| #255 | |||||||||
|
|
Power Lines
Who - Brett, Rococop, Beau, Col McC
Where - Powerlines When - 4th August 2007 SOTD - Beau ROTD - Col McC With no offers of rides this week, Col McC called a ride for the power lines, as its one of the two he knows where to go. 7 riders put their hands up, but 3 riders were no shows. Sorry guys if you did show, but it must have been at the wrong time or wrong place. The recent rains meant the riders were greeted with a more technical track than normal, as there were ton's more washouts than normal and all the holes, whoops and depressions on the track were water filled. Col McC did his best to keep the pace up, but it just wasn't your usual no brain thrash up there yesterday. The first of the more tricky hills found 2 x 4wd having a play at getting up and boy were they making a mess. In fairness we passed them and sat and watched as a guy in a very shiny new Patrol, fully loaded with family, made a determined effort to make it and did. But we noticed on the way back that he had chewed things up big style in his attempts. There were several other large groups of 4x4' around and clearly the change of conditions had brought them out. The single track in the trees after the power lines and before the creek, was in excellent condition, as if the rain had filled in some of the whoops and flattened some of the bumps. However, the rain had also turned the creek into a flowing stream. The group decided that Roco (the water-baby) could lead us on a zip zag course along the creek, making a few crossings and seeing how far we could get. There are some very very large water holes up there now, and after 6-8 250-330mm crossings, we went to stop for a re-think. It was also were Beau lost concentration for a second and ran into a very innocuous looking puddle. His big Yam just sunk right down at the back and he was stranded. A genius comedy timing moment saw both Roco and Col McC decide Beau was too clean riding sweep and both gave him the mother of all fillings in. I hope the pics come out, as the wet mud just covered him. Brett would have got a good view, as he approached the scene of the crime as it unfolded. Sorry Beau, it was funny at the time! So after a short break, Col McC took the lead again and we went looking for some hills to play on, but a sort of a wrong turn had us on along pea gravel slope that really was nothing special. Time started to work against us, so we used the GPS to head back for the Lakes Roadhouse, were a quick refuel of bodies was had and we set of back through the sand quarry. At the crest of one hill, we could see a 4wd perched at a very odd angle, on the down slope of the next hill. When we approached, it turned out it was that hill were there is a harder route with a big rut up the middle and a chicken run round to the right. There was a Patrol going down it, with his left wheels in the deep rut (which is now nearly 1m in places) and leaning almost right over on his left side. His mate in a Cruiser was just hooking up for a recovery when we arrived, so we stopped to watch the action. Said cruiser then proceeded to drag the Patrol backwards, before making a very expensive breaking noise and limping away. He had broken an axle and didn't look happy. Beau also made his bid for glory here, edging his bike down the hill to join us watching the 4wd mayhem, when in front of all the civilians, he topples off the bike doing as much as maybe 1 km/h. The embarrassed laughs (more like "what a twat") from the civilians, is more than enough to gain him SOTD (that and his other stackette and getting stuck in that water hole and going bush and trying to mow the flora down). We then heard a low 4 stroke grumble on the horizon and a couple of minute later 2 ktm's appeared. Not the usual 450/525 exc's, but one guy on a 950 Adventure and the other on a 660 Dakar replica. And they weren;t hanging about either. Anyone know who they are? On one of the gravel road crossings, we stopped as the Perth KTM owners club flew past on the road and one rider with noticeably shorter legs than the rest took my attention. He must have spotted Col McC's fuller figure and stopped and low and behold, its our very own Grunta, out of retirement. Nice to see you back in the saddle. So the usual thrash back to the cars and a vote of satisfaction from all players, that that was the best conditions the Power-lines has been in. More varied and a little more tricky than usual. SOTD for Beau for being the centre of attraction for all the wrong reasons. ROTD for Col for being the only one to put his hand up to lead. |
