Another weekend in Wauchope.

Well, didn’t I have a big weekend of riding. Saturday, I loaded Connors KX85 and my XR onto the trailer and we headed bush. We have had a bit of rain of late and the trails were loamy and dust free, which made for some great riding.
Connor’s riding has improved out of site since he has started trail riding with me and I love taking him out to the bush for some quality father/son time.
We rode to the top of Bago and sat at the look out and surveyed our world and discussed how lucky we are to live where we do, whilst chomping on jelly snakes.
From there we headed west, down through big Jurrasic Park which I have seen plenty of guys have strife in there. I thought it would be a bit of a challenge on an 85cc bike but Connor made it through no worries which made me proud. Those guys that have been through there would a test that it is a fair achievement for an 11yo on a two banger 85 to get through with no dramas.
Once we got out of there Connor was complaining that the KX was spluttering and wouldn’t go into the powerband, so I got the KTC tool roll out and opened it up and I dunno where it came from but there was a brand new BR8ES plug in there, I took the hint and pulled his old plug out, put the new one in and the little green meanie was ripping again. It still has me stuffed ,where that new plug came from and how it made it’s way into the tool roll.
From there we rode out to Huntingdon Via Ruttzilla which is now so deep that when Connor got half way down it the KX came to an abrupt stop as the foot pegs dug into either side of the rutt, all but throwing him over the hangers.
WE got the KX out of its predicament and got underway again, it wasn’t long after that that Connor got stuck in a big bog hole and required some assistance. I had to get behind his bike and lift the back wheel over a root that it was hung up on and what do you do if your bike is suddenly free and you have someone like your Dad standing directly behind you in a stinking bog hole. Yep you open it up and fill em in!! Didn’t he do a job on me, I was covered from head to toe in mud, I didn’t get mad but have vowed I will get even with him in the future.
By then we had done 65km and the KX was getting light on with fuel so we made our way back to the car and headed home, determined, we will be back out there very soon, my only regret was that I forgot to take a camera.

I wasn’t home long before the phone rang and it was KTMRat inviting me on a ride the following morning with a few Dad’s from our MX club. The ride was to start at 6am Sunday morning, I was keen although my brothers all wanted to go out for a drink Saturday night.
I went out with the boys and didn’t get to bed until 1am, 4 hours later I sprang out of bed at 5am, got my act together kicked the XR into life and was on the road and on my way to the meeting point at 6am.
I arrived there as everyone was in the final stages of kitting up and the sun was just coming up.

Once everyone was ready we had a bit of a ride brief.

Once that was out of the way we got going with KTMRAT leading the way on a borrowed TTR250. He lead us into some tight single trail in some thick bush that was allowing very little light in at that time of the day and it was a great experience to ride the trails in the darkness. It didn’t take long before we had our first holdup, when one of the bikes stalled in a gully and didn’t want to start,we eventually got it going and headed off.
Dave lead us down a track that I knew was gunna be hard yakka getting up the hill on the otherside, to my amazement the XR just tractored up and out with no dramas. Once I pulled up at the top I cut the engine and that is when I realized that there was absolute silence and that the boys behind me, had run into some trouble of sorts.
Seeing as Dave lead them in there I sent him back to check what was going on. As it turned out the KTM525 had stalled and the battery didn’t want to play anymore, so it required kicking and it didn’t really want any part of that either.
KTMRAT to the rescue got it going again and all was good.

Here’s an early morning shot of GL Puddles coming out of Dave’s Valley of death..

Anyhow we had a couple of other minor incidents that held us up a bit and it took us an hour and a half to travel 36km. At this stage I introduced the boys to one of our sponsors.
Jack Links Jerky got the thumbs up from all the boys as a mid ride snack.

We decided we would take the crew to the bottom of Ruttzilla for a look , KTMRAT decided he would have a go at riding up it on the TTR and to our amazement and with a whole lot of scratching and paddling he made it to the top.
Andrew on the KTM525 stood up to the challenge and hit it with determination and showed The RAT up0 by making it to the top and he made it look easy.
Great work I say as it is a pretty gnarly bit of trail.

Here is a couple of pics
The RAT at the top

Andrew contemplating his line.

From there I offered to lead for a while and took the boys through some nice trails that Connor and I rode the day before. It wasn’t long and a bit of a race ensued between KTMRAT and myself, the Rat got past me and then it was really on until a big stick flung up and hit my gear lever bending it back at 90 degrees to the bike. I believ eit could have been God’s way of telling me to stop being stupid…LOL.
Further into the ride I was pegging the XR along pretty hard when I thought I could hear a two stroker come up beside me and I thought WTF there are no 2 bangers with us. As it turned out it was The RAT on the TTR revving that hard it really sounded like a 2 stroker, as he went to pass me I thought no way buddy and opened up all 630cc of the XR and pulled away from the clown only to have him over take me under brakes at the next corner, I at that stage conceded defeat as it was once again getting silly and I didn’t fancy another stint in plaster.
Once we arrived at Comboyne rock we noticed the TTR was protesting the over revving by dumping its oil out of the crank case via a blown gasket.

Dave decided that he best take the quickest way back to Wauchope while I lead the other guys through some trails. All in all we did just over 120km as the XR hit reserve in view of the cars on the way back.
One good thing about starting so early is that we had done all this and were back at the cars before lunch and the real heat of the day.
Thanks for inviting me Dave as I really enjoyed my ride.