“Nath, how far have we gone?”
Murrindindi 8/5/10 By Al mason
After failing to finish Nath’s last Murrindindi ride, I picked up Tim on the way to Glenburn to make amends. Tim and I arrived at the Glenburn at 8am to be met by Nath, Row, Nick, Justin, Matt and James. After ducking in to the road house for breaky, Steve was just pulling in and fuelling up.
After very brief hellos, we were back in the cars and heading out to the starting point about 10mins up the road and around some corners.
Once everyone was geared up and the mandatory, “will the bike start” tests out of the way nath gave the Amtra speech. With blue skies over head and some fog still about. The group of fresh edger souls headed out to start the loop. I say fresh for the first timers to this loop, as only a few hundred metres up the road the slipping and sliding begins! To the previous runners, the workout that was about to begin was well know! The loop very quickly arrives at interesting and steep little climb, with a maze of ruts containing a very liberal supply of well lubricated tree roots. When I arrived at the base of the hill, I was met with a multi coloured hill? With bikes of all colours and races, laying out various states of “why wont you go up the hill, you
??”
After a short wait and local knowledge on my side, I confidently blasted up the hill. Once at the quarter way mark, I said, “why wont you” you know what I mean. After several short burst of shear brut force and ignorance, I was up and greeted by half the crew. After a while a couple more of the crew arrived, but then only angry animated voices could be heard from below. It was deemed that some help should be sent down. Tim and Row went down to help, and soon everyone was up. Some still swearing, some laying down, some already fitting new brake levers and some just wondering what it was the volunteered for, a short rest was ordered.
We were back under way and the log hopping that would stay with us for the day began. It was then into some overgrown tracks still to be cleared by the DSE and the games could now truly begin! With some very cool gullies to negotiate, all of which had been pre-amoraled. Whilst waiting and watch Steve tackle one of the gullies, I got to witness his spectacular dismount. A quick check for any signs of life, he gave the thumbs up from the gully floor. Preparing to dismount the bike to head down and help Steve, as from the bottom of the gully there is no room to gain momentum for the accent. Steve gave it a crack, and was up with a display of grace and ease. (well ease anyway) We then soon found ourselves, me included needing some assistance on some of the more technical tracks. These tracks are great, but also are unrelenting with no real chance for a rest. But as with all AMTRA rides, when the going gets tuff it becomes a team effort and everyone is helped or dragged through.
Once we regrouped at the end of these tracks back on the main road, the map and the clock were studied. Time. 11am check, 65ks done? 50ks short check. It was then decided that a bit of gravel road burning would be added to speed up the day, to make our BBQ lunch date. Sam (Nath’s better half), Shaz and Coop (my betters) had driven out later that morning to cook us lunch, with cold drinks and some extra fuel for those who needed it. Fuel was not overly needed due to our short cutting, but splash was still taken on board by most due to our very excitable rear tyres and lack of forward momentum.
After lunch and a rest it was decided that nine bikes wouldn’t fit in the back of Nath’s ute, that we should get back under way before we all got to comfy? With that Nath was gone(man on a mission!), and not long after this Steve was forced to retire with bad cramps and headed back to the cars. It was then off to do the roller coaster?
With a few mishaps along the way, we were soon at the roller coaster. Which are a series of hills that once you started, turning back is not really an option. Whilst parked at the top of one hill waiting my turn for the decent and blast up the hill. I got to see Nath coming back down from a failed attempt. “Not good” I thought as he out rides me. Then Row coming back, “Really not good!” I then thought if I see Tim coming back, “im going to set fire to the Yami, and stay warm for the night!” No Tim ,he was up. And one by one most of the crew did to. Some on their second run, some on their third, some on their forth and some just don’t want to talk about it!!(thanks Tim, Row and Justin)
With us all up and rested we were soon back underway, a bit tired as we had now cover 48ks, and it was 2pm. We then got into my comfort zone with some very slick, long climbs with good technical stuff thrown in. It was on these tracks that some of the crew had started to hit the wall, and began to really struggle. With Matt the tail man starting to really shed some wait from the workout he had been having. At the regroup the choice was made to burn up some more of the SEC road til the final couple of tracks home.
With 67ks under our belts we were back at the cars for around 4pm. No complaints were heard for pulling up short, but lots of smiles and thanks to Nath for a great day!! A cold can, some battered bodies and we were all off home.
A big thanks to Nath for his leadership and arraigning lunch a fuel. And to the girls and their little helper for bring and cooking our lunches for the day. And to Matt for his huge efforts for the day as tail man, and the crew for a fun filled day, in some trying conditions. RIDE LIST
Nathan Stott TE310 Ride Leader
Al Mason WR250
Tim Dykes TE510
Justin Mangan WR450
James Creasey CRF450 Crash Test Dummy
Steve Chapman WR450
Matt Creasey CRF450 Tail man
Rowen Smith KTM250
Nick Russo DRZ400
