Ride Report Toolangi 9th of August 2009 by Brad McDiarmid.
After the wild wind and rain on Friday we had been delivered a fine weekend for riding and the Sunday was no exception. It was about 5 degrees at the start and there was a stiff breeze blowing as the 22 riders geared up. Leo had a new CRF450 which a few of us had a go on, what a nice ride which a sweet sounding pipe.
Wade had a chat about the corner man system and some views on how the ride might go. We headed up Monda where our first retiree was Mark having left the radiator cap off his Berg! We explored some tracks and found a nice one to warm up on with a slippery exit into Siberia Junction for a short break.
Wade put us onto a great loop and we explored some tracks, many were covered with downed trees and branches a combination of the fire damage and the winds. Many of the trees in the areas are completely dead and will never recover possibly due the incredible heat of the fire. We got over or around most of the fallen trees going as far as possible before turning around and heading back for another loop and off to our first challenge hill which eight riders made it up and back down for a regrouping. Headed off down a road which was patched with multiple sections of crushed boulders, (probably for the logging trucks) these took some getting used too and no one got a flat tyre.
The second challenge hill no one got up, we went round to a track which that was proceeded by a slight downhill of some red glass which everyone managed to negotiate our skating techniques were tuned in now. Heading up the slushy mud track, down the other side, navigate round some big puddles at the bottom then lunch after about 70 K’s.
Lunch was superb at Narbie (recommend the Burger or the Steak sandwich) were we were able to fuel up the thirsty beasts. As we were heading out we had a visit from Peter and Paul who were on there way to seek retribution for Peters broken leg, taking a chain saw to that nasty branch.
The afternoon trails were great as we headed back up Rouch Rd and Wade weaved his way until we reached a massive puddle/bog hole most went around and about five found a way through washing a fair bit of mud of their machines in the process. Reaching the third challenge hill we all got up and then headed back down getting onto the previous second challenge hill this time coming down it which was like a red slide towards the bottom. This put us onto a magic narrow track on the way back to the cars that topped off the day. All the bikes ran pretty good with one bike having some plug fouling on the day.
In all we covered 120Km and finished around 5pm, thanks to everyone who was on the ride and especially Wade, Leo and Marc for their Leading and Tail man duties. It was a great day back to an area where I first started riding and learnt to respect that red clay which comes off but seems to leave an orange tinge on everything might have to wash the beast a second time with truck wash!
See the AMTRA web site under Gallery, Ride Pictures for all the pictures I took on the day and this link will take you to some video from Chris posted on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev-jYDeuiQ8Ride list:
Wade Evans KTM450 Ride Leader
Leo Giannini CRF250X Morning Tail man
Marc Hoogendoon TTR250 Afternoon Tail man
Marc Le Brun CRF450
Brad McDiarmid WR250F
Darrell Clarke WR450
Andrew Payne WR250
Timothy Weigall WR250
Martin Holgye Gas Gas 300
Daniel Heron WR250
Mark Clarke FE550
Chris McCran WR450
Niall Firld WR250
Scott Dorman KTM300
Rob Copsey KLX400
Greg Jeffery WR450
Nic Jeffery KTM200
Ross Ranyard CRF450
Michael Royce KTM300
Mick Reiter XR600
Bruce Yoshimura-Hill TE310
Andrew Rose KLX450
