service...

well, took the bike to Kris on saturday morning, and he taught me how to service my shocks. ended up only costing me the price of the special oil that they require ($40 - which will do 4 oil changes (required only a couple times a year))... cos he figured he kinda owed me a service. took it for a spin yesterday afternoon. i was feeling beat, cos we'd been to barbie at Steve's saturday evening and i'd eaten way too much meat (as usual) but only had 7 beers, but didnt sleep well after (digesting all that meat i'd say) (oh yeah, got home and had to move all dad's scaffolding from where wilson used to park his car to the back of the house (heavy! and in the dark)) and then sunday we went to Al and Zoe's for brunch, then we went to Centennial with Otis to play in the water and then i took off on my ride from there, and having eaten pancakes and banana and maple syrup and bacon at 11.30ish, then the swim, then riding about 3.45, i was hungry, and weak from being tired, and bloody well took myself up Farm track, which is exhausting at the best of times. felt fat and useless and had nooo energy... still managed to overtake people on the summit trail tho, and then headed down the oldschool bowenvale track, which is always a favourite of mine except i dont think the rangers think anybody rides it anymore, cos they never take the whippersnapper down it and so its a bit overgrown, and the heat and dryness of it had me worried again that my nearly redhot disks would set it alight... (didnt see any smoke from the bottom so should have been alright :-).
anyway, the forks were PLUSH. oh so comfy, oh so amazing... beautiful
oh yeah, watched thursday's Drop In on fridaynight. brilliant. that was the craigieburn track that first one with the offcamber scree then the rockin' twistie turnie through the bush. beautiful and Naseby, oh, naseby. i've SO gotta get down there again.
So, anyway, i wrote the local ranger Nick about the trail... I said "Hi Nick,
I realise you must have been busy with setting up the trails for the Crater Rim, but just wondering if anybody's going to get a weed-eater down the old bowenvale track or the upper fenceline track in Vic Park anytime soon? i was actually concerned about the fire risk last time i came down the Upper Fenceline, cos disks get pretty hot, and the long grass on the track was extremely dry. and the last couple times i've ridden rode down the oldschool bowenvale track its been pretty over grown too... (the last time the Thistles were very bad, but they've died down now (rode it yesterday))
i realise neither of these trails are particularly heavily used, in fact, in the last few years, i dont think ive seen another cycle on the bowenvale once. i still really enjoy it though. but i think a lot of the older riders have forgotten about it and the younger ones dont know about it. anyway, just thought i'd see, are they in the loop as far as mowing resources are concerned?
cheers."
To which he replied:
Hi swtchbckr (not really, but you know what i mean),
Thanks for getting in touch.I was hoping the sheep grazing in the area might have kept it under control. I agree with you that it has become a bit of a forgotten track but its still fun to ride. I've booked it in to be cut in the next fortnight. I'll get Upper fenceline cut as well.
RegardsSenior Ranger- CCC