This week I took myself out to the You Yangs for a first mtb visit. Parked at the stockyards, and turned right and promptly had to climb a couple of bloody steep eroded (fire trail) climbs. Walked a couple of sections though by the end of the day would’ve liked another go at them.
So, for someone who remains a relative newbie to the sport this was all an eye opener. Lots of rocks, lots of slippery gravel everywhere, and there wasn’t a single middle ability trail that I rode (think I only did two) that didn’t have sections that I had to walk. Either had no idea how to get up or over, or just piked it. Followed the new trail from the top that was an easy but really nice bit of single track down towards the other trail area. Wound down through a spotted gum plantation, then it just ended! Had no idea where to head next, just access tracks for the plantation, so retraced my way back. Next time I’ll try to make sure I can figure out where to head since I really wanted to just roll the 13Km of easy single track that was supposed to be there to get some miles in the legs.
Still, the adrenaline kicks in, getting round some corners, nearly falling, rocks and so on, scared but on the drive home already thinking about heading out for another ride. Of course I kid myself that if I had duallie then I could get up some of the things I bailed on since my back wheel wouldn’t be chattering so much. But I reckon that’s pretty much just bullshit, more a case of needing to develop some tech skills, for instance my first time along the quarry pit trail (heading down) I struggled up a simple series of rocks (just little ones) and the next time I just powered over them and wondered why they had seemed so much bigger the first time.
Was a good three hours.
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