The first question you'll probably want answered is why is the ride leader writing the ride report? Tradition holds that the first person to have a biff must ride the report. To be more clear, it’s the first witnessed biff, where your fellow club members are only too happy to verify the occurance.

In my case I didn't have a fall. No, I managed to give myself two snakebite flats within about 5 kms of the start of the ride. The second only about 1 km after the first. Not the sort of example the fearless leader of a club ride is supposed to set in deepest darkest outback Geraldine. So I nominated myself.

The Blue Mountain Gorge ride runs up the side of the Orari river crosses through Blue Mountain station, climbs to a saddle then sweeps down the Andrews Stream back to start at the car park in a loop. In all it's around 45km's and takes around 6 hours (about 3.5-4 hours on your bike). It can found by driving down to Geraldine, then inland through Orari Gorge station to Andrews Stream car park, a spot frequented by kayakers also.

Being that it is farm land permission must be gotten from the Orari Gorge station and Blue Mountain station (especially the later as you actutally ride through the farm buildings as part of the ride). It covers some lovely country side, a great lunch spot and there are some excellent photo oportunities.

For the club ride we had an early start, This is required as it takes 1.5 hours to drive to the beginning. Once assembled at Andrew's Stream we meandered off up the gorge towards lunch. We usually do this ride later in the summer and the preceding week had been rainy so the normally reasonably hardpacked dusty fourwheel drive farm track was a little slushy in places. As we rode I kept an eye on the river, and tried to gauge if it was much higher than I remembered last time we rode it, being aware that at the end of the gentle ride up the gorge there was a river crossing. The ride up is an easy gradient, punctuated with a few steep climbs and decents over small bluffs as you make your way west towards lunch and the half way point.

At the end of the gorge you meet the river which takes a left hand turn. On this occasion my river watching skills were not so hot and the river was higher than expected. This didn't stop us though as a few of our more steady footed riders waded into the river and found a way for us to zig zag from sandbar to sandbar and then to the other side. Thankfully no one lost their footing and we all emerged out the otherside with cold wet feet and lunch on our minds.

A short ride up the road on the far side of the river brought us to the Scout den which is the traditional lunch spot for the ride. If there are any Scouting peoples reading this report, thanks for putting the buidings were they are, its great. Lunch was brought forth and eaten, and then a small amount of napping ensued as people lay about digesting their food in the warm sun. After around 45 minutes several of the riders became eager to continue the ride. As I wrote above the ride up until this point is reasonably easy, what they didn't know is the middle section after lunch is the hard part. Once we had awoken some of our dozing companions we took to the bikes and rode down the road in the direction of the Blue Mountain station. I took the lead and peeled off the road to a small ford that is a short cut to the station. The only problem was the ford, like the river it i s part o f , was not small. T ime f or p lan B. We continued down the road to Blue mountain station, up to the Station, around the back of the shearing shed and up the airstrip. Just past the airstrip is where the climbing starts.

The objective of the climbing is of course to get to the saddle where you do the decending. Theres a reasonable amount of it and with a drowsy lunch some of the riders definatly found that some of it wasn't entirely to their liking. I found that pointing in the general direction of the saddle and reasuring them that it "wasn't far now, just over there", helped. The nice thing about this section is theres a gate at the top which gives you a real visual marker for where it all ends. This section is also the most picturesque when you look back at the rolling tussock landscape you are climbing through. Finally we got to the gate and started the descent into Andrews stream. This made many people happy and there were hoots of joy as the plumeted down the tracktowards the stream. The last section takes you in and out of Andrews stream as it runs back to the car park. I was supposed to count the number of stream crossings you make, but I forgot. My estimate is around 20, but if anyone does know the actual figure I'd be keen to know. Like the ride up the gorge you weave along on river/stream flats and do several small climbs over bluffs where the track pulls away from the stream edge. Nearly all the riding is on farm tracks on the return apart from some small trails you must follow in and out of the stream. Only one fence was required to climb over (I'm sure last time there wasn't deer fences and a gate too near the little cottage?). The trail gradually becomes better formed and eventually you are on a good condition road roaring along high above the gorge Andrews stream has cut when you spot the carpark loaming up ahead. Its there you end.

If you missed the club ride this time, we'll be running it again sometime in the not to distant future, its one of our regular and favourite rides. If you really can't wait and your like to take part in racing the same trail is covered by the "blue mountain gorges challenge" and "Mount Peel marathon" races, which are coming up in April I beleive. The challenge is longer starting at peel forest and coming through and up the access road and takes in this loop and then back to peel forest (with a big ugly hill at the end, which we luckily didn't have to ride). The Mount Peel Marathon, I am lead to believe takes a longer route out on the other side of the orari river over some hill/mountains and joins at Blue mountain station and followson down Andrews stream and out to peel forest.