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Short Arse Storm Troopers
A long hot dry summer beckons, but a mid-November storm is forecast for the weekend. MickKal puts out the call. Five hardy souls put up their hands.
I awake on Saturday morning at 5am, raindrops on the roof. Rain at the coast, looking good for the hills. Heading east, there are dark clouds o’er the hills, the dark sounds of Godspeed You Black Emperor on the radio, the dark words of Pounce playing on my mind. “Only your short-arseness will save you from the storm out there”. Despite this, the six short-arsed storm troopers rocked up at The Lakes. As we got ready the drops started to fall. Jeez, these are as big as honky nuts! Hold on? They are honky nuts, the local parrots feasting in the gumtree above showering us below. Three KTMs, two Betas and a Husky headed out. No Nippon machinery here. No Pounce in an al-foil suit to be our lightning rod despite MickKal’s request. First corner, JB slides out. A simple slide out, but as it’s the first corner – stack of the day for you JB. Good to get that one over early in the ride! MickKal promised a nice loop of 80+ kms. The Lakes area does have some nice tracks if you know your stuff. MickKal certainly does and he served up a mighty birthday-boy treat with a little of everything with the whoops left out. Nice work Mick! He even took the photos. Ride of the Day for Mick. It tried to rain but didn’t deliver. Nonetheless, all were enjoying it out there, skatey and slidey as it was. BigGee was loving the new Kato300, Mick on the mountain goat Freeride 300. GeordieBaz on his fifth ride in seven years was gelling with his Kato350. JB styling on the Husky, and Darin on his trials tyred shod beast of a Beta 480. I was on broom duties at the back - loving my Beta 350. As I crested one ridge, I was met with a steep downhill, a sea of bla... grass trees, deep ruts, no track and no riders. With discretion being the better part of valour, coupled with my suspect riding skills I decided to dismount and plot my descent. If I landed in one of those ruts I felt I would have to forge a living off the land up here. MickKal, legendary leader, reappeared at the top of the hill, GeordieBaz hiked up from the bottom and showed me the way down. Thus the mystery of who sweeps the sweep was answered. Thanks for the rescue boys! At the bottom, I asked Mick if he’d been down that hill before. The answer “Once before today, now three times”. 8-) With Mick with impending birthday celebrations, we headed off on some more schweet tracks back to the lakes. Good to see a mix of the old & new crew out for a morning on the trails. Beats working!         |
