NRRT Again

A good mate was back from Singapore for a few weeks holiday and true to form,  not wanting to waste a minute,  Dan took me up on the offer to ride the Northern Rivers Rail Trail on his first day back in Oz!

It is a bit of a drive down to Murwillumbah so we set off at 6am to be in the bikes by 0730. 

It was a bit cool until we spun the legs and warmed up a bit....but not much.😁

When I rode this trail late last year with Owen I had been struck by how similar it felt to the Singapore rail trail I had ridden with Dan in November. Today it would be interesting if Dan felt the same.

Tunnel time!

And he did agree that the tree covered, green lane that the trail wended its way through was very similar to Singapore. There were even some huge bamboo clumps.

The Burringbar range tunnel is a 524metre (1718ft) wonder that is almost pitch dark toward the centre with just a pinprick of light in the distance. Lights are a necessity.

We rode to the end of the “current” rail trail which ends at Crabbes Creek, then up onto a bridge to look further along the trail.

Did I mention it was cold? Think our faces were a bit frozen. 😆

Turning around, we pedalled the short few kilometres back to Moobal’s Moo Moo cafe’. I think I’ve posted about this cafe’ in a few moto ride blogs. 

After a very nice cooked breakfast we began the roll back down the trail to Murwillumbah.

The trail was much busier now, being filled with walkers, riders and runners. Pretty much everything except horses. I struggled to get a photo or two without other meat bags (bar Dan of course!) in the shot.

We were soon back at the Murwillumbah station having a look around. They are getting the place well organised these days with the value of the trail to the community becoming evident to even the most recalcitrant opponent.

So, a quick 50 kilometre pedal and we were home by midday. Thanks for the ride Dan and it definitely won’t be the last time I’m down here to ride this trail.

Cheers.

Plodding Away

That is what I have been doing these last few weeks. Just plodding away, trying to follow my 10 Day Bikepacking Race plan from coach Linda. It worked well for the Tour Divide in 2015 and if I follow it as closely as I can (with a few modifications for carrying a bike!) I should be in a good place come April 5th.

I have sort of settled on taking my Cannondale Beast of the East for the race. I really don't want to buy another bike and I guess this will do the job. Especially now that I have carbon wheels on it and soon to come 2.8 width tyres (down from the 3.0 currently on it) I feel it will be a better rolling option. Still not as quick as a standard 29" 2.2/2.4 wide equipped mtb but close enough........

Another leg on the front and a dynamo hub in between and I'm set!

Now , where was I? Ah, yes, training.

To this end I have ventured back to an old favourite of many endurance riders, Brisbane Forest Park (or D'Aguilar Forest as it is known these days). 

It never looks as steep in a photo, especially a pano.

My first foray was on one of the hottest days we have had this year! It got up to 38C (100F) which is very hot for Brisbane. We normally only see low 30s, which with the humidity of the sub-tropics is plenty enough thank-you-very-much! As a result of the heat (and going too hard the day before) I struggled my way around the 50km loop I set for myself. I chose some of the steepest trails in there so that I could practice pushing my bike. Well, normally I can ride all of these climbs but that day I was definitely pushing on almost all of them while the Cicadas almost sent me mad/deaf with their high pitched screeching. I include a small snippet of their "song" for your hearing pleasure......turn your speakers up LOUD for the full experience as these things are easily over 100 decibels in the bush when they are in their tens of thousands!

After another week at work where I squeezed my training around life I decided to head out again for Round 2 of my BFP loop. I was really pleased to see that I felt waaay stronger and could have ridden all of the stupidly steep climbs. I had to force myself to get off the bike and push because that IS part of the training after all!

I was also rocking my new Camelbak Octane hydration pack. It is a lumbar model with the bladder being down low, across your hips. I hate wearing a backpack these days as it makes it very difficult to regulate your body temperature but I must say, the Octane sits there nicely and the relatively small "pack" section of the backpack allows plenty of air to get at your back, keeping you much cooler than traditional hydration packs with the bladder mid back. I chose this smaller version so that I won't/can't load it up with too much crap during the race. It will also form part of my bike portage system for the Grand Canyon crossing when it is combined with my Mountainsmith Strapetts. I just need to figure out how to actually do that......

Octane win.

On other fronts I have renewed the insoles in my mtb shoes as I found for the TD in 2015 that I needed a small "dome" attached to the insole to help spread my metatarsals and stop nerve pinching that feels like a hot foot after a while. They worked perfectly in 2015 so I thought I had better get onto that again so as to eliminate one possible cause of body failure.

I also jagged a trip to New Zealand during the week, where we have all of our heavy maintenance conducted. 

Empty 737.

I didn't get locked up on arrival so I guess there were no outstanding speeding fines from our 2014 motorcycle trip......

While the ferry was a bit of fun, the training ride on the gym bike wasn't! It was a hot day for Christchurch (in the mid 30sC) and there was no air conditioning in the closet-sized hotel gym. Suffice to say, after 2 hours of hard efforts I was fairly swimming! On the plus side, I did feel good after a shower (don't worry, no photos...)

Sweat box gym.

So, here we are, 8 weeks out from the race and I just have to get a standard suspension fork for my bike so that I can run my dyno hub. I then have to have that dyno hub laced into my new front wheel, then I have to load the whole shebang up and take it on a few overnight rides to shake down my gear. Oh, and learn how to set it up on a backpack so I can carry it 35km(22mi) across the Grand Canyon......plus I need to get started on my route notes.....

Shit, I need to get CRACKING.........

Cheers.

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.