devastation

It was a bit distressing to see pictures and video of the fires that have scorched parts of Victoria. Even worse is we have friends that have lost their homes, but at least they still have each other as material items can be replaced.
It was only last week that Gav and I were riding through some of the local trail out at Smiths Gully. He and some of the MTB community were taking clothing and bedding to the general store at Smiths Gully to aid the locals.
We were shocked to see Marysville vanish. We know the town well as I spend a large chunk of winter skiing above the town. We still await news on Nat Morandi and his family who run the XC shop there that we frequent. We hope he is safe as are others that we see regularly skiing at Lake Mountain.
It is a true disaster and we are speechless at what we see on the TV here in Canada. Our thoughts are with those that have suffered loss.

its white and cold

Thankfully we have arrived here in Canada with out many issues. The flight over from Australia was interesting as it was on the new A380. Nice big chairs and plenty of room (good for me!). The guy seating in front of me whinged his arse off about everything, as such from his constant whining I got little sleep. We had a 5hr lay over at LAX which is the shittiest airport around. I did manage to have a kip on the carpet for a while to catch up on some needed sleep.
We had a night in Vancouver and caught up with a friend Nicole for a meal at the Yaletown brewery. I managed to sink a few 20 ounce beers and enjoyed a decent feed before retiring to bed and having a fantastic sleep.
We arrived here at Silverstar on Tuesday and had our first ski yesterday, which was nice but we didn't have our ski legs and couldn't tell if we were arthur or martha! Today we had a great morning ski on the classic skis and a gentle skate session to get the body moving. I had a interesting fall in front of the day lodge post waxing my ski's which looked like some out of a cartoon, much to the humour of Tammie. I was doing the backwards running man and then boom I was staring at the sky.
We came across a local who was whistling away. He told us about the local birds called camp robbers.



These pretty little birds when you hold your hand out with a little food will drop out of the tree and swing on to your hand. A pretty cool little experience.
Anyway we are having a ball and cant complain about being here to ski each day waking up to perfect snow and perfect trails!

stinker

Well it has been a quiet week for pedaling this week post the road trip to Forrest. We were luck enough to receive some special attention from Oakley (care of my Aunty Pat) and attend the Australian Open. The boss was luck enough to go and get into a players box for a game, which for a former tennis nut was awesome. So two hot days were spent cooking off in the sun watching various players smash that little yellow ball around the courts. Great to catch my aunt who is not down under often.
The temperatures in Melburn for the next couple of days are less than inspiring to ride in with it being 40+ till Sunday. Bloody stinker! and a bit of a challenge when working full time to get a pedal in.
The rest of the week has been spent working and sorting out a few minor things for the upcoming trip. It wont be long til I am
out smashing some km's under this sign with a smile on the dial.



One techno item that has caught my attention was the Garmin that Jase lent me for our road trip. It was a cool thing to be able to check out what and how you have ridden a loop. The thing we did find was she was a bit temperamental as it would not fire up on one occasion and we have put that down to a battery issue. Will test it out again on Friday on a group ride out Smiths Gully way. I still want one.
Man I am missing having a road bike, although I have noted that them happy drivers are back on the road again post the christmas holidays. I am ever hopeful that she will be here for my return in a couple of weeks.
Well off to take the fur children for a wander before the temperature goes through the roof!
Happy trails!

Forrest, The Otways adventure

Ok the 3 musketeers loaded up the car till there was barely any room left for the humans and pointed the car in the direction of The Otways for a 3 day riding road trip. After overcoming some traffic issues (overturned truck on the Eastern Fwy at rush hour) we made the rather long boring drive to Geelong to grab some needed supplies and fuel. Note to thy self.... never move to Geelong!
After a brief bit of lunch we pushed on and arrived at the Forrest caravan park. After locating the local lady that ran the place we put together the camp for the next couple of days riding. It is a simple caravan park with a set of toilets and showers and not much else apart from the pub across the road.
We kited up and hit the trails out at the Yaughter Rd trail head. First cab of the rank was Marriner's Run which has folklore status with those that have raced the Kona. The reason is tight bermed trails that brings a smile to the dial, as you descend down the gully swooping from side to side. After around 2 hrs of riding and mucking around in the trails we headed back to have a shower and hit the pub.
Nice cold jugs of beer and crazy locals added to the atmosphere of watching the sun go down over the farm land surrounding the pub. After a few beers we grabbed a few takeaways and headed home for dinner and to shoot the shit as Mister Sister had flown down for the trip from Brisbane, and we had not seen him since November.


Gav with some local wild life - Blue Tongue Lizard

Day 2 saw us head out to Lake Elizabeth and aim to ride Red Carpet which is the timed descent for the Otways race. After a bit of climbing and a trip down to the carpark for lake Elizabeth we came across the local Ranger. This stopped us from riding out to the lake as the walking track is for walkers only and the last thing we needed was a issue with the ranger. So we climbed back up to the start of Red Carpet and dived into the 20 minute descent back down to the dam. Nice tight single track greeted us with a couple of road crossings and a great cool ride through rainforrest and open woodland.


The crew at the base of Red Carpet taking time out in the shade

Post the descent we headed into the Forrest trail head and cruised the trail system which has some great single track with berm, jumps and log rides. It was a great morning, but hot. We called it a day and then headed down to Apollo Bay for a late lunch and supplies for a barbie dinner.
The last morning we were greeted with a cool crisp morning. We demolished breakfast and headed back to the Yaughter trails. We rode a loop using Marriner's Run and whilst out there the wind came up into gusty dust dumping storm. After 2 hours of mucking around riding sweet trails we headed back to camp to find my pop up marque demolished by the wind. Slightly disappointed by this we packed up camp and had showers and decided to go home via Torquay for a bit to eat. Driving was a night mare with the wind blowing the car all over the place with the bikes on the roof requiring extra tie downs.
Mister Sister was flying out of Avalon Airport back to Brisbane, but received a call saying his flight had been cancelled and would not be another until 10 pm.
We dropped Mister Sister at the airport and discovered that his nice Giro helmet and helmet pod was no where to be found in the car..... I think it might have been put on the roof and it is now a home for a small group of road side critters!
In all it was a awesome 3 days of trail riding. The trails are sweet, tight, well built and the area is primed for riding. This is proven by the fact that the Kona 24hr and the Otway Odyssey both run through here each year, not to mention a round of the state cross country series.
I will post some video when Gav gets done putting it together!


Some of us are big kids....


The pub!

grunting the loop

Been riding a local hilly loop to try and get some extra fitness but have found that I am popping the drive side bolt along the dropout despite it being tighter than a ducks but. The cure is at hand with one of these beastly looking Tuggnuts by Surly. Bloody big thing but should do the job and they come with the added bonus of bottle opener. Good for the car park or post race brew!

SSWC09

SSWC09 Check it out!