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Brad
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« on: July 24, 2007, 03,03:27 AM » |
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Sunday ride starting at Marginal Road 22th of July 2007.
Report by Brad McDiarmid.
Note: Attached the three photo's below and I put the short video's in the menbers area video section.
We were up for a ride as we had not been out for weeks. Mike and I are newly joined AMTRA members. We joined up on the web after a few introduction rides and as my High Country Ride, AMTRA temporary membership was about to expire.
Turning up and signing the book as members was a more honest way to go, as AMTRA had been more than friendly with their introduction rides, helpful tips and loads of sound advice.
It was a very cold morning at the Marginal Rd car park, hovering around zero degrees as we set off at 9am and headed out with a group of 20. Phil led us on a level one/two ride.
If you haven’t been on a ride with Phil Randall, I suggest you find one on the calendar and come along. It’s well worth the time as his knowledge of the tracks and ability to read the riders’ capability allows him to keep the ride at the appropriate level. Many people on this day were new to AMTRA and several commented on how much they enjoyed the ride, in wet conditions after a lot of rain and some snow over the past weeks.
We did a warm up ride loop on Romax Tk , worth the effort as it got the circulation going, adrenaline pumping and the early ride jitters out of the way. The morning ride progressed north from the car park, not without its troubles, with a few falls in water and minor mishaps on the slippery stuff that our trusty tail man Phillip Windsor cleaned up. Thanks Phil!
We rode with cold hands but loved being out with the smell of winter and friends to share the ride with. We roared on until we did a head count, hang on where are the others?
At the start of every AMTRA ride is a briefing by the ride leader. This should not be taken lightly. One of the questions to riders is “does everyone know the corner man system”? If ‘NO’ it’s explained! In short, the system is the ride leader will put a rider behind him on the corner usually blocking the track we are to ignore and have their bike pointing to the track we are to go down. This continues and we keep going in this way with the tail man collecting the corner men as they come along.
Notes on this system are:
Follow it with understanding; this understanding includes staying on a corner until the tail man arrives no matter how long it takes (light a fire if it’s real long to keep warm but stay there!) stay there but also take note where the ride leader goes off and which track they are eventually headed on. As sometimes a diversion will head bush but return back to a track, then which track can be the question that only the corner man can notice and pass on to the other riders.
Anyway, on the day we had a few corner man issues which all worked out well, plus improved as the day went on as the complete understanding was hammered home.
Attached are the corner man arrival photos and short video.
Ah, lunch where I must say God did not make all bikes equal for fuel consumption, based on each model. When we pulled in for lunch at Glenburn, one bright spark asked how many Kms we were doing after lunch. The reply was 50 and the bowsers became occupied by some but not all.
Lesson here is most AMTRA rides average 100Km plus. We had done 53 Km from 9am to 12.30pm so best to fuel up no matter what even if its only five bucks do it.
AMTRA ride all day so if your riding in the afternoon then fuel up where you have the option. Later in the afternoon as we encountered tough terrain, some riders talked about fuel which never became an issue but lets say “better safe than sorry” when it comes to fuel.
The afternoon was sunny and a warm 12 degrees, which cooled rapidly as we headed for some tougher and more challenging tracks with a ride to the top of the Power lines, with a quick rest after the climb to admire the great views. (see photo and short video attached)
The afternoon ride became harder and subsequently longer as there were many fallen trees across the tracks, which took time to get through. It’s here where teamwork was superb and we got through a lot of obstacles, over, under and through trees until it started to get late and we needed to head home.
Phil led us back the best way home, with snow on the sides of the road it was a fantastic site. Unfortunately by this time the cold had killed the camera batteries so no footage, only the riders know the memory of what was seen, found and encountered on that home stretch. We all got back safe around 5.30pm when it was getting dark, having covered 126Km.
As usual the day was well worth it and we would all get to tell our mates on Monday when they asked the standard question “How was your weekend” with the unexpected reply and a big smile “we were out trail riding”, at which their look turns to envy!
In summary a great ride and thanks to Phil for organizing and leading the ride, the other Phil for his duties as tail man and to the other 18 riders. Some of the riders names I recall were Phil Randall, Phil Windsor, Mike Hobley, Ted Henning, Ruth Butters, Daniel and the author of this report Brad McDiarmid as well as those included in the pictures.
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