Saturday, part 2
With bikes, bellies and Camelbaks topped up we set off once more with Bob in tow. Gocman resisted the urge from within to knock down a Schuey and smashed down an energy drink instead. Wise choice young Jedi. Jack stayed behind as he had strained his heart muscle in his soil sampling effort.
We ducked into a bit of ST then cruised some FT till we hit the creek crossing that led to the infamous Erzberg rock blockade that I did on the B’day Sat arvo loop, yes the grade 3 that turned to a 4. A quick look back and all were going well. I have lost a sweep over the side here on one ride but with Gocman bringing up the rear all was good. A couple of easy hill climbs and back onto the ST with a heap of downed trees. Man some Greenies are going to be annoyed.
Cutting across Cupitts, we headed to the ST that Bollocks got smacked on the head with a pine branch. It wasn’t there this time so, good job Bollocks. Our group had a nice pace going but a quick regroup on Dark Corner rode set the scene for some mayhem when we tackled the swampy section heading to my favourite ST from the A4DE. This has to be one of the best pieces of ST in the loamy SC Forest. After a sweet run through here including a fall over from myself while holding Katie and manhandling an errant pine branch from our path, we tackled Dan XR400 Near Heart Attack Hill without dramas. Gocman and Rocket did have a chat to some boys in blue before joining in the fun. We continued along the ST where someone!!!… nearly lost their XR650 down an embankment on the B’day ride. I have a laugh every time I go past that spot. We headed for more ST and stopped at Micks tree Tommo. I made sure that pace had slowed down quite a bit as I didn’t want another incident. Once at Tommo the tree I asked that all riders touch him and send some positive energy its way as a sign of goodwill between us riders and the trees. Weirdness done we tackled a few step ups off the FT and back down again and headed for another boulder strewn hill. I waited at the bottom to sweep the sweep as I was expecting some carnage from the lads on the hill, but to their credit no issues were spoken of. There were tales of riders heading bush to get around the harder section but it’s all good.
Down a rutted slippery hill then we cut across to some nice 2 day ST that took us down through some loose off camber ST with a large log crossing at the end. We had another regroup here and a trail snack time out. A log was placed on the exit of this trail to add abit of difficulty for the others to come. 10 mins later no more bikes were coming and we had 3 to go. Gocman, Marty400 and Clarky were MIA so I told the lads to stay put while I went back up and checked it out. Halfway up I see a new Husky TE449 coming down the hill. Cheeky bugger I thought. Turns out it was my mate Deano from my local bike shop. He and another mate of mine, yes I have lots …I think, saw Clarky and the boys and joined in our group .Great now we had 13. Yikes .I introduced the lads as local pro riders just to add a bit of pressure for them. Turns out Clarky’s bike was steaming a little so he took the opportunity to let it cool and top up on H2O.
We continued on to two other climbs that did not trouble us and the pace was growing, dropping corner men when needed and the day was going swimmingly. Heading for Galeys high side corner the group spread out until I parked up and waited for a small regroup. Two riders in 10 mins, not good. Man I hope that we don’t have another crash incident! Bringing the others back with me at a rate of knots we came to the group all milling around on bikes and trying to explain what had happened. I said “Who is hurt”. Axels’ pride was the answer. He had broken his chain on the torque spewing monster KTM300. Plans were underway with Pauloco7 towing Axel back to camp. I was a little confused as they just took off and I was unsure if we all needed to go back or not or if he knew where to go?
Everything was sorted so we got stuck back in and headed to Slate Hill, home of the steaming Katie’s. Rocket charged into the fray like a man that does not have any hills in his local area closely followed by the rest of the troop. This is a great hill that really gives you a workout and if you muck it up and stop, you get more of a work out. Once at the top I waited for Gocman to arrive, gave him a minute then asked if he was right to go, as always he says “yep all good”.
More ST followed and more trees across tracks made life interesting at the front. I was making good speed but I heard a 4st gaining on me and I knew it would be Deano my mate. I let him go and followed. If you remember the Disney cartoon with the Tassie devil, when he gets mad, he goes into a whirlwind and wreaks havoc, which was what I was looking at in front of me. When he stopped we chatted about all the trees down and he said “stuff the trees”. Ok then.
Another two hill climbs passed under our wheels before we regrouped. Bob said that was easy done so I asked him to go and check on Gocman who was sweeping. A few ifs and buts passed before we heard the mighty 300 purring its way up the hill. Deano asked me if I wanted a ride and I said do campers use the woods as a toilet! Once Gocman has his breather we set sail for camp. I figured we had about 30mins of light left and we were going to use them all. Logging has taken out a lot of good ST in the area and this is when I “had to make a new track” when the old one disappeared. I saw a swampy bog section through some blackberry and cut straight across it on the mighty 449, which was never troubled by the goop. Pulling up on dry ground to watch the mayhem it was like the swamp creatures from the deep. The some unsuspecting lads namely Marty400, got a little too close to the rear tyre of the swamp creature in front and had an early dinner. I was so busy laughing that I didn’t realise that Twobanger had stopped beside me to do the same ,only to do a Lefty and put his foot into a hole and fall over…..onto me and the 449 ,resulting in both bikes and riders on the ground. Well at least it is a demo and I wasn’t the first to lay it over. Heading down the FT I managed to pull a length of Blackberry from my pants before any damage was done.
Cutting loose on the 449 on some ST really shows the awesome way that bike puts its power down. We headed back to 5 part rutted hill climb for an alternative way home ,just to confuse Clarky and to not have to go around all those damned trees. Rocket was keen to go first down the steep ST descent. No harm could come to that.
At the regroup Twobanger let loose with a throw away comment “You are riding much quicker on that than the KTM Galey” .Obviously Twobanger had me confused with someone else. And with that it was his turn on the 449 till we made camp. Cutting into the pines showed just how little light we had left so we blasted through the FT to camp and a big feed.
We were greeted by the sight of Axels KTM having surgery performed by Deejay and TB watching with a Bundy. A Honda chain and very ordinary looking front sprocket were transplanted for the Sunday leg.
The BBQ was fired up and everyone got their meat out for a big cook up. Beers and Bundy’s were enjoyed as well as the bench racing session. The promised rain came and went then came back again throughout the night. With the log of knowledge burning well the rain could not dampen our spirits. Slowly the campfire numbers dropped off until the awesome foursome of Gocman, Marty400, Clarky and I remained. Last drinks were called before Gocman retired to the doghouse, Clarky to the Suby and Marty400 chucked his swag down near mine on the only dry patch of grass around. Well that’s what he said! :huh:
