Hampton Ride 3-3-05 with Kim, Mark, Marty & the Dent Dudes

I rose at 0240. Left home at 0340 to pick Mark up at 0355. Arrived at Narellan and met Marty at 0500. Arrived at Katoomba at 0600 and waited til 0720 for all riders to arrive. After a brief stop at a diner awaiting a van with two Victorian riders that had broken down we arrived at Hampton at 0830.

Riding at 0915. 13 riders, Dave leading and Dan sweeping. Nearly all KTMs except for an XR650, WR250F, XLR250 and a Husky 410 (with dual exhaust !). Up the first hill and I waited on the corner for 25 mins as others had run into trouble on the hill !

Went up a hill that only seven attempted. Up onto a bank and a KTM 520 went down (his first ride in seven years !). The Husky had to be push started each time it stalled or was turned off. John the Husky rider told me that night in the pub - "if you rode this bike Kim, you will want it". Yeah right ! says Kim.

Down a rocky hill and the XLR went down breaking the brake lever. He should have had spare and tools in his rear guard bag, but it had been holed and he had lost all the contents ! 

Through some bog holes, along some open firetrails. Dust was not too bad but flying debris (otherwise known as roost) was. I was hit heavily on my chest armour by a flying rock.

Back to the pub at 1330. Lunch til 1500.

Only five riders rode the afternoon session after the rain started - Mark (WR250F), Marty (KTM 400EXC), Dave (KTM525 EXC), Dan (KTM525EXC) and I (KTM525 EXC).  The first section was wet, hilly and slippery. Mark fell off on the first corner so I thought "this ride will be interesting" !

We went down a steep, slippery and very rutted track. I jammed my KTM in a rut against a log which took a short while to get out of. The KTM actually stood upright whilst I tried to get it out. Marty rode the last section to the bottom along a gnarly track - the rest rode down a smooth, easy way and we met him there. Up the other side was very rutted, slippery and with some granite steps. Mark went straight up unassisted, I needed help up one section. Marty turned around and had a second go up the steps. From here it was a steep, very loose wooded hill. Marty tried the hill on the left but his path was blocked by a wrecked four wheel drive. He then tried the track but his bike fell down into a rut up to the bars ! Mark and I excavated his bike out and he tried the hill to the right. Mark looped his bike on the right side of the hill but got underway to make it to the top. I tried various angles of attack and after about one hour we made it to the summit. We were a bit worried about Dan's KTM as he had broken two teeth on his rear sprocket. The ride around the summit was very rocky and we took an alternate route back to the pub, arriving back at 1800. 

The night at the pub was fun, there was a bucks party on the same time with about eight fellas from the Windsor/Penrith area celebrating. Our two Austrian guests were amazed that there were about thirty males and no females - they said they had never been to such a place before ! Marty and I looked around at about 2330 and of the eleven in our group still up nine were associated with the "paintless dent repair" business "Dent Werx"! Many of the group travel the world (including the two Austrians) following the hail season from Australia to the US then Europe each year. I retired about 0015.

Rose 0700 the next day, riding at 0915. Only Marty, Mark and I (Sydney people are soft !) lined up. We met three other riders but left them when they spent too much time consulting their GPS. Rode down through Jenolan State Forest, past Kanangra Boyd NP and along the Six Foot Track for about 30 ks to the Cox's river. The track was granite and rutted, very slippery and throttle control needed to be delicate !  The three creek crossings were fun (rocky bottoms) and the scenery spectacular. As the areas off the tracks are controlled, we stuck to the tracks. I came down on a downhill section in a rut. I got up quickly before the others noticed my misadventure. Marty flipped his bike going up a very steep hill and broke his rear guard, but not so serious that a few cable ties couldn't fix.

This is from a mountain bike report - This ride offers a bit of everything - steep gnarly downhill firetrail, huge climbs, flat out downhills, waterbars, beautiful singletrack, creek crossings and a suspension bridge.

You start from the picnic area on Jenolan Caves Road and climb for about a kilometre before turning right onto the track itself. Typical schlerophyll forest, and a nice smooth downhill firetrail with lots of waterbars for jumping. The track deteriorates the further you go, with lots of loose rocks and small drop offs.

Soon you reach the Pluviometer (some sort of water gauge thingie - it's on the map), where the first serious downhill is encountered - not much of a line, tight corners, very loose and rocky, very steep. There's lots of waterbars on this hill too, but many of the landing zones are loose and eroded. Good brakes are essential!! Most of the riders I was with complained of sore hands from squeezing the brakes so hard...

After riding around 13 - 14 km from the road, you're at the bottom and splashing through one of the three creek crossings - expect to get wet feet. In this section, the firetrail winds along following creeks, past several fantastic camp sites.

Climb the Mini Mini Range and as you come into pastureland, it's flat out down the very steep smooth firetrail and all its waterbars. It's very easy to get air here - despite braking hard over one waterbar, I still jumped... Be careful, the surface is typical of tracks in granite country, in that it's a hardpack base covered in those little rocks the size ball bearings and about the same amount of grip. Watch out for the sharp corner at the bottom of the hill and the erosion gully that runs across the track - kerthump!
 

On the way back we took some four wheel drive tracks with very big bogholes which we rode around.
We arrived back at Hampton pub at 1315 and left for home at 1500 after a counter lunch. I arrived home at 1800.

Kim Bazley