Saturday Mt Oxf'king Wind'ord with a Sting in the tail(bone)

Mother nature got the better of us today... Beautiful day. Nelson, Kirsty and Wazzah picked me up and we headed out to Mountain Road.  Kirsty and Wazza walking, Nelson and me on the bikes, intending on going up the front, over the ridge and down to Wharfdale, where the walkers would go for View Hill and Nelso and me back to car to drive round and pick them up.  Hit the trail from Coopers Creek, cruising with the two walkers, but eventually I slowly loped off ahead.  Drop down to creek, and the pushing up the switchies from that, riding a fair bit, walking the odd bit, and proceeding to ride and walk in equal measures for quite a while.  Stopped and let Wazza catch me up a couple times, then eventually he caught me once it got steep and my pushing and carrying was slower than his walking.  Various walkers and runners were coming down through.

At the treeline we hit some wind, which proceeded to get into horrendous galeforce once up in the alpine proper, at above about 900m... The other two had caught up by this stage, but Wazza and me were out front, and really struggling.  No way could I lift my bike up or I'd blow over, and he could barely stand.  Kirsty was scared enough to stop, and Nelson got up to where we were holding on to the hill where we all decided to give up.  Further up where the trail gets steeper and narrower for the final push, there was going to be no way we could have maneuvered with the bikes.  Foiled, we turned back down.  Rode a couple of bits I wouldn't have expected to, back to Kirsty at the treeline, where we all ate our packed lunches.

Into the descent.  Only a couple of walks on the really heinously steep stuff, and riding some surprisingly steep stuff.  Quite fun, but hard work.  Awesome descent lower down.  We stopped a few times letting the two walkers catch up.  Then after a particularly long jaunt, we stopped and Nelson tried to get his GoPro sorted.  Meanwhile, I rested on the ground, and felt a sharp 'stick' in my arm, which got sorer and then as I turned my arm to look, there's a fucking wasp sticking out of it!  OWCH!, gripped and squeezed it and biffed it onto the ground.  Damn!  (2 days later, my arm is twice it's normal size...).  Walkers all through and past, and we bombed on down, over taking two girls that'd passed us while stopped.  Catching Kirsty and Wazza out on the farmtrack, and rolling slowly with them back to the car.

Grand total of 9 kms, and 675 m climbed...


Addendum:  This trip caused the worst back pain of my life.  Sunday afternoon, Monday, and so far Tuesday - agony.

Addendum 2:  11 days later: Back pain continued, turning into not sciatica - shooting pains down both buttocks, spasming lower back, locked up hip flexors, some of the most painful days and nights I've ever experience.  2 half and one full day off work.  Osteo treatment number 2 seemed to help more, finally Wednesday 18th woke up feeling a little better, with glute pain subsided greatly but hip flexor pain still in evidence.

Addendum 3: Nearly 6 weeks later and I'm still broken.  Nortriptyline and Pregabalin with Brufen are my solace.  It's been a very long and unpleasant time.

Addendum to end all Addendums: May 19th, 2020.  MRI several weeks ago shows a prolapsed disc at L3 L4.  Foot issues meant that on this day my first appointment with a neurosurgeon is pending at 9.15 (i'm writing this at 8.47)...

Wednesday Mt Oxford Epic

Rather large ride today, and likely the last of the year for me. 

Paul and Luka arrived at mine at 7.15 and we Brava'd out to Nelson's. Weeded my garlic in short time then we hit the road for Coopers Creek, Nelson following in his own car.  Parked at the end of Mountain Road and got riding about 8.50... When I say ride, all was well for a start, but eventually ducked down over a bridge and there was a bit of a walk, then rideable climbing, but it got steeper and steeper with less opportunities for riding and more opportunities for walking. Eventually we were all walking, pushing at first, then carrying. One or two small taunts of riding and then above the treeline we were all carrying (tho Luka held out and managed to push (rather than carry) most of the way).  All of us found a method of carrying that worked for us - Nelson, kinda seattube across his soulders, back wheel behind his head, rest of bike hanging down behind; Paul - either arm through the triangle, top tube on shoulder, pedal in elbow, hand on front wheel; me - sort of top tube across my shoulders, wheels out either side, but for a long haul I somehow managed to have it similar to Nelson, with maybe my pedal hooked on my pack and I was hands free walking, trudging, up the incline. We probably carried for an hour, at least. It was very long and quite arduous, taking around 2 hours 40 mins to reach the top.  A couple of women and 3 kids up there when we arrived, tho they'd gone by the time Nelson got there.

Bit of a break and feed, then off down the ridge to the west. Passing the family on the way.  Some steep stuff, and a little bit of climb. Then down the side into the bush and wicked steepness. A few nasty climbs thrown in for good measure just to keep the rinsing, and rooty gnarl and steep steep steep. Stopped at one stage and Nelson took out his brake pads to see if the spares he had were any good, they weren't, and the ones he'd taken out weren't as worn as he'd thought, so got going again.  More steep rooty goodness, with a few really flowy sections chucked in.  Then finally(!), Wharfdale hove-to and we hung a left and clambered up this to the Link Track. 

This held a HELL of a lot more climbing than I'd ever recalled, and lots of getting off and walking/carrying over rooty boggy bits. Met a few walkers on on their way up while we were on the way down too.  We were all getting pretty rinsed by the time we got out, just over 5 hours after we'd departed

We climbed 1075m in total, over a 19.25 km loop.