" So, was that the deep one?", Greg H asked hopefully after yet another crossing of the Macalister River. I'd warned about "a few" creek crossings then one deep one just before the start of butcher country track, and that's what it seemed like on the KTM but with Tam having to wade through the creeks and the rest of us watching (drenched to the knees) I was reminded of the mystical KTM factor. Somehow when I travel tracks on the KTM I find myself thinking "yeah , the Transalp should get through here OK" but by the time I return something resembling the tardis has happened to my space time perception ; distances seem longer, hills are steeper and somebody has distributed masssive boulders along most of the tracks. Thankfully the drought had held out and the macalister was hardly flowing because the "deep" crossing barely rated a mention.
So there we stood, standing at the base of butcher country, facing "about 60 K's" with "some really good hills", the first of which dissapeared in front of us. We had along a couple of real trailbikes so they took off first, leaping from the first ledge, bouncing amongst a few rocks and generally psyching us out. I had a quiet word with the V twinners and pointed out the easy line and they chugged up without any trouble. Not quite as spectacular to watch but far cleaner. Tam hopped on the back and off we went. Minutes later she had her first of many walks, the TA just didn't have the traction or grunt to clear the steeper sections two up. I waited at the top and tried to cheer her up by pointing out the views. It seemed to work....
The hills just kept on coming, and somehow almost every one had a difficult ledge or loose rocks about 2/3 up. I was starting to worry something was wrong with my bike because it was struggling for traction when we came to a hill with Andy blocking the way. Somehow he had gotten terribly off line and he sat with his front wheel hanging off the egde of the track, literally hanging off a cliff. His bashplate had saved the day, grinding to a halt so I rode up to him, parked the TA and helped him drag the beast back to safety. Meanwhile Tam walked up yet another hill.... With a little help he got moving again so I turned the bike around for another run at the hill, opting for a line on the other side just to be safe! The bike bucked on a few legdes but eventually reached the top, the fan roaring as it tried to cool the poor motor down.
We regrouped for a while and Tam and I checked out the next climb. I was pretty sure we could make it up but yet again I ran out of traction. At least it gave us a chance to watch Greg H bounce along , the unstopable black beats just demolishing anything in its path.
Something had to be wrong so later on I stopped for a little think. My preperation had been just a little rushed so I did the usual checks, and I'm embarassed to say there was about 30 psi in both tyres. Duh. At least it was an easy fix but unfortunately by this stage both of us were suffering a serious case of shattered confidence. After the next failed hill I pulled out the GPS and checked it against the map, to discover we had reached "The bastards neck", pretty much the last of the hard stuff. We rested and feasted on some meusli bars, gathered our strength then Tam started walking again....just one more hill...which was probably the longest and steepest but I couldn't mention that. The others had waited for us at the top and weren't surprised when I told them the name of where we were. They were however surprised when Tam came slugging up the hill and still had a smile on her face!
From here on it was just a greasy ridge amongst the snow gums. I was pretty stuffed so took it fairly cautiously untill we reached the main road when I might just have opened the TA up a little. God it was cold! With thermals, balaclava and heated grips I could just about keep the pace up , but was pretty happy to take a detour along a tighter track at Kellys lane then loose some altitude heading back to Licola. Boy was I ready for some hot food by the time we reached the store!
That night we sat around a fire solving the troubles of the world, feasted on a BBQ and finally retiring to our beds for a well deserved sleep, surprised to find it was still only 10 pm ish.
I'd sensibly avoided making plans for sunday, figuring I'd feel out the mood of the group in the morning. Everyone had enjoyed themselves but the unanimous decision was for something a little easier and for an early finish. I decided on a cruise along the west side of the Licola road, figuring we could go to Serpentine creek then back track. The plan was to launch Peter Holts new KTM at one of the harder hills in the region but unfortunatley a dozer had been through and cleared the track. We took the opportunity to push on, I figured we could head back along Burgoynes track although I wasn't too sure about our chances of crossing the Macalister or climbing out of Burgoynes. As it turned out the hardest part was descending down to the Macalister. There had been some serious track damage on one of the hills and we came across a group on real trailbikes unsuccesfully trying to get up. You really should have seen the look on their face when Greg H bounced his way down on the XLV. Andy and I took the safer option of bulldogging our transalps down the more difficult sections and then Matt decided to show off by attempting getting up the hill on his KLX. Legs and arms everywhere but he got at least twice as far as the other guys, scoring instant creditibility points and admiration. Wish I had the KTM....
Crossing the Macalister looked spectacular but was quite a bit easier than I expected. Greg and Andy are turning into hardened trailriders by now and laugh at things which a couple of years ago would have turned their pants brown.The climb out was just a big hoot, rocks thrown in all directions and a fitting end to a great days riding. Almost a pitty to have to ride back to Licola along the bitumin.
Well, that's probably the last of my "bush bash" type rides. With only a couple of Vtwinners making the trip I'm starting to wonder if we've raised the bar a little too high. It's great to have seen the regulars extend themselves, and it'd be interesting to do another ride into somewhere like the Wonnangatta to show them just how much they've improved. The Transalp is about to get a bit of an overhaul and I'll probably then return it to road trail spec for a while, maybe we'll just have to orgainse a few easy trips instead?
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