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Anthony’s Narby Ride
Saturday 24th February 2007
Report bySteve Smithett

The Place:

Dom Dom Saddle car park. 8.30 start.
Seven riders met, six started. (Mark forgot his wet weather gear and didn’t want to get wet He actually believed it was going to rain for more than 10 minutes)
The Riders:
Anthony Thomas WR450 - ride leader  
Stefan Hoedze XR650
Steve Smithett KTM520
Barry Purcell KLX250
Rob Copse KLX400
Stewart Coulson, KLX400 - sweep
(Goddamm more green machines than I’ve ever seen in one place!)

The Weather:

Early rain before and during first part of ride. Least I think it was rain, haven’t seen any for that long!
Weather cleared early morning to sunny day. (Bad call Mark)

The Track:

Dom Dom to pine plantation – slippery but I finally found the $100 note on the track I’d been looking for!
Plantation to Buxton – excellent – no dust
Buxton through triange – dry and dusty
Strickland spur to carpark – good, no dust

We left Dom Dom Saddle carpark  around  8.45am and headed down Dom Dom Creek Road into Hermitage track, then across Maroonda Hwy into Roach  Road.

Up Roach Rd to Junction Crk Rd . The tracks here were pretty greasy due to the morning rain.  After lecturing Baz all the way there about tyre pressures, I forgot to check mine and paid the price with some offs.  My first drop had me thinking we were going the wrong way because when I got up the small finger on my right hand glove was pointing in a different direction to which we were going!  Stewy the sweep pulled up and I asked him if he thought my pinky could still be in the glove.  Not on that angle he said.  Had a quick feel and, yes my pinky was still in the glove. Was it busted or just being wayward. Only one way to find out, gave it a yank and it was straight all of a sudden. Good, now lets get on with the story.
Followed some nice flowing tracks down to Plantation Road and then on to Junction Rd.
Put in some nice loops through plantation including Phill’s Big Red hill.  Anthony went first and kinda went sideways half way up.  I followed and kinda went sideways half way up.  Anth looked at me and said, ‘ah bugger it’, let’s go round the other way.  Just then Baz on only his second ride tractored past us on my old KLX250 and cruised to the top.  I looked at Anth and said ‘never shoulda sold that bike’.  Any how, in the end we all got a view from the top.

Rode out of the plantation and on to the Murrindindi Gap via Andersons Spur. A lefty into Black Range Road and another left down the Devil’s Staircase and onto Yellowdindi Road.

Doubled back to Ecks Rd then 3 klicks along and a right into Bull Crk Road. Another 2kms along and righty into South Creek  Road. Down South Creek Rd to Kelty Track then approx. 3.5 klicks north to Jacksons Break.

A nice climb over Mount Mitchell via the Break and left into Black Range Road then a quick right hander and down the Buxton Spur to Mill Ceerk Rd and an easy cruise into Buxton for lunch.

Afternoon Delights:

After lunch, a quick scoot south down the Hwy and left into Gypsy Lane and on to the triangle. A left up Perry’s Track and along to Ackerman Track then into Meadow’s Track.

The whole triangle was literally crawling with 4x4’s going in all direction due to the Pajero Challenge.  Had to keep a real keen lookout for shiny bumpy things.

Worked our way down Triangle Road and down the Granton mountain bike track to the main Marysville Road at Granton.  

Stefan had to leave early so went back to the cars via Hwy. Anth asked if we all wanted to continue on for another hour. We all stupidly agreed.  So it was back up the main road and right into Andersons Track and on to Strickland Link Track and then down the bitchin Strickland Spur.  Because of the dry, the Spur is really chopped up with loose earth and large boulders ready to avalanche at the drop of a toe.  Add to this some kamikaze 4x4’s going up and down (oh the smell of brake linings, absolute ‘Brakes-R-Us’ heaven) and the mix was interesting to say the least . Somewhere near the bottom, gravity won the arm wrestle with the KLX’s forks and put Bazza into the Fred Flintstone tumble drier. Bazza’s beloved speedway helmet is now just an ornament gathering dust on the trophy shelf of his bar.  However, at the bottom there was one thing that we all agreed that we liked about the Spur – f@#$%^g nuthin’  

After a regroup and a quick discussion as to why any one would ride dirt bikes when there are some classy golf clubs around,  we looped back onto Hermitage track and headed for home. On the way we passed the now devoid of water Husabog and as I looked down into the abyss I saw four 4x4’s, 10 bushwalkers, 25 GasGas’s (their owners had thrown them in there), 3 elephants and a bus load of Japanese tourists.
After a nice fast run home we got back to the cars around 2.30pm.

The Wash Up:

No major injuries (pinkies excluded), lots of different terrain and surface conditions, a good mix of technical and fast stuff and a neat 120kms covered for the day.
Thanks Anthony for putting the ride on,
Stewie for sweeping and the other guys for their great company.  


Post script:

Just heard Anthony had an argument with another bike about who’s side of the road it was at Larbetouche.  Anth lost. Result, busted knee, wrist, bike, etc.  Sorry to hear it Anth, get well soon, we need you!  A wake up call for all of us to remember there’s always someone coming the other way that thinks there’s no one coming the other way.

Thats poo news dude, Get well quick man and don't hassel the nurses to much  :wink: