Michelle

Sponsoring Member
Oct 26, 1999
1,245
0
Yesterday we went riding ignoring the weather report for rain, hail & whatever else was going to be thrown at us. Where we ride, the weather is independent of the rest of Auckland most of the time - but as it turned out, they were wrong, it was a brilliant day everywhere. (isn't this unusual lol)

A group of us have taken over running events for the club we belong to and our next event is in August. With the amount of time spent last time getting it ready, we decided we wanted a day to investigate where to run the next event from but didn't want to lose a working day to do so. We managed to get this weekend for it.

We got to the forest, discovered we had the wrong key, had to go through another gate with a half hour detour to be where we wanted to go. In the meantime, the front car decided to take a short cut. We watched them go up the clay hill (none of us have 4x4's), didn't see them coming back down, so took off after them in the van (they were in a ute towing a trailer with 3 bikes & a baby quad, we were towing a trailer with 3 bikes). We made it up (just) to find them waiting for us so they could come back down - dead end. Okay, we'll go the proper way next time, that was too hair-raising. Made it back down (I even buckled up, the track wasn't exactly good with washouts & suchlike on it) and made it to where we wanted to be.

Okay, now for the fun time. A trail was set for us kids (wimmen & kids are lumped together as we're all just as likely to get lost). My friend & I followed the two girls around, who were obviously not in the mood for riding, they were sooooo slow even for them. When we got back to the car the older girl decided to stay there, so we went again. Just as slow. While the others stopped for lunch, I decided to have a play, so the 11yo boy went with me. He turned around and said "now I know what you mean by not the girls' speed". I'd actually been pushing him at times to keep up. My friend and I went around again after she'd had lunch, and I'm very impressed by how much/fast she's improving. Huge fun.

By the time we got back, it was time for her to load up the bikes, pack the car, count the kids, wait for her husband, and go. As they had to go the long way back, Henk, myself & friend decided to go a different way on the bikes to pick up the key from the gate as we wanted to ride some more. So I was lead around the forest, stopping for horses, asking fellow motorcyclists what the heck they were doing in there & warning them to watch out for horses (it's not an open forest, you need a permit to go in there and if you're caught get banned along with a hefty fine).

I was keeping up pretty good for the most part. We came to one hill which is nasty - clear fell - lots of junk on the ground, washouts, been used heaps so just cut up. The guys stopped about half way up (it's a long hill, with flattish bits along it) to make sure I was okay. Henk got going before I got there, but his mate managed to stall the bike, so I stopped & waited. Craig told me I should have kept going to keep the momentum up, but I knew I was okay and don't like him behind me. We both get going again, and all Craig could say when I got there was "sounded like you were more in control than I was, I just bounced around the place". I'd been picking my line with a couple of little bounces, so had to laugh at him.

Finally made it to the gate, retrieved the key and went back to the van via the road due to horses. I didn't have goggles on, so kept well back due to dust (gravel roads), but still managed to get some junk in my eye. As the guys decided to bush crash, I had to stop to clean my eye before I went in there. Well, pine trees have heaps of dead needles on lower branches, so I had to be real careful and was pleased to leave & get to the van.

After a short break, we were heading in again, so I goggled up and off we went. The first bit was good, pretty open, so easy to follow. The next bit wasn't. I had to look where I was going, look where the guys were and after about the 2nd time of getting stuck, Craig decided to stay behind me so I wouldn't get lost. After about the 2nd time of getting stuck (again), Henk decided to stay behind me so I could take the lead (hehehe). Well, I'd lost part of the equation, and picking my own line going where I wanted was a winner. I stopped getting stuck, dumping the bike etc and just lead them around in circles. We managed to get back to about 100m from where we started (I'd thought all the time we were heading in the opposite direction, lol). So by the time we came out, I was totally confused and still haven't figured it out. But it was fun.

We went the short way back to the gate, in the hope someone else would let us out - actually, we'd made arrangements with someone, so it was all good. So that pretty much sums up my day's riding, I would have loved to have gone again today, but will just have to wait for next weekend.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend and am looking forward to ride reports.
 

CJ Rider

~SPONSOR~
Apr 3, 2000
699
0
Heehee! 'Sounds like a good day of riding!

From your stories, I'm wondering if you have public access open space for riding? Is most of it private land with keys required to get in and all? Do you always need to make arrangements with the landowners ahead of time? We have BLM land and Forest Service land here, which is where most of us do our trail riding. As long as the area isn't designated as Wilderness or Private, we're good to go. 'Just curious for future reference; Ya just never know when a Spodefest might spontaneously appear in NZ! ;)
 

KTMster

Member
Mar 27, 2001
268
0
Hi Michelle, great ride report! Doesn't it feel good when you actually have to wait for a guy, not that it happens much to me--well, okay, okay.....I can count on one hand how many times I have had to wait for a guy to catch up, DANG IT!!! :p Actually, maybe half a hand--hee hee! No matter, still havin' fun! :)

Once again, GREAT ride report. Thank you!

Darla
 
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