Friday Night, Wharfdale in the wet

glorious ride last night. Chris and me drove out through downpouring rain along the Tram Rd to meet up with Nelson and the Rally Bongo, within which we plied the byways and fords and sideways drifting of the road to Wharfdale. parked up, couple of hunters just heading in, and another bike car parked up, low cloud, bit of drizzle in the air, and i'd left my helmet at home! luckily, Nelson's street one was in the van, and it fits me! yay..

trail was reasonably wet, with a small flow of water along it, but otherwise not too bad. we had a good spin in, enjoying the slippery roots and eye-splecking goodness of the dripping bush. played a bit of a game at the suggestion of Nelson, where, whoever was in the lead, if they baulked or screwed up, dabbed basically, they went to the back and the next guy got the lead til they fucked up too. sometimes you'd hold the lead for ages, sometimes you'd hold it for 10 metres. was good, and gave all of us a chance to lead. the other rule was, if the leader had baulked, the other two didnt have to clean the section either, tho sometimes we did. anyway, that kept it interesting, altho it was excellently interesting anyway. no one had any offs, and we made the saddle in damned good time.

hail started falling on the approach to the saddle. brrr... bit of a munch at the saddle and we layered up in the few extra bits we had (ie, not enough), and got moving asap. nice flow down for a while, each having their time in the spotlight. fingers slowly numbing. funny, i felt like i was cleaning stuff i'd never have cleaned in the past, and Nelson reckoned it was cos we just wanted to hold onto the lead...

eventually, ran into the hunters again, nelson in the lead and his brakes squawking letting them know he was coming. Chris had a clickity mystery shifting chain, so we caught up to Nelsie, pulled up and he repaired the culprit, a slightly botched job from his repair in the BrakeFree zone the other night. whilst standing there, the rain suddenly got heavier, downpouring and wind shaking more out of the canopies. then we heard voices and a couple of other mad bastard bikers showed up. then two more. (obviously the owners of the other bikecar at the trailhead), they'd been down to the hut and back. their tailender (a certain (ex?) local dmr distributor...) fell off when he got to us, and stayed clipped in as he stumbled over the bank. offered help and a laugh, but he righted himself okay and got going. i led off chasing him and his mate, and keeping them in sight for a long while, thinking i could have gone faster, but didnt need to as they were clipping a pretty good pace anyway. then i baulked on something, so chris took the lead, but cos he couldnt see for shit, nelson stealth passed him and dropped us. i followed the blind Chris til i made it past him somewhere around the bridges and then it was the last climb and then the drifty flat tack eyesplecking good time descent to the cars... wicked.

friendly other bikers musta felt sorry for us not having any dry gear as they all changed into theirs, so handed over a beer each, which was nearly warm compared to our frozen selves. rally bongoed ahead of them leaving the gates for them to shut. no stock anywhere, so no worries...

All up an awesome time. wet, rooty, cold, just as you can expect on the Wharfie. i reckon 70 % of the times i've ridden it its been at least drizzling if not wetter.