Old Skool Lappage I

Finished work and headed over to Swtchbckrs where nobody was home yet so did some overdue bike maintenance on the footpath.  Eventually everyone arrived home and Rich fixed a front puncture before we headed off for Bowenvale ave.  Parked up at the end of road carpark and rode up the gravel track into the valley at a steady pace.  Having not been on the bike at all last week or more I was feeling a little taxed by the time we topped out at the turnoff to the hidden valley link track but headed up without stopping.  For the first time in forever I cleaned the creek crossing and grunty climb to the first hairpin.  Someone has moved some of the rocks around so they don't roll around any more making the crossing pretty good.  I actually managed to make the climb to the fence crossing without dabbing, which was pretty good considering I was a bit tired already. 

I led off down old skool and had a reasonable run down, no major dramas, feeling pretty good, Rich sitting in the slipstream with no problems.  At the bottom we turned left back up the valley for lap 2.  This time I gimped up on the first dry creek crossing to the cattle stop on the 4 by track but cleaned everything else.  Rich lead down this time and I kept his wheel pretty well to the bottom but we were moving along a little faster this time.  It was good to see the different lines he was taking.  Again at the bottom we turned left.  Mucked up the first hairpin on the link track this time but cleaned the rest.  I led off again this time and we had the throttle well opened this time, having memorised most of the track and studied each others lines once each.  I had a bit of a moment trying to pop off a rock about 2/3rds of the way down when my foot came out of the pedal causing a major loss of balance on landing.  Managed to gather it up before going too far off course and carried on though.  This time we turned right at the bottom and headed out to the exit and carpark.  Had a yarn to some young guys before it started to pour down forcing us to quickly load up the car and take cover.  A good ride on a day the weather wasn't meant to cooperate but allowed us to fit in an hour and a half or so, was fun too.