Xmas Trail Ride

 Yesterday was the Bush Riders Xmas Trail ride.  Today I am sore...

Totally worth it!

The ride was just 40mins ute drive from my place and by the time I got there, there were plenty of vehicles parked up and bikes being unloaded.  I parked between two very flash utes towing even flasher trailers, one of them had led lighting and a fridge was keeping the drinks cool.  I had ice in my camel-bak...

After the rider briefing (where we were warned of wet slippery grass), we were led out on the opening 15km+ lap and I can confirm that the grass was slippery - for those that don't know, a 450 goes sideways on this stuff when you think of touching the throttle or changing gear.  Yes, it is still fun.

After a pretty quiet first lap, I didn't stop back at the pits but carried on into my second lap with the grass just the a little bit less slippery - a couple of hundred bikes had kinda fixed that.  As I made my way around I kept an eye out for a decent spot to take some photos, have a breather and kill some gorse.

BTW: the chap in the first two pics below must have been in his sixties and he's riding a TS185 that was probably over 40 years old too!

Ending lap two, I pulled into the pits for a more decent breather.  It was definitely hot work out there and I needed to get my breath back a bit.  This stop turned into an early lunch where I was more interested in getting water in than the tucker.

Back out onto lap three and I was riding a lot better and was pretty quick on the quick bits and not making too many mistakes elsewhere but I was already starting to feel it a bit.  There was one really bumpy hill climb that you really felt through the arms and of course my legs were tiring too.  But I was still having fun.

After that lap I had a quick stop again in the pits, using fuel as an excuse.  I only put about 4L in the bike so it was a pretty flimsy excuse as the bike carries just under 10L with it's upgraded tank.

Anyway, I made it a quick stop as I found that the longer you stayed stopped, the more things start hurting.  Lap 4 was a cracker with some good pace but by the time I had dealt with that hill climb and some of steep descents I figured that was enough for me.  Probably just under two hours riding all up.

Back at the ute, I quickly loaded up so I could then get out of my hot, sweaty gear and start rehydrating in earnest.  It was hot.  And it was a hot drive home to a hot house and an afternoon consisting of not much...

Still, awesome fun.  Love these trail rides and getting out on the yella terra!