Morning Ride Report for Kinglake ride 17/05/2014.
Seano's weather Gods were looking after us again as it was a perfect day for riding.
After a quick briefing, 11 of us set of from Extons Rd carpark at 8:30 to tackle the web of tracks through Kinglake that Seano has now mastered.
I have never seen the carpark area so busy before so I was riding with the thought that I must be ready for oncoming traffic at any time.
I know we should always bear this in mind but...
At our first stop, John reported he had no rear brakes so after a few minutes of trying to bleed the brakes he headed back to the cars.

Although in some places it was diabolically slippery there seemed to be plenty of grip when we really needed it and the ride flowed smoothly.
Seano wanted to try out some new tracks. As I was near the back I couldn't see what was happening up front but could hear from the bikes
revving out and nothing happening that this was going to be a bit tricky. After probably 10 minutes of no progress the front guys
turned around and we all retraced our steps. We saw the odd couple of bikes here and there but for the most part the area was surprisingly quiet considering how full the carpark was.
At one point there was an obviously beginner rider easing his way down a fairly steep, slippery, rutted track who we all streamed past.
Seano heard him shout  'what the .....' as he passed him. I can just imagine what he was thinking as 10 bikes flew past.
We stopped at about 12:00 for lunch with around 50km of tight trails under our belts. I decided to call it a day after lunch as I was feeling a bit fluey.
Thanks to Seano for putting on another great ride, Lefty for doing tailman duties and the rest for the good company.

Cheers for a cracker ride, Seano!

Even though we only covered 90km for the day, all those slightly overgrown tracks left me feeling like I'd done 150km, so by the time I got back to Healsville for a coffee on my way home, my legs decided to cramp up and leave me looking like I was doing some sort of weird yoga in the Main Street trying to stretch them out!

The weather at Kinglake was so different from the last time I was up there and it was 40 degrees by 10 o'clock, the difference some rain in the area made a huge difference! I really noticed this while sitting on the corner at the top of Glenburn Spur trk wait for the group to come through, when another mob of 3 riders came cruising through towards me. The first 2 made it over the last eroision mound with ease, then their mate came sailing over it like a man possessed and landed on the very slick crown of the track and went sailing into scrub with arms and legs flapping everywhere!

Big thanks to Lefty for chasing us around all day, and to Rob for taking over tail duties when Lefty was getting light on for fuel a decided to see what life was like in the middle of the pack! (Pretty sure he just didn't want to get left alone in dark again if he ran out of fuel! )


Hopefully see ya on the next 1!

Well done Mark for starting the ride report and Shane for his tendency in delivering particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement at others expense. I think you get it from your old man, who we did miss on Saturday. I, like the others, had a great day and Seano has the loops down to a tee as there wasn't much down time. Well, for me anyway. He love dishing out pain. Usual suspects turned up with a few new faces to take the plunge. Two reasons i like to go tailman (1) gives me time to ride at my own pace and make it through the day and most importantly (2) gives the other riders time to give their bike a squirt catching the ride leader. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it your worship. Its always fulfilling to help others on a ride but the only one I had to help was me... Really love the challenge, especially after lunch where fatigue was kicking in but we pressed on. I did have an off and ended up kissing the shinny red stuff. Smashing my leg into the dirt and going over the bars, I was looking for some sympathy. Yeah, I got it. "50 bucks and I wont tell anyone, lefty, Ohh and are you OK"... Thanks Rob. My poor baby, TE449 suffered some damage to her right radiator and guard.
Well done to all who came, twas a great day.
Lefty, out. 

Once again it was weather perfect ,
The ride started as usual with the warm up tracks ,
Poor John lost rear brakes and had to bail after the first 20 minutes of the ride 
I tried to add in some new stuff but, 1 lot was national park so no go and the other was way to much hard work.
Most of the day flowed well and as usual I had an absolute wollaper of a day ,I just luve the the challenges of this loop
After lunch we finish off the right side of the forest and jumped over to the left side to head home.
Half of the left side of the forest is flancked by private property. I was stopped on one track by a fellow in a 4 wheel buggy.
He was very irate :angry:and wanted to know if we were on his property ,no I said I wouldnt do that ;)and at this stage we hadn't been .
where are you heading then cos my property is down this track said the fellow , oh I see well I'm heading down there and to the first track on the left I says , with a reply of " thats ok , now im off to catch the scoundrals who are on my property  "
So I did my usual narrow track that takes us to a steep rocky down hill into a valley with little creeks meandering across the trail 
and back left up and out of the valley . At the end of this track there is a gate with a trail around it ,This trail has had trees lopped and felled all across it ,so once I hopped over them and looked back at the ,private property keep out signs, I realised at some stage my loop does cross into this fellows property,woops sorry dude 
So the next Kinglake ride I do is going to be in Reverse and the first third of the day will be an explore to find tracks that arent on me ole mates property.
I had a great day, thanks for the company and coming on my ride and a BIG THANKYOU to my ROCK SOLID Tailman for the day LEFTEYE