Big Mak: Mister Sister's farewell ride

The rigs waiting to go!

Yesterday Mister Sister, NZ Gav, UK Wil and me saddled up for the Mister Sister's farewell ride. He is chasing tail and moving to sunny Bris-vagas to be with his lovely girl Brooke. Whilst I cant blame him for moving he will be truly missed. One thing is for sure he is one of the the best blokes going around and will do almost anything for his mates. Always up for a pedal!
So yesterday we packed the car and headed to the You Yangs. Now I do not have happy memories about this joint as I smashed up my pelvis racing here in January and I have spent some hot days on the bike here 2 years ago and between melting in the heat and having a few offs I was not that keen to ride back there.
Anyway with the right combo of riders and the right temperature (fuck that wind was bad yesterday - almost blew us off the rock in parts) fun was had. We hooked up with UK Wil at the car park who turned up with a MTB with slicks and a pannier rack! Luckily NZ Gav brought him some tires but the rack stayed.

Nice commuter!

Credit to UK Wil as he gave everything a go despite this being his maiden voyage off road. Judging by the smile he was having a ball.
We started off in the plantation area riding the flowing single track. Nice but more like a bike path in places but a good place to get the legs ticking over. A nice long ladder ride and a few decent jumps. We then headed into the connector trail to the stockyards. It was rock garden after rock garden to ride up. Now not such a good climb on the single speed but the descent back to the car would be great. Half way up we saw a Wedge tailed Eagle riding the wind and thermals with a decent sized prey in its talons...... they are big birds and definitely king of the air here in Oz.
Once in the stockyards we rolled some of the high trails and found the lovely rock gardens and ladder rides which were a blast. The trails are well built and are fast and flowing. My only issue is that you have to ride back up the hill to get another trail down..... this screwed me good and proper with nothing in the legs from Saturdays Birkie race at Falls Creek. There seemed to be more of a down hill/ free ride emphasis in this trail area but we all gave it a nudge and were more than happy with it judging by the smiles.

The 29er soaked up all that the rock gardens could throw at it and when I pointed it towards a line, it just took what ever was coming in its stride with out disappointment. It was stable at low speeds and rolled everything. Got to love big wheels. I know NZ Gav will agree as he was out on his Kona 29er. He was loving it despite having rigid forks (did complain about his fore arms a bit post ride).
So after a hour of stuffing around in the Stockyards we rode the connector trail which was a blast as it descends back down off the ridge. I stopped to take a few snaps of the trails which don't really do the trails justice. Hats off to the trail builders who have built great rock gardens with flowing lines.

Got to love well built trails!

Glad to be back at the car NZ Gav cracked out some lunch that his wife had made. Great roll (thanks Butters!!!! Yes I do like chutney!) to top of the ride. UK Wil was rooted post ride but his smile said alot about his day. His helmet hair was something else!