Why Take A Knife To A Gun Fight?

I have been really enjoying this Easter break. I am well rested and healed up from weeks of non-stop hustle, the weather has been perfect and I have managed to get in some relaxing, mind clearing rides.

In fact, yesterday I was up before the sun and at first light hit a couple more laps of Wallum Froglet and Resurrection here in Cornubia. Only 10 kilometres (6 miles) of riding but with nearly 400m of climbing, I was buzzing.

That was until later on in the day when I took the kids for a ride and the rear shock on the Trek decided to blow up. Bugger. I was going to take that bike to Mt Joyce today! Did I say Bugger?!

In all truth, I have had a sneaking suspicion that all was not well with my rear end for a while and the Flyboy maintenance policy (ride it till it breaks!) reaped the seeds that were sown months ago. On the upside, it didn't blow 5 kilometres into the Mt Joyce ride.

What does this all mean? Well, the hardtail 29er had to be the weapon of (reduced) choice for today. Visions of me going over the bars because of the tall seatpost flitted through my mind. The down hills were going to be a bit more sedate as a result.

We had a very sensible meeting time of 7:30 and if the fog remnants were anything to go by, an earlier start would not have yielded much visibility.

It was a pleasantly cool morning, but that didn't last long as you are straight into a climb at Mt Joyce no matter which direction you go. We decided to hit the single track for the climb, rather than the fire road. Something about warming up first?

Up the hill, then back down Bovine Groove. I was missing the rear suspension and also the visibility. The trail is a bit over grown with looong grass and there is a narrow 8-12 inch clear trail to ride on. Definitely got my attention down there, as well as JR who took a jump a bit too quick, botched the landing and had lots of red stuff on his knees and elbows. He said it was to match his red Merida....but I am not so sure.....

We then headed over to some gentler trails that I cannot recall the name of. (All of the trail maps, officially provided, just have trail numbers, not names) but they were trail 9 and 10 on the map. Some great flow on these trails with small climbs and fun descents.

It was then up the fire road and across the ridge to Blackrock, a black diamond trail.

 As most of us were on hardtails, there wasn't exactly a rush to be first down the trail. Once underway though I found that there was a defined line to ride. Last time I was here, just after Mt Joyce opened, the trails were new and it wasn't very obvious which line to take on the more technical features. Once I realised this, I eased up on the brakes and let the XTC have it's head. I think everyone really enjoyed this trail.

Another loop around trail 10 and it was time to head for the cars via the shore line track. This trail was cut in places as the level of the lake is still very high, but it isn't an issue as you can just jump back onto the fire road for these bits.

So, it was great to catch up with some familiar faces and to put some names and faces to online aliases. I can't wait to get the Trek fixed and head out to Mt Joyce soon, with the weather cooling nicely now.

I found that I didn't need my gun at all. My knife may not have taken down a Black R(hino)ock, but it certainly carved up the rest of the trails very nicely thanks.

Mountain Biking: What Is It?

I really have not had much to post about lately.

The building work here at home has taken up a lot of my spare time, work also makes it presence felt with a bit too much of this..

(yeah, I am sure they saw us too at 36 000' ???)

 ...and the weather simply has NOT been sympathetic toward MTBing since about November last year. However, we have just had three, yes count them, three glorious day of sunshine. I let the first two days go through to the keeper. Actually, I went for a road ride on day two but that doesn't really count! After these two trail drying days, for day three I organised a MTB and catch up ride at Gap Creek with Dean0.

The plan was to meet at his place in West End and ride up over Mt Cootha to Gap Creek. Sounds simple enough. I have wanted to ride over Mt Cootha for a while now and had considered doing it on my road bike as it is a sealed road but after almost not having a low enough gear on my MTB I have new found respect for all the roadies that ride this hill regularly.

We dropped of the sealed road into Kokoda, thinking that it would lead us nicely into the Gap Creek trails. Wrong! It was almost straight bloody down. I am comfortable enough with my sexuality to admit that a portion of this trail was walked down! It was a certain blood loss award for anyone that tried to ride it on our bikes and I haven't tasted gravel in about a year, so no need to start today!

The first bit of single track we hit was on the right just off Beilby Rd. I think it is called Cubberla Creek Trail, but I am not sure. It is a nice little sinewy length of flowy single track that is looking particularly green and lush at the moment. I had Dean0 riding behind me and was thinking that I need to keep the pace up so I do not hold him up too much. It is just the Kind,Understanding,Nice Type of guy I am.....Anyway, pushing fast..ish on a trail that I don't really know after not riding single track for literally months is only going to end one way. To have some honor I almost wish it had happened at a reasonable clip! Unfortunately I was almost stopped, negotiating a tight right bend around a tree with my weight too far forward.............




The end result was many laughs had by my riding "colleague" and no damage to myself, but some strange shifting from my Trek. On closer inspection we noticed that the derailuer hanger was a bit bent. While a slight inconvenience, it posed no major issue as I dug into my Camelbak for the hanger that I had carried around for the last three years, waiting for just such an occurrence. My impeccable upbringing stopped me from uttering what I was thinking as I fitted the hanger only to find that the thread on the end of it was different!! Who would have thought that the same model bike, just a different series (Trek Fuel EX 8 and 9) would have different derailuer hangers????????? Bugger!! On to plan "B" then. Just don't shift down to granny gear or the spokes will eat the derailuer.

And that is how we rolled on. The hills were a bit of a slog, but the downhill was just as much fun. We covered all of the Gap Creek trails that were open and then headed back to West End for brunch.

On the ride back toward food, chatting with Dean0, it hit me what I have been missing this year. It has been the regular rides with the guys that are fun to be around. It is the social aspect that I have been missing. There have been almost no "Regular Wednesday Morning Daisy Hill Rides" due to the rain turning the Daisy Hill trails to slop. I thought I was missing the riding and was wondering why it has been so hard to get up in the early mornings and do a solo ride. The answer was suddenly so obvious! While I love the riding in the bush for all of the enjoyment and de-stressing that it brings, I also enjoy the banter, jokes, tech talk and laughter (especially crash induced) immensely and have missed it these last four months or so.

So, at the risk of offending the rain gods and returning to seven years of drought, I sincerely wish this rain would P#$$ off for a while so that the southside regulars can catch up for a few weeks and do what we really enjoy doing....living the Mountain Biking Life.