[Mick DMember]

Now my head has cleared a little and I have gone over the weekend some of the highlights and memorable moments for me were in no particular order.

1.The Usual pre ride shed gathering on Thursday night
2.Meeting new members before the rides
3.The pea soup fog at Comboyne and trying to find my way across the paddocks
4. battling with young Sam in the sweet section of singles at Elands
5. Snowy’s greasy gully of doom.
6. Seeing the two big black snakes doing the rumba
7. Hunting along as fast as I could go on Knodingbull road,thinking I am the fastest rider in the world, only to have Moose and crash round me up.
8. Dickies big highside off on the Elands road
9.Nearly highsiding my bike on the dry tar 30 meters from home.
10. catching up with everyone at the RSL.
11. everyone lined up under the awning in the pissing down rain on Saturday
12.lying to Snowy about how easy the rest of the ride was going to be…hahahah
13.Adam,doing a face plant in Murph’s lap
14. making it back to the farmstay after the morning loop
15. Seeing Crash jump an XR600 further than they should be jumped!!!
16. Heading out on the arvo loop thinking “this is ridiculous”
17. how good the riding in the arvo loop turned out to be
18. getting back after the arvo ride and enjoying a beer at STM’s ute
19. only dropping the XR once after over 400kms for the weekend
20. the cracker night at The Bago tavern, the band was great.
21. Waking up Sunday feeling better than I deserved.

Thanks everyone, some of these memories will stay with me forever!!

[Mick DMember]

You’d be beaker Jeffro. He has more hair than the professor.

[Mick DMember]

Just so everyone knows, at my birthday ride we charged $25 for lunch and breakfast.

The actual cost of which was $22.50 per person. This left us with a small profit of $65.00 to donate to a charity of my choice. Barry Breckenridge gave me an additional $135 out of his own pocket to round it up to a neat $200.
He then sold a fold up chair that was left behind last year after no owner could be found. That gave us an extra $20.

So this morning the money in its entirety was donated to Beyond Blue in memory of a few mates that are no longer here due to depression.

[Mick DMember]

No worries Owl 02, the single that caused all the problem isn’t normally as wet as that. It was freaking greasy,probably the greasiest trail I have ever seen. It was a challange to everyone on Friday. Moose is a good man, that is why we run him at the back as sweep. Dont worry about any percieved hold ups mate, everyone needed a rest after Snowy’s Greasy trail of Doom.

Yeah we got Allan’s tyres sorted

[Mick DMember]

AS I said before, upon arriving back from the Saturday morning quagmire ride, the 60km of the morning and the 260+ kms from the day before (not to mention the dozen or so schooners at the RSL) where starting to take their toll on me and I couldn’t have cared less if no one was keen to ride the afternoon.

I had some lunch and a can of Coke and kind of got a second wind and was half keen to go again. Twenty riders were keen to go out again,so assembled in the rain we headed off, little did they know the lead rider, at that stage hadn’t exactly made up my mind were to take them.

Knowing the crew I had following, I realised I had a group of very good riders hot on my heels and the pressure would be on for the entire afternoon. In order to space the group out I tried hitting a main trail first and gave the 650 all it was worth trying to put a bit off a gap on them, that didn’t work. I then jammed a bit of single that I know really well into them to try and gap them, that didn’t work either and I could hear the ring a ding ding of Gasits 300 on my tail. So I reserved myself to the fact that the arvo ride was gunna be fast, real fast.

I then led them up onto Bago via a sweet hill that we had already done twice that morning. That had the boys hooting and hollering as it was awesome fun.
From there we hit the She Oak trail,which is a great little single that goes forever up a hill towards the face of Bago. We then dropped down the southern side of Bago into Ducks Knob and Little Jurrassic Park before heading back up onto the range towards Comboyne, where we then hit a trail we have Christened “Madam Lash” as you get constantly whipped by Lantana. Very few blokes at this stage, still had their goggles on as it was that wet and steamy, so nearly all of us had blood coming from wounds inflicted by the scourge that is Lantana. A quick run up to Quarry road saw us in some open high speed singles that lead to Rock Knob where I lead them down a secret trail through dense bush, in here you have to be on your game as there are angled logs strewn every where ready to catch you out. A very fast run through more open single finds you back at the Banana hut and dropping down into Cedar Creek. The other group had been through earlier in the day and opened it up a bit. The thick green grass we know as “Mystery Grass” had been flattened and allowed us to rip through there at an alarming pace,the greasy hill up out of there was fun. One minute you are ripping through lush rainforest, the next you are dealing with a mad rocky down hill again.
Another run up the South side of Bago found us at it’s most Eastern peak that has an endless rocky down hill that is always a challenge. Once at the bottom it is a matter of about 2kms of main trail back to Breckenridge. We arrived back absolutely shagged but pumped after such a good workout. Not one hold up in 80kms of trail, saw us back after about 3 ½ hours, a couple of cold beers sitting around STM’s ute finished it of nicely.

The plan was then to hit Bago Tavern as they had a band on for the night, what a great night that turned out to be, a hens night supplied some more entertainment as the OBT boys checked out what was an exceptional array of eye candy for Wauchope. No sooner did I have a sip on my schooner there was another full one lined up ready to go. Thanks Boys. The band and all the pubs patrons sang me a rendition of Happy birthday and that topped off what was a great couple of days. Who bought me that can of Jim Beam?? A mistake that was!!!!!!! I don’t remember leaving the pub.

A few people need to be thanked for their help in putting the weekend together.
My main man Moose, is a great helper as he sweeps nearly every ride we do, a thankless task to say the least. Thanks Buddy.

Kram for his help with the rider rego.

Lyndsay (Old Mate) for sweeping as well.

Brown for leading the other group Saturday Morning.

TB for keeping the thread up to date.

Breckenridge farmstay, Barry and Shirley went out of their way to ensure everyone was fed. We raised $65 for a Charity of my Choice and then Barry gave me another $155 towards it, in a great gesture. So we ended up with $220 for charity and I have chosen to donate it to Beyond Blue for various reasons.

A big thank you to all you guys who made the trip to Wauchope and made my birthday the great weekend it was.

[Mick DMember]

Post whore!! :laugh:

100,000 posts unbelievable, I remember the days when we would sit there wishing some one would post. Now sometimes I wish they would just shut up…….:laugh:

[Mick DMember]

Dragged my sorry arse out of bed Saturday morning way before daylight and Crash, Chicken and myself sat on my back deck having a coffee, when a gust of wind blew up from the south closely followed by a torrential down pour. I straight away knew that because the bush was already pretty wet this rain was gunna make things interesting to say the least.

Undeterred, we kitted up and headed to Breckenridge to meet up with the rest of the crew, when I arrived, the farmstay was a hive of activity with blokes arriving, eating, kitting up or walking around scratching their nuts. The rain continued to belt down and some guys didn’t look keen at all and it was obvious that some were going to pull the pin.

I set Kram to work, doing the rider registration and taking payment for the catering thanks for that Kram as it made things a bit easier for me. There was also a few NO SHOWS as well on the list. This threw a spanner in my works as I then had to try and sort out two new groups. This actually gave me the shits and in future I will do things differently when setting up another big ride. Payment for the catering,up front, in future, or no getting on the list. We catered for 40 and just over 30 turned up, at this stage I was wondering why I even bother.

Everyone was kitted up ready to go and it was still pissing down rain.

The loop I had worked out had a few nasty little hills in it, so I had to work out a way around them to avoid any carnage and trail destruction due to the wet weather. As it turned out our group ripped along nicely considering the conditions, there was one hill that had a bit of carnage on it as there was a small log across it and as I waited at the end I could hear all sorts of revving and snorting coming up from the valley.

This pic will give you an idea of the sort of trails we rode.

We then headed down into the valley and played in a tight rainforest section and the humidity was getting extreme

So back into the hardwood section of Bago we went, there was another hill climb in there to negotiate, the steep little pinch at the top had a small log across it that rattled a few riders. The lead rider came to grief here after successfully getting over the log he had a gumby moment and rode into a big rutt and got stuck within a meter or so from the top.

I had to go back down and have another go at it and did the same thing again, this time dropping the XR and getting stuck under it. At this very moment Chicken sticks his ugly head up from out of the long grass and asked if I wanted him to ride it up for me, between gasping breaths I managed to tell him to get F**ked.

I eventually got to the top where everyone was taking a breather waiting for the stuck riders to get to the top. This is where we noticed a bike had a flat tyre, so while they set to work fixing the flat Old Mate (Lyndsay) lead a few of the real keen guys through a short loop while we waited.

From there we made our way down into Huntington towards the famous Ruttzilla, a nasty rutted little pinch that actually looks worse than it is. One more trip up and over Bago had us almost back at the farmstay, we had a little bit of main trail to do to get there. This main trail has two perfectly formed erosion mounds which I saw Crash hit at some ridiculous speed and he jumped further and higher than I have ever seen a XR jump before. It was awesome to see, well done Crash!!

We arrived back at the farmstay wet and tired as I found the last 10km’s of the ride I was so fatigued that I was riding my hardest just trying to keep my bike upright such was the treacherous conditions. I looked around and saw a majority of the guys were out of their ride gear and I thought that they wouldn’t be keen for the afternoon loop, which suited me fine as I was rooted. I had a rude shock coming. There was a group of hardcore dudes that were chomping at the bit to get back out there. In hindsight I am glad we went back out again as it was probably one of the fastest and best trailrides I have ever had. I will do a report on the arvo loop later.

[Mick DMember]

What a great couple of days riding and having a social drink with some great blokes!!

Thanks to all who came and had a ride regardless of how shitty the weather got on Saturday morning. Those who piked it really missed out on some great fun!!!

Here are some pics from the weekend, I didn’t get many photos on the Saturday ride as the humidity played havoc with my camera and it kept fogging up..

Tyres R us

Friday morning the weather looked ominous

It cleared up ok for the start of the ride.

First rest break at the Banana hut

The crew at Comboyne Rock

The fog really rolled in thick at Comboyne and made navigating across the paddocks a little difficult to say the least

We eventually found our way through the fog to Elands to top up with fuel

We had a quick stop at Ellenborough Falls

There was some” Adventure” on the ride when we started hitting some sweet single trails

Looking back up the greasy hill into the Valley of doom

We eventually got to Gingers Creek for Lunch

Dickie took to opportunity to have a power/nanna nap

From there the pace back to Wauchope was hectic so I had no time to take anymore pics.

More on the weekend later.

[Mick DMember]

Wanna hope the trailer dont catch fire, they never put it out!! :laugh:

[Mick DMember]

There have been a few last minute pull outs, which means there is a spot or two up for grabs if anyone is keen.

[Mick DMember]

We had another half inch of rain last night and it is still raining. There is a Adam’s family cloud hovering over Wauchope dumping its load, so you guys can expect to do some slippin and slidin. :woohoo:

[Mick DMember]

I am not stressing TB, I am going riding and a heap of dudes are just following me at their own free will. Just need an idea how many other dudes will be out on the same trail as me. They might want lunch or fuel at the pre organised vendors of the said products and if said vendors have an idea of how many proposed customers they may have in one foul swoop, the faster things might happen at said outlets.

That’s all.
All handy info. For some one going for a ride, with a heap of dudes following.

[Mick DMember]

OK Adam, just help me out here and let me know the riders names for Friday too. Just to give me an Idea of how many guys I am leading…because at this moment in time I have no effffing idea. More than twenty is all I have figured? :unsure:

[Mick DMember]

It has gotten to the stage where I can no longer keep up with who is coming and not coming. :huh:

All I can say to those who are coming, is that in order to enjoy the full experience of Bago, I suggest that you have a new or near new back tyre. It has been raining here and the bush is gunna be a bit wet but heaps of fun. :woohoo:

[Mick DMember]

Get it wrong and she will vibrate herself to bits!!

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