Ever have one of those days when you feel you should have stayed home?
It started with a friend coming round just before heading off to the forest. He jumped the gate, not wanting to wake us up. We were just having a chat and working out if we had everything for the day. I commented that was one of the cats, but Henk looked out the window to see our friend, so, being half asleep, asking him whether he'd organised for Craig to come round. Okay. Craig hadn't ridden for 2 months & had woken at 4am all excited about going riding so decided to meet us at home to make sure he wasn't locked out the forest.
I'd bought food the night before for lunch as I wasn't sure the bakery would be open - it was, so breakfast was more interesting than cold hot-x buns & mueseli bars with easter eggs for desert.
Picked up the key from headquarters, headed up to the gate where we noticed the combination lock had been changed to a normal padlock - guessing it's because of the number of combination locks they'd lost. I put our key in the lock, nope, wrong key, so yell to Henk "we've got the wrong key". He yells back, try the "normal" lock - doh, I'd had a total blank and of course, voila, we're in the forest. I couldn't believe I'd been that dumb, but more to come.
After everyone had arrived, we headed off to our camp for the day. Everyone's busy talking & unloading & general mayhem reigns supreme. A couple of the guys start their bikes & promptly stall them as they go to take off. Of course much laughter follows them. Righto, let's get organised & we can ride. Finally we go to leave, where I promptly stall my bike. Doh, guess I shouldn't have laughed at the guys for that hehehe. Okay, start her again, go to take off again, promptly drop the bike. I'm thinking, what the heck am I doing here and what's the chances of me picking up the bike and keeping the engine running. As soon as I went to pick her up, she stalled.
I then went for a warm-up loop, came back & waited to see what the others wanted to do. We decided to have a rest. I'm still suffering severe hand cramps on some rides, but not all. The sand-based forest is pretty much a given for cramps but usually go away after a while (not yesterday though). The guys came back & told us where we were expected to ride, due to felling nearby & some of our trails having been trashed. They'd also lifted a fence for us to go under, so we knew not to worry about that.
We headed out (me, my friend, her son & two daughters), with the only incidents being the oldest girl's bike stalling a couple of times. When we got back to base, we decided it was time for another rest (none of us had ridden for a while and both my friend & I were suffering cramps, her son has a broken finger & sore back). Her son then decided to call it a day with riding, mainly because it hurt when he changed from sitting to standing & vice versa.
We did the loop a couple more times with one or other of the girls, depending on which one wanted to ride. There was one straight which I totally adored and after a cautious first ride of it, the following ones were much more fun ;) The guys had told us there were logs on the trail, so don't go full nana. I'd decided with the lines I was taking, the logs weren't a problem, so had great fun the next couple of rides. My friend had to stay behind the girls so couldn't enjoy the blast :( The things I was noticing on these rides was while I was getting ahead & then waiting to make sure everyone was okay, I still wasn't giving 100%. I was thinking about body positioning, what the bike was doing, what I was doing etc etc. I definitely was in cruise-mode.
After lunch, the guys headed out again & once they were out of sight, I decided to follow them (huh, as though I could catch them, figure out where they'd gone or anything useful). My friend decided the kids were okay, as someone else was there to look after them, so she'd come with me. First intersection we came to, we headed off to where we thought the guys might have gone. Spotted some bikes had gone up a hill into some clearfell, so went on up there. Neither of us at clearfell, so that led for some interesting times.
My friend was first to come a cropper and as I looked to make sure she was okay, I had to ease the bike between a log & stump. I then dropped the bike & when my friend came to see I was okay, commented I had sticks jammed in between the brake & cases. Doh, no wonder that didn't work. The road was in sight of us, so she decided to head down there. I had to get myself past a couple of obstacles before I could turn to go to the road, but by that time, it was easier to forge ahead than take a shortcut. I managed to get stuck once or twice more, couldn't find a way out of that block, somehow managed to find the hill we'd come up in the first place, so headed out to the road.
We regrouped (hmm, two of us, not a group, re-paired, nope, not broken) and decided to carry on to see if we could find the guys (haha, I don't think either of us cared where they were). We came to the bottom of a large, sandy hill, so could go up that or go another area to see what we could find there. I decided to go up the hill (I hate this one), stopped by a corner to make sure my friend was okay & looked at how much smoke I'd blown out - okay, now I don't need to repack the muffler, she's cleaned out now lol. Of course, I then had trouble getting going again & made it awkward for both of us - double doh!!! Got to the top, headed down the gravel road, spotted another turn-off, so had to see what was there. We went around a loop a couple of times, then figured we'd better check out guess situation. My friend told me to carry on but tell her whereabouts I'd be. I decided that was a dumb idea & we both headed back, beating the guys back by a couple of minutes. That was enough riding for the day, if I'd known what I was going to lead us into, I'd have taken a camelback, but didn't. The guys headed out to put the fence back down & we all then sat around to bs & discuss what we plan to do for the next event we're putting on - over some beers, naturally.
Tomorrow we're going riding again, with me a bit more on the ball, hopefully ;) No guarantees, of course. I did have fun and didn't regret going, but wondered at the beginning of the day what I was letting myself in for lol
Oh, the girls were happy as the Easter bunny had found them, even if it was a couple of days early (Sunday is the proper day to give eggs, but I wasn't going to see them then. They figured out a way that was feasible for me to have known where the eggs were - I'd chased the Easter bunny & spotted where he'd hidden them :) They were most upset that he didn't come back, as they wanted to thank him, but I thought it fair that us adults have some eggs too lol (actually thought about taking some more & hiding them on the trails, but couldn't be bothered taking the girls around to find them, plus the boy wouldn't have been able to come - the kids are great & make sure everything is always even, so he wouldn't have missed out). Each year we wonder if the girls are getting too old to believe in the bunny, but each year they pretend they do. I'm sure they know I enjoy having them disappear for a little while hehehe. The first year we did it was the best one, as we had heaps of bunny holes to hide them all in & the youngest definitely believed then - every time she saw a bunny hole she had to look if an egg was in it lol
Well, better go & load up for tomorrow, it should be fun, even if muddy ;)
It started with a friend coming round just before heading off to the forest. He jumped the gate, not wanting to wake us up. We were just having a chat and working out if we had everything for the day. I commented that was one of the cats, but Henk looked out the window to see our friend, so, being half asleep, asking him whether he'd organised for Craig to come round. Okay. Craig hadn't ridden for 2 months & had woken at 4am all excited about going riding so decided to meet us at home to make sure he wasn't locked out the forest.
I'd bought food the night before for lunch as I wasn't sure the bakery would be open - it was, so breakfast was more interesting than cold hot-x buns & mueseli bars with easter eggs for desert.
Picked up the key from headquarters, headed up to the gate where we noticed the combination lock had been changed to a normal padlock - guessing it's because of the number of combination locks they'd lost. I put our key in the lock, nope, wrong key, so yell to Henk "we've got the wrong key". He yells back, try the "normal" lock - doh, I'd had a total blank and of course, voila, we're in the forest. I couldn't believe I'd been that dumb, but more to come.
After everyone had arrived, we headed off to our camp for the day. Everyone's busy talking & unloading & general mayhem reigns supreme. A couple of the guys start their bikes & promptly stall them as they go to take off. Of course much laughter follows them. Righto, let's get organised & we can ride. Finally we go to leave, where I promptly stall my bike. Doh, guess I shouldn't have laughed at the guys for that hehehe. Okay, start her again, go to take off again, promptly drop the bike. I'm thinking, what the heck am I doing here and what's the chances of me picking up the bike and keeping the engine running. As soon as I went to pick her up, she stalled.
I then went for a warm-up loop, came back & waited to see what the others wanted to do. We decided to have a rest. I'm still suffering severe hand cramps on some rides, but not all. The sand-based forest is pretty much a given for cramps but usually go away after a while (not yesterday though). The guys came back & told us where we were expected to ride, due to felling nearby & some of our trails having been trashed. They'd also lifted a fence for us to go under, so we knew not to worry about that.
We headed out (me, my friend, her son & two daughters), with the only incidents being the oldest girl's bike stalling a couple of times. When we got back to base, we decided it was time for another rest (none of us had ridden for a while and both my friend & I were suffering cramps, her son has a broken finger & sore back). Her son then decided to call it a day with riding, mainly because it hurt when he changed from sitting to standing & vice versa.
We did the loop a couple more times with one or other of the girls, depending on which one wanted to ride. There was one straight which I totally adored and after a cautious first ride of it, the following ones were much more fun ;) The guys had told us there were logs on the trail, so don't go full nana. I'd decided with the lines I was taking, the logs weren't a problem, so had great fun the next couple of rides. My friend had to stay behind the girls so couldn't enjoy the blast :( The things I was noticing on these rides was while I was getting ahead & then waiting to make sure everyone was okay, I still wasn't giving 100%. I was thinking about body positioning, what the bike was doing, what I was doing etc etc. I definitely was in cruise-mode.
After lunch, the guys headed out again & once they were out of sight, I decided to follow them (huh, as though I could catch them, figure out where they'd gone or anything useful). My friend decided the kids were okay, as someone else was there to look after them, so she'd come with me. First intersection we came to, we headed off to where we thought the guys might have gone. Spotted some bikes had gone up a hill into some clearfell, so went on up there. Neither of us at clearfell, so that led for some interesting times.
My friend was first to come a cropper and as I looked to make sure she was okay, I had to ease the bike between a log & stump. I then dropped the bike & when my friend came to see I was okay, commented I had sticks jammed in between the brake & cases. Doh, no wonder that didn't work. The road was in sight of us, so she decided to head down there. I had to get myself past a couple of obstacles before I could turn to go to the road, but by that time, it was easier to forge ahead than take a shortcut. I managed to get stuck once or twice more, couldn't find a way out of that block, somehow managed to find the hill we'd come up in the first place, so headed out to the road.
We regrouped (hmm, two of us, not a group, re-paired, nope, not broken) and decided to carry on to see if we could find the guys (haha, I don't think either of us cared where they were). We came to the bottom of a large, sandy hill, so could go up that or go another area to see what we could find there. I decided to go up the hill (I hate this one), stopped by a corner to make sure my friend was okay & looked at how much smoke I'd blown out - okay, now I don't need to repack the muffler, she's cleaned out now lol. Of course, I then had trouble getting going again & made it awkward for both of us - double doh!!! Got to the top, headed down the gravel road, spotted another turn-off, so had to see what was there. We went around a loop a couple of times, then figured we'd better check out guess situation. My friend told me to carry on but tell her whereabouts I'd be. I decided that was a dumb idea & we both headed back, beating the guys back by a couple of minutes. That was enough riding for the day, if I'd known what I was going to lead us into, I'd have taken a camelback, but didn't. The guys headed out to put the fence back down & we all then sat around to bs & discuss what we plan to do for the next event we're putting on - over some beers, naturally.
Tomorrow we're going riding again, with me a bit more on the ball, hopefully ;) No guarantees, of course. I did have fun and didn't regret going, but wondered at the beginning of the day what I was letting myself in for lol
Oh, the girls were happy as the Easter bunny had found them, even if it was a couple of days early (Sunday is the proper day to give eggs, but I wasn't going to see them then. They figured out a way that was feasible for me to have known where the eggs were - I'd chased the Easter bunny & spotted where he'd hidden them :) They were most upset that he didn't come back, as they wanted to thank him, but I thought it fair that us adults have some eggs too lol (actually thought about taking some more & hiding them on the trails, but couldn't be bothered taking the girls around to find them, plus the boy wouldn't have been able to come - the kids are great & make sure everything is always even, so he wouldn't have missed out). Each year we wonder if the girls are getting too old to believe in the bunny, but each year they pretend they do. I'm sure they know I enjoy having them disappear for a little while hehehe. The first year we did it was the best one, as we had heaps of bunny holes to hide them all in & the youngest definitely believed then - every time she saw a bunny hole she had to look if an egg was in it lol
Well, better go & load up for tomorrow, it should be fun, even if muddy ;)
