Melbourne cup day turned to be a great day for trail riding, in perfect 22 degree sunshine 9 of us meet at Glenburn road house and,  after a chat and some breakfast we moved on to Two Hills road car park.
Just after 9 we were under way with some easy open tracks to warm up.  Most of these tracks had seasonally closed since June and had been reopened only days before our ride they were extremely dusty.  So I decided to head over towards Murrindindi area hoping for damper conditions over there.
With the group moving along way quicker than I expected  (with Nathan and Peter behind me there would be no slacking off) we arrived at Murrindindi camp area in no time, then found our way to some neat little tracks off Falls road.
From here jumped around the area with what seemed like endless intersections and putting corner men on them. No one complained  
So with no hold ups, mechanical issues or flat tyres, very rare on amtra rides.  We continued on and finished the day back at the car park at 1.30pm with 100km done and still fuel in the tank. Most importantly there no injuries and no one got lost. 

Thanks guys for making this ride enjoyable and FAST for me and attending at such short notice on a public holiday.
A big thank you to Ian for your tailman duties all days.

Wade

 

       

Caption this pic!  Simon to Nathan    Kenny doing.........something in the back ground

Thanks Wade, what a great day….! Exactly right, the ride flowed perfectly, no mechanicals, no flats, no lost riders, and very short waits on corners before tailman Ian appeared. Not sure about any tumbles on the trail but a couple of riders (Ken?) had suspicious red dirt marks on their gear….One surprise, I would have expected the bush so close to Melbourne to be crowded given it was virtually a long weekend and with such good weather, but all day we only saw a couple of other bikes, a few campers and a couple of 4wds… This ride was the perfect example of why it’s worthwhile being an AMTRA member – getting to ride on great tracks I’ve never ridden before with a bunch of ripper blokes, and with the extra element of safety you get on a club ride…a briefing so everyone knows what we’re doing, first aid kit, radios, tailman etc. Thanks to Wade for putting on the ride, and to Ian for doing tailman duty all day. Looking forward to doing it again soon… Cheers all, Simon J.
PS I’m working on a bit of video from the GoPro, will post a link here as soon as I work out the editing…

Thank you Wade for an outstanding top quality ride.
This area has some of the best trails in the region and there is something for all riders and riding styles.
Great mix of trails with varied levels of obstacles from logs, creek crossings to rocky bits,  erosion mounds a plenty bog holes and chewed up 4X4 tracks.
Great bunch of blokes with good riding skills and well maintained bikes except my KTM loosing the muffler cap which has now been degraded to trail scrap.
No serious offs except, Ken exploring one of the smelly bog holes for gold.

Nathan only recorded half the distance cause he spent most of the trail in the air , only touching ground to do corner man duties.

Ian of course was our trusted tail man. Thanks mate great job:)

Thanks to all that made this a great ride.

Thanks Wade for organising the ride and leading us around 100ks of AWESOME trails! 
I had an absolute ball out there and I'm still smiling now. The ride flowed really well, time spent on corners was minimal.i loved spending the day on the 450 and jumping off all the erosion mounds.
It was great to catch up with familiar faces and ride with some new people and thanks to Ian for tailman duties all day. I couldn't think of a better way to spend Cup day!

Wade the photo caption goes something like this.
Simon: Have you seen Ken? He doesn't look to good.
Nathan: Yeah I think he's going to spew!

Great day out on the Iron Horses along some great tracks.

In the photo, taken in the arvo just after we had passed the logging truck ,I was again checking my front sprocket which was starting to look as tired as I was feeling. If the photo had been taken in the morning I would have been thinking I hope I can keep that last glass of red and piece of wedding cake down, 5 hrs sleep is not enough but I was determined to rock up for the ride.

I did briefly visit the bottom of a nice muddy puddle and got back to the cars with the dirtiest bike and gear which smelled more and more as it warmed up in the back of the car, Phew!! the dog couldnt wait to get her nose on it when I got home.

Thanks again Wade and Ian and the other non punters for an enjoyable day.

I'm glad you all enjoyed the it!  It was the easiest ride I have ever lead in the 14 years I've been a member of amtra, and comes down to what a skilled and great bunch of riders you all are    Thanks guys.
I will be more than happy to run the ride again.
Wade

Would have been a very different ride if we were up there today! (after 2 days of rain...)

I agree Simon.
In these weather conditions it would have taken us the whole day to do the mileage we did .