Sunday gloomy afternoon McVicarage

I see a few of the others got out for a bit of a muckfest today, which I couldn't make, so once T was home headed out later in the gloomy afternoon - leaving home after 3.30pm.  Low cloud hanging around the tops as i approached the hills with Jet in the car with me.  My first attempt at taking him for a hill ride, parking at the top of Worsley's Rd, him blisteringly excited when i let him out of the car.

Off we headed, around 4, up the road and onto the dirt, which was not much like dirt and a fair bit more like mud, especially in places.  Bit of a creek running down the ruts and obvious 4wd churning all over the place.  Climbing was greasy, even on the ridges between the ruts, and my tires were hooking up as well as they could, which was pretty good, with minimal slip.  Jet was awesome, tho i had to call him back occasionally, but he got into it the further up we got, staying within 10 or 20 metres pretty much all the time.  There was one or two bits with barely any bikeable trail left on them, due to 4WD churn, coupled with creek flow and soggy muck, so one or two bits were walked.  Up where that 4WD was rolled off the trail (and another time we found one on it's roof), i rounded a bend and there the track was entirely blocked by the 4WD's responsible for all the previously encountered churn.  Luckily it was right where they'd trashed the fence and there was a line to ride in the grass between the track and the forest, so i rode past them then found my way back ontrack where a couple of alcohol-breath-ed youths were standing watching their stuck mates.  Off onwards up Jet and me continued and left up to the B-Lines.

Now, on Friday i was talking to a certain N. Sutcliffe, who has good knowledge of the trails in here, and hinted to me of a new one... (which I'll call FightClub2 until we find out a name)...  So, i followed his hints which involved a little extra climbing to usual, some bits of which were steep and greasy, then it headed off down.  Much like Fight Club in gradient and flow, tho steeper albeit not as steep as Dave's, lots of fun, and would have been waaaay more fun if it wasn't so wet, not that traction was that bad (until lower down).  For the more 'hardcore' bits i made sure Jet was behind me, but mostly he was good cruising ahead.  There was a couple of corners I walked due to total lack of traction.  Then, lower down a wooden jump over a gap I walked, and below that a totally saturated quagmire which would have just dirtied my bike that much too much, so I walked around it...  And finally, rode out the bottom at the same exit point as Fight Club.  Sweeet.  Now, if I'd made the trail, before it headed left across the slope and into the gully with the jump, I'd have run it more to the right, higher and thereby longer down the ridge further, but that's just me, and the forest is open enough that it wont take much to get in and do that (Nelson, next time?) soon.

From here, took the access track back up to the Junction, and headed up the steep 4wd track in the forest, grannying away all the way up to the powerline clearing, nearly to FightClub.  Turned around here cos it was just gonna get darker, and took the first left, then first right, back across the 4wd track and into one of my favourite wee swoopys, Jet on my tail, both of us having a great time, back down to the access track, back up that, and down and out the lower stuff which had a really fucking messy bit below the watertank, and from there on down is a bit ground out.  Finally, the blast down back to the car, Jet enjoying the high speed stretch, and seats down and in the back, "Goood Boy!", 5pm.