High Country Ride 2008 Saturday
With not a drop of rain falling in the high country in the previous week the Saturday ride was faring up to be a dusty event. Anzac day Friday saw the hoards turn up with all the usual checks of bikes, rego and licences all were shown where to camp. Some a bit later than others.
Matt from All Action Photos was there but looked a little worse for wear. Seems that the ever reliable snapper had managed to fall off and break and arm. Would you believe he still had a smile on his face? Probably something to do with can of bourbon in his other hand.
Hot dogs and dimmies were the order of the day for some while for others it was roasts, steaks or other such gourmet fare cooked in camp ovens and camp stoves. As I heard pass me another bottle of chardonnay from the fridge I began to wonder what the modern dirt biker had become. This year as in previous years some blokes turned up on brand spanking new bikes. Again, complete virgins would be sacrificed to the high country.
There were old bikes and new. In particular one old WR Husky that really caught my eye. Not because it was fast or had factory this or that but because it was super neat and tidy and obviously the subject of an obsession on behalf of it’s devoted owner.
What became apparent as I walked around on Friday night was that everyone called each other “mate” and genuinely meant it. In our modern world 300 men getting together to drink usually leads one goose to want to fight or other such stupidity. Events such as ours appear to be the rare exception.
As Friday night disappeared and Saturday morning poked it’s head over the hills I was awoken buy the wafting smell of bacon. Sure enough it was 6.00am and Bill, Pat and Shirl (and helpers including Ted) were doing what they’ve been doing for the past god knows how many years cooking up a brekky fit for a king, or 300 of them !
With brekky done and a quick visit to the dunny truck over and done (no line for the first time !!!) I went and geared up ready for the ride. We managed to get ready and find our group before heading down for the riders briefing. After the usual blab
telling everyone that this was not a race etc we headed off.
The first thing we noticed on the road was the dust. It got in my mouth, nose, ears and eyes pretty much into every orifice possible. Not wishing to make matter worse we rode in a close formation to try and keep the dust down for our group. Others of course had different ideas riding past and giving us all a good spray !
I slowed to take the left onto Schultz Track just long enough for the guys in my group to catch up. When they did we headed off only and notice the big sign saying photo point ahead. Sure enough one of the Pitboard (
http://www.allactionphotos.com.au/ ) crew was there snapping people coming through the creek. Not prepared to be seen as a wuss I hit it full noise and blasted across the creek making a spray that would make a busted fire hydrant blush, then quickly moved out of the way knowing that others would follow with similar thoughts. Sure enough they did and all of us had to stop and wipe our goggles and everything else before continuing on up the hill to get snapped again at the next photo point.
A left onto Twin creeks track and we had our first casualty Jason’s gear lever snapped after being “landed” on. We put a bunch of cable ties on it so that he could grab it with his toes and headed off. At the bottom of Twin creeks I noticed that my bum bag had split and that I’d lost my engraved Leatherman and set of emergency levers for KTM/Berg.
The leatherman is a Leatherman Supertool engraved with my name Paul Smith in a black leather case. If you find it contact me for the reward !!
We headed off to Beveridges station swapping the lead from time to time to share the dust free run. The climb up pheasant creek track was as usual a rocky and harsh affair where me bike took the opportunity to buck and spit an carry on a bit because I was riding it so slowly. Before we got into some good riding on Gunns, Paddy Hill and Link tracks. Demon Ridge then down into Nolan tracks proved to be a hoot. Perhaps too much so as we had a considerable wait for the rest of the group to catch up.
Mongrel Creek and one more control on Wet Gully road were all that was left between us and Bright. Unfortunately there were also two flats as well. Everyone enjoyed the challenging drop into Bright. After fuelling up we went on to Clear Spot and took the Hard Route. Unfortunately there were only a couple of our group up to that challenge with the rest back tracking and taking the easy track (Wuss Way/Sook St…).
We got to the top and just finished lunch when one of the guys came up and told us that one of the fellas was out of action half way down with a twisted knee. This began an hour an half of getting him out. We sent the 4wd to the bottom of the hill as we were going to try and more him down the hill. It soon became clear that this was not going to happen and that we would need to send a 4wd down the hill for him.
After some up and down the hill trips the fella was at the bottom of the hill courtesy of Andrew Tyler and into Pat Rose’s 4wd and on the way to Wang. His bike was on a trailer in bright and we were ready to continue on. I knew we had been a while because Peter Ross and John Theisz had shown up and were giving us the hurry up. Peter didn’t say much but he didn’t look that happy. Seems he and the hard section had a moment of disagreement that resulted in Peter and pain becoming close partners for a few days. There would be no bitching and moaning from Pete though as he soldiered on.
Demon Ridge and Clear Creek track saw us back at the Buckland Junction before we knew it. With only Scotchmans, Buffalo Range and Camp Creek to go I was just starting to think how well our system was going when I noticed that I had another flat. Only problem was that Scott Dorman was the only fella behind me and he’d already used his spare tube. My other spare was in someone elses backpack up ahead. And what were the chances of him waiting for me on the side of the track somewhere ?
Somewhere between nil and bugger all. With Scott flying wingman behind me ready to apply first aid should I need it I rode with my 100kg frame hanging off the back of the bike. Pulling wheelies over the worst of the rocky sections and looking very hard in the fading light for anything (oh god please anything) to bounce off and keep me on the track.
Thankfully I got back to the block in time to fit a new tube change my filter skin get a shower and another of Dave’s Cook and Carve’s excellent roasts and dive into a long warm Abbeyard shower.
This was of course followed my the usual movies and assorted dribblings about who did what, where and with what power appliances. Then it started raining which is about where my part of this story ends.....
Most of all we did what AMTRA does every time we have a ride.
WE HAD FUN !!
