Paddys Swamp 4.10.09

Myself, Smurf and Pete met at 8.30 before heading out to Paddys Swamp. Kitted up and hit some t/t to warm up. After the recent rain the tracks were awesome, like riding virgin soil.
We then hit the s/t and this is where things started going pear shape. Smurf had a couple of small offs while trying to climb hills. The poor bugger was knackered after the first hill climb. Still amazes me the way his face can change all different shades of red. All agreed we would stick to the easier tracks so with this in mind of i went in the lead.

If it was pear shaped before things only got worse. We came to a river crossing were i picked my line to attack it. The water was probably 6 inches deep so no problem thinks me. Wrong. I got half way through and the bike just stopped dead. A bit of throttle and the bike just sunk before the back wheel refused to spin.

The bike was standing up by itself. The wet sand had sucked the wheel in and no amount of throttle or rocking would move it. A tow rope was added with two of us also pulling and after about a minute of grunting it came free with the back wheel locked solid by the sand. Once free i gave the wheel a kick and all the sand fell away.

Then it was another hill climb of about 200 meters. Pete went first and got about half way. With no lecki leg he was struggling. Smurf decided to have a go and didn’t make it to Pete. So i went and made it to the top before walking back down to help out. Smurf by this stage had turned purple in the face from the effort.

On the last hill as i was climbing things come to a sudden halt. A stick had got stuck in between the wheel, swing arm and chain. Took about ten minuted to get it out.

We all finnaly made it back to the cars at 12.30 and had a bbq lunch. The general talk was around if anyone had the energy to ride the afternoon. Noone put there hand up so the bikes were loaded and off we went home. Beaten but not disappointed. A grand total of 22 k’s covered. But good fun.

Only a couple of pics of the day.