Eastside gangsta bash....

Met up again at Swtchbckrs and found the long lost Englishman (Chris) there already to form a posse and everyone not to far from being ready. I got changed and we voted to go to East and hit the Sumner ghetto trails again. We parked up behind the old theatre and decided to miss Captain T track and rode back to Redcliffs to the bottom of Mulgans track. Rode and walked up this steep little track and zigzaged our way up through the houses pretty quickly. Got up to the end of the houses and jumped the fence and shot up the trail leading up to the pines on the corner of summit road where the lower rarely used entrance to Greenwood is. I managed to ride most of it but took a bad line on one tough section and got bogged so had to walk it. Rolled up to the road and heard an excited (stoned boy racer type) ask out of the dark how long it took us to get up there, both Chris and I guessed about 20mins and replied simultaneously which sounded very believable (maybe it was closer to 25 mins in reality) which seemed to leave the young chaps suitably impressed. We carried on up the road, which seemed easy from there (as opposed to doing Capt Thomas first) and rested up a minute at the start of Greenwood. Onto the trail from there I lead out and felt pretty good. We regrouped at the ruins and headed on down. I was finding the wind a little tricky and visibility at night as usual not so flash, but got down pretty well. This time I managed to get up the last little climb over the rock which has been catching everyone quite well, I braked more at the bottom and had a lower gear to climb, so I didn't bounce into a hole or off line. This approach was much smoother and faster than going in flat out. I think you need a full sus bike for that to work. I blew the start of Godley and let the others go, Chris getting a bit further and Rich made it all the way. He said that was the first time ever, but maybe for a while anyway. At least one of us made it. I had several goes but didn't get far apart from 1 go I lost balance just before the grunty rock climb to the very top and had no run in which bogged me. I gave in and carried to the corner where I made it up the next section and along the first face where most of the rocky parts are. Down the other side I was following Rich who got away a little on the horrible Teddingtoned part of the track due to my cautious riding there, and had to try and catch him in the dust which seemed worse at a greater distance. I missed where he hooked off to the currently being built section but pulled up and ran up to the new part, Chris overshot me even more and had to do the same. Enjoyed that bit even though it is still in progress, some bits pretty old school, as in just mowed lines in the grass. Got down OK and crossed the fence bridge thing, I felt good here but things went south from there on...

I pushed it quickly up the first slope and hit the rocky terrain feeling good still, went to wheely over some rocks I have ridden heaps before and must have hit the back wheel on another rock which stopped it, slamming me forward to go over the bars, I stopped that by putting my hand on the shoulder height rock beside the track and pushed back. I must have twisted to the left though as the back wheel landed off the side of the track and I shot back, with my hand off the bar still I couldn't apply the brake. It rolled a meter or so before hitting more rocks and I slipped off the back but slipped on a boulder and fell luckily onto grass. The slip though caused my shin to slide on the rough boulder surface creating a nice graze. I got the bike up and Chris notice the seat wasn't quite where I had set it (it had a 45 degree twist from my butt smashing back into to pointy bit, luckily it didn't go in anywhere!!!!) I got out the first aid gear and put a dressing on the shin graze as it would have been smeared with dust if left uncovered. From there on out to the road crossing my balance was shocking and I buggered up almost everything. Hit the Anaconda and seemed better, taking the first cattle stop jump really well, landing well down the other side, but had to brake hard to make the corner, but then felt a bit off for the rest of the jumps so didn't hit them that well. Got down OK though and we cruised the Tale out. Chris and I had a match race up out of Tayors making for a pretty tough but fast exit from there. I thought he had me near the top on the second last corner but managed to hang on and by the end was about 4 seconds ahead which was pretty close. We regrouped at the top and rolled Nicholson park down to Slumner and got to the Bongo for a ride to the Maccas Restaurant in sunny Linwood for a healthy enjoyable dinning experience.