I’ll be honest, I was really worried about taking the Mukluk on an overnighter… Especially given the distances we were looking at…
Turns out I had no cause for concern whatsoever… ‘Blue Bottle’ blew my mind this past weekend, and I can’t wait to get out for a proper expedition on her… And thanks to this weekend’s ride, I have a serious one in mind…
As usual, I invited a bunch of people on this ride… There were the usual suspects that I expected to jump on it, but this time proved different…
G-Force is a driver, and a recent convert to multiday riding after the Easter trip, so she was almost a given…
My old friend Oh-Two, creator and editor of the best bike blog on the net, Cycle Exif, shot my bikes for his blog and has been sniffing around this style of riding for some time. Was awesome to have him and his flask of Glenmorangie along for the ride… ‘Two, despite his love of all things two wheeled, seems to manage to live without an off road capabe bicycle, and borrowed my Ti Fargo for the weekend…
I used to ride trials with ‘Mert.’ He’s since been voted ‘Hipster of the Millenium’ and has gotten very good at riding his bike on rollers for twenty seconds. He’s also amassed an impressive collection of Lawill designed Schwinns, and brought one along for the weekend…
Lithgow was the rendevous for the one hundred and ten kilometre Day 1… The day had dawned glorious and clear, but it was far from warm… Definitely not five degrees at 7am… Having learned hard lessons about being caught out in the cold before (stay tuned for a pre-June-long-weekend revisit of some June-long-weekends-gone-sour) I had overpacked on purpose. Shoe covers. Leg warmers. Windproofness. Buff… Toasty is good…
We were headed for the old gold mining town of Sofala via Upper Turon Road, and while I have ridden this route a bunch of times, it was cool to be setting off with a bunch of unexpectant guests… I was also looking forward to seeing how the Muk handled what has affectionately become known as ‘Snake Alley’ or ‘Mordor’ among those I have taken there before…
This day was proving super easy, for me at least. And for Oh Two and Felicity… But I think Mert had bitten off a little more than he could chew… Cramping and dropping off the back he wasn’t looking too fresh…
‘Snake Alley’ is a stretch of Upper Turon Road that undulates along the hillside and follows the river to the rolling farmland that leads finally to Sofala… Steep, deep, super loose gravel for miles with water bars and off camber turns make for interesting times… I love the terrain out here, and the vegetation has a strangely inviting feel about it…
Stuff that seems sketchy on even the Fargo with big tyres was a breeze. Catching solid air off water bars and landing sideways on loose stones? Yeah sure, why not… As always, the Mukluk offered a new perspective on riding and took a trail I thought I knew and made it come alive and exciting all over again…
After a short break waiting for a cross country beer serving robot that never arrived, it was on to the final section to Sofala…
I have been to Sofala pub maybe ten times. I think of those ten times I have seen more that ten people in there twice… Apparently, we were staying there during ‘party of the year.’ I slept pretty well, but there was some serious partying going on until the sun came up and the locals, including the publican’s wife, were just heading to bed as G-Force and I ‘cooked’ breakfast…
Sofala pub was built in the late 1800′s… Our room had no heating, no electricity and very little insulation by the feel of it… It was another clear day, but the Bureau of Meteorology tells me it was -3 degrees at 7am in Sofala…
Today was to be 120km, but with over twice the climbing of Day 1…
And then there were three… Mert was dead. Not enough legs for the trip, and a pretty-much-destroyed hanger on Day 1 saw him seeking a ride back to Lithgow with a member of the Larakins Motorcycle Club that had to visit his parole officer that day. True story… He is alive though, so all good…
The roll out of Sofala was cold. Damn cold… I had Sugoi Firewall gloves and shoe covers on and I was still prety cold… G-Force was hurting. And that was before we reached the first crossing of the Turon.
Standing in the frost on the banks of the river we decided it would be better to reach the other side with dry shoes than ride the next two hours with wet ones. We crossed barefoot…
F-f-f-fuuuccckkkkiiinngggg F-f-frrrrreeeezzziiinngggg…
Beautiful morning though…
Back through ‘Mordor’ we travelled, then headed UP towards the One Pub Town of Capertee, where salami and sour dough and cheese and Oreos were eaten… From here, a short section on the highway took us into Gardnes of Stone National Park, where the fern lined trail ALMOST helps you forget that there is a tonne of insanely steep climbing and you’ll likely be out after dark this day…
Thanks to the 2800 metres of up we were facing, our average speed was scraping twelve kilometres an hour… With what I assumed was two hours daylight left, we still had thirty kilometres to travel and it was here that I was glad I had insisted on everyone bringing good lights…
The roll home along Blackfellows Hand Trail made for easy miles home, but the sun was setting and with it the temperature was dropping… The quiet of the early evening broken only by the sounds of Gang Gangs, Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos and Lire Birds that were getting around everywhere…
The run home…
In the end we only spent about half an hour in the dark, and arrived back at our GoGetter at about six o’clock… Totally awesome weekend with great company in a great part of the country…
I’m definitely taking the Mukluk out on some more multiday stuff… On Day 1 I easily rode a section the the Turon’s river bed. Like actually IN the river, on the stones and logs. Not far, just a kilometre or so, but I had been thinking before this trip that maybe the entire river bed was rideable, from its origin way up near Capertee, at least until Hill End, Maybe further. And this is something I am going to be properly researching in the next few months…
Thanks to Oh Two for pics of me…
