Well a late call for me to ride on Thursday night, had Nath offering to pick me up extra early Saturday morning to head to Castlemaine. After Nath and I had ridden there two weeks ago with Angus, we were both keen for a bit more of a look around? We got there early and went for a quick ride to warm up and give Nath's bike a few tweaks.
It wasn't long before we realised there was a group forming up the road a bit and we were had parked at a different car park. After a quick dink back we became social with the rest of the group. Once everyone had arrived it was a very casual affair for them to get ready and Len to start his speech. With that 19 of us headed off in perfect riding weather through some open and flowing trails. Coming through the pack I saw a few people taking a closer look at the dirt of the area, and one bloke who took to tree hugging a couple times before the first real regroup. We had the usual bloke who said he understood the corner man system, but seem to think it meant as the next person got to the corner you piss off? (no actually you stay until the tail man) I gather it had been a while since Len had run this ride as some of his tracks had been graded or lost, with several back tracks needed to link up the tracks he wanted. No real incidents for the day up to lunch, I heard of a couple more falls with riders feeling a little worse for wear, but I didn't seem them. There was also a good display for most of the day by the loose cannon pregade. As the group sat at the cars for lunch, Nath and I went for a bit more of a ride whilst the group either packed up to go home, or did their hair and make up for the afternoon loop. When it was time we headed out again to see some more of the area heading towards Castlemaine. We stopped off to see some old relics and rode some good tracks in between the transport sections. The afternoon had Len giving his map a good workout, and the dust was becoming a pain. I think we did about 90ks on Lens ride and were back at the cars for around 4pm. Nath and I rode another half hour or so to blow out some cob webs on a few of the short tracks we'd played on, on our previous visit. Thanks Len for putting on the ride, its a great area. And to "Mat with one T" for tail man duties for the entire day. Great level one+ /two ride for people looking for a different style of tracks.
Al