Date: Sunday 11th October 2015
Description/Location: Ride: Breakfast Creek Road
Leader: Michael Papworth
Report: Jane Munro
Pictures: Michael Papworth, Jane Munro
There were only 3 of us and the weather didn’t look promising, but it turned out to be a marvellous day. We rode out from Rylstone a bit after 9 and along the Bylong Valley Way then the Lue Road. We turned off on the Breakfast Creek Road where the dirt began. It seemed that the road had been recently graded, as the surface was excellent and much better than expected. Luckily the little bit of rain from the previous evening was just enough to settle the dust and make everything fresh. The scenery was lovely and there was a good variety of landscapes to enjoy. Riding through unfenced areas gave an unexpected sense of openness and freedom. We stopped for morning tea under a marvellous old dead tree with an interesting group of rustic letterboxes.
After that we continued around to the end of Breakfast Creek Road and got back onto the Lue Road. From there we rode a few more kilometres, up a serious hill, to the Tongbong turnoff on the right. I needed the “Turbo” setting on the electric bike to get to the top of this one. From the Tongbong Road turnoff we were on an open plateau, with green grass all around, lovely pastoral views across to the sandstone formations to the east, presumably the edge of the Wollemi NP. For several k’s we were riding along beside the railway line, and this brought to mind how wonderful it would be to have a rail trail all along the line in this area. We crossed the railway line and a couple of k’s past that stopped for lunch. Then we resumed, and completed the circuit back to Rylstone, a total of 49.5km. We arrived back at the cars at about 1.30pm then headed home.