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

Great riding out Castlemaine  way, good bunch to ride with and no dramas from the loose canon brigade. Many thanks to Len for making it happen and to Mat for doing the hard yakka down the back. Good to see Robbo out on his brand new 2yo Husky, actually quite a few Husky's out on this ride, must be a popular bike. Need to get back out there and explore the historical sites.....

Great day out, fantastic weather and great bunch of people to ride with. Congrats to both Ian and Col who got their new bikes dirty.

Ian took a while to sort out the Husky after it's 200m test ride. But I followed him a few times later in the morning and he seemed to be moving along quite happily with the new bike. Col had a brand spankers DRZ400 to get back into trail riding with and did a fine job rolling along with the group.

After lunch it was a slightly smaller group that went out. It was a bit dustier and with the sun getting lower in the sky getting a bit harder to see through the dust at the back. Leaving a good gap was the thing to do. Until some loose cannon rips through again and stirs the dust up. At least with the dust they kicked up I can claim they were holding me up a bit!

Thanks Len, top ride and look forward to joining you again.

Good Fun, Great Riding, Great Day,Great Blokes.
But would someone control those Loose Canons, sideways all over the Joint,  they ride like there's no tomorrow.

Thanks Len for organizing the Ride and Mat for Dust Collection at the rear.

It was a good day. Thanks to Len for organising it and Mat for being tail man all day. I got to ride with people I had not been riding with before and people I had ridden with for a long time. Castlemaine is an interesting area. It is a reasonably compact area with plenty of tracks. It is an old gold mining area and there is lots to see if you have the time. Perhaps another day or two exploring the area would be good just to look at the old water races, diggings, remains of buildings etc.  
The ride started with 19 riders from memory and after lunch we had may be 14 after a few injuries from the morning loop. 
Al and Nathan must be on some sort of super energy food as they could not stop their bikes for the whole day, even at lunch time. The loose cannons blasted past everyone most of the day but there was no problems although the dust was a pain later in the day. 
Sorry to the person on the red husky I ran into going up one of the hills, and I got to watch Dennis fall off his bike again after not ducking low enough under a tree.  Lucky it was not as hard as the first time.  Pretty sure if it was wetter it would have been very slippery as there are some tracks that are covered in slime from getting very little sun light. 
Hopefully Len will have the time to make this a regular ride as it is a great riding area not far from Melbourne.

Well, have a look at that!  Robbo doing a ride report!

Let's hope it's the first of many!

Sorry to the person on the red husky I ran into going up one of the hills,  No wonder that bloke went home at lunchtime Robbo, I also gave him a nudge when he was taking a closer look at the dirt on one of those hills....

Robbo and Rosco. The loose canon's.
Al