[SUBW-A] Trip report: Night Mountain Biking: The Oaks Trail 1/6/2007

[Albert Chetcuti]

Trip report: Night Mountain Biking: The Oaks Trail

Mountain bikers: Matthew Buchhorn and Albert Chetcuti.

It was an overcast night that greeted us as we both ventured out into the 
unknown. Not that we'd hadn't done the Oaks trail before, that we'd both 
hadn't done it in the dark!!

The trip was planned to coincide with the full moon, but unfortunately that 
afternoon a heavy layer of cloud had drifted across the blueys, negating the 
advantage we had with this timely adventure.

We meet up at the Glenbrook rail commuter car park, noting that there were 
no other crazy mountain bikers willing to take the challenge that lay ahead 
of us. Considering this night was the first day of winter, we were surprised 
by the "relatively" warm air temperature by blueys standards.

In the car park, we fine tuned our machines and our lighting systems, as 
local rail travellers looked on thinking........."What the hell are these 
guys up to?".

We boarded the 19:13 silver bullet heading west which would transport us to 
the start of the Oaks Trail in Woodford.

It was here that our different tactics of lighting really showed. Matt had 
lights which basically turned night into day. A series of three 3 watt LEDs 
produced an amazing amount of light at full strength. I, on the other hand, 
had a completely inadequate system comprising of LEDs, halogen, and 
incandescent lights (4 in total) mounted on the handlebars, helmet and front 
forks.

Mat led the way, while I followed the glow from his "headlights". Riding in 
the dark was very interest and different. The adrenalin really gets pumping 
as you end up riding much faster than in the daylight because you can't see 
as much. I was just a matter on holding on tight, using your balance and 
allow the bike the do all the work.

Short downhill runs were mixed with up hill sections that required 1st gear 
to reach the top. We briefly stopped at the top of the hills, to catch our 
breath before continuing into the darkness.

Riding at night was very surreal. The air was cool and refreshing, the track 
devoid of weekend warriors and ambient light. We were occasionally treated 
to bursts of full moon light which bathed the track with enough light that 
you could ride without lights. Unfortunately the moonlight disappeared 
behind a thick blanket of cloud just as quickly as it had appeared.

After many short hills, we reached the top of the ridge and could see the 
lights that illuminated the Sydney basin. We were both looking forward to 
the next part, the fast and long downhill run to the Oaks. Matt took the 
lead and raced off reaching speeds of 50 kph. I cruised along at 35 kph, 
enjoy the fruits of all that uphill riding. Luckily, the moon had broken 
through the cloud cover and we were treated to the additional light 
illuminating the way.

We reached the gate at the end of the trail and had a short break. We 
checked our lights and still had plenty of battery life left. From here, we 
continuing along on the single track section. The adrenalin was pumping 
again as this section has a few bends that were difficult to see in the 
dark. I missed one of the turns completely, just missed a tree and ended up 
in the scrub. I got back onto the track and continued along eventually 
catching up to Matt. The going was fast and fairly easy as the track is 
narrow and you just have to go for it at maximum speed.

Towards the end of the single-track section we took the more technical and 
rocky downhill section which eventually reaches the road. We reached the 
Glenbrook Creek causeway in just under 2 hrs after leaving Woodford station. 
All that was left we the steep climb out of Glenbrook Creek gorge and back 
to suburban Glenbrook.

A fantastic trip. Highly recommended !!

Some photos will be on the web soon.

c ya

Albert :)
_____________________________

Albert Chetcuti
a.chetcuti at hotmail.com
0418 460 651

Check out my photos at:
http://community.webshots.com/user/albertc106

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