It was just one of those weekends. We’d arranged to go riding on Sunday with friends, but couldn’t head off till Sunday morning due to having to sort out a ride for next weekend on the Saturday. I didn’t dare ask Henk what time he was thinking of heading off, but it turned out we had both come up with about the same time.
4.30am, the alarm went off so I decided to crawl out of bed & make the coffee. We finished off what we had to do (heating up thermoses & filling camelbacks), got in the van & headed out. By 8.30am, we’d arrived at the ride, met up with some of our friends & started gearing up. It was bitterly cold & all the layers of clothing we had were piled on. The wind was up, the rain was intermittent & it was just damn cold. We decided to go ride with jackets on – I opted no sleeves, Henk opted sleeves – both of us were happy with the decision, but I have to say there was one time I felt like taking it off.
My friend and I agreed on riding the easy loop to warm up, but what we didn’t realise (doh!) was that the first easy bit was part of the main trail, but then the 2nd one looped back to home. This wasn’t a problem that we could see, it meant I could get rid of my hand cramps for the proper ride & we got a feel for the ride itself. There was a problem there though, as her husband had decided to wait for us to make sure we were okay. One of the guys came back to look for us. We were on a road section at the time & I saw a blue bike behind me & thought it was my friend, so just kept truckin’. When I stopped (can’t remember why), I realised she didn’t have a headlight on & so it wasn’t her. We told Steve we were fine and if he could tell the guys not to wait for us (actually, we were insulted that they thought we’d need help as the ride so far had been easy). So off he went (we found out later he didn’t pass on the message we didn’t want them to wait for us).
Sometime after that, along a piece of single track, I stopped to let some guys past, heard someone “chainsawing” up ahead & noticed the overtakers had sort of looked off to the right & headed left, so promptly followed them. This led us past the “chainsawer”, so I looked back to see what the problem was. I couldn’t see it, but no matter. I carried on (not far) and as I was about to ride into a bog, which had three guys in it already – and only one bike – I noticed a trail off to the right to avoid the bog. I then indicated to my friend for her to go there, saw other riders coming up, so stayed where I was pointing right. I found a gap between riders to get back onto the trail & off we went. We stopped at the end of this section to comment that we forgave the guys for thinking we could get stuck as if it hadn’t been for the first guys going past, we probably would have lol).
We knew that for every difficult section, there was an easy way, but I’d generally stop before each so we could decide what way to go. There was a choice of two uphills (both looked fun) and as we watched a couple of guys going up the “difficult” hill & making a hash of it, we sat & debated for a few seconds. At the top, my friend asked if we’d made the right decision and I told her that the other hill had looked fun too. We then watched a group of guys screaming up the easy way & laughed and I had to say I was glad we’d gone the “difficult” way as it was obvious those guys were wusses ;)
That set the precedent – we’d have to do the hard stuff. At around the half-way mark (my mistaken concept of it anyway), there was a log crossing. I stopped before it to give the guy in front of us, who’d stuffed it up, room to sort himself out but didn’t allow enough room for me to tackle it cleanly. Yip, I stuffed it. We got both bikes over & carried on (it wasn’t pretty, the logs were slippery and each time you got over one, there was another for the back wheel to slide on. It was also difficult to get back on the kdx to start it after she’d stalled.)
We then came to another hard/easy split, so of course, opted for the hard way. I fell into a rut & came to a screaming halt when the footpegs scraped the side. I indicated to my friend what way to go, watched some other guys come up & stuff it up (yeah, okay, it didn’t help my bike being there but I was pointing to different lines). Once I had my bike out of the rut, I watched someone go straight into it & get stuck – he had enough strength to get his bike out easily, whereas for me it was a drag & drop scenario. I had problems getting the bike started, as I was on a slope, barely able to touch the ground, but figured it out & off we went again. What goes up must come down, so on the way down, I heard a bike behind me but had nowhere to move to so the rider could pass – tough. We got to a clearing & I pulled over, just as a group of sweep riders came through. They looked at what was going on ahead of us (I could almost see through the trees) & told us to go the other way, which we did.
Anyway, we made it, we had some problems, we sorted ourselves out. The one thing we have to sort out is the guys waiting for us. They have to figure out we’ll be okay, we work together & get through things & we ride about the same pace. On the way down there (no, I’m never logical) I’d been wondering who I would find to ride with, totally forgetting I’d organised to go riding with my friend (hey, don’t ask about the coffee I bought, that was a good indicator of how switched on I was – now, how do you open that cup again? Heck, I hadn’t even gone to get a coffee, I just ended up with one because I couldn’t remember what I did want.
We worked out we had about 7 hours driving for about 3 hours riding, but both of us have to say it was worth it.
Side note: Saturday was cool as my friends had bought their youngest daughter a JR80 for her 10th birthday. We didn't do much riding, as we were teaching her how to change gear, start & stop (she couldn't get the hang of stopping without stalling, but that was fine, at least she could stop lol).She's been on an LT80 for years so is totally impatient to be able to do everything on two-wheels now. We had to stop & slow her down, as while she was learning how to take off, she was asking about other stuff. I think the funniest part was at the end of the day, her dad came back & she saw the camera, so she jumped back on the bike & started riding again (she'd protested she was too tired not that much earlier).
All in all, a fun but tiring weekend.
4.30am, the alarm went off so I decided to crawl out of bed & make the coffee. We finished off what we had to do (heating up thermoses & filling camelbacks), got in the van & headed out. By 8.30am, we’d arrived at the ride, met up with some of our friends & started gearing up. It was bitterly cold & all the layers of clothing we had were piled on. The wind was up, the rain was intermittent & it was just damn cold. We decided to go ride with jackets on – I opted no sleeves, Henk opted sleeves – both of us were happy with the decision, but I have to say there was one time I felt like taking it off.
My friend and I agreed on riding the easy loop to warm up, but what we didn’t realise (doh!) was that the first easy bit was part of the main trail, but then the 2nd one looped back to home. This wasn’t a problem that we could see, it meant I could get rid of my hand cramps for the proper ride & we got a feel for the ride itself. There was a problem there though, as her husband had decided to wait for us to make sure we were okay. One of the guys came back to look for us. We were on a road section at the time & I saw a blue bike behind me & thought it was my friend, so just kept truckin’. When I stopped (can’t remember why), I realised she didn’t have a headlight on & so it wasn’t her. We told Steve we were fine and if he could tell the guys not to wait for us (actually, we were insulted that they thought we’d need help as the ride so far had been easy). So off he went (we found out later he didn’t pass on the message we didn’t want them to wait for us).
Sometime after that, along a piece of single track, I stopped to let some guys past, heard someone “chainsawing” up ahead & noticed the overtakers had sort of looked off to the right & headed left, so promptly followed them. This led us past the “chainsawer”, so I looked back to see what the problem was. I couldn’t see it, but no matter. I carried on (not far) and as I was about to ride into a bog, which had three guys in it already – and only one bike – I noticed a trail off to the right to avoid the bog. I then indicated to my friend for her to go there, saw other riders coming up, so stayed where I was pointing right. I found a gap between riders to get back onto the trail & off we went. We stopped at the end of this section to comment that we forgave the guys for thinking we could get stuck as if it hadn’t been for the first guys going past, we probably would have lol).
We knew that for every difficult section, there was an easy way, but I’d generally stop before each so we could decide what way to go. There was a choice of two uphills (both looked fun) and as we watched a couple of guys going up the “difficult” hill & making a hash of it, we sat & debated for a few seconds. At the top, my friend asked if we’d made the right decision and I told her that the other hill had looked fun too. We then watched a group of guys screaming up the easy way & laughed and I had to say I was glad we’d gone the “difficult” way as it was obvious those guys were wusses ;)
That set the precedent – we’d have to do the hard stuff. At around the half-way mark (my mistaken concept of it anyway), there was a log crossing. I stopped before it to give the guy in front of us, who’d stuffed it up, room to sort himself out but didn’t allow enough room for me to tackle it cleanly. Yip, I stuffed it. We got both bikes over & carried on (it wasn’t pretty, the logs were slippery and each time you got over one, there was another for the back wheel to slide on. It was also difficult to get back on the kdx to start it after she’d stalled.)
We then came to another hard/easy split, so of course, opted for the hard way. I fell into a rut & came to a screaming halt when the footpegs scraped the side. I indicated to my friend what way to go, watched some other guys come up & stuff it up (yeah, okay, it didn’t help my bike being there but I was pointing to different lines). Once I had my bike out of the rut, I watched someone go straight into it & get stuck – he had enough strength to get his bike out easily, whereas for me it was a drag & drop scenario. I had problems getting the bike started, as I was on a slope, barely able to touch the ground, but figured it out & off we went again. What goes up must come down, so on the way down, I heard a bike behind me but had nowhere to move to so the rider could pass – tough. We got to a clearing & I pulled over, just as a group of sweep riders came through. They looked at what was going on ahead of us (I could almost see through the trees) & told us to go the other way, which we did.
Anyway, we made it, we had some problems, we sorted ourselves out. The one thing we have to sort out is the guys waiting for us. They have to figure out we’ll be okay, we work together & get through things & we ride about the same pace. On the way down there (no, I’m never logical) I’d been wondering who I would find to ride with, totally forgetting I’d organised to go riding with my friend (hey, don’t ask about the coffee I bought, that was a good indicator of how switched on I was – now, how do you open that cup again? Heck, I hadn’t even gone to get a coffee, I just ended up with one because I couldn’t remember what I did want.
We worked out we had about 7 hours driving for about 3 hours riding, but both of us have to say it was worth it.
Side note: Saturday was cool as my friends had bought their youngest daughter a JR80 for her 10th birthday. We didn't do much riding, as we were teaching her how to change gear, start & stop (she couldn't get the hang of stopping without stalling, but that was fine, at least she could stop lol).She's been on an LT80 for years so is totally impatient to be able to do everything on two-wheels now. We had to stop & slow her down, as while she was learning how to take off, she was asking about other stuff. I think the funniest part was at the end of the day, her dad came back & she saw the camera, so she jumped back on the bike & started riding again (she'd protested she was too tired not that much earlier).
All in all, a fun but tiring weekend.
