Low cloud and a fog overnight plus a shower made everything quite wet this morning. We had a slow start today taking the opportunity to do some trip planning for the next few days before saddling up again on the trails. I also fixed the shifter on Sharons bike and tuned the gears on both bikes. Sharon attempted some washing but the machine was broken and ended up hand washing our increasing pile of nicks and jerseys anyway. We had an early lunch, well for us it was early at 12:30PM and then back onto the bikes to go do the last of the trails we had not done and the favourite bits again and again.

We did the last track ‘J2’ and it was a bit of fun – fast flowing with plenty of jumps with straight approaches and departures, quite a bit of fun hooting down hill for ages. We trundled back to the car park and Sharon wanted to do the super technical ‘Grass Tree’ again. We some how missed the left turn near the start and ended up doing some really short loop and had to go back and do it properly the second time. I had my first crash of the trip coming off a log ride heavily when my back wheel parted company with the log taking some bark off my thigh and off my bike shock on the right side.

As we rode past the ‘Mariners Run’ start I had to do it again and Sharon still not keen to give it a try bypassed it and met me at the other end. Sooo much fun now I know the track. I had a ball and just wanted to do it again. Meeting Sharon at the other end it was decided she wanted to do track 14 and I had to do the outer loop track 15 to complete the set.

check out the bikes along the fence heading into camp

Still plenty of room around our camp but sound does travel at night!

Sharon had a real crack at 14 apparently coming in 4th on the Starva segment for women! Track 15 was all churned up by bulldozer tracks and the soft sand. The first major hill I got part way up and my race tyres were just spinning in the sand. A short uphill push to the next level and back on again only to be stopped again shortly after on a flat section in soft muddy sand that the wheels sank down into. Later on a relentless hill climb followed by a large decent with harpin corners everywhere to keep you on the brakes. I was feeling that track at the top.

Not Today – crashed off one earlier!

Back with Sharon at the car park we road back to the Corner Store at Forrest for a coffee and some yummy calories. Rebecca finally convinced Sharon she should do Mariners run and gave us some local advice to bypass all the start section and intersect the track at the start of the ‘good bits’. Off we went and with a bit of coaching from behind on what was coming up she only bauked on the big rock and the big drop off but had a ball on the rest of it. She was so glad she did it in the end and had to admit if was fun. Due to the shortcuts I was able to do the middle fun section again, have I said I love Mariners before?

Series of Sharon on Mariners Run

We then we road back out and back to the camper. I was just under 50KM for the day so went off for a quick few KM on the Northern end tracks to finish off the day with 50KM and 1030M of elevation, another cracking day at Forrest. There must have been a few jippers left in the legs getting a 7th and 11th on a couple of Strava segments at the end.

Tomorrow we are going to the You Yangs for more MTB adventures and you will have to wait and see where we end up after that, stay tuned.