Easter is always a great time of year to go riding. Not too cold, not too hot and with a drop of rain not too dusty. Add in a bit of good company and what could be better. a pity there was not a few more up there but the rest of us had a pleasant long weekend.
I arrived Friday to find that Pat Rose and Lee, Rob Crisp and Dougie, and Willie Graham already there. Cameron and Sandra Stewart and the gorgeous little Poppy turned up in the middle of the night and Damien Smith, Skye and Jacob as late arrivals on Sunday.
Saturday was a bit of a working day. Willie had brought up some substantial metal beams, which we managed to get down to the creek on the mini bike track with the small trailer and Willies 4 wheel thingy. Hopefully we will have a bridge that will stand the ferocity of the water that rushes down that gully on occasions. The track still needs a bit of blackberry clearing and the fence line extension to Cobbler Track is now passable.
Sunday was riding day, we did the Sunday loop of the coming HCR. It is a long time since I have been up Buffalo Range Track and even longer since I have done Goldies Spur. Buffalo Range Track has been renamed Yarrabuck, I think, and the bridge over the Buffalo river at Dandongadale is now open. The Dandongadale Buffalo Divide track is a great hoot. Pat had gone home as Lee had to work the next day.
Monday was cleaning up day and home time for Rob, Doug and Willie. Not a lot to do, Rob mowed a lot of the grass and I pursued my usual pick up rubbish fetish. Broken glass and half burnt beer cans in the ash of fires is a continuing vexing problem.
Tuesday, I had decided to stay over and assist Damien with the guttering on their humpy. Pretty rough, but what do they expect up there
!. Dave had hoped we could cut down the trees indicated by the arborist as needing removal for safety reasons. Damien was a bit more adventurish than the rest of us and we managed to drop a couple, however we did not want to do the big one on the list and it will have to wait for the professionals
But it was time to go. I left at about 2.00 for the long drive home, pleasant enough, except for getting a puncture in the caravan on the Hume highway.
It has been a nice weekend, the block is in prime condition and looks wonderful. However the problem of glass and half burned cans in the remains of fires is worth noting. The camp fire down near the loading ram was particularly distressing. We filled 4 plastic shopping bags with glass and metal. Honestly fella's, the cans don't always burn completely and the glass partly melts into glassy lumps, surely we can do better.
But I know I am just a senile old fogey
.
All for now,
Phil R.
