Ride Report – Neerim South – 16th May 2009
By Dennis Dorman
We met up at the DSE trail bike unloading area at around 8:30 am for a 9:00 am start, or at least most of us did. A few had overshot the car park but were soon back with the main group and by around 9:00 am 16 of us headed south for a morning loop under the leadership of Brad and with Mark as tail man. Unknown to us at the time, Ted and Adam were confused and were at the wrong unloading area, so they did their own thing in the morning and met up with us at lunch time at the correct unloading area on Latrobe River Road.
It rained on and off all morning, making for some slippery, muddy tracks with some big bog holes. However, down in the southern part of this area it tends to be more sandy loam than clay, which is more enjoyable in the wet than the clay that seems to be more abundant north of the Latrobe River, as we found out in the afternoon. There were no dramas and everyone seemed to be handling the tracks in these wet conditions really well. So it was time for a little challenge hill. We all rode to the bottom of a steep, slippery track and with some eager encouragement Brad decided that we should all have a go at going back up.
Brad led the way and around 2/3 of the group had a go and most got up. Brad, Scott and I had easily ridden up this hill a week previously on a pre-ride in relatively dry conditions but now in the wet it had changed from a challenging Level 2 hill into a Clubman hill. I was pleased to get up on my first attempt, but was disappointed that we just turned around and went back down again. I have a clear preference for going up steep slippery hills rather than down them and of course I lost the front wheel and had a little tumble on the way down, but luckily there were no photos and the video was not going at the time.
It was good to see that James on his TTR gave the challenge hill a good go. He didn’t quite get to the top but he had a go. Several other quicker riders declined to even have a go.
Before going back to the cars for lunch and some extra fuel, Brad took us to another challenge hill. Some of us had done this hill on previous rides in the dry. The trick is to stay in the middle between the big ruts. But in the wet it proved impossible for those that tried. A few had a go but it was soon obvious that we would need to go around this hill to get back to the cars. Our video cameraman, Chris, had a go and it was good to get him on camera walking his bike back down this challenge hill. This seemed just revenge, as he had caught me and a few others on video falling off on a log on an earlier section of narrow tight trail.
After lunch, fuel and a change into dry gloves, 10 of us headed out again for the afternoon loop into the northern region of this riding area. Ted pulled out due to a sore shoulder after a tumble in the morning, but seven others did the same with varying excuses of having to be somewhere else or just that they had had enough for the day.
The showers were mostly gone by the afternoon and we were soon warmed up with a long, narrow technical section that took around an hour to complete before we headed down and across the Latrobe River at Hawthorn Creek camping area (where Hawthorn Bridge used to be). There were several campers at the river that came out to be entertained as we crossed the river, but all went well and we were across and off exploring some new trails. There is certainly more clay on this side of the river but also some good tracks and hills. It was getting late so we took the Hawthorn Creek road as a transport back to the river crossing. I reckon that this Hawthorn Creek Road had to be the most slippery, treacherous road you could find. I and others stopped a couple of times to see if we had flat rear tyres because we were sliding around so much on the slick, hard clay.
Once back over the river it was meant to be a quick ride back to the cars. However Glen on his CRF 250 decided that he would try a superman stunt. He launched himself and his bike into the air and off into the scrub. When I arrived on scene as the tail man, there was his bike upside down and Glenn lying on the ground. It did not look good. Luckily Glenn was not hurt and was soon up and looking at his upside down bike. Mark and I helped him get it upright again as soon as it was on its wheels it was obvious from the flow of oil onto the ground that there was a hole somewhere in the crankcase. We soon found the source of the leak was a small hole in the clutch housing cover, caused by the brake pedal being pushed into it by the impact.
From previous experience I always carry some epoxy/metal putty stuff and with this we were able to stop the oil leak. Not much oil was lost so Glenn was able to ride out and back to the cars. We got back and loaded just before dark.
We did around 70 km in the morning and another 60 km in the afternoon. Despite the morning rain it was a great ride. We had no serious injuries and we didn’t lose anyone, although there were at least three members not on the ride who were expecting to do the ride on the Sunday because of a conflict of information on the ride calendar on the WEB.
Ride List:
Brad McDiarmid – WR250 – Ride Leader
Dennis Dorman – WR450 – PM Tail man
Gerard Blamfield VR250
Scott Dorman - KTM300
Rob Cecelsa – WR450
Mark Clark FE550 - AM Tail man
Nathan Stott WR250
Luke Adams XR400
Steve Bennett WR450
Glenn Mitchell CRF250
James Gilbertson TTR250
Darrell Clark WR450
Sasha Gerlieb WR450
Duncan Simmons WR250
Chris McCran WR450
Jamie Mitchell DR400
Ted Henning DR400
Adam Tatlow CRF450
