Barrington Tops March / April 2004
Saturday April 3 - The ranger we'd meet on Thursday told us of a great downhill ride with plenty of ridges to get "air" so we reset the original loop ride plan into a kind of figure 8. Again north out on the Barringtons Trail and onto Paddys Ridge but this time we took a right at Green Gap Trail. Darn topo map - the topo showed Green Gap and Butchers formed an intersection with Paddys. Wrong! Green Gap started nearly a K before Butchers and with no sign to say it was Green Gap we went past in then had to come back.
Anyway, we had a great time crossing a couple of creeks, checking out the pine forest and then heading north on Barrington Trail to Pheasant Creek Road. Darn topo again. This time we had an intersection instead of a T. We headed east at the intersection and fortunately hit Bullocks Creek Trail in less than a K. Great riding as it connected to Tuglow Trail with some nice bumps to get "air". We stopped at Gummi Falls for a spot of lunch and to remove a leech or two.
To get onto Thunderbolt Trail we had to cross a big creek - actually the start of the Manning River - but no log this time. shoes and socks off and over we go. Big climb to the trail then North to Pheasants Creek Road with more memories of the year before and the long ride up from the bottom of the mountain. Past the quarry and onto the Road then it was a cool downhill to Henry's Bridge and another rest to recharge before the BIG climb up to Barrington Trail.
Felt good when we past Bullocks Creek Road again. We knew we were close with a pretty flat ride home from there.
Barrington Trail was great - except for one mud patch - ask Yarro. Nice clean black tyres turned to muddy brown in a second. We passed the Green Gap trail and headed on the Barrington Trail to Tops Road. It was then a short west ride to Barrington Trail and the path to Little Murray.
Wash and some cleaning and then dinner - pasta, vegies and italian chilli sausages again. It was great.
