A bit less rain overnight but a drizzly morning has us none to enthused to be getting out on the bikes directly so I wired in our water level indicator as the battery had gone flat and when I first put it in I said “when the battery goes flat I will wire it in”. Well I just had enough bits and bobs in my draws of wonder and after about 45 minutes, some jiggling of wires, a bit of soldering and some clips I had it functioning again. We now know we have about 40L of water in the tank. I put 20L in just before we left as I had no idea what was in there.

We hit the trails about 10:45 for a blast around the Northern end of Forrest. Sharon was happy to do what she wanted to and I did everything we passed. We started on the outside loop that takes you past all the offshoot loops. GrassTree was out first loop and it was very technical and tight with lots of log rollovers at every corner. Enjoyable but probably would be better on a second run once you know what’s coming up.

Heading up the road to the trail head.

Sharon bauked at the black diamond standard Mariners Run but this had the most awesome middle section. Easily the best bit of track I have ever ridden, it was just sooooo much fun even the first time through. Berm after berm in one section, up and down through gullys, switch backs it had it all. The start and end sections were pretty standard but the 2/3rds in the middle was great.

Sharon very pleased with herself after a nice GrassTree run.

After Mariners I met Sharon on the outer trail again and then I peeled off onto another Black Diamond called YoYo. This was just a track to test your fitness and switch back skills. They crammed so many up hill climbs into this section of track. Probably a do once only as it was not very exciting but it would improve your fitness. After this we continued on the outer track Yaugher all the way back to the trail head and then it was decided a late lunch was in order after all that riding.

Got my arm veins pumping!

Sharon had had enough for today so after some bike maintenance I headed out for another run on Mariners this time with the GoPro on through the ‘good bits’. I had to back track a couple of times on the one way track to get the sections I wanted but we hardly saw another person on the trails today. Mariners was even better the second time as I knew what was coming and it flowed much better. I have convinced Sharon to give it a try tomorrow. She will squeal a few times but I am sure she will be glad she did it by the end.

Mariners

I then went on my merry way onto several track sections and knocked out another 35km after this mornings 25km. Came back a bit buggered but a huge chicken parmy at the pub fixed me up. Tomorrow we will be riding more Forrest trails and probably some repeats of the best bits. The park is starting to fill up with weekend riders and they tell us tomorrow they will appear in there droves. We have been very lucky to have all the trails to ourselves for a couple of days. Mostly GoPro footage today so not a lot I can easily add to the blog without much computer action with our limited battery capacity. You will just have to wait for that.

Harpin turn on Mariners