Recreation Ride report – ‘Richmond Brook’ Sunday June 29th 2014
‘The Dirty Half Dozen’ – a boy’s only event
Present – Kevin, Stephen, Eugan, Keith, Phillip & Andrew
Absent – you know who you are J
Despite the frosty start, sunshine was forecast, so away we all went after a brief muster at the Blenheim staging post. It was an all boy event, 6 in all, 3 each on 26er’s and 29er’s, with 3 die hards still mounted on hardtails.
We had a budding movie maker amongst us, kitted out with front and rear camera’s to capture every moment. Despite the bright sunshine that greeted us upon our arrival at Richmond Brook, the chill was still in the air and we wasted little time getting mobile. We set out from the woolshed on the old Seddon Lions MTB event trail; so it was a short uphill, a bit of down, some flats and then the start of the long uphill climb to the pass at about 500m.
After a quick stop for a photo session with Tapi as the back drop, it was down towards the Flaxbourne River. As always the downhill stages never last long enough and we soon started the westerly climb behind the hill with no name (not on the map I have anyway).
In the shadow of the hill it was still bloody cold with lots of frost still on the ground. After a warming climb up to the gate at the saddle, we had a quick smoko break up against the tussocks and out of the chilly breeze. Re energized we mounted up for a downhill run over the still frozen mud. It was then a gentle meander back into the sunshine before we emerged above the reservoir for our return run to the woolshed.
It was during this meander that the only mishap of the journey occurred, when Eugan ended up on his side after falling asleep at the handlebars, the result of being up all night watching World Cup matches. No harm done and no injuries sustained, just had to wake him up, get him upright and put him back on his bike.
A slight detour around the reservoir saw riders pick different routes before riding across the reservoir wall to re-join the main track. Homeward bound we were briefly terrorised by dirt bikers having drag races up the long straight. In no time at all we were back at the vehicles, all in one piece and appreciative of the Richmond family’s permission to ride the property, Kevin for his superlative organisational efforts and to the weather Gods for turning on a cracker morning.
Photos in the gallery