Level 1 / 2 Neerim Sth 9/6/13

What a day, got in the car at 7am to find the temp gauge saying 6degree, not bad I thought but then once on the Hwy straight to 3degrees and buy the time I was at the Robin hood it was on zero, HTFU Will, the suns going to come out and sure enough by the time the 13 of us were getting on the bikes just after 8.30 the sun was out and although still cool we warmed up climbing sawdust heap trk and then around to de-send lizards which although was muddy there was plenty of grip as the mud was so soft if just grabbed your wheels. We then headed up Billstones were Stick leg Gary took a group of to check out a unused track whilst the rest of did a bit of bench racing at the planned regroup spot.
it was then up to memory lane and down to a track I know as the tree track as there is always trees down on this one but always a hoot to ride and most of the time a way thru, not today so a uturn and back onto Memory and around to beards and right and down and left into one of the foresters tracks but they had turned this into a hwy with the recent logging. Back down beards into one of my loop tracks and then again went to head for the 5 intersection camping area but the 1st track was covered in trees from the foresters so another uturn and then into the pines for the secret hobbit track and onto Paris were we thought we would check if the last lot of trees to come down blocking this one had been cleared, not such luck so another uturn and started heading for the 5 intersections, then I managed to cross rut and some really greasy spot and had a little rest as did Gavin. We then proceeded to the intersections to find they had actually finished the creek crossing there and a nice job had been done with large bits of blue metal rock. Morning tea time and more bench racing.
As it was clear we did not have any level oneners in the group we then headed of up the harder of the 5 tracks for Sweetwater and the fenceline track, we got onto one of my favorite unused tracks and this one was really overgrown since I was last there and so badly we found a couple of new exit points, some found the old way which brings in an awesome gully system but some of us missed that bit, any way once on fenceline we all had fun with the steep rutted decents and we had a regroup at the end which is were we found out how some of the lucky ones did the gully system, anyway once under way we headed around sweetwater to the Stoll intersection.
It was then a toss up between stick leg and myself to which way to head so it was decided to head for Youngs trk which they had been had at work with an escavator on and fixed the steep rocky climb with a nice easy run up, we then headed down hard up hall to find the escavator driver had been playing there as well and did a nice job of derutting that one. Gary peeled off again with a group of 9 this time for another unused trail and we looped around to meet them at the other end. We then headed to Stoll and onto the whoop trk and down to the latrobe river road and to Hawthrons crossing for lunch.
After lunch I asked Zed if he would lead us around a loop he has in Noojee so off we went for a hr or so blast on some awesome trails I cant remember riding before.
Pretty soon we were back at the crossing about 2pm and 1 bike was on reserve and my shoulder was telling me I had done enough for one day and I was a bit unsure how much fuel I might have left so I decided that we would head back on the rd and then if anyone wanted to keep riding after that Stick leg Gary was happy to take them on another loop. Funny once at the cars Gary was the only one wanting to ride some more.. We did around 100klms and its a long time since I have had so many happy faces after a ride, I did ask before the ride why I had so many good riders on a beginners ride and some said it was because they loved me and just wanted to ride with me but the majority said they just wanted an easy ride. Some of it was easy but most of it was not hard just good level 2 to level 2 plus stuff, even the greasy hills still had lots of grip and there were plenty of soft landing spots when one needed a rest from riding like the one I found as I headed of an erosion mound hit the kill switch, the bike nose dived into the hole on the other side so I thought Im getting of this train and found a nice comfy spot to have a rest on the side.
It was awesome to ride with some of my mates I and not ridden with for a while and it was just as awesome to ride with some new faces and I hope we can talk our visitors into joining this great club of ours.A big thanks to Colin for going tail all day and Zed for his guidance around Noojee and to the rest of u for putting up with me for a day cheers and hope to ride with you all again soon. Will.

Will Munro Ride leader Joint
Zeb Colic Ride leader Joint
Colin Pearce Tail person
Gary Clarke
Dennis Dihm
Jason Obrien
Steve Morrison
Greg Spore
Mathew Hallworth
Gavin Leys
Phil Edgecumbe
Scott Haines
Rudi Webel

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