vic high country snow ride 28-31 august 2009

[JohnMember]

menace wrote:

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ride report Drew?????

what you doin man:laugh: :laugh:

Yeh Drew.

Waiting……………………..

[Adrian LeeMember]

JAK wrote:

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menace wrote:

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ride report Drew?????

what you doin man:laugh: :laugh:

Yeh Drew.

Waiting……………………..

yeah Drew we are all waiting:unsure:

[dennis da menaceMember]

come to think of it, wheres yours JAK???????????????

hello, McFly, hello:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

[Adrian LeeMember]

menace wrote:

Quote:

come to think of it, wheres yours JAK???????????????

hello, McFly, hello:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Yeah JAK whats taking you so long,still stuck on XY hill?:laugh: :laugh:

[dennis da menaceMember]

Adrian wrote:

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JAK wrote:

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menace wrote:

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ride report Drew?????

what you doin man:laugh: :laugh:

Yeh Drew.

Waiting……………………..

yeah Drew we are all waiting:unsure:

ummm, and where is yours blue racer mong:P

you will have to write daves too:laugh: :laugh:

[Adrian LeeMember]

And where is garfields ride report,that should be a good one:laugh: :laugh:

[dennis da menaceMember]

Adrian wrote:

Quote:

And where is garfields ride report,that should be a good one:laugh: :laugh:

how could you have possibly missed it Adoe;)

so wheres yours, at least some favourite parts of the weekend;)

[JohnMember]

menace wrote:

Quote:

Adrian wrote:

Quote:

JAK wrote:

Quote:

menace wrote:

Quote:

ride report Drew?????

what you doin man:laugh: :laugh:

Yeh Drew.

Waiting……………………..

yeah Drew we are all waiting:unsure:

ummm, and where is yours blue racer mong:P

you will have to write daves too:laugh: :laugh:

Yeah wheres yours.

Mine has been posted.

With Aussie post.

[dennis da menaceMember]

JAK wrote:

Quote:

menace wrote:

Quote:

Adrian wrote:

Quote:

JAK wrote:

Quote:

menace wrote:

Quote:

ride report Drew?????

what you doin man:laugh: :laugh:

Yeh Drew.

Waiting……………………..

yeah Drew we are all waiting:unsure:

ummm, and where is yours blue racer mong:P

you will have to write daves too:laugh: :laugh:

Yeah wheres yours.

Mine has been posted.

With Aussie post.

i bet you were too tight to pay for express:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

you must be a pisces JAK….

…..as tight as two fish:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

[Adrian LeeMember]

menace wrote:

Quote:

Adrian wrote:

Quote:

And where is garfields ride report,that should be a good one:laugh: :laugh:

how could you have possibly missed it Adoe;)

so wheres yours, at least some favourite parts of the weekend;)

Highlight of the weekend was the two deer that greeted me at the front gate on friday night,would need an elephant gun to bring those two down.Bob testing the depth of the river on foot still brings a tear to my eye every time i think of it.not a very well known act but Tim did a nudey run on friday night upstairs and then put on his own puppetrie of the penis act on his bunk,and you wonder why we didnt want to go to sleep.he had us all worried.Bob coming back from his and Tims brokeback adventure and yelling out`f**king KTMS i had to use all my bandaids to keep him going.And of course menace creating his own language around the fire friday night and then snoring while he was awake.I could go on forever it was a very funny weekend.

[drewMember]

Friday:

after being introduced to all that were arriving for the friday test and tune.

we headed of up “apprentice hill”. ( so named because we reckon that if you could not climb it you had to stay and hold down the home front).

we followed the track out into the big wide wonderful world of state forest along Three Chain Track to the first intersection where we turned the opposite way Brian said would be best for some of us ( newbies ) to get the hang of riding hills with rocks and ruts.

we were getting steeper inclines and bigger rocks and more erosion ruts, and i was concentrating on just staying in Smurfs shadow, i bet JAK was thinking what on earth he’d gotten himself into, riding sweep and watching me fumble and bumble my way up the climb sections.

then Smurf got cross rutted and the DRZ did not want to play nice and tested his armour. JAK helped me give a hand and Smurf was straitened up to fly right and the DRZ must have submitted as it knew it had been tamed and obeyed his command for the rest of the ride.

the climb got a little steeper and more “technical” until we gathered at the intersection where we were to find the decent, which we intended to ride down the climb we just conquered.

i was thinking to myself how cool is this! i’m doing something i’d never done before and doing quite well i thought!

we rode a decent that was intended to be the climb to the technical section.

we all descended without incident passed a 4wd and some thought if you hear a “Ping”, duck an pin it to some thick scrub, further down the hill we passed an empty camp just before crossing a raging river, um well it was as close as we were going to get on the Friday, it was a creek about bash plate deep and 1 1/2 bike length across which lead to a nice climb back to the first intersection where we took the wrong turn earlier.

where on a quick discussion we decided ti do the ride in reverse, well the way we thought we were to go the first time, except for smurf who would wait our return.

all went as well as when we rode it the first time. we joined with smurf once more to descend to the Home Station Lodge where we were met by Brian with platers of hot food to top up on until his Banquet in a bowl.

between the top up and bowl de banquet, we lay hold of some refreshments and headed to the “Circle of truth” to keep the fire under control.

some of us thought it a bright idea to see how long we could abstain from sleep,

some new foods were invented while Sheryl tried to Shoooosh us so the other’s would not be woken from their beauty sleep:laugh:

i retreated to the “dungeon”, fired up my CPAP and thought that being in an insulated box i’d get away with just curling up in a sheet. i don’t know how long it took for my body temperature to drop until i could not bare it and stumbled out to the drying room to retrieve my doona and soon was as happy as an old bull on a sweet single track, and it seemed only like a nano nap and there was a thundering knock on the door accompanied with a call” Breakfast is up come and get it!”

end scene one

[drewMember]

Saturday morning, Act 2, scene 1:

After the breakfast summons was served. we all silenced the hunger pangs with bacon, eggs and snags and toast for those not wheat intolerant.

after all the 1 day worriers had unloaded, Brian clued us up on where to head for some mixed riding of fire trails and single track. we lined up for an OBT banner paparazzi opportunity all made our way to the apprentice hill bypass, where sadly only a few minutes into the ride smurf’s DRZ refused to submit and obey as it had all the previous arvo:(

the rain over night had added a mix of slip “n” slide into the rocks and steep climbs.

the rest of the more fortunate made their way along what had been ridden the day before. once at the 3 chain link trk and the Howqua trk where we turned right just before looking at a single line up a hill which by the time it was my turn to wind my way in the lead riders had sussed it too slippery to gain head way and all made their way back to the intersection.

we followed the howqua trk a bit then rode the single track parallel to the formed road.

where JAK filmed some of what he has posted, we came across a fallen tree that was so slippery that you could not even push your bike over unless someone helped by standing on the other side and pulled the front wheel over. we trekked until we found the howqua trk again and cruised to the next fire track and tried to stiffer dog track the lead group by looking for knobby prints in the wet dirt road, which we found them waiting while a scout headed back up the howqua hills road.

on return of said scout Mr No Nonsense Spidy laid down the law :pinch: thereafter we stayed as one group.

some consulted the map and lead where to go, we were heading for Sheep yard flat.

we gathered once more at an intersection with 4 ways to choose from ( “stay off the grass clearing “), the way was decided upon and all disembarked, i thought to follow Menace up a slight incline to rejoin the bike conga line, where i stopped just short of a very small drop off, at this point Katie decided i needed a refresher course in Agronomy 1.0.1.

i was wrenched to the ground by my left arm where my shoulder and head drove into the ground, at this slo mo time line i felt like i had been subject to one of JAK’s step over cock lock slams.

i righted Katie, remounted and nodded to the riders as they slowed to see if i was able to continue. a short ride later we found our way to the river and inspected if we could cross and it was too fast and deep. again we conferenced and followed the river weaving past camps and historical huts, and found this convenient structure called a bridge,

then followed the road until we hit a closed road gate, upon inspection it was unlocked however after discussing that we had not long seen the Parks Ranger and thought it best to turn and go back to the intersection.

whilst attempting a flick u-turn Steve got caught up in a clutch lever shot his bike over the side of the hill, with his WR coming to rest about a bike and a half length down the hill. MickP unrolled a load strap to haul it back to level ground,>>i remembered saying to Stevie “just ride it to the bottom and turn round and ride back up again”<<<< Then i made my way to help Steve get his WR tyre side down, mirror side up, at this point i was only any good as a wheel chock to stop it rolling backwards. JAK helped no end by snapping a few mug shots, Adiren and Mickp and another ? who’s name escapes me handled whinching duties while Steve held the bike upright and i made sure it did not slide down hill.

now all right side up and firing under our own steam we rode back to “stay off the grass” intersection where Menace, (psyco)Bob the unstopable conversed with the nice ranger lady and here not so attractive parks mate gave Menace the 3rd degree=m where ya from, what ya do etc.

all agreed it time to make our way back to the Home station via the route we just had negotiated. while en route with JAK sweeping we came upon Tobes righting his Berg with Mickp overseeing.

descending on of the hills i had a “moment” after the rear wheel skipping over a grapefruit sized rock, and thought here we go over the bars, however i stayed on top and in some sort of control. and we made our way passed the camp site where the campers were back to see us cross the creek mentioned in Friday’s post,

followed 3 chain link track back to Brian’s veranda dinning table where we refuelled riders and bikes. Stevie decided to sit out round 2 of Saturday’s ride.

menace asked me if i was up to riding, i said i would set off with the rest, but if worst comes to worst i’d have to turn around and come back.

I’m somewhat glad i held in for as long as i did! as if i tried to return on my own it could have gone bad real quick!

[JohnMember]

Good work xy.

Aaaah reliving it all over. (well one and a half days of it for me)

Always good to read about things from someone else’s perspective.

[BradMember]

what is it about melbourne people and signs. Adrian nearly had his bike resting against the warning sign. Menace was’nt much better.:laugh:

[drewMember]

Act 1, scene 2

we rode back to the 3 chain link track where we turned to the right and descended down what would in a few hours time become XY hill.

it was mostly 4wd tyre sized ruts and basketball, cricket ball and every thing ball size in between, all made it to the T intersection were XY hill and XY pass converge,

we headed to the left away from the T and meandered down while showers of rain made the mix of rocks erosion ruts more “technical”, we passed some 4wder’s and followed the track until we happened to find the river where Brian thought we might be able to cross, depending on how much it had risen with the rain since Brian had looked at it a week or 2 prier.

Bob the unstoppable decided to brave the cold torrents 1st where he was stopped by the depth, and after entertaining us with his scuba kick start attempt. he thought to walk the depth to find a hole we thought too deep to cross. where Bob did his best to keep his manhood high and dry, there were chants and calls of “wind the windows down”, “oh,oh now wind em back up”, “work them bingo wings, BINGo”.

now back under full control of his limbs he pushed his WR to higher ground and started her and let her idle to warm up again while he emptied his boots, where i thought it a bright idea to hold it over his bike’s pipe to warm them up.

at this point i had a revelation while looking over Chop’s Berg 570, to discover it is no more than an over grown Postie with some attitude.

Bob suited up again Tim (Trumpet bum) scouted down steam to see if there was a place to cross the river, to find that there was an island and reckoned it was passable, where he and Bob crossed to the island and psyced each other up to cross the deeper stronger flowing wider section of the river. Bob made it in one go, Tim took a slightly different line and all but drowned his brand spankin Kato 450, he got all bar 2 bike lengths from being a hero the 450 stalled, Tim fired it up on the button pumping out a steam cloud from the back wash of his wake.

Bob and Tim roosted around looking for a way to get back to where Bob was gauging the depth, but they could only be heard to climb what was a gnarly snotty hill.

they returned to the crossing they conquered to beckon us to follow.

the remainder of us played deaf, blind and dumb= mute. and watched them ride off.

we decided it best to head for home station. meanwhile the rain had made the tracks more “interesting”.

we climbed back toward the T intersection of XY hill and XY pass.

coming down one stretch i spotted one loudly clothed individual on his European Pit bike “stumped”, later we found that he’d come down a bit hot and got off line.
not long after all had rounded me up again i found the going tough not being to fight a head strong Katie with only one arm, GOb and JAK kindly helped me make my way to XY intersection where i misunderstood Menace and Jak’s calls/ gestures to STop! and tried to keep my momentum, only to loose grip, direction and momentum.

back to those gathered at XY T intersection for another attempt, only to end up in the exact same spot.

after being caught by a super hero, and steadied ta the T. Menace thought to scout out what was behind a gate that had one of Brian’s “Why rough it” signs, to return moments later to announce “it’s your lucky day drew!”.

i rounded the gate flanked by a Spidy sweep until i was pointing the right way back to home station. Menace returned to an awaiting JAK to conquer XY hill.

i rode past home station to climb back to the top of XY hill’s start to await my knights on dirt bikes, only to happen upon the rest of the group descending back to home, and to be instructed by Mickp “this way young fella”.

we all congregated at the bike port to dismount and talk over how quick it was to take XY pass over XY hill.

shortly joined by Jak and Menace to be informed that they could not get traction to climb “killer hill” now known as XY hill.

after devouring Brian’s “filler” snacks we consumed ( meanwhile Menace paced like an expectant moderator, debating how long to wait before heading up a search party for Bob and Tim. the jokes ensued of how they’d have to take one grip heater each and who would be the 1st to overcome the awkwardness of asking to huddle up for warmth until day break) refreshments before enjoying some spag bol and talking up how the pool comp would start when the dutch courage would have emboldened us enough to chalk up some cues.

once the table was set the sledging and name calling ensued.

some asked how much pool had i played, i informed them that i had played in the local pub comp, however i neglected to divulge that i never won:P but i had played.

after some games i could not fight the mental, physical and emotional fatigue that the days ride had burdened me with. i once again retreated to the dungeon to mask up with my life support to relive in my minds eye the days events until i entered the land of nod.

end scene.

[Author]

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