It was a cool and foggy morning when Onion and I arrived at the Eildon meeting point. We geared up, and were off by 9:00AM with a small group of eager beavers. A short stint down the tar got us onto Mallets track, and we could see straight away that the recent rain had made the tracks a little slippery, but not too bad considering the amount of red stuff we were riding over. We did the usual run, Jerusalem Creek Road to Gap track, then onto 15 Mile Road and Homestead track before hitting the Eildon – Jamo Road. We had a re-group at this point, and Pete was pretty happy with the pace (which I thought was a bit quick!), so we stopped for a long rest and chat. Pete didn’t want to get to Jamo too early ‘cos the pub didn’t start lunch till midday and we were way ahead of schedule!
We headed off again, and blasted up Newman’s track on our way to Mt. Terrible. We stopped there (again) for a short break, and chatted to a couple of 4WD’ers who had camped out the night in the shack. Apparently, one of the boys had left his mattress at home, and had to ‘spoon’ with his mate to keep warm! ....mmmm, cosy! Rob, in the mean time, had noticed a 3 inch nail in his rear tyre. Fortunately it had only pierced through one knob, so no drama there. Off again down Mt. Terible track, onto Polletti track then into Jamo for lunch at the pub. It was chicken schnitzel, chips and gravy (almost) all around, and we settled back with a few (light) beers, and regailed one another with Derek and Clive, and Monty Python sketches.
Sometimes, it seems that 2 and a half hours is not enough time for lunch, but soon enough we were back on the bikes and away. We pretty much followed our tracks in reverse, but this time we went down Danes Spur track and onto Big River road. The pace was still hot, so Pete lead us onto an overgrown, narrow track (it was sign-posted but I didn’t catch it) that was to be the un-doing of the group. Recent storms had brought down many trees, and we were log hopping and diverting all the way. This section was quite slippery and rutted, and we suddenly found ourselves looking up a formidable hill. When I arrived, I saw Karl stopped half way up on one side, and Rob C stopped half way up on the other side. I went straight up the guts, and to my (and everyone else’s) surprise I made it to the top to find Pete, Pat and (the other) Rob C gettin’ ready to help the stragglers. Karl had hurt his arm, so gave his bike to Rob to ride up. Unfortunately, Karl stood behind rob as he gunned it, and ended up with a face full of schmutz! Rob had another crack and got up no problems, Josh got a little ‘creative’, and found an alternate route, and Onion had a couple of cracks, then waited for the mess to clear and tractored up with no further hassles.
Rob C Battles his way up.
Good thing Rob has his helmet off so we can see who he is!
Josh gets inventive!
There's a good reason why we ride up these hills!
Just waitin for OnionWe continued on to Gillets track, and back to 15 Mile road. Then a short squirt down the tar to Jims track, where we checked with Karl to see how his arm was feeling. All good, so back into the dirt to the Mallets track and back to the cars at around 4:00 PM.
A great day (165 k’s) with a great group. Thanx Pete for leading, Rob for morning tail, Mark for avo tail, and Pat for the pics.
(Ride list as above).
