MARYSVILLE
4 MARCH, 2007
Report by Serge Coffa
The weather report said that Sunday was going to be fine, mild and mainly sunny with a top temperature of 23 degrees.  Finally, a decent day to go riding!  Damian picked me up at 7:00 and we headed of to another of Phabulos Phil’s Marysville rides.  We saw Phil in Ringwood, and thought that while he was behind us, we couldn’t be late.  We made the mandatory pit-stop at Dom Dom, and pulled into the Acheron car park to find it full of starters and that Phil was already there!

29 punters geared up and headed off into the Triangle, with Leo on a test Beta 525 which he was happy to let others try out.  Our first track was the down-hill mountain bike trail.  We, however, went up it, and it quickly got bodies warmed up and adrenaline pumping.  Phil continued the single lane mayhem, and linked together a couple of tight and twisting tracks, till we ended up at the bitumen.  We went down the road for about 200 meters, and turned back into the forest, and continued along some of the usual trails, including the ‘Husa (bog) Hole’.  With no water in it, it actually looks scarier, a bottomless pit of bike eating trench.

Lightning strikes in the area had caused a small fire where we were riding, and we were confronted by that awful smell of burning forest.  Luckily, the CFA boys were attending to it; however they had bulldozed a large containment line around  Acheron track, and as we were heading up, the soft, disturbed soil was creating havoc with traction, with may riders ‘hopping’ off their bikes to have a closer inspection of the soil type.  Ted was one of these guys, and he finished up looking like he had been rolling around in the dirt (which was exactly what he had been doing!) For many riders, the challenge of riding up and over the containment hump was too great, and they had a crack at it.  Many didn’t make it as it was as soft as talcum powder.  Fortunately, the DR and I tractored up and over it!

Mark’s Gasser had developed a water leaking problem and he opted for a return to the cars for a closer inspection.  Phil went with him, so Steve led the crew into Marysville for lunch.  We lost about 10 riders at the Cake shop, so we continued on after lunch, heading up Old Coach Track into Narbethong.  Gerald’s VR Alfer dropped it’s muffler (several times) so he retired.  Fires were also burning to the west of Buchan so after the run up the ‘steep’ hill, we started our return trip.  A few more pulled out at the bitumen before we headed back into the triangle, so with a reduced crew, we set off for a last half hour (which took at least an hour) loop back to the cars.  A few more tight single lanes, and some good flowing open trail and we were back at the cars at 4:30 with 120 ks under our belts.

Thanks to Phil for another great, social ride.  Also thanks to Mark and Ted for their tail man duties, and to Steve for nearly getting us all into the lunch stop!  My apologies for any spelling mistakes in the following ride list, some handwriting is plain hard to read!

The Crew :

Phil Randal CRM 250 (leader)
Ted Henning DRZ 400 (tail PM)
Mark Clark SM 480 (tail AM)   
Serge Coffa DR 250 (written report)
Stewart Coulson KLX 400   
Leo Giannini Beta 525
Greg Russell WR 450   
Steve Williams KTM 300
Rod Wainwright WR 250   
Carolyn Carton CRF 230
Keith Carton GG 450   
Nigel Southerland DRZ 400
Neville Smith DRZ 400   
Craig Shooter DRZ 400
Steve Smithett KTM 520   
Barry Purcell KLX 250
Rob Ceceesa KLX 400   
Brendan Doherty KX 250
Brendan Saritschniy WR 426   
Andrew Thomas WR 426
Steve Chapman WR 450   
Damian King WR 250
Angus Bowd GG 250   
Gerard Blampied VR 250
Michael Zantvoort KTM 525   
Zoltan Lezsak YZ 250
Robert Licata    
Peter Zuzic
Fiona Mc Donald