Plenty of overnight rain and windy squalls, possibly some hail as well. More rain after breakfast and then about mid morning a break in the weather. Bikes off the rack and setup just as the weather broke again. After some more waiting another break and we were off to explore some of the iconic Forrest mountain bike trails. Not sure if the first tracks we chose are iconic but given the weather and how slippery everything was it was a bit of a challenge at times.

Waiting for the rain to ease……

Hiding from the rain AGAIN

We road all the trails at the Southern end of Forrest today. Forrest Loop an easy green standard trail to warm up on but a bit of fun. Baridjaru the first blue standard trail we road that took us all the way out to the walking track to Lake Elizabeth. There were some fun and long decents on this trail.We returned from Lake Elizabeth on Red Carpet another blue standard trail that Sharon had ridden before. Apparently one of the best decent trails in Australia but it was hard to tell today slipping, sliding and bashing though all the mud puddles. Plenty of fun had though and we both managed to stay upright which was pleasing on day 1 of riding. I unfortunately I had an alignment issue with the GoPro and missed Sharon’s awesome save.

Back to the camper for some toasties and a late lunch around 2pm and to dry out a bit. Plenty of squalls and downpours forcing us under shelter out on the trails most of the morning. The temperature is reasonably mild though on the trails. After lunch we tackled the last 3 trails on the Southern end.Roller Coaster a simple green standard trail but heaps of fun on the back decent. Very fast and flowing with a nice solid base to ride on. Third Time Lucky upped the level a bit now we were warmed up with plenty of rollers or jumps depending on how keen you were. Follow the Dog was the last trail and I am afraid when it is this wet sections of it are not much fun and being quite technical and slippery, today most of the first half was not a lot of fun. The second half drained much better and some of the downhill berm sections were great fun but you had to keep things under control today.

Looping back via the previous 2 tracks we headed back to the park and hosed down the bikes and us. We decided to do a short warm down 8km ride along the old rail trail to check out the trail heads for tomorrow. Looks like Forrest has some excellent riding with the small taste of it we got today. Weather looking on the improve tomorrow so should see us back on the trails again. You can check out all the trails and trail notes @ www.rideforrest.com.au.

Great signage at Forrest and most trails are 1 way.

A side note on the days climbing – Sharon crested the top of one of the long climbs and I noticed her zip was undone and some of the food bars poking out. Apparently her glasses were in there so off I went all the way down the hill looking for them just as it started to pour with rain again. Just as I hit the bottom my phone rings – this can mean only one thing and rather than stuff around and get my phone out to check I rode all the way back up the hill again to be shown them in another pocket of the back pack…..