North Star Trail Ride Weekend

Arrived at 9.45am on the Saturday. Blown away by the number of bikes/people. Last I heard there was 861 riders. Never seen so many bikes in one spot. Signed up in less than 5 minutes and kitted up. Loops opened at 10, we were out there by 10.30ish. The pact was keep the pace up, no easy options (well at least without be defeated by the hard option first) and ride as much as possible. Went out on the 85km loop first up.

As soon as we got to the forest prologue we met the bottle jam of bikes. Single file, heaps of stopages. Being a first timer, I was a bit worried this was going to be the scenario for the next two days. If this was the case I would have stopped riding and commenced the drinking. Luckily that was not how it panned out. After a little while we got to the point where the 30km loop split off from the long loop. After that things were still a little slow for a while but we gradually worked our way to some clear running. did I mention there was a few rocks in the first section. Lots of round loose suckers that made it fun.

As you expect there were high speed transport sections in the long loop but there was plenty of good trails as well. We got to the first section that said hard and the nerves picked up. A nice shitty rocky loose hill climb. Watched a couple of mates who are better riders than us have a bit of trouble getting up. Anyway had a crack and we all got up first time in one go, so all sweet. Then off to the next section with the hard water crossing. I was leading at this point and got to the water. Creek banks, not too bad, water crossing is narrow, so figured it must be deep. In I go. Suddenly, couldn’t see the front guard, my arse is getting wet on the seat. Needless to say, no stopping here so full power on and out and up.

Some great gully sections along this part of the track. Got to Death Adder Hill. Thought beauty this hill must be good as it has a name. Sadly disappointed as it only turned out to be a small pimple with rocks. Very rocky hard section at the top though which wasn’t so kind on some of the brake levers.

Finished the loop. Averaged 41 km/hr which gives you an idea of the high speed sections. Had a quick lunch and jumped back on the bikes just before they sweeps went out to close off the long loop. Got a much cleaner run this time and the three of us hammered through as fast as we could. Finished the day having done all the hard stuff twice and the enduroX was on when we got back so we thought “When in Rome…” and out we went. Neat track, the whole thing was sand 6 inches deep. Blasted over the railway sleepers thinking “don’t even think about rim damage”. Did that twice before falling off and agrivating a bit of rib damage done earlier in the day.

To cut an already long story short we did the long loop again on the Sunday. The hill was getting harder as it had been dug up but still managed to keep my 100% success rate intact. Then we did the 30km loop just so we had covered everything. Had a little play in the quarry. Didn’t attempt some of the real hard climbs there as they were all or nothing hills. If you didn’t make it both body and bike were in for damage.

Had a great time, just over 320km covered, average speed for the weekend was 44km/hr (speedo tells me this). Loved the trails when you got a chance to really hammer through which was surprisingly often considering the number of bikes.

My compliments to you Gibbit and all of the crew. The whole thing was well done. The only thing I had to wait for all weekend was a hot shower and even that was only 15 minutes.

Hopefully I will be able to scab some photos of others soon and will post them up.