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Well what a shake down ride this one turned out to be. It was both a fantastic weekend and really unfortunately not so good for others.
Here is a really brief run down. I’m sure full ride reports will hit the airwaves tomorrow, and Kat and I will also give an update to our weekend and APC prep.
A fair turnout line up at Adventure Moto headquarters and almost ready to roll at 7am on Saturday. I was unfortunately without my GPS which had an epic FAIL the night before :angry: :angry: :angry: , but trusty Katgirl had hers all sorted out so she was our chief navigator. That didn’t stop most of us missing the first corner, then taking a wrong turn after following Minusone who had accidently pressed the wrong destination in his GPS :unsure: . O well we figured all roads lead to St Albans, but we cut out the first section through the Watagans.
We joined up with Clubby and Wolfgang again at Laguna. We happened to all arrive at the same time :whistle: . My mate (and chief APC bike preparer) Dan also joined the ride here.
So off through Yengo we all headed. It was all great fun. Towards the Putty end is where we came across Fish with his broken collar bone
. I hope you feel better soon Mate.The over onto the Commission Rd we went and again it was great fun, Kat Mick and I all moving along well and enjoying the ride. This is where we again came across the second crash, with old mate (sorry I don’t know his name) and his Tiger 800. Both were clearly in a bad way. Clubby and Wolfgang did a fantastic job of picking him up off the trail and to a more comfortable spot. The Ambo’s were call and his spot tracker activated. Dan was a total champion and ended his weekend here to recover old mates bike. He went home and got a ute then went back to get the bike. He eventually got home very late that night. What a nice guy. He had only joined us about an hour or two before.
This was the reason for the first rescue chopper. Apparently old mate did some nasty damage to the shoulder socket and was operated on today.Kat, Mick, Ian (Minusone) and I decided to continue on and headed off after he was comfortable.
The rest of the ride was rather uneventful (but fun) and we finally rolled into Hill End at about 5ish. I think we were the first get there and the others started to roll in not long after that. I’m not sure what time Clubby and Wolfy got it, but it would have been well and truly after dark.Now I’m not sure who’s idea it was to camp and be hard core :whistle: , but it was bloody FREZZING.
The next day started brilliantly! There ended up being a fair crew that made it to Hill End and an executive decision was made not to do the MacDonald river crossing, so we all headed for the Bridle trail. I have never ridden this track and I loved it.
Not that far past the bluff, Kat and I pulled up to wait for the others including Mick. After what seemed a long time Mick came down the track and informed us of Ian’s very bad fall. Again Clubby and Wolfy were on hand to sort everything out. These two deserve awards (for the care and welfare of fallen adventure riders). I know everybody would do the same in similar situations, but they really sorted things out for both accidents and stayed until the guys were helicoptered out. This was the second rescue chopper for the weekend. Now I’m not sure on the details, but I heard that Ian’s injuries were significant and he will require a decent amount of surgery and a long recovery :ohmy:
Thankfully that was the end of the serious falls for the weekend. I think there were about 8 of us left and we continued on through the Turon Gates then over to Blackfellows hand trail. This is where the weekend for me became really amazing…….it was snowing for most to the trail. :woohoo: Admittedly I did take a short mud bath at the beginning of the trail :whistle: , but the rest of it was awesome. Riding in snow is a new experience for many of us and we were all excited by it.
The ride finished with Pizza and wine at the Apple bar in Bilpin. Everybody who was there is also going on the APC. So the consensus was that the Shake down ride had be a great warm up for the APC and we are all looking forward to the start in four weeks.
A big thanks to TB and Steve for putting the route together and organising the weekend. :woohoo: :woohoo:
Cheers for now,
Flying FishGreat report there Flying Fish. Great to here that the guys who had accidents were looked after and to Steve and Clubby well done for your support.
All the best to you and Kat for the APC Rally and Ride Safe.Cheers,
Lefty
minusone wrote:Took my helmet off and I hped it rolled all the way downt to the road and screamed. A camper heard my call an sprinted up the hill to stem blood flow and organize help. Big Thanks to Steve and clubby the campers and all the services that swung into action. Rod inserted in my leg and big apology guys for causising so much troubleYeh! totaly agree about the services Minusone,They are some great peaple. I reasently had a similar situation,I was down with a broken leg in the bush,only alone,
,once I made the call, the services swung into action,ambo’s ,cops,air rescue and locals called in by the cops,all out there looking for this guy somwhere in the bush in trouble.Yu see it on the news all the time,,,but this time it was me.
I must say,what could have been a scary situation, at no time did I feel alone,they kept me on the phone constantly reasuring me not to worry,that they would finde me,and the two hours that it took em,wich could have been hell,actualy went quite fast.
I cant prais these peaple enough,,we are so lucky to have such great services.
Well I wish a speedy recovery to both you and Fish,,,hang in there.
Flyingfish,,thanks for the report,and rite behinde yu for the APC.
Cheers Teza.,,,,,,,,, oh and Fish, if you need someone to ride the 990 while you recover, let me know
I hate it when work gets in the way of me writing a ride report and posting photos….
Anyway here is my take of the shake down ride.
Left home at 6.am with my support crew (smick400) with very clean bikes
Arrived at AdventureMoto headquarters ready for a 7.30 kick off to meet my riding buddy Amy (Flying Fish) and the rest of some of the APC Rally riders
So I found out that Amy’s GPS decided to not work and I was tasked to do the navigation. OMG
. This presented a new challenge…… I’ve never owned a GPS NOR ever had to follow/navigate a course….. This was an opportunity to give it a go :S . I let Amy know that I was so out of my depth doing this but this was what a shake down ride was all about….plus Amy HAD NO CHOICE… :laugh:So of we started following the pink line…. I screwed up at the first corner cause I wasn’t looking at the GPS frequently enough… so having a LONG line of people following me caused a massive U-Turn couple KM’s down the road…. I was laughing so hard… anyway I noticed Steve and Clubby turned into the road and thought this must be right….. OMG am I going to get us to Hill End if this is what I’m capable off…
So some how we went from a big group of riders to down to 4 (Amy, Smick400, MinusOne and myself). So Minus one and I were the only GPS owners so I took direction from him. When we started to go off course I was wondering if I got it wrong…. somehow we were heading in the wrong direction. We soon found out that we were off on a route that he accidentally punched in that took him in the opposite direction. Anyway… after a laugh and a giggle we started to head back to St Albans via a longer route but still was magical.
Based on the extra distanced traveled we decided to chop of the Murray Run section to keep us on track for Hill End. The funny thing was “WE GOT BUSTED DOING THAT” … as we went past the Murray Run Rd…. out came the leaders…. Steve and Clubby…..
So I was SO intent on fueling up and getting going again we left the cafe latte riders (Steve and Clubby) and off we went on Howes Trail. We kept a good pace and came across a group of riders at the killer downhill section at the Putty Rd end. It was difficult to stop but as we went past I noticed Fish. I thought they were just having a break but found out at the other end from Boulder that Fish took a dive… I’m sorry we didn’t stop.
Amy in comfortable position
Kat heading up a hill
Amy in attack position
Clubby decided to do a strip for us at the end of Howes Trail….
So after Clubby took his cloths off we had to do the same….both Amy and I were suffering from the flu and enjoyed the sweaty experience but knew that Commission Trail was going to be a hot experience… so off came our layers…. sorry no photo’s… but it wasn’t anything like a Clubby experience.
We headed off to Commission Trail
We decided just to ride it at our pace and keep it constant… may seem slow to some but we didn’t want any injuries so close to APC. This is were Dan (Amy’s friend) stop us at the top of a hill and warned us that Wayne on his Triumph lost it on a down hill erosion hump
Couldn’t believe our luck when there was a camp site close by for a comfy wait for the helicopter
Steve and Clubby managed the medical rescue and Dan did a sterling job of recovering the bike with a ute that took several hrs to manage.
After leaving the guys we kept following the pink line :side:
Covered some tar and easy dirt roads but with the sun setting and dodging some cows we cruised onto Hill End:
We got to Hill End at about 5pm… tried to get a group photo but Amy was on a mission to find the camp site and get the tent up before dark…. :cheer: … I wanted to test out my new headlamp and it worked well in getting the tent up in the dark…. oh… yeh it was friggen freezing as well
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Day 2 of the Ride Report
So woke up at 5am and waited till 6am to do a ‘rooster’ call and woke up my fellow riders with me stamping around doing a warm dance…. friggen hell it was cold out of my sleeping bag. I started off with making some coffee but needed some direction how to use my new stove (thanks Mick).
Anyway after some breakfast and coffee… bike was packed and ready to roll by 7.30am..Steve told us the we were changing route and going down the Bridle track… I was relieved as I spent from 5am – 6am worrying about the long ride over the dreaded river TB warned me about.
This is where we all hung for little while whilst some organised there gear but we weren’t aware that Ian decided to head off and do a hill that was off the route.
Amy and I headed off knowing we were the slowest and didn’t think much when a camper pointing up the hill. We thought he was worried about his kid riding around on the dirt bike…but it wasn’t till later that he was pointing to one of our riders up a steep hill in distress. Steve and Clubby were there and picked up the message and again acted as medical support for a very difficult situation. Amy and I were gutted when we heard the news. Our thoughts go to Ian and hope he has a speedy recovery
We headed down to Blackfellows Hands and that is were Amy had a mud bath in full view of couple of 4WD’s…she was covered head to toe on one side with mud….. it was so cute…..but she wasn’t alone. A guy on a big KTM 990 went down before her and it took smick400 and this bloke to lift the heavy beast out of the mud. Soon after it started to hail as noticed on Mick’s seat
Then it started to snow…. Amy and I flying along on our little bikes enjoying the experience then noticed no one was behind us…. wtf
Kat showing off her snow filled screen
It took some time for the guys to catch us but it was due to the heavy pot-holes and the big bikes slipping over them. It payed of having smaller, lighter bikes to get through that section without any issues…. we were laughing our heads off..
Here is a short video of the snow falling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C_JFVtwXqs&feature=plcp
To top if off we headed back to Bilpin and enjoyed a late lunch and glass of wine… as demonstrated by Amy
All up we achieved our goals:
1. Spending time riding together
2. Work on our navigation skills
3. Enjoy camping in friggen freezing situation
4. Learning to use all our toys (GPS, stoves etc)
5. Meeting other APC riders and listening and learning about their preparation
6. Testing out of modifications to the bikes
7. Having funThanks to Steve, Clubby, TB, new and old friends on the ride and Smick400 and Dan for supporting our cause.
Kat
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