the grass. A perfect morning for a ride on new trails.

Someone was on a mission on his new Cannondale that Santa had dropped off on the 25th. There was simply no stopping him, don't even try to stop him!

I even got the kids on shutter duties. How good is this having (slightly) older kids? Very handy!

For this time of the year the New England Tablelands were simply stunning! Normally the summer heat has browned off the grass but this year there have been many thunderstorms with their associated heavy rainfall and the country never looked better!

Styling through the rocks....

Technically, the trails are pretty easy. There was nothing that Superboy on his new Cannondale didn't take on. While a bit overconfident at times, this new bike has him thinking he can do no wrong. I guess there will be a slight "correction" sooner or later....but in the mean time....

He sessioned this fence crossing three times!

We did an easy 10km(6mi) and hardly raised a sweat this early in the morning. It certainly made the prospect of spending another 5 hours in the car much more bearable.

It was also a great introduction to new trails for the kids. While they usually do about 15km(9mi) when we head out for a ride, it is usually the same loop in Daisy Hill and at sea level. New trails, especially ones at 3200ft above sea level are a challenge for anyone, so it was great to see the kids take it in their stride, beaming and recounting bits of the ride to each other as we packed the car for the rest of our journey.

The Pineys

Finally, we are on the way home and a regular destination to break the drive is Armidale, NSW. There is something that I love about this part of Australia that is to do with the elevation. It is about 3200 ft above sea level, which is about as high as it gets for any town in Australia. This attracted settlers from northern England, in particular the Scots and they have left their distinct mark on the New England Tablelands. They planted trees native to England and now 150-200 years later there are some majestic old trees gracing Armidale and lending to it's character.

A plus on this layover is that in the latest issue of Australian Mountain Bike was a write up of the trails in The Piney. Armidale State Forest, it seems, is home to both walking and MTB trails that are worth a look. Well, any excuse to get out in the countryside is good enough for this little black duck. So it was a 5:30am stealth mission so as to not wake the family. All was going well until I found I did not have the point and shoot camera on me. It was safely in the motel room with three sleeping family members! D'oh! The camera on the trusty Samsung Galaxy phone would have to suffice.

With lots of current information at hand I set off for The Piney. It is a mere five kilometres out of town on Rockvale Rd and is the child of the New England Mountain Bike Club. The first fly in the ointment was that the second forest entrance at 4.9km on Rockvale Rd did not look like the map and the trail markers were orange on white, not black on white as advertised. This very quickly sorted itself out, as black arrows on white signs appeared. Maybe I had missed an entrance to the forrest in the fog during the ride out.

This was it! I was in! Despite the fog!

I went left, up the hill, from this photo and quickly found myself at the top of Angry Eyes.

The big difference that I noticed right off between here and Kinross pine forest in Orange was that this was an older forest with more widely spaced trees. This allowed the grass to grow between the trees and made for a beautiful riding experience, with ankle deep green grass everywhere. Quite a novelty in January in Australia! The trail was also very well marked. On some of the longer stretches, just as you would think to yourself "am I going the right way?" a trail marker would appear to ease your concerns. Very nice!

Some very nice trail features adorn the track. The "A" lines would probably be "B" lines here in Brisbane, but it makes you feel good to ride all the A lines for a change!

From here it was around to Lucy's Leap

Then over to the newer section of forest. Big Dog's Den was fast fun zipping across the hillside through the pines.

From here you make your way back into the older forest and climb Snakes and Ladders to Crows Nest and back to Angry Eyes.

There is about nine kilometres of trail in here and it doesn't take too long to get around, so the obvious thing to do is to complete a few laps. The 3000ft elevation helps take the sting out of your legs. I found that I was gasping for air yet my heart rate was fifteen to twenty beats lower than when I gasp like this at sea level.

I really enjoyed the trails here in Armidale. As I rode back to town I struggled to put my finger on the reason why I had enjoyed it so much. The trails were well marked....tick, the trails were very picturesque....tick, the trails were fun to ride....tick, I could ride A lines for once....tick!, it was a beautiful, cool, clear morning....tick, it was the last ride as my annual leave petered out....tick. So many reasons and I guess they all had a part to play in helping me cement a very pleasant memory of Armidale Pine Forest. I know where I will be breaking the drive in future, so there had better be room for the MTB.