Carlingford to Lake Parramatta
This is quite a good ride with lots of challenging sections. This ride starts from Parkland Road just before Lindisfarne Crs (coming from Jenkins Rd, Carlingford). From there it follows Hunts Creek past a 10m waterfall, over several newly constructed bridges and over Bettington Road. The trail then follows Hunts Creek behind The Kings School into Lake Parramatta. As the trail enters Lake Parramatta it forks, one side going to the southern side of the lake to the kiosk, and the other (presumably) to the northern side of the lake. The northern trail would lead to the dam wall and I have seen a track at the foot of the dam wall that joins the northern shore of the lake with the southern shore. It is also possible from the northern shore track to cross over North Rocks Road and follow a trail along Mills Creek up as far as Castle Hill. There are several other trails that branch off from this one, one of which leads to Haines Ave, after going under the M2 and another that ends near Aikens Rd.
Oaks Fire Trail
I've done this ride several times and the latest was in December 2006. Usually I drive to Glenbrook and catch the train to Woodford. The trail is relatively easy although I do walk two or three of the hills. The section from the Helicopter Landing Pad is a great down hill blast to the Oaks. From the Oaks there is a narrow track that runs parallel to the road and is some of most exciting bike riding I've done - obviously you've got to go fast so that it is exciting, and being on a slight downhill gradient, the speed can be achieved without much effort.
Narrow Neck
The view from the end of Narrow Neck looking towards Warragamba
I did this ride in early January 2007. I drove to Katoomba and then headed west along Cliff Drive past the caravan park and playing fields, past Eagle Hawk Lookout and turned left down Glenrapel Drive, just before Oak St (33 45' 15" ; 150 17' 35"). I drove along Glenrapel Drive as far as I could even though it becomes quite a rough dirt road and I was only driving the family Ford Falcon.
I got on the bike and rode as far as I could on the fire trail, to the lookout. The view is quite good although it was a little misty on the day. The picture is the view looking towards the back of Warragamba Catchment. This ride took me about four hours and is quite steep in places. I walked a few of the hills.
There was a bush track that led down into the valley from the lookout. It was too narrow to ride and I was not equipped for walking. I think that the track would lead to Megalong Valley Road and I'll do it as a bush walk at some other time, hopefully in the near future. There is also steps and ladders marked on the map along the Narrow Neck Plateau which mean there are other bush walking opportunities to explore.
Great Northern Road from Mogo to Wiseman's Ferry
I've done this ride twice. The first time myself and later with a group of three friends in March 2009. We started at 06:30 am from Carlingford and drove to Wiseman's Ferry. We left one car at Wiseman's Ferry and drove mine to Mogo at the intersection of Wollombi Road and The Great Northern Road -33.137860 151.100949. We rode all day and got back to Wiseman's Ferry just before dusk. The ride was eventful because Duncan's riding shoes kept getting stuck in his pedals and he provided us with a few entertaining moments when he stopped his bike and promptly fell over because he could not put his feet on the ground. I was worried that he would injure himself. Fiona fell off her bike trying to jump a tree that was across the road and ended up being thrown about 5 metres down an embankment. She did herself an injury but she is pretty tough and didn't even complain. I broke the frame on bike. Years of having the seat pole extended too far out of the frame came back to haunt my frame and it cracked where the seat bar me the horizontal bar. The last bit of the ride down the sealed road is tricky because you can build up a lot of speed and if you hit the speed humps too quick they tend to buck the back of the bike up nearly bucking the rider off as well. We finished the ride and caught the ferry across the river, picked up the car we left at Wiseman's Ferry and drove it to pick up my car. When we got to my car we discovered that it had been broken into. Nothing major but my favourite hat and some CDs were stolen. We had dinner at St Alban's pub.
Looking at Clare's Bridge
On the descent into Wiseman's Ferry
Mountain Biking in New Zealnd
This was an insane trip down the mountain. We did it twice. The tourist operator had a bus that met us at the bottom (we beat it down) and took us back up again. I took it easy the first time down but let go a bit on the second trip down and fell off twice. No injuries bar a few scratches when I fell off into a blackberry-type bush - it didn't hurt at the time because I was on such a high with exhilaration.
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| That's the track you can see on the right | We've come from the top of those hills | Me headed down the hill | Action shot of me |
Six Foot Track
I've done this ride twice and the walk a few times. It is a tough one day ride.