crossable as the river can change into
a raging torrent after several hours of
heavy rain. As it was, we got across
and after loading up on petrol, coffee
and sugary sweets, we headed off on
what proved to be an unforgettable
day.
It had stopped raining, but was still
pretty slippery as the trail turned to
single track and we made our way
through the mountains toward our
first proper challenge for the day. A
tree had fallen down across our path
just before the entrance to a large
creek, which was basically a 30 metre
rock garden; easy enough in the dry,
but now had filled up with water. La
went first picking his way through the
rocks around the corner, as we lifted
the tree for him to pass. All sounded
good until you could hear the unfor-
gettable whine of an engine protest-
ing about being dropped. I ran ahead
to help La up; he’d come off pretty
hard and smacked his elbow. We
pulled the bike up as I noticed two
even bigger trees the width of large
telegraph poles had fallen across
the entrance to the approaching hill
climb. Strewn with rocks, roots and
boulders this was a hard enough sec-
tion without a damn tree in the way!
There was just enough room to
pull the bikes through on their sides
but there had to be an easier way. I
started to look for an alternate route.
By that time Ian & the others had
caught up. Scott approached the fall-
en down trees and gave one of them a
good boot, causing it to disintegrate.
TRAVERSE
32
It was rotten to the core and we had
soon cleared enough space to be
able to dismount and walk the bikes
through. The other tree was solid
and would not budge. I went first and
got La’s bike to the top. It was an al-
mighty climb with a winding rut that
swallowed our bikes whole. Then we
had a technical climb to the top, over
boulders and rocky outcrops, and all
the time vines catching on our Go
Pros and helmets. Once at the top we
all stopped for a rest. There was no
rush …we had all day after all!
After some well needed trail mix
& energy drinks we pressed on. We
carried on up the hill for another 500
metres or so and then after a chal-
lenging descent serving up more of
the same lay our next challenge.
The next section was a little washed
out part of the track which had been
like this for years, consisting of two
thin logs stretching across the wash-
out holes with a drop either side. Ba-
sically you couldn’t ride out of it, once
you were in. I had tried riding across
it in March only for the back to slip
off and I ended up with the bike on
top of me down this hole, so it took
all four of us to get all the bikes over.