Tuesday 5th of May

Ten years Mellonfarmer's been blogging....  (what follows is almost word for word of what's there)

The crew were meeting top of Worsley Rd at 6.15  From all accounts, Tinkerbell, Phatboy, Silfervox and TheCook met.  Ahead of them, McGuyver and Mellonfarmer were already up in the forest where they'd climbed up the trail from the carpark (on the western side of the main track) and arrived up at the bottom of the body bag to find Forest Closed signs, and caterpillar tracks up that entry, which continued straight up the fenceline.  These two boys took the singletrack climb, all the way up, meeting the machine tracks again near the very top.  Into the entrance to Hangloose (or Goat) and within metres had met the machine.  Path a swathe of destruction down to it, cleared trees placed to the side and many more all the way down Hangloose with X's on them ready to go - demarking the boundary of the next area to be logged.  Good bye Hangloose with your groovy swoops and pops, good bye Yoda, not that we ever rode you...  Down they flowed, riding the first log drop, but bypassing the second, and enjoying the steepnesses.  MF crashed on a steep-ass corner he'd bailed on in the past, deciding mid way through it that he didn't want to go where the bike was going so off he stepped, falling backwards, one foot still attached to the pedal, and striking his calf on the hot brake disk - sizzle, then landing ungraciously on his ass.  McG was stopped metres away at a tree across the track.  Under this and on down the last few steep corners to the bottom where climbing began.   MF gasped for air up the internal guts track, even walking once before the pylon-gap, and stopping again further up for air.  From the clifftop, up the original trail, one section where the machine had been rarking up the place, then McG quite surprisingly managed to clean that rocky outcropping near the top that nobody's ever cleaned before.    Out to the top, where they found Phatboy, Tinks  and the Cook.  They'd not long gotten up there on their first climb, and had lost SlitherFox to a broken derailleur (via loose stick) on the way up.  They headed down Original and FightClub and McG and MF headed on up to the entrance to Debbie Does Dallas.  McG took Mr Sutcliffe's new one, while MF took the original.  Fast run down here through the dark douglas fir bit then into the bigger open pine section below the cliff face, and around into Alice's Restaurant.  Good for the first couple of corners but then the steep stuff gave MF the heebeegeebees and he walked a couple of bits.  In the last steep bit just before a wee bridge, McGuyver crashed - hitting the deck pretty hard (even broke the end off his brake lever), and burst open his zip on his bag.  Fixed up and off down again, into the final couple whoopdee's and then through and caught up with the rest of the team down the bottom as they'd just finished Fight Club.  Up to the Junction where The Cook had cooked enough said good bye and the 4 remaining rode up the guts track and into the lower entrance of Fight Club.  Here, McG discovered his rear brake was dodgy, not applying any real pressure to the disk, so, unable to fix it on the spot, he headed off down the way up, and the remaining 3 headed for an excellent blast down Fight Club.  Hopefully the logging doesn't kill this track.  Climbed out to the Junction and then down the finale and back to the cars.  Tinks headed down the road to home (via Fluffy Sheep where McG and MF saw his light and stopped to say See Ya)