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Morning all
I’ve been contemplating starting this exact thread but I’ve been wary that the internet can often distort the tone of the discussion and the last thing I wanted to do was make it seem like I was trying to lay blame on anyone. I recognise that it was a mistake that I made by accident and there was a bit of discussion on Sunday about what could be done to avoid it but really it was a difficult one to pin anything on.
I personally think that vests are a good thing and even more so when you don’t “know” the lead well enough to pick them out in a group and even more so if the lead is going to change through the day. I can say for sure that I noticed people at the river crossing and I believe I would’ve seen if they had a vest on but obviously I can’t say for certain.
I’ve also learnt that I should be more mindful of who it is I overtake no matter what and also be more diligent about riding through intersections without a corner man posted. People make mistakes and we have to accept that and deal with it as best as we possibly can.
As fate would have it, I came across a corner earlier in the day without a posted marker and stopped with my hands in the air so everyone would know I didn’t know for certain and Murph pointed out some tracks so we kept on. With that in the back of my mind later in the day I slowly went straight through the intersection that you guys turned right at after I’d unknowingly overtaken the lead. Most of the track after that looked like river bed with stones scattered all over but I should have realised earlier that I needed to look hard for trails before keeping on. Had I done that I could’ve backtracked to the creek and waited without as much concern for fuel but since I didn’t I’d gone so far I was worried I would run out.
I’m also keen to hear people’s honest view on whether I did the right thing after I realised I was separated. Don’t fear offending me, I won’t learn unless I hear the experienced view.
I had 2 concerns in my mind and could only control one of those. Getting out of the bush unscathed was one and doing what I could to avoid having 20 blokes risking themselves looking for me was the other. I rationalised that I could only control my actions and that a group of 20 would be better at looking after each other than I would be at looking after myself and took the approach of finding the safest way out ASAP.
As I’ve said I backtracked and it turns out that I waited at a couple of sections that you blokes went through but I only waited for about 15minutes because I could only see a single track – not 20 tracks. I don’t blame myself for my actions but with hindsight I feel like maybe I should have gone further back to where I positively knew I was with the group. If I had’ve done that but did run out of fuel I might have sat there out of fuel alone for the night.
But then from the searcher’s perspective, how far do you backtrack once you realise you’ve lost someone but you’re also low on fuel?
I also had it in my mind that given it was getting on for time we must have been heading back to camp and no one would notice I was missing until the group reached camp so maybe I could get back there in time to catch them before they went looking.
I’m glad to see this has become an open discussion, as I said in the other thread this is a free lesson for all of us and if we’re all open enough hopefully we can all benefit.
Cheers.
Haha I forgot hearing that halfway up as I lost momentum a little, I’m surprised you didn’t kick me over when you got to the top
Its better than I thought
Boony does let a quiet one slip at the start but its then followed by more beautiful hill. Keep in mind that this starts at the top of the “greasy hill” vid posted above.*warning: ugly bloke slips out a quiet f bomb at the start
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QssQZwyLx7w[/video]
Funny start to the day that some might have missed. I had plenty of time to get ready on the sunday but was still one of the last ready but I think we may have discovered why I’m so slow. While I was getting ready I was making an effort to re-hydrate since the prior night’s rums hadn’t worked and I guzzled into an energy drink which had me spinning on the spot. While standing in the back of the ute/podium dressing I put my socks on then boots then realised I’d forgotten my pants and knee braces and thought “what a goat, lucky noone is watching” and took them off again and put my knee braces on then put the boots on again :dry: Thinking I may have still gotten away with it I started taking them off again and heard Murph call out that he was glad I reconsidered wearing pants :blush: SPRUNG!!! :woohoo:
I’ve had a flick through Sunday’s ride vids and there’s a couple of good ones in there but it’s funny how you feel like you’re belting it then the vid looks like you’re just cruising :blush: The TM was killing it all weekend and I’m really loving it the more I get to know it. It is still more bike than I am rider but it is really forgiving when you need it and just sucks everything up you throw at it. I’m getting better on the rear brake and as I do it’s a lot easier on the body than relying on the fronts and it’s allowing me to stop worrying about surviving the downhills and start to actually set pace down them.
As I begun to mention in the other thread, from the very start the ride was looooong uphills followed by looooong descents and each was epic in its own way. Both days had a great variety of perfect riding being twin trail or single trail tracks that varied from loamy and tree sheltered to slippery and rutted or dusty and fast! There was at least three water crossings that made your throat salivate and thrown amongst all of that was a bunch of logs, sticks, stones, roots and vines! And to top it all off Henk and Glen(?) led us with a great flow keeping the pulse driving like a jackhammer and Ollie swept like a champ all day. Thanks especially to the three of you for that effort. Thanks again also to Ollie and Trent Lane for organising and accommodating us it truly was an epic adventure.
Diddle made some nice passes through the day that got me going
My grip was pretty knackered but it was so much fun playing with the great riders you just had to keep on through it.Here’s the my story of getting lost as typed up when I got home:
The only thing that I can figure is I overtook the leader when he struggled across a sweet river crossing with bowling ball size marbles scattered everywhere. I think I was concentrating super hard and then stoked to make it across and didn’t notice who it was I passed then it was all open fast sections with no intersections for quite some time and it took quite a while to really realise that I’d separated from the group. I mean you wouldn’t expect it to happen with the corner man system so I kept telling myself they’d be up around the corner but no good. I’d covered quite a bit of ground and came out on Carawirry Cabinson Cabbage tree rd so I doubled back to where the man made reo/fence post bridge was and waited there and couple of other intersections for a while but couldn’t hear any bikes nor could I see evidence that 20 bikes had been through and didn’t want to backtrack all the way to the river crossing because I was low on fuel and didn’t want to get there and not find them plus run out of fuel. I also thought it’d be a long while before they noticed I was missing and perhaps they’d only realise once back at camp so thought it best to look after getting back safe. Riding back was intense.
I headed back out toward civilisation along a fire trail then spotted a sign that said “frying pan creek park” which is Skimmings Gap Rd and after almost having a head on with a 4wd I spotted some bloke working in a compound in the scrub and figured I was best to have a chat and see if I could get some water. He let me fill my camelbak which was completely empty and then gave me directions which included “it’s not a clear road anymore but the bikes use it and it should bring you out on fosterton road right next to the lane’s place”. Nice bloke but it was a bum steer and after riding for about 15minutes I came across a fence covered in barbed wire and had to get my bike past then the road just disappeared and I came out on some bloody hippy compound/dope plantation and thought I’d be shot. Seriously, in the silly state I was in I was completely convinced a Bolivian nutcase was going pop out with an m16! Some understanding but slightly pissed off hippy gave me directions and sent me packing. When I got to their gate I got off the bike and my shroud sticker finally came off so I had to put it in my pack while doing so I noticed that they were coming down the hill behind me in a car so I locked the gate and bolted. I got out onto the road and sat on about 140kph the whole run home only to find the boys had gone looking for me and only Tracey was there. Thankfully diddle had my number and called it and they headed back in about 15mins. Failing that I was refuelling and going to head up to Trent’s place to see if he could get anyone on the phone because Tracey and I couldn’t raise anyone.
Obviously when you’re in that sort of situation you have some ridiculous things go through your head. Knowing that I could make it to civilisation as long as I didn’t run out of fuel I mostly kept worrying that the group would waste all afternoon looking for me or even worse something bad would happen while doing so. I took it pretty easy along the trails on my own and other than the people mentioned I didn’t spot a single person.
All is well that ends well. There’s some lessons in this for all of us but I’ll let the discussion kick off before I soap box.
Thanks again to everyone that helped look for me and some may say different but I don’t believe what happened was anyone’s fault, just a chink in the system that might happen once in a million rides.
